Crippled with health anxiety and now covid.

[Stressedafff]

Posted last night about my mums holiday tomorrow and now me being absolutely overwhelmed and stricken with health anxiety.

My partner has tested positive for covid this morning. He has a headache and sore throat.
We had it last October. DD 3 was okay.
I have emetophobia too and all I’m seeing is this new strain causes vomiting. I hated having it last year, the headache was so bad. I haven’t had the vaccine as the side effects just sent me over the edge but the anxiety of this virus has convinced me otherwise.

I feel like I’m spiralling

No I agree, I knew this was gonna happen, throughout my time with this health anxiety and OCD I’ve fixated on certain illnesses, brain tumours, leukaemia, strokes, diabetes. DD was only 4 months old when lockdown started, and I could feel myself fixating, Googling cases near me, cases per 100,000 etc. I remember when they did that eat out to help out and eased restrictions I just felt so damn scared, I would never ever want another lockdown because of the affect on others, the isolation etc and the horrible situations that went on during it. But, in my health anxiety OCD brain, lockdown was my idea of a dream, no one’s about coughing and sneezing all over the place, hand sanitizer everywhere.

Not sure if I’m replying correctly here I don’t post on much! I’m definitely worse around winter although the last bug my son had was in May 2022 so this year I was a mess all year basically. I really don’t cope with it well.. but have just started CBT as of last week. I’m desperate to get over it, it has totally controlled my life x

Your partner is very unreasonable to have tested and told you the positive result knowing what a state you would end up in.

Please get help from your doctor.

@Mariposista hes a prick he does it deliberately

@whoactuallyreallycares well done! that’s what I’m hoping to have. I get what you mean about the control, it’s so fucking horrible isn’t it. It’s like every single enjoyable thing is just overrun by anxiety

What an arse. Sounds like you’re a full time student so you will need some form of income to support you and your child, and then get out of there!

I don’t have anxiety at all around covid but I make it known I don’t want anyone telling me about their testing habits and positive results. And if they disrespected that they can get out of my life. Fortunately DH doesn’t give a damn neither. This man sounds like a right twat!

I can relate so well. I have Long Covid and it’s cumulative, so every time I’ve had Covid it’s made it worse. My daughter kept bringing it home from school so we had it multiple times. It’s taken a lot of therapy to get to the point where I’m semi-okay with the health anxiety aspect. I try not to think about it because it does cause a spiral. All you can do is look at the facts and accept them as facts. Make a list of everything on your mind. When you see it in black & white it takes a lot of fear away, especially when there’s either an easy solution, or it’s out of your control. Mindfulness techniques help in this immensely. I really encourage you to look into mindfulness. It’s helped me more than anything else.

Thank you! If you ever need a listening ear you know where I am, people just don’t understand the phobia and how debilitating it is.

I get it.
Also have health anxiety,
Germ OCD
Mostly agoraphobic

I take meds now and had therapy and even though it's still there, it's much much better.
Definitely ring up your GP.

Tested positive today
Very sneezy and snuffly with a scratchy throat
No appetite at all and my legs are so bloody achy and restless.
It was day 2 I got the headache, but I don’t feel as bad this time as I did last year. I’m PRAYING I don’t get that headache tomorrow.

Would it be at all helpful to think that you don't have health anxiety, you just have anxiety? What I mean by this is that you don't need to solve anything about health, you only need to solve anxiety. So try to direct your concern to your anxiety, and as much as is possible, don't think that you have to do any health related things. So your actions should only be about anxiety. not about health. I hope that makes sense.

How are you doing @Stressedafff ? Hope you are better soon

This. It’s a mild illness for the vast majority. OP please seek support for your anxiety; that is clearly having a far more dangerous impact on your life than Covid ever will

my heart goes out to you OP it must be absolutely exhausting to live your life with this level of fear and anxiety.

I hope you’re getting some help with your heath anxiety, as this is probably the biggest health concern you currently have.

I hope you’re feeling better soon with covid, please try not to panic. For the vast majority it is a mild illness and last time I had it, it really was just a cold.

Hi all
DD spiked a temp at around 5am yesterday morning, she’s been sneezing like crazy and has some very unpleasant bowels. Bit off her food but all okay, I say off her food she’s woke up 10 minutes ago crying that she was hungry so she’s in my bed with a toasted tea cake

Im okay too, this strain wasn’t anything like omicron and apart from one blocked nostril im fine. No headache, no breathlessness, very strangely extremely achy legs and back but other than that im back to normal :)

Had a GP phone apt Monday and they’ve referred me to healthy minds. Im just determined for it to work!

Hi @CornishBarbie can you tell me more about the NOCD app? I had a look and it looks like it's based in the US and offers online therapy, is that what you did?