Severe health anxiety… mouse droppings in shed!

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I have severe health anxiety which is awful, I have just cleared out our shed getting rid of cardboard boxes to take to the tip and I found what I think are a few mouse droppings in the cardboard. I’ve obviously washed my hands over and over again but I’m so paranoid now about getting ill and Hantavirus. Am I being ridiculous?!

You will be fine 🙂

Yes.

Are you getting any kind of help for your anxiety?

I found mouse droppings in my living room, I just hoovered them up and I was and am totally fine.

Yes it is fine you can put down traps and clear up the droppings that illness is quite rare and you are catastrophising.

I also was diagnosed with health anxiety for years and after a while I found that I have a really dodgy immune system and I actually just catch bugs really easily and don't get rid of them very easily.

In recent years I've had to just start wearing an n95 mask whenever I go to social events. I look funny, but it means I can socialise normally without worrying, and also without then being ill for weeks afterwards with whatever bug I picked up.

It might be that you are the same and you just will need to be a bit more careful than other people, and that's okay.

If you've washed your hands loads of time after the mouse droppings you will be fine. I used to handle live wild mice all the time when my cats brought them in and I never caught anything, so I think you should be okay.

Take it from a fellow sufferer – seeking reassurance will not help your anxiety. Are you having therapy?

Who are the 8% who voted yanbu? Even if you hadn't washed your hands I doubt you'd have got sick.

Funnily enough I have been clearing out my shed this morning and I found mouse dropping too. Now I fucking hate rodents so I wasn’t at all impressed with the find, but it actually didn’t occur to me that I’d get ill from them. Like you, I washed my hands and that was that.
Seeking reassurance here won’t help you, that’s just part of the cycle of your health anxiety. Are you getting any help for it?

YABU ridiculous. If it makes you feel any better, I picked up a live mouse that the cat brought in with my bare hands last year. I haven’t died yet.

You know you are being unreasonable, what do you expect Mumsnet to tell you?

God, there's very little empathy here, is there?

OP, my partner has really bad health anxiety and I also catastrophise a lot (about other people's health, not my own). YANBU to seek reassurance. Would you benefit from some kind of therapy? Perhaps, but you also need to seek that help in your own time. You can't get pushed into it before you're ready.

You will be fine. You will not become unwell, especially after washing your hands repeatedly. Sending hugs. Health anxiety is so so hard to manage and to live with x

The thing is, seeking reassurance doesn’t help someone with health anxiety. It just fuels the spiral. The OP isn’t going to say ‘ok I’m over it now, because some people on the internet have told me it’s fine’. That’s not how health anxiety works.

Are you in the US Southwest?

You will be fine more importantly are you getting help for your health anxiety.

I once had a mouse get tangled in my hair! It wasn’t the best experience in my life, but I’m still very much here to tell the tale!

Next time wear PPE/gloves for jobs like that