Really terrified about this flu going around

[Caramelbarrel]

I’m in a total panic about the flu. It’s everywhere I look online, people are posting about it left, right and centre. Including locally.

I’m always hugely anxious when my DS gets ill anyway and so if he gets it I know I’ll be a wreck. I have bad health anxiety too.

I don’t know anyone personally who has it, but I know it’s just a matter of time.

I’m so worried I’ll get it before Christmas and it’ll all be ruined for our DS. We’re supposed to be going down and staying with family.

Just to say OP I understand why you don't want flu. I don't have health anxieties - I have 'protecting my time off work' anxiety, and I'll be FURIOUS if I spend Christmas flued up.

I'll be wearing a mask in crowded places this month. I can't stand the idea of this being the busiest time of year for me at work, then my precious few days off being ruined. I don't care if it won't kill me - I don't want 2 weeks laid up!

I have asthma and respiratory conditions can really knock me for 6. Get your flu jab - I promise you it will make so much difference if you do catch anything! One year I missed my jab, think I moved house and fell out of doc’s radar, anyway I caught the flu, then developed bronchitis and was ill for about 2 months then took a while to fully recover from the lingering symptoms. Years when I have had the jab and caught a flu type bug I have been far less unwell.

from my own personal experience of managing respiratory illness as someone who is vulnerable, I would also recommend:
take your vitamins, full multivit and iron.
as soon as you feel any sort of bug, REST. I know it is hard in our modern busy lives, but if you can catch it earlier and not try to push through it is generally far easier to recover.
drink lots of water, eat healthy and take care of yourself.

I’m sorry you’re feeling scared op, I think you will feel much better if you take action to feel more in control here, so go get that jab 😊

Definitely get the jab if you’re concerned but I’d also think longer term about trying to manage your health anxiety if it’s become quite bad. As others have said if you’re not vulnerable you’d likely make a fairly swift recovery.

If this unfortunately happened over Christmas would it be helpful to think of a plan B? Maybe you won’t be able to travel and could have more cosy Christmas at home. Maybe your husband could travel with your son if you feel he’d be missing out. Maybe you could do Christmas in a couple of weeks/ have an extra special new years or something if you were unwell on Christmas Day. It’s one year and one Christmas. But more than likely you’ll be fine and able to go ahead with your plans as expected.

A lot of the ones people are talking about may not be flu. Our eldest had a "flu like" illness 2 weeks back, very high fever for 5 days, dry cough, exhausted, no appetite. DC2 and DH didn't catch it at all, me and DC3 had 12-24 hours of mild fever and feeling a bit washed out then felt ok again.
Sometimes regular bugs just hit some people harder than others and flu is often used to describe it.

All these posters who say they’ve never had flu, or have only ever had it once in their lives. Are you sure? Do you ever get colds? Are you confusing the two? Flu is pretty common.

Well, you can tell your DH from me that he's selfish, ignorant and arrogant. If that's his attitude towards vaccination he shouldn't be working in a school.

I'm deemed high risk due to lung/breathing issues so get the flu jab but for many years didn't (Ive always been high risk but they have only been pushing it since Covid). There are people far more immuno-compromised than me like for example cancer/chemo patients etc... who are the people we need to worry more about the safety of.

Despite my health issues I have only had notable Flu once when I was even more compromised than usual. I get all sorts of other 'chest' things every year, from common cold, winter bugs, get several Covid a year and its actually bacterial pneumonia that was the one that near killed me, that I have had several times and that comes with the biggest risks.

Major strain Flu over all is actually not that huge a risk to the general 'healthy' population. Flu is weird in that it has thousands of variants as it constantly rapidly evolves. Usually only a couple are 'dominant' new varieties each year that pose a risk. The rest will be quite week as people have immunity to the past strains we have been exposed to and show up as nothing more than a runny nose or mild cough often mistaken for 'cold' rather than 'Flu'.

That's the top theory on why Spanish Flu only really killed the young, the older and frailer generation who would normally be higher risk where believed have had exposure in childhood to a earlier weaker version and devolved immunity (like a natural vaccine) that the younger generations hadn't ever been exposed too as the Flu went dormant for a few generations leaving them completely unprotected.

An event like that where a virus appears with little to no herd immunity is however really quite rare and in this modern age of travel would create a pandemic situation quickly (nothing like that currently happening). Usually a once in a life time event on a large scale and we just had that with Covid, the risk of a dormant Flu coming back and posing huge threat to the healthy young non compromised people like yourself is pretty low.

I would guess you have just got yourself trapped on an online algorithm that is showing you lots of the same and its created a bubble where it seems to be 'everywhere you look'.

Just pay for it. I have 2 years running and haven't got it despite people at work and family members getting it.

Only 30-40% effective in adults as per the report. Far higher for children at 70-75%. Both in preventing hospital attendance.

Crake1792 · Today 06:51

Get a grip, it’s the flu. This is part of life.
Reminds me of a quote from Herodotus:
”Far better it is to have a stout heart always and suffer one’s share of evils, than to be ever fearing what may happen,”

This is excellent quote - going straight into my notebook!

People who work in schools and hospitals, and don’t have underlying health conditions, generally have fantastic immune systems. If you have had it, you don’t need to worry about him not having it. Also, take vitamins C, D3 and zinc. And stop reading horror stories on the internet. It’s bad for your health.

@Namechangerage it has been in the news rather than just social media. I have seen it and I’m not one for that sort of thing in social media, but you are totally correct about the algorithms.

You’re looking at this stuff so your algorithms are showing you more. I don’t see anything about flu. Step away!

OP, if it helps at all, that's not been my personal experience of the jab. I had flu A the week before last (I know it was A because I took one of those new flu/covid tests) and the actual 'flu-ey' phase of feeling ill was over in a few days, and didn't hit nearly as hard as flu normally does. I was more or less functional throughout, and I'm normally someone for whom respiratory illnesses land hard. I do have a lingering annoying cough 10 days on, but feel fine in myself and I think the jab is definitely worth getting.

Have you ever had flu yourself?

That’s rude. Flu vaccination is a personal choice and there are several factors that influence it.

I have it, it’s rubbish :/ been sick over a week now.

Heard on news they had to close a school in Caerphilly, 250 students and teachers fallen ill. The mutated strain is a right evil shite basically.

@Caramelbarrel I say this kindly but you are catastrophising. Take steps to get yourself a flu jab, do your upmost to maintain your hand hygiene, and stay off social media platforms that feed into your fears.

I am immune compromised and maintaining good hand hygiene, opening windows to air out the house, and having the flu jab annually has stood me in good stead. Even when I was regularly commuting on packed trains and tubes.

Taking positive steps will reduce your anxiety; worrying will just grind you down.

I certainly had a Christmas ruined due to coming down with flu on Christmas morning about 15 years ago. It was bloody awful and I slept through the Christmas period and into New Year. I was floored for a couple of weeks and it took a lot longer to fully recover. However no one else got it and I have only had it twice in my life. The first time I was 18/19 and again was floored. But 30 years or so between each occasion. Others experience flu differently and may not be affected as badly. Some people never get it. Until you have it, you are not going to to know as to how you will be affected.

Some CBT will help with the heatlh anxiety but that will be months of waiting to be seen. In the meantime it’s a case of doing what you can to protect yourself without stopping living your life.

Consider a private flu jab. Follow basic hand hygiene measures. Consider minimising exposure to indoor crowed places, you could try a face mask although I think the jury is out on how effective they are, avoid being around people who have obvious symptoms.

In case you do get it, or a nasty cold, make sure you have a reasonable supply of paracetamol/ibruprofen, so if they are needed you have them. Some people swear by First Defence Spray (not tried it myself). Don’t burn the candle at both ends in the next few weeks, so plenty of rest, sleep and gentle exercise. The same applies if you do get flu/cold etc Make sure you have easily prepared foods to hand such as soups (make some and freeze, tinned etc), then if the worst happens you can just hunker down and know there is something you can eat.

I agree that taking positive steps can help reduce anxiety, but don’t go over the top and shut yourself away until spring. A balance approach is needed.

You're so frightened you haven't bothered to see how you can get vaccinated against before this thread?

Okie dokie.

It’s probably worth trying to unpack what exactly you are terrified of, and to get some therapy to address the underlying anxiety.
Are you terrified you will all die? Are you scared to feel physically miserable or to need to care for a child who feels rotten? Getting to the bottom of what the fear is might help, as well as avoiding searches or articles about it. That will simply lead to you seeing more targeted content.

We all had the flu recently. I won’t lie, it totally sucked and was very inconveniently timed, but we got through it. You would presumably have had difficult times in your life and periods of discomfort, and you are still here and able to post on MN. That should suggest to you that even if you all get the flu and miss Christmas plans, you can and will come out the other side!

Go get the jab. I paid for it back in October. My DS was due to get his at school last week but was off with flu. He has asthma as well and it’s been absolutely awful for over a week now. He is getting better but was on a constant round of ibuprofen/paracetamol for 5 days solid, not eating etc. Yesterday he was still coughing up crap and he’s absolutely exhausted, usually full of energy and raiding the cupboards. Despite being next to him for all that time the worst I’ve had was a sore throat and a little bit of a temperature.

The flu jab can help avoid/mitigate the flu, I don't know why people are suggesting it to the OP, because it is not helpful at all for her problem which is health anxiety. Which tends to just escalate or find another issue to attack itself to.

Over a period of a few years there can easily be over 50 differernt respiratory viruses in a given area. Flu or covid jabs, or any other vaccination, will only address a few of those.

Get good sleep, wash your hands when you come home, be active, eat a reasonable diet, and that will minimise the number you end up experiencing, but you will get them and you need to come to terms with that without being terrified or panicked. Maybe seek treatment for health anxiety if you can't get it under control.

If you’re not immune compromised why are you panicked? I’ve had flu lots of times (literally can’t get out of bed) and I’ve had chemo in the past. I’m fine.

It doesn't really matter if it appears mild as a cold. It still means they have only been seriously sick with it a few times in their life.

This is why testing for most people is a waste of resources. It really doesn't matter what particular RV you have, the treatment is the same, which is a symptomatic approach.

In the past the main reason they would test people in hospital who were admitted for RV is to keep statistical data on what was circulating and causing serious illness that year. It's only with covid that suddenly people think they need to be tested for what exact RV they have for some reason.