I’m terrified of the vaccine

[Icantbebrave]

I’ll start off by saying I have severe health anxiety and have done for many years.
I think I had covid last March and I was ill for a couple of days.
One of my big triggers in my health anxiety is a racing heart. Whenever I get a fever, I get tachycardia.
I’ve heard from friends and family who have had the vaccine that they got fever and a fast heart rate as a side effect.
I feel like by having the jab I’m willingly putting myself in the position where I’ll feel like this.
I’m not in an ‘at risk’ category, but I feel a lot of peer pressure to get the vaccine.
Especially when reading about the vaccine passports too, I’m scared I’ll be left behind and won’t be allowed to have a life due to my fear.

I’m not an anti vaxxer by any means and I don’t think it’s a conspiracy theory or a microchip or anything like that.

Does anyone else feel like me? I don’t think I’ll actually be able to force myself into the surgery to have it done when it’s my turn.

I’m 31 and no underlying health issues, so I’ll be way down the list anyway.

I had the vaccine on Monday. No side effects other than a sore arm the next day. I know lots of people who've had the jab with no side effects or minimal side effects. You're much more likely to read on here about people who had side effects than the many thousands who didn't.

It's no worse than a flu jab. Please don't worry.

I had covid last year and my resting heart rate has gone up from around 60bpm to 80bpm and is still high.

Definitely speak to your gp to see if there is anything they can prescribe for you.

You can test to see if you have antibodies from your March exposure. My DP had Covid last July and tested for antibodies last week, he still has them. He was only ill for 3 days. So might be worth doing? The company BioCard do a very precise antibody test (you can get it with a £60 discount if you order before the end of this month with the code CARE). It's a home finger prick blood test, you fill a small tube and send it back for analysis. I am about to do one myself.

I understand you. I get tachycardia when I am unwell. The daft thing is I only noticed this because I had a fit bit. In 2019 I was very unwell and my kind doctor talked me down about it. Its completely normal when you are quite unwell.
I have had the vaccine and was so nervous but it was absolutely fine. My work team is around 200 people and we were all completley fine.
I have health anxiety too. Its so bad that I have to take medication for it. I do believe in vaccines but I was still a bit nervous. However I think my fear of long covid is more than being seriously unwell with it so I went.
I had nothing more than a sore arm. Tell them you are nervous. I did. They were incredibly reassuring. I feel so much better now.

I have had the AZ. I got side side effects, felt very unwell and went back to bed, but I did not have a temperature and my heart rate was not affected.
By having anxiety you will push up your heart rate.

I suffer severe health anxiety and I had the vaccine yesterday.

I was perfectly fine about having it until the day before.

The vaccination centre was really open and spacious, I went to the booth and had my jab and I can’t even remember it being done. The team were so lovely and it felt very calm.

I had worked myself into such an internal frenzy though that whilst in the observation room I felt a panic attack coming on and had to dart to the outside area where I very quickly returned to normal. I am very sensitive to my own bodily sensations to when the heart racing kicked in from my own panic I was sure that was it for me. “That’s it, I’m the 1 in a billion thats going to keel over and kick the bucket, I KNEW IT!”

I haven’t had any side effects though, no racing heart, nothing apart from a bit of a sore arm where the injection was.

Don’t do a me - my panic was completely self inflicted and there was no need. I know it’s easier said than done, but you have to try.

My husband also gets tachycardia when unwell. He had the vaccine two days ago and so far has had no side effects at all.

The thing is OP, the side effects from the vaccine are only the immune reaction, not from any actual infection, so although a small number of people do get a high temperature most people who experience side effects just feel a bit rough. Like you do when you have a cold, but without any respiratory symptoms, and with a really heavy aching arm.

Clearly it’s your anxiety causing the problem. I can empathise - if catastrophising was a sport I’d be on the Olympic team - but if you want to have the vaccine it’s this that you need to address. Speak to your GP if you can, and good luck.

I’ve had the vaccine. Had a bit of a sore area on my arm for a day. Apart from that, was fine. I went to work, drove, walked and washed my dog, cooked etc. Please don’t worry too much. Whatever the side effects of having the vaccine, it’s better than having Covid. Why not contact your doctor and see if you can referred for telephone CBT to help?

Having covid played havoc with my heart rate - for weeks on end. Any side effect of the vaccine will be short lived. And I was convinced I had it in March too but tested positive in January and I have never known illness like it. Definitely get the jab!

you could refer yourself to CBT for your health anxiety. It will help you to reframe and re-experience your racing heart rate as something non-dangerous. Imagine how wonderful it would be to be lifted out of this fear and not have to live your life prevented from activities if you want to do things that raise your heart rate?

I had no side effect other than a sore arm for a day and being a bit tired.

I got the AZ.

I'm now 6 days post vaccination. My Fitbit hasn't recorded anything other than standard variations in my sleeping temperature and my resting heart rate has actually come down by 3pm compared to last week.

Trouble is that panic/anxiety also sends your heart rate up - so doing anything more active than sitting still could set off an anxious chain reaction.

@Icantbebrave
I personally do not understand why someone as young as you are need to have an EXPERIMENTAL jab against a disease with 99.8% recovery rate. Your immune system will fight it off much better if you catch it. This jab business for young people is even more bizarre as it does not offer you protection from catching the virus, you can still pass it on. All it does is reduces the symptoms if you catch the virus. And even that for 6 months. But you can have side effects like infertility, for instance, or other serious conditions ( in case you have a Pfizer/moderna jab) as these new jabs have not been tested long enough. So to me, risks outweigh the benefits. Nobody in my family will be taking any of these jabs. ( None are 'anti-vaxxers' , before some smart xxxx calls me this way).

I'd definitely take the side effects of the vaccine over the symptoms associated with moderate/severe (and sometimes following on from initially mild) Covid.

I had the Astrazeneca vaccine two and a half weeks ago. I felt mildly feverish and achey for about 36 hours, then all fine.

@Bored2death2020. Your post is factually incorrect fear-mongering. Reported.

@CrunchyCarrot

You can test to see if you have antibodies from your March exposure. My DP had Covid last July and tested for antibodies last week, he still has them. He was only ill for 3 days. So might be worth doing? The company BioCard do a very precise antibody test (you can get it with a £60 discount if you order before the end of this month with the code CARE). It's a home finger prick blood test, you fill a small tube and send it back for analysis. I am about to do one myself.

Worth knowing.

@Northernsoullover - Not spreading any lies. Do you have any evidence that EXPERIMENTAL vaccines ( which they are as none of them had the trials completed!) authorised for EMERGENCY use only are totally safe and won't cause any issues in the future? I doubt that as even manufacturers don't have this data.
But of course, I am spreading lies, because my opinion is not in line with yours.

@Biscuitsneeded - what exactly is not correct. Facts please

If it’s just the speeding heart rate that’s the issue it can be really easily solved with a prescription of a beta blocker like propranolol. I had a trial of it for migraine and could have come face to face with a lion and my heart would not have managed an extra beat per minute!

@Kittytheteapot would an antiemetics work for you? There’s quite a good selection available over the counter.

@Bored2death2020 You ask for facts to counter your lies. Here you go.
Your lie about the recovery rate - fullfact.org/online/covid-19-survival-rate-less-998/
Your lie about 'your immune system will fight it off much better' - than what? Having the vaccine? I don't think so!
Your lie about the jab being experimental - it has been tested and approved.
Research about whether or not you can pass it on once vaccinated is still being done, but evidence points to significantly reduced transmission.
Your lie about 'it does not offer protection from catching the virus' - Pfizer vaccine proven to be up to 95% effective.
Your lie about 'you can have serious side effects like infertility'. Ummm...they only invented this vaccine in the last few months. Anyone experiencing infertility has to have been trying for a baby for way longer than the vaccine has existed to be diagnosed infertile, so you have absolutely zero evidence to suggest this is case and it is sheer fear-mongering.

@Bored2death2020 And just to add it is truly repellent to push your ideas on the OP when she is anxious about having the vaccination for reasons totally unrelated to your anti-vaxx (there, I said it) agenda. OP fully understands the medical need and the community responsibility to get vaccinated.

Some of the posts here are incredibly unhelpful, some maliciously so. Anyone snapping ‘well get Covid then’ at the OP, give your heads a wobble!

Other people have dealt with the worst misinformer on here, who really needs to give their head a wobble.

And OP, getting an antibody test isn’t that helpful - the ‘disappearance’ or ‘absence’ of antibodies doesn’t mean you don’t have immunity, because that doesn’t take into any T-cell memory, a main line of immune defence. No specific (or publicly available) test for that as yet though. When your time comes, speak to your GP about helping you through it. Good luck.

@Biscuitsneeded

Calm Down and go and have a biscuit! With the same success you could have shared a BBC or FB fact check

I think the OP has a right to read different opinions and not just yours to make sensible decisions, don't you think? If someone's opinion is different from yours it does not mean it is wrong!

Survival rate - use your own bloody link -
fullfact.org/online/covid-19-survival-rate-less-998/
stating the survival rate is anything from
99% and 99.5%! Hardly a plague. So your immune system will cope with the virus in a much better way, especially when you are in the under 50 years old group! Why take the risks?

All jabs are EXPERIMENTAL - this is fact. Yes they have been approved but only for EMERGENCY/TEMPORARY use. None have completed 3 years trials. 3 months more like it.

Pfizer vaccine - one of the worst for side effects - the study will be completed only in 2023! Not 'experimental' at all. :-)

clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04368728

Side effects:
pfizer - UK Only spontaneous reports received between 9/12/20 and 14/02/21 reports 26823, of which 197 FATAL.
bit.ly/3uB7Vr1

AstraZeneca UK only reports: just 22 fatalities
bit.ly/2NJM6ov

Fertility and other long term effects - there is no data to suggest the new vaccines are safe or can cause damage as only some were tested on animals. The fact that most are not advised for pregnant women or those trying to conceive unless benefits overweigh risks - would indicate you should think twice before getting the jab.

Vaccines do not STOP virus transmission, there is no data suggesting that. Possibly reducing, yes. But not stopping. www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00450-z

Covid jabs do not offer long term protection as other vaccines and are more like flu jabs that barely reduce the symptoms.

People should make calculated decisions whether to get a jab or not and weigh benefits and risks. Blindly following the gov agenda and poster like the @Biscuitsneeded can land you in hot water.

I'm one of those unfortunate people that has some sort of reaction with every vaccine.
I have the flu jab every year and get aches and fever for 48 hours afterwards.
I had the Pfizer vaccine and had no side effects other than a sore arm.

Even if you do get side effects it will only be temporary and will pass without needing medical intervention.