Your Covid risk... Do you think you will die from Covid?

[Noreana]

Last week I started CBT for health anxiety.
I’ve lived with it for a long time but have always been able to manage without it having too much of an effect on my life.

Since Covid my health anxiety has been completely out of control.
I didn’t want to seek any help as I just assumed everyone felt the same way.

But last year people my age started to enjoy “freedoms” when lockdown ended and I just couldn’t do it.

I contacted talking therapies and have waited 18 weeks for CBT.

Last week on our first session we discussed what it is that I’m struggling with.

So I said Covid and my risk.
I have a high BMI, no other health conditions.
I’ve had 1 vaccine but had it slightly later than when it was offered to me so second not due for 6 weeks.

I told my therapist I feel very high risk from Covid and I truly believe if I get it, I’m going to die.

She told me I’m catastrophizing and over estimating the danger and my risk (which I found quite patronising)

She told me she is going to do a survey and ask people with my risks, how they feel about Covid and we will discuss next week.

So, I want to hear from people here how they feel and how they perceive their own risk and what their risk factors are.

I am happy to accept that there is a risk of death all the time for everyone and I choose to live my life despite that.

@BertieBotts

Last night in my CBT the therapist asked me what my goal was, so we could do a problem statement and an action plan.

I couldn’t think of one, but honestly I feel like it’s this ^

If I could live my life by that, I’d be so much happier!!!

Feelings are feelings. You won't stop feeling them by attempting to rationalise them away. If a 'survey' proves that your feelings are 'irrational' or wrong or bad it is more likely that you will try and suppress them and feel even worse if you can't. But lie to the therapist to make them go away.

Try using meditation techniques to sit with your feelings. Don't chase or repress. You may find that your ability to function in day to day life is improved if you make time to step back and observe.

Unless you are in immediate danger you don't need to act on your feelings. Acting on feelings in the immediate term is the issue. Do your own survey if you want to but this doesn't mean asking other people. It means observing ebb and flow of your own thoughts and feelings. Maybe you will be surprised that you are not anxious all the time.

I'm early 30s and fat (BMI was 29 but I haven't dared weigh myself since DD was born 7 months ago - I definitely weigh more now.)

I've never worried about dying from it, including when I was pregnant.

I have a very high BMI, am in my 40s and was convinced I would die. I had health anxiety prior to Covid though after my sister was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer and I had 10 miscarriages. I’ve been fully vaccinated and still think I might die. If I didn’t have children I honestly wouldn’t worry about it because, to me, dying would be a blessed relief from this world. I just don’t want them to have to grow up without a mother.

I couldn't care less about catching Covid and neither could my husband who works in the nhs on the frontline. He has treated many, many people who suffered with Covid (some of whom extremely unwell with it and some not) and I fully trust his judgement! Neither of us care if our toddler catches it either. We've probably all had it anyway as there was a time ages ago (before testing was a thing) when we all felt a bit tired and run down. That could've possibly been it although we'll obviously never know for certain.

My friend had it while pregnant and was very mildly affected. I also know of an 85 year old who had many other health conditions- he was very mildly affected by Covid and in a few days it was over and he was fine.

Life is too short to worry about what could happen imo. You could've had it without knowing.

43, a little overweight- BMI 26.
Had 2 AZ in Jan/ March. Had Covid in May. It was like having a bad cold.
IMO get your second jab ASAP, wait 3 weeks then you can relax a bit. Still masks and hands but you can stop worrying about dying or being seriously ill because it just won’t happen.
Unvaccinated it’s still highly unlikely.

I was 58, overweight, not vaccinated, and I caught covid.

I didn’t die.

Meh, I'm fat, 40 & asthmatic.

I had covid at Christmas and honestly I have had worse colds. All i had was a sore throat and a desperate need to sleep. I still did my wfh office job the whole time and thoroughly enjoyed sleeping 14 hours a night!

But then, I was never worried. The chance that even a "high risk" person would die was still minuscule.

I have several underlying health conditions, am not overweight but am pregnant and older than you. I personally believe I would be very unwell, it would take me a long time to recover (even without thinking about pregnancy) and possibly be left with LT internal damage like I was from another respiratory virus years ago. I don't think (hope!) I would die.

Meh you’ve got to die of something 🤷‍♀️

I’m double jabbed, that’s the best I can do.

Honestly op you’re more likely to die in your car, you don’t worry about that so you

I have no concerns that anyone in my immediate family including myself will die of Covid, no.

I'm actually pretty sure we all had it last March and it manifested as a nasty cold.

I felt well enough to go to work but obviously I didn't even though it meant losing pay (am freelance).

I'm overweight but not elderly, don't smoke, no underlying health conditions. Husband is same but slim.

I took the view I would do everything I could not to pass it on to anyone else as they may have more risk factors but I wasn't worried for myself.

I thought if I caught covid I would drop down dead, (Probably due to msm and threads like this) then I caught it literally a week before I was due my first vaccine. I did not even know I had it for 5 days, It just felt like a hangover.

I have a normal BMI but am on immunosuppressant medication so on paper am high risk. I have never been remotely worried about covid - correctly as it turns out. Had it very early on and felt mildly ill for a couple of days.

At the start of the pandemic I thought I would definitely die if I got covid. That wasn't just me catastrophising, I have several serious health conditions and was advised to shield. I was undergoing cancer treatment at that time and felt more fear of covid than cancer.
Over a year later and both vaccine doses I accept that I am probably not fully immune from covid because some with auto immune disease dont produce a full immune response.
But I no longer think I will die.
I trust the vaccine to stop me from dying.
I now hug my teacher DC who has been exposed to covid while working in a school. I go to shops, restaurants etc. I feel safe.

I'm 37, BMI is 29.5. I do a decent amount of exercise, but my diet isn't as good as it should be.

I'm double jabbed (AZ) as of two weeks ago and I've just had to do a PCR test, (surge area), so know I don't currently have covid. So, I'm feeling a bit more confident tbh. Also, my sister who is a similar age and BMI had it and barely had symptoms, which made me feel better.

I'm also getting to a point where I don't have the energy to worry about my own mortality. I just focus on sticking to the rules and that acts as a distraction weirdly enough. I've been getting out and about more and enjoying it a lot, and it's better for my health and wellbeing to be out as I do sport when I go out. I do fuck all exercise at home, just cake .

First time I got it I thought I was dying. Never been so sick and that's not because I haven't been seriously ill before.

Second time I got it I was scared but it was a totally much better, only a few days in bed, only ill for 3 weeks (mostly cough and fatigue).

Now I'm quite relaxed a out the prospect of a third infection. I figure it hasn't killed me yet...

I dont feel like i would die of it but i was concerned about being very ill. I had swine flu in 2009 and was in hospital with it and i felt so ill for quite some time and i kept hearing how it wasnt just flu and i thought urgh i dont want to feel like that again.

I don't think CBT will necessarily help your health anxiety, it seems pretty intense

I would suggest having completed 6 or so sessions, which may help you contain your anxiety for a while granted, that you look at a psychoanalytic therapist. I don't imagine this is the only area of your life that you are suffering and you need to go a bit deeper than the surface level that CBT covers.

OP, I’m a decade older than you, on the high end of a healthy weight range and with dodgy lungs. That makes my risk around 3x yours.

I think you underestimate just how much your age cancels out any other risk factors. Age is the single biggest factor in Covid risk - and for you that is a HUGE benefit. You have won the Covid lottery by this pandemic happening when you’re in your early 30s, you lucky thing!

For the record, I’m fully vaccinated now but before that I wasn’t particularly worried. I didn’t want to get Covid but I knew the risk that it would kill me or hospitalise me was minuscule. More likely to die driving to go on holiday minuscule.

I don’t think I’m lucky enough to be likely to win a £40m lottery jackpot; by the same time I don’t think I’m unlucky enough to be the one, despite my risk being so vanishingly low, to become seriously ill or die of Covid.

Here’s a thought exercise: if you’re convinced you’re going to be the one unlucky one, do you also believe you’ll be the one lucky one with similar odds?

Mid 30s, v high BMI, h/o GD but not much else. I anticipate feeling a bit shit but not in any mortal danger

Mid forties BMI about 38.

I think I am very low risk for covid. I think if I caught it my likelihood of dying is extremely low and I would probably just feel rubbish for a couple of weeks.

I’m healthy. When I get ill it’s mild, I shrug things off easily.

I’m not taking unnecessary risks but I am living life. What’s the point in staying alive to sit in isolation?

I think you are hugely distorting the risk. Is your life now better than taking the small risk?

I have asthma and an autoimmune condition. At first I was worried, but I’m also someone who values my social life, the gym, friends, etc. I became very depressed in the third lockdown and came to the conclusion that when things started to open I’d do as much as I could and that my mental health was more important than avoiding Covid.

I’ve worked face to face seeing patients in a mental health context, including teens and young adults who I have no doubt were breaking the rules at times, since May last year after a brief break in the first lockdown where everything was remote. I don’t insist on masks, most of my patients are exempt anyway due to SEN. I have been tested twice a week since LF tests came in and never had a positive. Had one PCR test as I had cold symptoms, was negative. The longer I worked in person without getting sick, the less worried I became. Isolating myself would result in poor mental health, which would in turn affect my physical health and the best chance I have of beating it is to be as healthy and resilient as I possibly can be given the health issues I have.

The way I see it, there are risk factors you can do nothings about (age, health conditions), but you can do some grind about your weight. Losing weight might make you feel more in control of the situation and less anxious.

Nearly 46. I wasn't remotely bothered about covid. I have 4 autoimmune conditions and 5 other conditions.

I got covid in March 2020, spent 3 months in bed. I got it again 6 months later. Then I got it again 7 months later. I'm still here and due to my conditions can't be vaccinated. I've got long covid since the first infection.

I've got this far, if I come across it again I don't think it will kill me.

No of course I wouldn't die.