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Any tips on working through this?

MB1216

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Sep 14, 2020
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I posted on the main board but realized this might be the proper place. I have total health anxiety and have worried about numerous diseases and dying over the years, but the latest I am having trouble moving past: rabies! You know, 100% fatal.. minor detail. So after reading something about bats 2 weeks ago and how you can sometimes not feel a bite, lo and behold, I am now terrified of a possible but unlikely encounter with a bat.

I went for walk with a friend at dusk/dark on my street which has tons of bats flying around. That is a fact- not my imagination. We were walking in the dark after the rain and running from the frogs all over and I felt something land/or brush/or touch my head scalp. To the point I said "something is on my head" and bent over brushing out my hair. It was quick and I think fairly light but can't recall.

My friend saw nothing and either did I. I guess the most likely culprit would be cicada or insect but of course my mind goes to a bat we didn't see and a rabid one at that. I didn't see a bat or a feel a bite, but I can't shake the fear that it was one, seeing as we were on my street in the dark under trees where bats fly. Logically I know I would either felt or seen the weight or wings of a bat!! And frankly in the awful scenario it was one, I am guessing it's 1% it was rabid.

So logically I know this is OCD/anxiety and I have asked probably 25 people all of who feel it's irrational and crazy that I am ruminating on it. More likely to die of Covid at the ER getting shots. But knowing the incubation can be so long, I need help not fixating on the what ifs and dying a slow painful horrible death. I am not on meds, but have an appt with a psychiatrist Monday so may try some. If it wasn't like 8 shots in an ER with possible side effects, expensive etc I would have probably run to the dr to relieve my anxiety but seeing as I don't even know what it was, an no one saw anything and I didn't feel a bite, it seems like the ultimate crazy thing for me to do.

This is one of many health worries but one that is making me deal with uncertainty longer -- any thoughts or tips!?
 
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