Meningitis Worry

[adamden]

Hi everyone! I was a member of Anxiety Central before it unexpectedly shut down, so I found this community in hopes to continue my recovery from health anxiety! To give you my back story, I’m an 18 year old male in a wheelchair, and I’ve been suffering from health anxiety for about three months now, and have obsessed, worried, and feared that I’ve had or am going to catch many different diseases (heart attack, stroke, sepsis, etc. are just a few of the examples). I’m currently in CBT and also on a low 10mg dose of Prozac.

Well, I guess it’s now time to add meningitis to the list. I’m currently on vacation, and while my family and I were out and about yesterday, we picked up Starbucks drinks (but nothing for me as I have found out that caffeine makes my anxiety symptoms worse). My mom asked me if I wanted to try a sip of this new drink she got, which I said yes to, and tried one sip. I’ve done that all the time when she asks if I want to try something, as obviously, she’s my mother and we’ve done that since I was a baby. My mom currently isn’t sick, none of my family is.

This morning though, when watching TV, a commercial about meningitis B played across the screen, and how adolescents should get vaccinated against it, especially if they are going off to college and things like that. Obviously, this sent my mind spiraling. What if I contracted meningitis B from drinking my mom’s drink yesterday? Am I gonna experience the fatal symptoms of it?

I’m vaccinated against all the other types of meningitis, and I’m seriously considering going to get vaccinated for B type once I return home.

Should I really be concerned about contracting it? The probability’s are super low, I know, because I researched it after watching the commercial (not afraid to admit that), but of course, I’m still super worried. Please help me out here!

 

[daysinthesun]

Hi! I would say that since no one in your family is sick and you haven’t experienced any symptoms at all besides ones that can be explained by anxiety, the odds are very very low that you’re going to contract it. Now if you’d feel better getting the vaccination, by all means, go for it.

Anxiety can spin our minds so out of the loop. Everything gets tangled and even the smallest thing can signal our doom. I had a tender spot on my leg and read up about them. I read something about blood clots and pain in the calf. An hour later, guess what? Pain in the calf. And I’m fine. Our minds are wonderful and terrifying things sometimes.

 

[adamden]

Hi! I would say that since no one in your family is sick and you haven’t experienced any symptoms at all besides ones that can be explained by anxiety, the odds are very very low that you’re going to contract it. Now if you’d feel better getting the vaccination, by all means, go for it.

Anxiety can spin our minds so out of the loop. Everything gets tangled and even the smallest thing can signal our doom. I had a tender spot on my leg and read up about them. I read something about blood clots and pain in the calf. An hour later, guess what? Pain in the calf. And I’m fine. Our minds are wonderful and terrifying things sometimes.

Thank you for your reply and reassurance, I greatly appreciate it. It’s so hard to get a grasp of these thoughts sometimes, because of how severe they can become whenever my anxiety ramps it up. Thank you!

 

[AbeLinkedIn]

I too am an Anxiety Central refugee as you can see by my username. Glad to see you here.

Now concerning the meningitis woes, I think it's fair to say if you did have it, you wouldn't be well enough to be posting here. Many of the symptoms you described are much more likely to be anxiety driven vs. any evidence of infection. If vaccination is on the table, do it if for no other reason than to put your mind at ease. Daysinthesun is right in the sense that we as HA sufferers latch onto every little sensation and declare ourselves dead or dying almost instantly. Not to steal your spotlight but I've been having sleeping issues the last few nights and have been getting worried if I'm getting enough rest. I haven't Googled because I know they'll say I have something majorly wrong and I'm trying to kick that habit.

In short, you're fine. Symptoms you have or perceive to have can best be explained by either anxiety or something far less serious than spinal infection.

 

[adamden]

I too am an Anxiety Central refugee as you can see by my username. Glad to see you here.

Now concerning the meningitis woes, I think it's fair to say if you did have it, you wouldn't be well enough to be posting here. Many of the symptoms you described are much more likely to be anxiety driven vs. any evidence of infection. If vaccination is on the table, do it if for no other reason than to put your mind at ease. Daysinthesun is right in the sense that we as HA sufferers latch onto every little sensation and declare ourselves dead or dying almost instantly. Not to steal your spotlight but I've been having sleeping issues the last few nights and have been getting worried if I'm getting enough rest. I haven't Googled because I know they'll say I have something majorly wrong and I'm trying to kick that habit.

In short, you're fine. Symptoms you have or perceive to have can best be explained by either anxiety or something far less serious than spinal infection.

Abe!! It’s so good to see you here too! I was wondering who else big on the Central thread would be coming over. But thank you for your reply and reassurance as well. I probably should’ve realized that the symptoms of meningitis would latch on right away and attack strongly if I did have it. I’m not really fully educated on the disease itself, and I tried to avoid researching because I know that’ll fuel my anxiety, so that may make me seem more irrational than ever LOL.

 

[adamden]

Well folks.... I feel like a complete idiot.

I’ve had some really bad emotional breakdowns the last couple of days about this meningitis issue, putting myself and my family in a lot of distress. After researching further, I found that you can only contract meningitis only if the person is infected or if they are a carrier of the bacteria.... which wouldn’t apply to my case whatsoever.

I feel like a complete idiot. I can’t believe I went through all that to find out that that’s how that’s spread. The commercial didn’t give the full story, and it threw me into this emotional wreck.

 

[AbeLinkedIn]

Sad to say this kind of misinformation is pervasive and prevalent in the media today; never giving full context to a commercial. That's why, while I love to watch medical shows, I have to put things into perspective and recognize what they show online or on TV is one in a million, especially something like meningitis.

 

[adamden]

Sad to say this kind of misinformation is pervasive and prevalent in the media today; never giving full context to a commercial. That's why, while I love to watch medical shows, I have to put things into perspective and recognize what they show online or on TV is one in a million, especially something like meningitis.

That's exactly what I have found out throughout this battle of health anxiety. It sucks, because I put both my parents in a lot of distress when I was thinking that I was going to start showing symptoms of it sooner than later, but after researching it today, I found out that that's how it is spread and once it is spread, it attacks your system quickly, it doesn't just wait around in your system. (Ironically, another commercial about getting the MenB vaccine was the one that confirmed that for me). I just feel so bad man. I'm stuck in a rut that I can't seem to get out of.

 

[triceps]

Hi adamden. Please feel good about being able to accept the reality when it's shown to you. You won't always be able to with health anxiety. The people you might have driven nuts should be happy for you too.

 

[adamden]

Hi adamden. Please feel good about being able to accept the reality when it's shown to you. You won't always be able to with health anxiety. The people you might have driven nuts should be happy for you too.

Hi triceps, thank you for your kind words. I feel good that I am able to accept the fact that my thoughts are irrational once I am presented with the facts that are contrary to what my mind thinks are true or what it perceived to be true. I hope it continues to take me in the right direction.

EDIT: I'd also like to add that I found comfort in myself figuring out that if my mom was a carrier of the bacteria, it would've been found out a while ago, especially when she was giving birth to me because I'm pretty sure they test for that whenever someone is pregnant with a child. And also, I've been sharing drinks with her for all 18 years of my life. Nothing's new with that.

 

[adamden]

Bumping this thread again because my fear of meningitis has returned.
I got over the fear of at first eventually once I learned the ways that meningitis were contracted, but today, the fear popped back up when my mom brought home pizza from a Father's Day party she was at with one of the sides of my family (my grandma married into a family with eight grandkids). I feel so bad for even thinking this way, but that part of the family has had troubles with almost everything in terms of relationships and things like that, but nothing health related as far as I know. For some reason, the fear of my mom bringing home that pizza from the party came up, because my mind said, "what if they spit on it? what if any of them had meningitis? what if they are carriers of the bacteria and we don't know that?"
Again, I feel SUPER bad for even thinking this way, because they are my family and I shouldn't even be thinking that way, but unfortunately, that's my reality right now. I've eaten meals with those grandkids over the years and I trust my grandma with ALL my heart to make sure everything was sanitary and good to go. She's really good about that. Somebody please tell me I'm being an idiot for thinking this way and that's there's no way I can get meningitis.

 

[triceps]

You're not an idiot as far as I can tell, you just have health anxiety. And you don't have meningitis.

 

[adamden]

You're not an idiot as far as I can tell, you just have health anxiety. And you don't have meningitis.

Well thanks for that LOL. I appreciate it. I just don’t understand why the fear has returned all of a sudden for me. I’m vaccinated against every type except for B, and as far as I know, you only need to get that vaccine if your doctor recommends it or you make that decision to.

 

[Guen]

One thing that may help is try touching your chin to your chest; if you actually had meningitis, that would be extremely difficult with significant pain. When I get anxious over symptoms, I usually try to science it out. It can help.

 

[adamden]

One thing that may help is try touching your chin to your chest; if you actually had meningitis, that would be extremely difficult with significant pain. When I get anxious over symptoms, I usually try to science it out. It can help.

Believe it or not, I actually do that to make sure I don’t have it, so that’s been something I’ve done. And of course, no difficulty and no pain. Glad to see you also recommending this.