[bannywan70]

I had the flu all week this week, and now I am beginning to get better. After I get sick I am fearful of getting sick, like VERY fearful, for quite some time after. I felt so awful this week and my throat is still very scratchy (which is concerning me, adding to my panic) and I never want to feel this way again. I've always had hypochondria all through middle school and now high school, and its honestly ruining my life. I see germs everywhere, I can't touch doors (which makes me seem rude because I always wait for someone to open it for me... unless the place is deserted then I have no options) I can't touch my desk at school, I can't touch public writing utensils, and don't even get me started with school bathrooms I just need someone to help me be rational about this. I do get sick all the time, so saying that getting sick isn't a common thing wouldn't be true. I am so worn down by school and stress and anxiety and depression and my eating disorder that my immune system and body just gets shot. Awesome.. Right.. Being a hypochondriac and getting sick on a monthly basis (been to every doctor, I'm PERFECTLY healthy, they all say "hmm. sounds like anxiety.." yeah really?????). Basically what I am asking for is someone to share a personal experience if they struggle with this to know I am not alone, or someone to give me some advice on how to deal with life and living a normal teenage life with this phobia of germs. These panic attacks are getting terrifying, I am trembling as I type right now my whole body is shaking and I am scared.. Please help me it's 3 am and I have nobody else and I can't sleep.

I'm sorry that sounds tough.. I don't have germ anxiety but I think SSRI's can help you. I have a good friend who has anxiety and OCD (not germ-related but she gets irrationally worried about having various health problems when she's not on prozac) and they have helped her a lot with her irrational health anxiety.

I don't have relatable experience or anything that will be helpful other than explaining the logic that touching a door knob will not make you sick and that excessive stress does lower your immune system... but you know that... but I think that if you can see a psych and get on meds it could really help you if you haven't already. Either way good luck!

[bannywan70]

Originally Posted by nowheretohide

I'm sorry that sounds tough.. I don't have germ anxiety but I think SSRI's can help you. I have a good friend who has anxiety and OCD (not germ-related but she gets irrationally worried about having various health problems when she's not on prozac) and they have helped her a lot with her irrational health anxiety.

I don't have relatable experience or anything that will be helpful other than explaining the logic that touching a door knob will not make you sick and that excessive stress does lower your immune system... but you know that... but I think that if you can see a psych and get on meds it could really help you if you haven't already. Either way good luck!

Thanks for the response, I was supposed to start prozac saturday... then came down with this flu and was afraid of taking the medicine while not feeling good (I didn't want to feel worse) But I will be going on it once I kick this bug

You could start on a half-dose while you're sick maybe if you want to get started with it... I don't think prozac usually makes people feel ill at all but maybe your idea is the safer bet. Prozac is usually capsules I think but you can dump half into yogurt or something and take the other half in the capsule if you are eager to get started on it.

Paxil makes me feel a little spacey when I first go on it but have taken a few others too and never felt anything I would describe as feeling sick or ill at all. Prozac is a really proven one with high success rate, but don't get discouraged if you have to try one or two others before you find one that really works well for you. And if after 4-5 weeks you feel notable improvement but just not enough make sure to talk to your doctor about potentially raising the dose (or trying another one if you don't think the current dosage of prozac is helping significantly at all).

Either way hope you get over the cold soon! I'm happy to hear that you're set to get started now on an SSRI and don't have to wait for a 2-month-out appointment or anything

Take care

[bannywan70]

Originally Posted by nowheretohide

You could start on a half-dose while you're sick maybe if you want to get started with it... I don't think prozac usually makes people feel ill at all but maybe your idea is the safer bet. Prozac is usually capsules I think but you can dump half into yogurt or something and take the other half in the capsule if you are eager to get started on it.

Paxil makes me feel a little spacey when I first go on it but have taken a few others too and never felt anything I would describe as feeling sick or ill at all. Prozac is a really proven one with high success rate, but don't get discouraged if you have to try one or two others before you find one that really works well for you. And if after 4-5 weeks you feel notable improvement but just not enough make sure to talk to your doctor about potentially raising the dose (or trying another one if you don't think the current dosage of prozac is helping significantly at all).

Either way hope you get over the cold soon! I'm happy to hear that you're set to get started now on an SSRI and don't have to wait for a 2-month-out appointment or anything

Take care

I'm pretty much over my flu-illness now, I think I'm going to muster up some courage and just take it tomorrow. I took it when I was much younger (with an even worse fear of throwing up) and I only came off it because I was in a better place, so if I did have any side effects they couldn't have been that bad or else I would remember them lol Thanks for the encouragement though I hope this one works for me again!

Awesome - that's even better that it worked for you in the past because I think it definitely will again

I have weened myself off paxil a handful of times and restarted and it always works as well from what I can tell. I have heard stories of "didn't work as well the 2nd/3rd/4th time restarting" but I've never experienced that myself and I'm not sure it's very prevalent.

Same as you I always thought "I'm feeling better and don't need it any more" but I usually end up going back to it, hehe. Mine is more for social anxiety / social paranoia but either way it's the classic mistake (no matter the degree of the problem) - we always think we're cured and can go off of the meds then it comes back at us full-force