[Boo2223]

I have had anxiety for many years and generally live with it so it doesn’t impact me too much. However since having children there are some things I can’t stop fixating on and get really worked up.

The main thing is about them catching bugs and illness (especially sickness bugs). They are both in school/nursery full time and I find I spend all week counting down to the weekend hoping they don’t get sick. If we make it to Saturday morning with no illness I find I can relax some more. It especially bad if we have plans at the weekend - I start to panic that they’ll get ill and we’ll have to change plans (one of my main anxiety triggers).

This time of year is the worst with colds and sickness bugs, last week my daughter came home and told me very excitedly that someone was sick on the floor at nursery and I’ve been in a constant state of anxiety ever since, every night I got to bed thinking I’ll be woken up soon with a sick little one (I’ve not yet).

My husband doesn’t get it and says I just shouldn’t worry, if they get ill they get ill and I shouldn’t worry until it happens but I can’t help it! The kids must also think I’m mad with making them wash hands and using hand gel when we’re out and about.

Any tips on how to stop this taking over?

[DowdyTheFifth]

Do you feel you have OCD? I know with me when my anxiety gets very bad, my OCD starts reappearing. I do not touch any door handles with my hand because I do not want to catch anything from others. Whenever I close my dorm door I second guess myself that I actually closed it, so I start to worry about that. All the way down to the minor things, like having a paper being straight on my desk, or having everything in a specific place in my dorm.

It seems to me like you have some OCD tendencies, that could be helped by medicine and some therapy. Some medications for OCD also help with anxiety, so it could help you out overall.

Best of luck to you, I hope you start to feel better

[Sunflower123]

Hello. Welcome to PC. I agree with Dowdy. If the fixation becomes a problem impacting your quality of life, therapy would be helpful and possibly medication. I also wonder if building new neural pathways would be beneficial. Every time you start fixating on something picture a large stop sign and replace it with another thought. Like wearing a path through the snow or wearing a trail through the woods, the new thoughts will build new neural pathways and the old ones will start fading over time. Best wishes.