Anxiety-induced symptoms versus real disease symptoms

I wonder how many people here have fretted for days over having some sort of horrible disease (ie; rabies, AIDS, cancer, etc) and then went into a full-blow panic attack (which has some pretty scary symptoms of it's own) and then mistook the panic attack symptoms for symptoms of the disease they thought they might have.

For example, I had what I thought was a bat fly over my head the other night and when I came home I noticed a paper-cut on my left middle finger. I had my hands in my pockets the entire time I was out on my short walk and the bat (or whatever it was) only flew over me once and yet when I saw this paper-cut, I just completely flipped out and started searching the net for "rabies" and "bats". Big mistake because now I know all the symptoms and so every time I feel some sensation in my body, I start freaking out.

Everything I remembered about my walk, read on the internet and saw indicated that there was no way on earth I could have been bitten but just the fact that I was outside and saw what I thought was a bat flying over my head was enough to send me into a major panic attack.

I have seen the occassional bat here and it was the right time at night for a bat or two to be flying around and yet it just flew over my head about 25 feet and did not touch me. It's the thought that "well what if it got me and I did'nt know it?" that scares me and yet out of all the pictures I've seen and articles I've read, it does'nt look anything like a bat bite at all and I was doing all sorts of things around the house the other day so it's highly likely that I could have gotten a paper cut.

Even the doctor at the ER told me that if I was his daughter, he would not be getting me the shots and the nurse (who has actually given the shots before and dealt with rabies patients) told me that it was a papercut and that I needed to take deep breaths and try to relax.

The thing is, anxiety and panic have some pretty scary symptoms themselves and so every time my heart skips a beat or I feel a prickly sensation or hot flash, I'm thinking " oh no...rabies!!!". Every time I get a little ache or pain somewhere or ANY type of sensation, I think this. How do you distinguish??.

To make matters worse, my room mate called me in last night and there was a movie on TV about some guy who had gotten bitten by a rabid dog and they showed this guy hacking, coughing, hyperventilating, drooling all over himself and at the end of the movie he get's really aggressive and shoots himself. Yeah, I REALLY needed to see that!!...ahhhh!!!.

To make matters even worse, my sinuses have been acting up and I've felt like crap ever since I got home from the urologist's office the other day so how do I know if it's rabies, a cold I caught while I was at the uro's or the symptoms from a huge panic attack?. Of course, after seeing that movie last night I am feeling like I have some of those same symptoms and it's scary plus I find myself ticking down the days before my death and that's even scarier!.

So I guess the main thing here is the question of wether or not a person can misinterprate the symptoms of a panic attack for the symptoms of some disease they are obscessing over. I'd sure appreciate some input on this because I am so freaked out right now it's just unreal )-:

- Thank you so much!!!!

greygoose, i really feel for you. you know "rationally" that there's no way that bat could've bit you. you have professionals who've told you that there is no way your cut is a bite from a bat. yet, still your anxiety/panic keeps that possibility alive...

i, for years, had massive panic/anxiety. my panic has all but stopped. know what worked for me? i learned to play the "what if" game all the way out. i would have one question in my mind send me into panic...maybe something as simple as "what if i don't get the laundry done today"...boom panic. however, since i've learned to play the "what if" game all the way out...very few things cause me panic.

it was just that simple for me...my mind was doing it, so i found a way to work my mind to its fullest extent.

kd

greygoose, i also wanted to ask you...are you in therapy of any kind? i would think it very beneficial for you.

take care,

kd

GreyGoose, I can't tell you how much I've been through this. It's an example of how the internet can be your enemy. First, I thought I had colon cancer after hours of reading about it on line. I went through many tests and nothing was found. Something else, which I mentioned a while back, happened last year. This is how anxiety takes it's toll. I would start to get this on and off sensation of a slight weakness in an arm, leg, or both at once. The more I worried about it and glued myself to the internet, I thought I had a brain tumor or strokes. One day in a panic, I went to the ER. After about 3000 dollars worth of scans and other tests, they couldn't find a thing. I was only diagnosed with anxiety. All that worry and $$$ to tell me something I already knew. If it's not one thing, it's something else. I've finally learned to stay away from reading about disease symptoms on the internet.

IG, a very good point. i have to also do that same thing.

thanks for bringing that point up.

I want to thank you both so much for allaying my fears and relating to what I'm going through at this difficult time in my life. While I'm not in therapy at the moment, I find that I derive considerable relief from visiting places like this and sharing experiences with other people. When I discover that I am not the only one who has ever gone through this, it gives me great comfort but of course that little voice inside of me never wants to give up with the "what if's". Maybe I shouldgo to the ER every time I take a walk because I could have been stung by a killer bee on a numb spot of my body while I was distracted and did'nt know it and now I have a "spot" on my arm. I used to dread surgery and things like that but the mind seems to be the real enemy.

Thanks again (((((((hugs))))))