Why is it ???

[always scared]

Why is it that when you are having a meltdown over symptoms of a certain cancer you see news on it EVERYWHERE !! Is it a sign??? WTF :scared15: Everytime I start to calm down and think rationally BAM! I see something online or I hear so and so has it. And the panic starts all over again.

Is it just me or does this happen to others on here too?


I just want to be normal and not scared all the time :weep:

[nicole97]

I completely understand! That’s how it’s been with me this week and the irrational part of my brain thinks it’s a sign and I keep having to dig out of that hole.

[ankietyjoe]

No it's not a sign.

Maybe you need to avoid the media sources that trigger you.

[lofwyr]

Well two things. One, you are hyper aware and hyper vigilant because of the anxiety. It is always there, you are just noticing it.

Second, if you have Googled anything about it, it skews your ads, your side bars etc. News too. Jist look at the lung cancer treatment as that pop up here on occasion

[pav1984]

Have you never noticed that when you purchase a new car you spot more of that type of car? You are just more aware of the particular thing you are focussed on.

The comment on google is also a good point. Targeted advertising means you get more adverts for the things you browse for the most. This is great if you havent got health anxiety.

Try deleting your browsing history and cookies. Then browse in incogneto mode.

[Sparky16]

The targeted advertising is definitely a culprit. Even with non medical related stuff, I get ads for the darndest things I've only looked up once. And don't forget that Facebook, etc, may be listening for keywords in our conversations near our phones and keying ads based on that. Google likes to do that recommended articles thing to me, too, which is also skewed by your searches.

[sarahsarah]

I do know what you mean, OP. October is a bad month for this as there is the huge BC awareness campaign going on. There are times when I hear or see cancer-related stuff everywhere and like you, I see it as some sort of sign, even though rational me knows that's ridiculous.

Whilst I know cancer is a fact of life and applaud any campaigns raising awareness and I know it's only human nature for some people to talk about these things. for my own sanity I have to take myself out of situations where cancer and other illnesses are being discussed.

This morning I was having a nice breakfast out with my husband and the people at the next table were talking in great detail about someone who was undergoing treatment for cancer and I had to take my coffee and leave as I didn't want it to set me off into a spiral. I had to change my hairdressers to one that didn't speak very good English as my old one was just a place where people seemed to gather to talk about illness. I love going to classes at the gym but have to slip in just before it starts because it seems all people talk about there is cancer and other life-limiting illnesses. This is my thing, not theirs, and I would never presume to tell people what to talk about so it's up to me to take control and remove myself from those conversations.

[Sparky16]

That's one thing I don't like about some recommended therapies for HA. A number of things I've read say that you should do exposure practice by deliberately seeking out the sort of articles and discussions that tend to make us spiral. In some ways this doesn't make sense to me. First, because my own personal experience is that I am in a much better place mentally when I limit my exposure to medical articles, shows, etc, and second, because it seems to directly conflict with the admonition to get off the Internet.

[lofwyr]

That's one thing I don't like about some recommended therapies for HA. A number of things I've read say that you should do exposure practice by deliberately seeking out the sort of articles and discussions that tend to make us spiral. In some ways this doesn't make sense to me. First, because my own personal experience is that I am in a much better place mentally when I limit my exposure to medical articles, shows, etc, and second, because it seems to directly conflict with the admonition to get off the Internet.

My therapist was a big opponent of exposure therapy. She told me she felt it did very little to treat the source of the anxiety, nor did it help learn to deal with the anxiety. She felt it had little value, and I agree with her. It was never a part of my sessions. That being said, she said avoidance was not of much value either. We cannot get through life without going to hospitals, or hearing news stories about cancer etc. Essentially, she advocated learning to deal with the anxiety when it presented itself, but to live life along side the things that make us anxious in a normal, healthy fashion. Her therapy was constructed in a way to help you make that happen and generally was very successful for me. I rarely go into any sort of spiral, and as I age, I am around more and more sick friends and family, and have my own serious health issues to boot. Does anxiety still come up? Sure. But I have some tools in place to help me deal with it in some fashion.