I'm kind of fine...until Facebook

[anxietygirltotherescue]

OMG!! As someone who doesnt know you at all and not trying to be condescending, I am soo proud of you for battling emetophobia and managing to be a pediatric ICU nurse!! My emetophobia is soo bad that I dont even like being around children and dont get me started on hospitals. I have all of the same things as you (IBS, Anxiety, Emet, and OCD) so I know how hard it is!

So a little about me to start off with:
I've battled emetophobia for almost 20 years now. I have OCD, anxiety issues, IBS, and it's all related to emetophobia in some way. Fun. Honestly, I've grown to a place where I've managed to be some semblance of normal. I work as a pediatric ICU nurse in a hospital (hey! germy hospitals + children...I'm pretty proud of myself for handling that on a daily basis! And I don't even mind being labeled as the "germophobe" at work, haha), and have been able to manage a lot of my anxiety and OCD symptoms. Don't get me wrong, I am by no means cured, and my poor husband has to put up with a lot of my crazy fears on a daily basis, BUT I've made a lot of progress...

EXCEPT for what I call flare-ups - those times when I am extra worried and my OCD compulsions are more frequent - which always happens in the winter when it's noro season.

I. HATE. NORO.
I hate it so much. I hate worrying about it, I hate that it exists, I hate living in fear of it.

I can ignore it all pretty well (i.e. rationalize it away) so that I'm at a functional level, but the worst part is the posts on Facebook this time of year. You all probably know what I'm talking about:

"I've never been so sick before in my life."
"Oh great. [Child's name] just v*d all over."
"Looks like everyone in our house is sick!"

I had one friend who posted that she had a sick child who was v*ing one morning, and then she took the kid to the movies that night! I was livid. The kid was clearly contagious, and she was so selfish as to bring her sick child to the movies just because she felt guilty that the kid was "bored at home"?!

Whenever I see stuff like that, it makes me feel like the whole outside world is crawling with noro. Like every public surface was just touched by someone who was sick or had a sick person at home (because, potentially, it was). Like noro is closing in on me because people I know have it and I am sure to get it.
It makes me want to stay home all the time to avoid it. To not go to parties because someone might be contagious. To not go shopping or out somewhere because someone contagious might have been there just before me. To not go to a restaurant because I might get food poisoning. When I do go out, I need to have my hand wipes with me, wash my hands before eating always, avoid certain areas, never touch doorknobs, and even find myself eyeing people who might seem like they aren't feeling well to see if I should avoid them. It's gotten to a point where I have been buying clothes online because I don't want to go to a store and try stuff on since some germy person might have been trying it on before me.

It's an awful, isolating feeling. Sometimes I hate that I can't be like "normal people" and just go out and experience life and touch things and not worry...but then I realize that those people tend to get sick, so I withdraw back into my compulsions and worries.

How do YOU get through this awful season? Any tips or thoughts that have helped you?

[anxietygirltotherescue]

I am the same way with facebook posts. Plus I get this strange superstitions that I if I see 3 post about the sv* - it means I am automatically going to get sick!