Will it go away with time and simply "doing more things"?

[ScaredFromThailand]

Greetings from Australia!

I have always been a happy-go-lucky kind of guy, nothing really bothered me and the things I did were worry free and I have generally been positive and upbeat about anything.

Nonetheless, prior to the new year I went to a trip to Thailand and came back with a severe case of anxiety and guilt stemming from a bad night out (linked below)

http://www.medhelp.org/posts/STDs/Scared-from-Thailand/show/2069751#post_9802713

Shortly after this I recovered well from my anxiety and over-thinking, and returned to a normal life. But two weeks ago I had a knee operation which has left me stuck at home (went back to uni for the first time today - bliss!) with nothing to do. With this, led to me (for whatever reason) to look up diseases and illnesses or disorders, especially those of the terminal kind (cancers, motor neuron disease, Alzheimers and the like.

Preivously I would've looked at those things and thought "how unfortunate" and subsequently move on, but recently with every thought of these "bad" things happening I've thought to myself "this is going to be me" e.g. blood clots due to surgery, getting prostate cancer due to drinking warm water from BPA bottles.

I know that being bored and having nothing to do can lead to me looking up unpleasant things, and I also know that understanding that a human is not immortal is part of the maturity process but I am only 19 and I feel that this is all hitting me at an incredible pace. Strong anxiety has been with me for the past two weeks, with that funny butterfly feeling in my chest and also the tension headaches.

Nonetheless, knowing that I've never had a history of this, should I pass this off as something that will go away with time and returning to my 'normal' life? Or should I seek more help? What things can I do in order to shake these things from my mind? I can tell it is impacting my life in more ways than one.

Thanks!

[remar]

I recommend that you stop looking things up on the internet. It can be very scary to think about all of these possible problems.
Will you be going back to work after you're recovery? If so, that should keep your mind busy and hopefully you'll stop worrying about illnesses.

[ScaredFromThailand]

Thanks for the reply Remar.

I am a full time university student who is also working part time. Today I went back to uni for the first time since surgery and yes I did feel better in the company of friends and doing academic work but the feeling of anxiety is still there.

This feeling was rather muted compared to time at home so hopefully over time it will fade even further. And yes, it's hard but I will try to stop looking up things on the internet.

Thanks!

[anxiety860]

I 100% agree with remar.  Stay off the internet.  You can find almost anything on there.  I read a quote one time that said something along the lines if you google a disease you'll be able to diagnose yourself with it.  You're a 19 year old college student, live it up while you still can.  Once you get back into the swing of things hopefully you can put this kick of health anxiety behind you.