A Must Read for Worried Wells With Symptoms but NO RISK

[Horrified87]

Just thought I'd throw this out there, hopefully it will help some of you.  I was a previous worried well with a NO RISK analysis and with negative tests to back that up.  Yet I could not get it out of my mind that I'd been infected!  I eventually I'd begun to show numerous symptoms.  Even at times where I thought I'd begun to calm down, a new symptom popped up!  I had it all, night sweats, aching muscles, rashes up one side and down the other!  Then to top it off, the worlds WORST sore throat.  All signs pointed to infection, I knew in my mind I was infected.  But the reality was I am not infected.  I really had no risk to speak of!  Furthermore, my tests proved it.  Then I started to go to therapy for my anxiety and my therapist reminded me of a study that my dad had actually told me he'd heard about it psychology class in college.  It's as follows:

We all know how powerful the mind is.  But sometimes we don't understand the full extent to which our brain interacts with our bodies.  During WWII Britain conducted an experiment on captured German POWs.  The Germans were shown the scolding hot irons with which they were about to be tortured.  The prisoners were then blindfolded.  The Brits swapped the irons with ice cubes, and then touched the germans with them briefly, as if torturing them for information.  THEIR SKIN BURNED AS IF IT HAD BEEN TOUCHED WITH HOT COALS!  In their minds they knew they were going to be burn with hot irons, and their bodies gave the reaction their mind expected!  So before you freak out about all your symptoms when you've got NO RISK, think about that and take a breather.  Of course, anxiety doesn't just go away, but think of that story when you seek out your symptoms, they might well be subconsciously produced.

[Horrified87]

I'll try to find something about it online, if I can't, then I'll ask my therapist next week when I see him for information on where I can find it, then I'll post it up.

[joggen]

Thanks for posting this. If you know of a link to a wikipedia article or other source that describes this experiment I would appreciate it if you could post it. I am just curious.

Thanks,

J.