Can anxiety cause you to have symptoms of something you fear?

[march123]

About two months i got what i think was a cold sore on my lip for the first time in my life. After doing research on it i found out it can be caused by a herpes virus. when i saw the word herpes i completely freaked out. since two months ago I've pretty much obsessively been looking at my lips and googling symptoms trying to figure out if i do have herpes or not since i am not sure and haven't gone to a doctor to get tested. i have this huge fear that ill get tested and get a positive test result for herpes. from so much googleing i also found out that it is possible to spread herpes to your own genital area which freaked me out so much. and since then I've been feeling a mild burning sensation down there which can be everyday or go away for days and come back. may i add that i now get the burning sensation on my lips and fingers as well. this has completely consumed my life. it is the first thing i think about when i wake up and the last thing on my mind when i sleep. i think about it constantly throughout the day and when i do i just cry or my heart beats faster. sometimes my hand will slightly shake too. I'm just wondering if the burning feeling down there is because of my fear of getting herpes down there? can all of this be caused because of anxiety ?

[GiuliaOlimpio]

Yes, it can. You should go to a doctor and get tested. I know it scares you, but it will be better to have a definitive answer.
The burning feel can be psychological, since you are very worried about it. There are several other conditions you could have, like acne or an allergy for example. Being anxious doesn't help at all! Calm down and remember herpes and all the other conditions are treatable.

[AnxiousNoMore]

I reread your post and notice that you don't even know for sure that it is a cold sore. Cold sores are very noticeable so it seems you do not have one.

Anxiety makes you over-examine your body in fear, which makes you notice every itch, ouch, twitch, burning feeling etc, because you think every thing you notice has deep meaning so there is something wrong. It becomes a vicious circle of fear making your anxiety worse which makes you more fearful to the point you have difficulty rationalizing your fears. If you can relax then any symptoms that don't exist, but you think you have will disappear.  

You don't have genital herpes just because you think you might have it. You have to have sexual intercourse with a person who is actively shedding herpes at the time, which you did not have.

Testing would be a waste of time, and I imagine your doctor will tell you the same.

[AnxiousNoMore]

You can't spread your cold sore to your genital area, although very rarely you can spread it to someone else's during oral. You can get info about that on the std forum, so I won't comment again on this thread.

Herpes is a fragile virus outside the skin so doesn't travel. People get it on their lips from kissing which is why many people have it, including babies in older times when mothers allowed strangers to kiss their babies.

[march123]

i understand all of that but the reason i am writing on this forum is because i am wondering if anxiety can cause me to have this burning feeling on/ around my lips, on my hands, and genital area. (btw i don't have any herpes symptoms on my genitals other than this occasional burning, which only started once i found that it could be spread to there). so that is why I'm wondering if this is just due to anxiety of having the virus.