Poppycocteau
Bronze Member
I don't know if there's somewhere else I'm supposed to post this, as I know that sometimes men don't like reading about this sort of thing . . . but I finally got an IUD after ages of being far too anxious to even think about it properly! I mentioned in a previous post that this was one of my aims. A year ago, even just reading about these things would give me a panic attack - it's not connected to my trauma in a logical sense, but more relating to the fact that because of the trauma I am now anxious about almost everything and will blow possible disasters out of proportion in my head, and even create new, outlandish disasters that couldn't possibly happen. I'm now really scared of things I have no reason to be scared of - that is, I have no past negative experience to form a basis for the fear, and one of the worst of these is my fear of medical procedures. I had to have a colonoscopy last year and screamed and cried throughout, and I was determined to handle this like an adult. Having the procedure was not as bad as I had thought it would be (these things never are, of course) . . . now I have to concentrate on not being panicky about the possibility of uterine rupture or expulsion (which is not as terrible as it sounds - it just means the IUD comes out, but it makes me really anxious and squeamish for some reason). It's hard going sometimes at the moment, but I can comfort myself and bolster my bravery with the thought that I was strong enough to show up at the clinic and go through with the appointment, therefore I'm strong enough to cope with the possibility of highly unlikely events that can be easily ameliorated by modern medicine.