PTSD, Fear, and Paranoia Over the 'Swine Flu'

[midi]

My whole point at the start of the thread is YES, the flu causes DEATH - but worrying ain't gonna do Jack. People die of respiratory infections all the time around the world.

Claire, my son has chosen this bloody flu virus as his new poison - I woke up this morning and the first thing he said was, 'there's a flu death outside of Mexico!!!' Uh huh, I tell him, SHUT UP.

How come you don't hear about all the flu cases that claim the lives of geriatric people on a daily basis? Because the news would be clogged with it and people would be running around in hysterics. Many of them die of common flu strains. Any flu strain is serious - so stop worrying. Yes, show compassion for the dead and the sick, but why waste time worrying and fretting?

We are making jokes because the flu is common and death by flu is common. We are tired of sensationalist 'news.' We are tired of the worry-mentality media. We are tired of the billionaire government officials and media tycoons brain washing us into being afraid of everything 24/7.

Here's an example: News breakdown for the week... Monday - chocolate causes heart disease; Tuesday - eggs have extremely high cholesterol; Wednesday - wine cures cancer, red meat causes brain tumors; Thursday - too much wine causes heart defects, white meat raises IQ; Friday - chocolate cures diabetes, white meat causes leukemia; Saturday - 1 egg a day can prevent breast cancer, binge drinking improves lymph node function...

If 1 case of flu death outside of Mexico is causing this much mass concern and worry, why aren't we fretting over the industrial roots of high cancer rates? Why aren't we panicking over our high-fat, high-sugar North American food diet and our escalating diabetes?

EDIT: I wonder, is this conversation not about the flu virus per say, but about our societal addiction to worrying about anything and everything? I know many people in real life that worry constantly over things they can't control. Friends who have good jobs and benefit and retirement, who admittedly worry about money non-stop. I know with PTSD, I am hyper vigilant about walking down the street because I was hit by a truck, but I also used to sleep the same way because of night rape and the hostage situation. What about collective worry?

 

[2quilt]

I had surgery on my ankle when I blew out the ligament that holds your foot on to your leg. They reattached my foot with a pig ligament. Now whenever I sunbathe, I can smell bacon cooking.

Continue living, everyone!

 

[Grama-Herc]

OH Claire

I could not have said it better myself. I am on the floor. LOLing!!!!!

I thank you for lightening my mood. Being the agoraphobic I am I WAS
freaking out a little he he he "A LIttle"?????

You did put all the "bull s*#t" in prespective for me. Thanx

 

[Irton Pike]

Earlier today, I posted in a members diary, that there is no sense in getting upset over something that we basically have no control over. ......
Getting upset only exacerbates your anxiety.

Shecat speak good medicine! My therapist has been trying to nail this into my brain form the last 8 months. Finally it is starting to stick!

Seriously though, it is true of trauma isn't it? We need to learn to stop hurting ourselves over the things we cannot control, i.e. the things that have already happened. The threat. Learning that it is seperate to our continued existence is the healing process. And I like that learning word because that is what it has been and continues to be for me, a retraining of the brain. Brains are plastic, my therapist tells me. They can learn and change constantly. Like the body can too. Just as physical exsercise tones and reshapes the body (and the brain), mental exercises, in the form of learning different strategies to deal with problems, reconfigures your neural pathways so that the threat events can become less stressful. But it is a marathon and not a sprint. The marathon will take you a year to train for your first one and from then you try to improve your time. Same analogy for the brain. Takes a long time and constant effort.

Good luck with your training !

For a cracking read on nasty global diseases I advise "world war Z" by Max Brooks (son of Mel) Very funny, very horrible.

 

[Deleted member 541]

Yes, there has been over 150 deaths in Mexico. I apologize for over looking that, when I posted about the death in Texas.

The media does do the doom and gloom, a bit over the top at times, but I also feel that we do need to be informed. I guess how much, should be/is a personal issue.

I personally am a news junkie, and watch the news more than anything else on TV. Can't stand the soaps, and the reality shows just bore me to death, so news it is for me.

I think what is missing in all of this....COMMON SENSE, and the approach to it. The news can broadcast 24/7 if they like, about doom and gloom, red wine, chocolate or whatever....But we as people need to have common sense, when hearing this stuff, and act in an appropriate common sense manner.

 

[Die Hard The Hunter]

You know, I have had something like bronchitis for a week or so, and I'm constantly hearing about the 'swine flu'. Not once did I actually make the connection.

I guess that means I'm not paranoid? I mean, maybe I should go to the doctor anyway, but it's getting better. As a child, I would have flipped out at something like this.

 

[pianogirl]

I just wash my hands and try to avoid being too close to sick people. I do hate how the media does make it pretty hyped up.

I think if people just watch what they're doing and get to a doctor if they have the flu, then things should be OK. It's the poorer populations and the poorer countries I worry about.

pianogirl

 

[2quilt]

Yes, I think that the media talk about the flu because the Octomom has not left the house today. It must be a very slow news day to resort to rehashing the pandemic / epidemic / flu.

 

[supergirl]

I had surgery on my ankle when I blew out the ligament that holds your foot on to your leg. They reattached my foot with a pig ligament. Now whenever I sunbathe, I can smell bacon cooking.

Continue living, everyone!

LMBO! I cried when I read this because I laughed so hard! :rofl:

 

[anthony]

Good to see its not just me thinking some people in the world are just being a bit stupid. Like dur... people die from just about every flu type known already... young children, older populations... some just die from it because they happen to get it at a point in their life when something else is going wrong internally... shit happens. I really just see no issue with another flu type, especially when it really does the same as any other flu, though they just no longer report on the deaths of existing flu.

 

[Irton Pike]

its all just a coverup for Solanum virus anyway.............

 

[2quilt]

I *knew* there was a conspiracy!