Posted 2/21/2007 3:32 PM (GMT 0)
I have posted about this before but it just seems to be getting worse as I get older. My fear of going to the doctor and/or having tests done. It's been bad since I was very young but now this phobia has overtaken me. The latest is that I just need to go to the eye doctor to get a REAL presciption for glasses. I've been wearing drug store glasses for the last ten years and beside doing some damage from that, I know I need trifocals as it's getting impossible to focus on the computer at work. But here I am avoiding even having an eye exam for fear they'll find something - glaucoma, impending blindness, brain tumor, you name it. How can anyone become so fearful -I'm an intelligent woman who's conquered many obstacles during my life but this one (which is part of my GAD) has consumed me. Just the thought of entering a doc's office makes my blood pressure surge. I'm so ashamed of being like this - especially when I have a close relative and friend who have recently been fighting breast cancer and doing it courageously and fearlessly. It makes me feel like such a loser. How does one get over these fears/phobias? On the very few times I actually HAVE made it to the doc's office I almost pass out from fear - my heart beats furiously and my blood pressure goes through the roof. I can't imagine where this all came from - other than some freudian explanations that could be taken from an early childhood case of Rheumatic Fever and befriending a little girl in the same room who eventually died during the night one night from stomach cancer (she was only 5 and I was 7). I recognize intellectually that it's all so foolish and yet emotionally I still can't overcome this. Any advice?