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Fear and beauty: two weeks living with Covid-19

joshuaweissburg.com

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Re: Fear and beauty: two weeks living with Covid-19

#221

Post by cableshaft »

vanniv wrote: post #213
cableshaft wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I started getting what I now think are probably anxiety attacks a few years ago. I have asthma and now some GERD symptoms, so every once in awhile, I get symptoms that mirror the online warning symptoms for heart attack: numb left arm, tingles throughout my body, lightheadedness, skipped heart beats, chest tightness, chest is painful to the touch, etc. I'd go to urgent care and they'd always be like "well you have a…

Yeah, it can be hard, I know for sure. Real anxiety with potent physical symptoms is very much not "all in our heads" Anxiety can be debilitating when it strikes. On top, it can create these crushing feedback loops. I mentioned above the common-ish version in severe agoraphobia -- where fear of having an anxiety attack becomes powerful enough to cause them all by itself. That is the usual root cause of those stories…

I don't think it's being a hypochondriac if you have actual symptoms that people go see the doctor for. If they could point to a test and go "Look, there's no way you're going to have a heart attack in the next two years, your X level is too low", then I'd be perfectly fine. It doesn't seem like there's a good test for that though.

Funny thing was, for the longest time I always thought "I'm pretty damn healthy, except for the allergies and asthma." Never really worried about my health much, except a little when I got a bad case of bronchitis.

Those thoughts and feelings suddenly stopped right around when I turned 30 and started getting combinations of minor symptoms just about everywhere on my body off and one all the time.

Probably also that's when I started knowing people that died really young and suddenly (or had close calls) from various things like sleep apnea, heart attacks, leg clots, aneurisms, etc. Seriously, video/board game industry has had quite a few of these young but sudden deaths lately, including some people I knew personally.

When you have symptoms that match those things, it's hard not to feel like it's better to be safe than sorry.

Re: Fear and beauty: two weeks living with Covid-19

#222

Post by Enginerrrd »

ilaksh wrote: post #218
Enginerrrd wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hate to be that guy on the internet, especially since this is so unlikely, and since your description is also very consistent with anxiety/psych which is much more common... ...but particularly because you mention that this is a recent issue and not a lifelong deal, have you had a doctor rule out a pheochromocytoma? It's really unlikely since they're rare, (~1000 cases per year in the US) but they can cause the sym…

I hate to be that guy but did you read his full comment? Towards the end he reported a test that confirmed he had a very serious medical condition.

Yes, I did actually. And it's not only not necessarily causative, but they indicated that their symptoms weren't fully resolved. More importantly, it could very well be that the elevated catecholamines from just such a tumor are interfering with their sleep and causing excessive arousals. In fact, that may even be totally consistent with a pheochromocytoma.

Patients with a pheochromocytoma are notorious for presenting with secondary conditions that get misdiagnosed as the primary issue and the tumor isn't discovered until death. They're often called referred to as one of the "great mimics" of medicine. Note it on the list here: (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_great_imitator)

Re: Fear and beauty: two weeks living with Covid-19

#223

Post by exabrial »

coldtea wrote: post #75
exabrial wrote: post #47

I think the risks shouldn't be downplayed, but the news media, aka advertising industry, frenzy over this pandemic is disgusting. Nobody that contracts this virus should fear death, yet that is what the mainstream media is selling and people are consuming: fear, death, uncertainty.

> Nobody that contracts this virus should fear death, yet that is what the mainstream media is selling and people are consuming: fear, death, uncertainty. Except, you know, about 1 in 30 that contracted it in Northern Italian cities with heavy spread and not enough ICUs, and 1 in 10 or so over 70 or with a prior condition...

I chose my words carefully in my original post. Fear accomplishes nothing. Worrying about something (ICU Beds) you ultimately have no control over fixes 0 problems. "Worrying doesn't take away tomorrow's troubles, it takes away today's peace". People absolutely should take every precaution recommended by their local officials. But living in fear for their life is both unneeded and counter-productive.

Re: Fear and beauty: two weeks living with Covid-19

#224

Post by whoisjuan »

archagon wrote: post #89
whoisjuan wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. It's extremely hard. Clothes are especially hard. I have to take my dog out two times a day and I always try to use the same shoes and same hoodie for this activity. I wash them every other day, but that's a half-baked hygiene measure. In reality, the only way to be safe is to always wash all your clothing every time you go out, but with a dog, I find that pretty hard.

I mean, you'd also have to wash your dog , right?

I clean his paws after we go out but yeah, the vectors of contamination are infinite.

Re: Fear and beauty: two weeks living with Covid-19

#225

Post by steveeq1 »

ubercow13 wrote: post #215
steveeq1 wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, the media tends to report the most sensationalized numbers, not the most accurate numbers. I rely on World Health Organization type stuff, not "the news".

The same WHO that Trump just defunded for spreading “all sorts of false information about misinformation and mortality”?

yes, the same one.

Re: Fear and beauty: two weeks living with Covid-19

#226

Post by ubercow13 »

steveeq1 wrote: post #225
ubercow13 wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The same WHO that Trump just defunded for spreading “all sorts of false information about misinformation and mortality”?

yes, the same one.

I think it is not so clear that they are any more reliable than other sources. The media in the UK seems to have been candid about the low risk to younger people, but that's not the point is it? The governmental responses at least in the UK and US changed as it became clear it was more serious than we (or they, at least) thought, not less [1]. And this became quite apparent when it started occurring on the ground in Italy.

>We are going to get hyperinflation now, US dollars will become worthless soon

Now that, is sensationalism.

[1] https://www.ft.com/content/16764a22-69ca-11ea-a3c9-1fe6fedcc...

Re: Fear and beauty: two weeks living with Covid-19

#227

Post by SAI_Peregrinus »

Kaiyou wrote: post #146
tly_alex wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

6M cases are still far from broadly spreading, am I reading this right?

At what percentage would you speak of broadly? 6M cases are 1.5%.

And given the estimated R0 being >5 we need over 80% infection/vaccination rate (256 million in the US) to reach herd immunity.

Re: Fear and beauty: two weeks living with Covid-19

#228

Post by klmadfejno »

JCharante wrote: post #184
klmadfejno wrote: post #2

When I was in high school I was deeply afraid of death and thought about it daily. Then a few times over that period I got sick. Not unusually, or deathly sick, but feeling like utter garbage and perhaps enough to wonder if there was a very remote chance that the illness could threaten my life. And everytime I wondered that I realized that I had no fear of death which struck me as really odd given that I would otherw…

It's interesting that you feared dying. I'm afraid of others I know dying, but if I were to die then I wouldn't know it, so I'm not necessarily afraid of dying (because from my perspective there's no difference between dying and going to sleep every night). I am afraid of pain or being permanently maimed however. If I were to be heavily sedated and intubated I'd be experiencing the same series of events that would ha…

That's more or less how I've always rationally felt, but thinking about permanently ever after being unable to even think triggers a sudden terror as if death were a looming predator. And the basic conclusion I have is that it's an unnecessary primal impulse that doesn't actually say anything about my views on death.

It's just an introspective version of instinctively smelling something after someone tells you it smells bad. Just... don't and you'll be better off.

Re: Fear and beauty: two weeks living with Covid-19

#229

Post by Tainnor »

drabadur wrote: post #133
AlexanderNull wrote: post #17

Great write up on the nature of fear! It's amazing how much the mind can fight to deny the reality of the situation you're in during such episodes. The dull chest pain sticks around for a surprisingly long amount of time. I'm at day 25 now since my ER visit and just noticed that I haven't felt any of that dull pressure in at least 2 or 3 days at this point.

What exactly is this dull chest pain? I've had symptoms of lower chest and back-pain more than a month ago, with a strange feeling of not being able to get sufficient air through my nose as well as seemingly high blood-pressure and heart racing in late afternoons. This all lasted just short of a week, but took a couple of weeks in total until I could say it was gone, with a persistent minor dry cough. No idea if it w…

while it could be covid19, if you didn't have any fever or anything, it's probably more likely to be a mild panic attack. I'm saying this because I had something similar but then was tested negative.

of course, I'm not a doctor, and it could also be covid19.

Re: Fear and beauty: two weeks living with Covid-19

#230

Post by cableshaft »

ilaksh wrote: post #217
cableshaft wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I started getting what I now think are probably anxiety attacks a few years ago. I have asthma and now some GERD symptoms, so every once in awhile, I get symptoms that mirror the online warning symptoms for heart attack: numb left arm, tingles throughout my body, lightheadedness, skipped heart beats, chest tightness, chest is painful to the touch, etc. I'd go to urgent care and they'd always be like "well you have a…

Havw you ever had a scope or scan/x-ray at the time of the attack? If it's that serious then it sounds like you may have a very significant hernia at those times. There are surgeries that can help with hernias (which can come and go like that). Another thing, have you tried Nexium? For me that has been really useful to reduce symptoms (although I do still have some serious symptoms). But it sounds like you have a mor…

There might be something to the hernia idea. I noticed my solar plexus area can stick out slightly at times (especially when I was leaning back last night). I always thought it was just the bone in my ribcage (mostly feels hard like the ribs surrounding it), but maybe it's more than that. I might have to get it checked out after this is over.

If I do have it, I think it's still pretty minor, at least compared to some pictures of hiatal and epigastric hernias I see online. It hasn't ever stuck out that far, and no doctor has ever noticed a problem.

Yet another reason to lose a bunch of weight. Throw it on the pile. Need to get my act together.

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