No, just because you have a fear of catching a disease does not mean that you will get it. To get HIV you would have to be exposed to it through sexual contact. Just having the fear would not put the germs in your body. However, if you are having unprotected sex, etc then YES you can get it (whether you are phobic about it or not)! So???? The question would be....Am I just afraid of it and I'm not havng sex with anyone? No, you can't get it. Am I out there having sex and possibly exposing myself to someone who is infected? Then, yes, you most likely will get it.
It has nothing to do with what your brain fears, but with what your actions are.
So, how are you doing? Do you have a reason to fear? OR is the fear jsut in your mind? If you have a reason to fear, then you can still do something to cut down on those fears.....
I understand those fears, especially medical fears...I have a fear of cancer, every time I have any kind of mark, spot, bump, bulge, etc, I'm convinced I'm dying of cancer.......It could be, but so far it has not...
THere are different kinds of fears that we have
Warranted Fears--are those fears that we might have a reason to fear. Like, if you were having unprotected sex, HIV would be a warranted fear. OR we fear losing our job if we keep showing up late. FOr, those fears we have to just do what we CAN to protect ourselves and go on.......if we do what we can to make sure they don't happen, then there isn't any reason to fear anymore...life will takes its course and it's out of our control...fear when we can't control it, just adds to our misery.
The other kind are Unwarranted fears. These are fears of things that we really shouldn't have to fear at all because they aren't going to happen, or we have no control over, or we cant' do anything about, or we REALLY have no need to fear. Like, your fear of getting HIV when you aren't having sexual contact or being expsed to it. IT's an unwarranted fear. There's no need to fear it because you aren't being exposed to it. My fear of cancer is unwarranted. There's little I can do to make sure I don't get cancer (okay, yeah, there's stuff like diet....but....) so worrying about cancer all the time, is unwarranted--I can't do anything about it. These are the fears that are really debilitating because there isn't any real reason to fear.
We have to just try to grasp that our fear doesnt' have a reason and try to let it go. Maybe make a list of all the reasons WHY you can't get HIV...make a list of the things you are doing to keep you from getting HIV and then post it somewhere where you can keep remindng yourself about all the reasons you have NOT to fear..........
