Hypocondriach

I have a problem that is really starting to worry me.

When I'm not working on something, and I have some downtime, I spend it by thinking of the worst possible things that could happen to me. For example, the other night, I was watching television and I came across a show where they were talking to some guy who had discovered he had AIDS just because he coughed. Well as soon as I coughed the next time, it OBVIOUSLY meant that I had AIDS. I'm a hypocondriach, so even the stupidest things like that I believe will also happen to me. I also have a constant fear of catching things you can't catch, like that guy who had those huge tumors growing on his entire face. I was sure the next time my face ached that yep, I had tumors. And they would cover my entire face. Just made sense, right?

For the most part, my girlfriend gets me out of it. She tells me, "No, you're being stupid" or "No, that's idiotic, that's a birth defect they had. You can't catch that." And she's right. But it still doesn't stop me from thinking I got it. I had a teacher in high school who got bit by a Brown Recluse Spider and lived. I now don't want any spider to ever bite me EVER. I'm terrified that every single spider will be a Brown Recluse Spider.

I can't watch horror movies for the same reason. As soon as I start to watch "Hostel" or "6th Sense" I'm just sure that the same exact thing will happen to me. I'm a picture of health, so it's really idiotic for me to believe these things, but yet I continue to. I am always just constantly convinced that the worst is going to happen to me. And it's not always things like horror movies or spiders, I mean ANYTHING. I mean if I read a news story about some guy being crushed by a tree and then a giant squid came along and started to suck his face, I instantly go, "God dammit, now that's totally going to happen to me. I just know it."

Ultimately, I guess I'm just doomed to go through life being afraid of everything. Ooooorrrr, I could just hide in a box forever. The second one sounds endlessly more safe and entertaining.