hanikamiya

... I've read a story where a horse was a stallion and then a gelding, not via the veterinary procedure but via the author not being aware of the difference, and believing they had to avoid repetition at all cost.

Schroedinger's virus.

Do you have any personal anecdotes about how people reacted when they "don't believe in the virus" and either themselves or somebody close to them got sick enough to need hospitalisation?

Have they checked for other issues? Medication and therapy did little for me before screening guidelines for thyroid conditions changed in my country, and I was found to have an underactive thyroid with labs that were within the old, but not the new range.

I have an anecdote about this, I learnt to calm down in my anxiety inducing situations (rather than running away) when working with customer contact, and at first the 4.5 hour part time shifts weren't long enough, at some point when I'd realized I managed everything despite being anxious I calmed down most of the days, and then sooner and sooner. Now I think I'm down to a relatively normal time span needed to calm down in familiar situations, though it still takes a while in new situations.

So, work helped (because I had to go back the next day), while the baby steps exposure my therapists advocated actually made it worse, because I'd move out of the situation while at the height of my anxiety, and then the logical interpretation is that the situation was dangerous-dangerous, glad I survived, very dangerous be anxious next time too!