Nagging Fear

I’m a natural worrier. When I was 2, I would scream when my parents tried to put me in sand. At 4, bugs terrified me. For years I had a serious phobia about my teeth falling out. Fears seem to follow me, and any medium that highlights old or new worries never ends well for me.

Right now I’m reading a fictional book about leprosy. Now, this is a disease with an actual cure, yet I still get the creeps and secretly have started thinking about any possible way I could contract the disease.

It’s sad how paranoid I am. After reading about new studies in the health section of the news, I find myself avoiding foods or activities doctors link to cancer or some other health problem. When I was around 12 years old I remember seeing on the news that strawberries were said to cause some cancer. I gave up one of my favorite fruits out of fear.

I would love if journalists could lay off the scary health and safety topics because I really can’t handle them. I tell myself that I’m an adult, so worrying is pathetic, but all my logic flies right out the door the second I hear about some new scary aspect of the world.

So, I don’t watch or read enough news as I should as a journalist major. Now, in all fairness, injustice and harm from corruption does not scare me. I just hate hearing constantly about health problems and crime.