Hi everyone...

I’m making this post because I need to calm down my thoughts and my racing heart but it’s not working.

Let me explain the situation first. I live in Belgium, where getting rabies is practically impossible, yet not fully, because bats. Yesterday, I was petting my cat - who goes outside daily including in the evening - and he likes to softly bite my hand or arm when he likes being pet somehow. We think he learnt this from his mother when he was a kitten.

Then, a little later I watched this video about someone explaining how dangerous and scary rabies is... which got me absolutely terrified. This led me to keep on researching the disease which I SHOULDN’T have done. And since then something in my brain can’t be turned off: the fear that my cat has rabies by eating a bat or something and that every time he scratches or bites me, he potentially infects me with it, or that I might already be infected...

I try to downplay the situation, but it’s very hard. The fear persists and I had trouble sleeping last night, which is kind of triggering my now partly receded sleep anxiety (fear of insomnia), so I need to stop the cycle soon. I’m not able to see my therapist until September 25. Does anyone know anything that might help because I’m desperate to calm my mind and get back to recovering from my sleep anxiety.

Thanks in advance! :)