Intrusive thoughts about cancer

[Choking on flowersParticipant]

Hi everyone. It’s been a while since I’ve written on here but I am seriously terrified about this. My ocd has been acting up as of late but I’ve received a new obsession and this time I’m not sure how to prove whether or not it is real. Since yesterday I randomly got a strange itching sensation in my ear. I scratched at it and it feels slightly more inflamed/irritated than usual. At first, I paid no mind to it and thought it may be just a random itch, but then I slowly began to feel the left side of my face grow itchy too and my left arm. I grew a bit worried but I shrugged it off as maybe some sort of allergic reaction even though as far as I’m aware I’m not allergic to anything. I woke up today and the itchy feeling continued. The whole day I’ve just been particularly hyperfixated on my skin and whether or not what I’m feeling is an itch or not. Checking to see if my skin feels smooth or abnormal. Then the thought entered my mind, what if this is a symptom of cancer? I looked it up and sure enough itchy skin is a sign of skin cancer, however, I’m not sure how I could’ve ever gotten skin cancer since I’m not exposed to the sun for long periods, and when I am I make sure to take necessary preventions. Could this have affected me a long time ago and I never noticed it until now??? I also feel a little lump on my earlobe but I can’t tell if this is just a rash lump or a cancerous lump. A few things to note:

– I am prone to itching and randomly getting rashes on my skin, which usually go away in like a day or so. However, I’m scared that this is a sign of me having skin cancer all my life and I just never knew it.

– Although I said that I have no allergies I know of, the last time I recall having a feeling like this was when I used a specific shampoo that may have had an ingredient I could be allergic to??? and since I’ve stopped using it the feeling stopped. I never figured out what exactly caused me to have that reaction, all I knew was that it was something in the shampoo.

– When I don’t pay attention to the itch, I don’t feel it anymore, but when I touch it again I do feel the skin irritated. It doesn’t look red or anything like that at least not yet, but you can see the itchy bumps you’d get when your skin feels itchy.

-A while back I got an ear infection due to an earring I was wearing. The hole where the earring was in started leaking out puss and getting crusty so I removed the earrings to let it heal. It’s been a few months since I’ve worn earrings again and the infection isn’t as bad as it was before but the area still gets a bit crusty for some reason no matter how many times I’ve cleaned it. At first, I didn’t think much of it, but now I’m afraid this is also a sign of cancer.

-The weather as of late has been very dry. I’m wondering if this itch is due to just dry weather but my skin doesn’t necessarily feel dry. My lips do feel chapped, however.

tldr: I’ve gotten a sudden rash/skin irritation and my intrusive thoughts tell me I may have skin cancer.

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