It has been a week since I flew back to the States from
Paris, and as I begin to reflect upon the past three months, I am starting to
realize how life-changing the trip was.
I am incredibly lucky to have been given the opportunity to live
abroad. However, towards the end of the
trip I started to “lose it” emotionally and psychologically. Eventually, the stress of travelling took a
negative toll on my body. Without divulging too much into the personal details,
I will say that I wasn’t feeling well at all, and the fact that I’m on the
hypochondriac spectrum didn’t help.
I soon succumbed to my mind’s paranoid thoughts; I kept
thinking what if I have
cancer/mono/flesh-eating bacteria/[insert fatal illness here]. It was definitely not the business. Google and WebMd took control of my life as I
was constantly looking for answers, which is something you’re not supposed to
do because then your brain makes you believe that you actually exhibit the
symptoms of X illness. After about a week of driving myself bonkers I
eventually made a doctor’s appointment to find out what was wrong with me. Luckily,
everything turned out to be alright; there was nothing wrong with me.
In retrospect, I probably should not have obsessed over
looking up symptoms on WebMd. Usually I
don’t, but being in a foreign country intensified my hypochondria. I kept thinking:
“Well if I die today, at lease I’m in Paris…that can’t be that bad right?” It
sounds completely foolish to me now, but in the moment I was actually thought something
was seriously wrong me…hypochondria is definitely no laughing matter.
That whole ordeal taught me two things: (1) French medical
care is on point; and (2) there is a lot of truth in the saying: “mind over
matter.”
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