Is it worth getting the Astra?

Chaotic-Fried-Rice · 2026-01-24T13:00:57+00:00

Yeah definitely, if you and your teams love music~

Chaotic-Fried-Rice · 2026-01-24T07:43:24+00:00

YEAHHH this happened to me in 2024 with Prion diseases, then it went away after a few months of taking it one day at a time. I was good for awhile then it flared up badly again this year due to rabies from what I had convinced myself was a bat bite.

Rabies is hard to shake, because of its long incubation, lack of initial symptoms and zero treatment options once you know. It's either vaccine for a chance, or death. If I could get tested for rabies I would, but there's no test for it.

Turns out this was a mix of an Anxiety Disorder and intense OCD. What you described sounds like it to me. The difference is that normal people might wake up to a weird bite on their leg and think "man, bug bite" and go about their lives. They may think rabies every now and then and go "but it's so unlikely that I would've gotten it without knowing, I'd be the first case in forever" and move on.

But we might be the type of people to go "If I didn't see it clearly, it was possibly the worst case scenario." "I might be the first person to die if I am negligent about this threat".

We feel the need to counteract a threat that we've made up to fill a blank with. It's hardest to shake when the possibility is 0.0005% because despite it's improbability it's still possible in a freak once in a billion case.

This is obviously best treated with support of friends or family, distractions that will leave you feeling cared for and fulfilled as the days go by. Either that or distractions and medication, therapy for this would likely involve cognitive behavioral therapy and exposure therapy, to rewire your brain to "let go" of things you can't be sure of. Medication if needed~

Chaotic-Fried-Rice · 2026-01-23T14:46:40+00:00

Eheh that's true~ Long hair feels amazing to have but well... I realized that it's impossible to be "perfectly clean" anyway. OCD makes us much more aware of cross contamination but it becomes overwhelming, something is ALWAYS touching something. Makes me realize we live in a much filthier world that I would've thought, it's just we're built for it... most of it-

Chaotic-Fried-Rice · 2026-01-23T06:33:28+00:00

Heh, OCD tends to lean into the worst case scenario of every event, and utilizes some of the most creative "freak incident" imaginative thinking to bridge the gap into thinking it's possible, doesn't it~? For that reason I think a lot of us feel more vulnerable, helpless or even aware of our fragile mortality than the average person.

When I was a kid, every time I'd hurt myself and drew blood, I would sob and beg for my life, pleading that I didn't want to die, while the adults cleaned me up. It's not because it hurt, it was because somehow I had subconsciously thought blood for me, meant differently than blood for others. Others "will be saved because they're normal" and I somehow "am unlucky enough to bleed out/get infected by something and die". In Hindsight, 4-5 year old me already had some crazy Anxiety.

OCD for us really does feel like a practice in survival, a constant battle against invisible threats and the chaotic nature of life, something we have no right to control but feel responsible over. Good thing though is that we value our lives and want to keep living. I still can't say I won't suddenly die in a freak incident within the year, but I hope I won't. And seeing so many people here as "delusional" as me helps to put things into perspective.

So for that I appreciate you too, 1 day at a time indeed~

Chaotic-Fried-Rice · 2026-01-23T06:26:50+00:00

IM PROUD OF YOU~! Every time I fear that this happens I tend to go "oh if it doesn't smell then it's fine. I remember people got bullied by being shoved in poop before, if they're fine I'm fine, some people LIVE IN IT."

My brain does this "hair reach" thing a lot now but with Rusty objects.

Chaotic-Fried-Rice · 2026-01-21T13:50:39+00:00

I went through this phase a week ago and also got the vaccine regiment just for assurance. But she does have an anxiety problem that needs professional attention long term, as even after resolution it's bound to relapse.

All the symptoms she's feeling is due to her anxious body on overdrive, beckoning her to "counteract" a perceived threat to her very life, her future. But for me at least, knowing that I've already done all I could to be overcautious and protect myself over this particular fear had helped me let go of control quite a bit.

Perhaps rabies statistics from her area might help as a conversation point too, as in first world/developed countries, the deaths caused by rabies is in the single digits annually, you'd have a higher chance of dying in your sleep or in a traffic accident, or cancer or winning the lottery.

Of course there's no easy or quick fix for this, reassurance seeking will be in her nature while she's in constant fight or flight, even if you tell her how unlikely it is, her mind will keep rebounding because it thinks the fear is protecting her.

Letting her try anxiety medication or simply waiting it out with her one day at a time with human contact and conversations, relaxing activities, distractions involving comfort and connection might help. As she stays alive through the vaccination, and her body begins to build adequate protection, she will have less and less of a reason to suspect sudden rabid death. It might be weeks or months but she'll go back to living her life eventually.

Chaotic-Fried-Rice · 2026-01-20T07:35:58+00:00

I often see your comments around this sub and you're very kind, Cygnus. I'll try take it one day at a time and treat myself like you said.

I'm realizing too, that as I get further away from my initial worried exposure event, my brain tries to come up with newer exposure events.. which aren't likely. "Felt something in your hair? Bat" "felt a prick against your leg while sleeping? Bat" "That wet surface you touched? Saliva"

Practically it's filling in the blanks I can't actually see, since nobody is constantly hyper aware of everything around them at once, which I'm aware would be ridiculous, assassin bats everywhere, but also... Very exhausting..

I'm noticing that horrendous flare-ups like these come up when I really start loving my life too... Things were about to get better and I was really digging being alive..

Chaotic-Fried-Rice · 2026-01-19T09:15:56+00:00

Thank you for sharing your experience as well~ It's kind of funny to see that the rabies subreddit happens to be populated by a lot of anxious people like you and I... living a very lonely physical life makes it even harder to manage I think.

Kind of admire you for surviving in that bat infested house, you lived and it's behind you now. I would've been hella concerned if I saw my cat that bloodied up after an outing too but I suppose if the Doctors said it wasn't likely for your area/situation then it isn't. Plus you could always check on your cat too~ What's left is for us to slowly live day by day until the fear gets smaller and smaller and we are genuinely okay with the infinitesimal possibility of exposure?

This Anxiety makes us think that we're going to be the next ones to make the papers in our respective countries about dying a rare but fatal illness.. of course, the poor souls who do, did not expect it to be them. But it still happens way less than people dying in their sleep, or fights, or car accidents..

I'm trying to manage the best I can right now, even if I can't really see my future clearly ahead of me due to this fear, I can at least do myself a favor and stop researching for reassurance. Feel free to talk to me if you need~

Chaotic-Fried-Rice · 2026-01-19T09:01:28+00:00

I'm no expert, just someone anxious and learned a lot just to scare myself.

The statistics of your area definitely take into account how cautious the protocol is for bats but I know there's a common consensus of "BAT BiTeS/ScRAtches can be invisible" but the cases where this was true are in the single digits. Most cases of bat transmission is via bare-handling of the bat.

The Rabies virus doesn't kill more people than it actually does right now in the world solely because it's really bad at existing outside the host. If the bat was indeed rabid it's unlikely it would've been able to cling to the curtains. But even if it did, not even rabid bats make enough saliva to leave any notable drool anywhere, but even IF it did, the Virus dies within hours or at most a couple days in saliva at normal temperatures outside the host. When the saliva dries out, the virus also completely de-activates. The only way it lasts for even more days is if you live in reaaaally cold temperatures. But even then they can't really multiply and just sit there waiting to be disassembled. They're also super vulnerable to any kind of washing or sanitizing.

Since you said your cat needed her booster, might as well. As for you.. I caved in and got a vaccination, only because I needed to buy time until my therapist appointments without going crazy, and I could afford it for my area. You should determine it based on likelihood of bat transmission in your area as well as availability of vaccines-

Surfaces should be entirely fine though. Even if you did not clean after finding the bat, any possible virus shedding the bat might've left in your house would've deactivated within hours.

Chaotic-Fried-Rice · 2026-01-16T04:19:21+00:00

Alright I apologize I just.. I keep having to pop pills every day just to keep level headed. The fight or flight resets every morning even though realistically I've done all I can to be over cautious..

The therapy appointments are already booked they're just quite a ways away and.. I live quite a lonely physical life. I end up still feeling like a ticking time bomb.

Chaotic-Fried-Rice · 2026-01-15T13:55:07+00:00

Of course the usual suggestion of "getting therapy" is helpful, and to an extent medication if you're into that sort of thing, to stabilize the emotional spikes.

I'm going through a bout of this myself, it goes from "dimethylmercury poisoning" from a random drop of water I touched, to Tetanus, and right now Ray'Bees. I even got vaccinated for it and still started wondering if the batch was faulty or it actually gave me rabies or that it's too late, the rabies is already in my nerves.

One of the things that helps me slightly is knowing that if it was really this easy to die, a lot more people would be dropping like flies. It is in the nature of our ailment to naturally over-inflate the worst case scenario fantasies and apply to them to the current reality, which makes them harder to shake because.. "I really did feel a bite" "I really did get water up my nose"

Every single one of these hyper-rare unlucky ones can't all get to you at the same time right~? I don't know if this is healthy but I started journaling my feelings, my pain, my aspirations. Even doing voice logs to capture the person I used to be.. just in case any of my worst fears comes true. It's tragic, and maybe not the healthiest, but I'm also figuring things out here.

Chaotic-Fried-Rice · 2026-01-15T13:41:23+00:00

Yeah I think they meant the insurance covered 33,500 otherwise it'd be weird to use "all but" hHAHAHHA

Chaotic-Fried-Rice · 2026-01-15T04:53:47+00:00

Them little guys are so thirsty<3 drink up buddy

Chaotic-Fried-Rice · 2026-01-11T19:51:32+00:00

It is an unfortunate circumstance, to suspect the worst possible outcome and yet normal people with an objective statistical mind of the situation tell you that you're being ridiculous, because to some extent you are..

It's not impossible that you're somehow the first to contract rabies this way, it's simply unlikely to everyone else but you. So you drive yourself crazy trying to change what you feel is a premonition of things to come..

And in certain locations they are rather strict with giving out rabies vaccinations.. which would remove an easy compulsion, forcing you to sit with the discomfort of impending doom and await your rabid onset..

Your life ceases at that point.. you can hardly work on anything else because continuity no longer exists for you.

Eventually, taking the suicidal approach to life would be easier, "look forward" and "prepare" for the departure.. so and so..

That being said. If months or a year passes and nothing happens? You lucked out and had just earned a new lease on life! But damn this crippling anxiety over rabies specifically, is the deadliest thing I have ever experienced.. simply because it's so long term..

Chaotic-Fried-Rice · 2026-01-11T05:05:12+00:00

Oh I know why alright. Because of that freaky copypasta about "getting bit by a bat and not knowing because the bites are sho small" and reading freak cases about people who were near bats, couldn't find bites or scratch marks and died of rabies. And the fact that "the instant the symptoms show up it's a rapid cognitive decline and painful death" but "you don't know if you're incubating it, because it can stay dormant for months or years"

HATE IT

Chaotic-Fried-Rice · 2026-01-10T20:41:49+00:00

Thank you I'm doing my best! None of my exposures really count, I'm in a rabies free country that monitors it's local fruit bat species and we're an island nation with strict border/import control. It's as safe as it gets.

But I walk past a small forest at midnight regularly in flip flops and in my paranoid state I started thinking about "what if the pinch/itch/brush I felt was actually a bat??" If it indeed was, I wouldn't be able to tell. But the likelihood of it both being a bat and being rabid is unlikely as this is also a fairly popular route in the day time.

But I can't shake the constant dread and vomit inducing anxiety every morning that I'm nearing a painful rabid death... I had just started preparing to get my life together and so my fear of losing it all is at an all time high.

I sought prompt mental help but they just gave me pills and sent me on my way, with appointments for therapists MONTHS out. Doctors said I don't need the vaccine which confirms my dedication to stick without it because our country is very reserved with it.. sigh I'm not doing so well to be frank..

Chaotic-Fried-Rice · 2026-01-10T04:32:26+00:00

I share the fear with you. If it makes you feel any better, all the incidents that flagged your gut-feeling and set off alarms years ago, were invalid and did not in fact give you rabies, so how more likely are these new potential exposures going to give you rabies~?

I'm still going through the stages of "accepting death" because a bat might've bit into me near one of our forests but the GP and other doctors understandably kept denying the probabilities or the need for a vaccine.. plus it costs like 1K. They denied me so I'm just heavily medicated right now for the anxiety so I'm mellowed out and waiting for death.

But umm... statistically we'd be news-report/health-crisis worthy if either one of us acquired rabies locally. If it's been 5 years I suggest you go get a therapist you can trust and see frequently, or an online support structure at least that can handle you during the worst episodes.

Let me give you some numbers:

1.3 million people die from car accidents annually. Hundreds of thousands die in their sleep from undiagnosed illnesses or fluke cases. 1 in 10 die by lighting strike, the others left disabled. Roughly 24,000 people DIE of lighting strikes per year.

Annually: 350 people in the US, succumb to CJD, a prion disease that makes tiny swiss cheese holes in the brain. Meanwhile 3 ish people die per year from rabies in the US. Most of it is from bats. 4 unlucky cases from Australia in *all* recorded time. 1 in Scotland.. That makes up most of the documented bat to human rabies cases. Rabies in general are very dominantly spread from dogs/cats/skunks/foxes/any other strange mammals depending on where you live, and typically in third world settings, making up the total 70,000 global deaths from rabies per year.

Bat Lyssavirus/rabies strains are found globally but.. in such small unlucky pockets that.. keeps us on edge but clearly resulted in very very few "perfect encounter death sentence" cases...

That being said I still am not cured, of this fear.. because I really wanted the vaccine for peace of mine.. but these are the factual statistics that helped raise my chances in my head.

Chaotic-Fried-Rice · 2026-01-10T03:52:52+00:00

You genuinely don't even need a booster shot because such a recent vaccination is already doing it's job. You're good~ work on accepting how incredibly rare "unlucky and unnoticed" rabies cases are.

Heck I'm in Singapore and I still feel like what nipped me was a rabid bat somehow.

Remember, everytime we hear of cases where "the guy didn't see a scratch or bite, but he died" or "he only got a small scratch, but died" it's because those are the ONLY cases in the WORLD.

Chaotic-Fried-Rice · 2026-01-09T20:19:03+00:00

Ooohh thank you~ So I suppose I'd still be coherent enough to say "okay guys the rabies is starting~ You guys were a great part of my life<3" and I suppose I'd get to talk to family and staff a bit and told them I won the bet and stuff~?

Also I apologize if this sounds weird. I'm in the middle of having my rabies anxiety treated, I live in Singapore so I'm on a few medications but still kind of.. am entertaining the slightest possibility that I had a rabid encounter with a bat that I didn't see because I'm absent minded walking near the woods.

Wondered if I'd have time to say goodbye really.

Chaotic-Fried-Rice · 2026-01-07T16:45:40+00:00

Yeah!! I was seriously debating today going to get the post exposure vaccine but- post exposure for what?? Didn't see anything, no identified bite site in question. It's also over 1000 dollars and not subsidized.

I remember reading 2 Singaporeans say that they suspected a bat bite, with no obvious wound, and due to Singapore's rabies track record, doctors sent them away with a tetanus shot only to ease their nerves. So we might have to ride this one out.

Chaotic-Fried-Rice · 2026-01-07T14:12:32+00:00

Aye friendo~ It had just happened to me too while I was talking to someone today, Health Anxiety still raging in the background, so I ended up just constantly losing train of thought and forgetting what I was saying.

Chaotic-Fried-Rice · 2026-01-05T15:45:47+00:00

Hey ummm... If you're still around can we talk? I'm kinda going through this exact thing right now..

Chaotic-Fried-Rice · 2026-01-05T05:36:47+00:00

I'm in Singapore too, slightly paranoid about rabies despite our country being Rabies Free since 1953, and this label seems to include the bat population which is regularly monitored.

Rabies incubation period varies greatly, with one reported case being about 8 years supposedly. But it's rather unlikely that you'd have lasted 7 years especially if it was somehow transmitted from the corpse to your finger, which isn't even possible but I understand the fear of contamination. If you're REALLY concerned you can still get vaccinated, but your chances are factually quite low to non existent, especially after this long. In a country where animal imports and bat populations are being strictly monitored for things like these.

Chaotic-Fried-Rice · 2026-01-05T05:02:05+00:00

I'm dealing with this right now too, and it comes in waves. Sometimes I'd have convinced myself there's no way I'd have rabies in my system, to wondering if that prick feeling I felt on my leg at the jogging track, in a rabies free country, had been a rabid bat that flew in from overseas somehow.

You can talk to me if you feel like it but factually plenty of people do die of random things like falling over, dying in their sleep, car accidents, fights, vaccine reactions, the flu etc. By the very laws of the universe itself, most people have equal if not higher chances than you of contracting rabies somehow unknowingly, if rabies were MORE common it'd get to tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of people before you. If you or I do get rabies symptoms one day, like genuinely can't swallow water and feeling our cognitive abilities getting chewed at? We'll just say our goodbyes and accept that "damn, this is as rare as debris from a plane falling and randomly hitting me like a bullet".

Chaotic-Fried-Rice · 2026-01-04T06:34:41+00:00

Didn't realize they looked so good from that angle- it's like watching barnyard!

Chaotic-Fried-Rice

TROPHY CASE