I will also say this is the second time I have explicitly put off doing something that's good for me largely because of other people's warning stories; one of the (several, to be fair) reasons I put off getting anxiety meds was the sheer amount of "oh god it took me forever to get the right meds and it was a miserable process" horror stories I was met with. I just remember thinking "if the process of getting on meds makes you worse before you get better, I can't handle getting worse." But as with the dentist, getting meds ended up not being so bad and was super valuable to me.
It's just tough when you already have OCD doombrain, because my brain is not reasonable or fair about worst case scenarios, which is something I should try to remember going forward
(also people should generally be less weirdly trauma-dumping about meds in particular imho, getting the right balance of meds can absolutely be a chaotic shitshow but a "oh yeah good luck and great job for doing the thing!" is fine sometimes, anxiety internet queers, SHEESH)
