can i have breast cancer?

ill give it a try :)
thankyou so much for your advice and help
it's helped me learn alot about myself and my body.
but could i ask one more question?
why does it hurt me to have people lean on my breasts whilst resting or a slight tap?

Good for you! I'm proud of you. Don't check them for another week at least. And I bet it gets easier.

And here's what I want you to do about the anxiety: I want you to practice watching BOTH movies.

What do I mean by that?

Well, when we have anxiety, we are watching a bad movie. It's a movie that says -- what if, what if I have breast cancer, what if i get the flu, what if i die, what will that do to my parents, i won't get to go to school, i won't get to grow up -- all that. We don't have any problem imagining the bad movie. We create it all and it seems very real to us. We can see it in our heads, can't we?

But when you find yourself watching the bad movie in your head, you MUST also then watch a good movie to balance it out. And the good movie is this: I won't get breast cancer, I won't get the swine flu. I will finish school, and college, and go on to have a fun career. I'll have friends and a marriage and kids if I want them. Life will be so great. You have to PICTURE this. Not just say it, but PICTURE it.

That's a harder movie to create, isn't it? But you have to learn to do it. You have to learn to actually SEE it in your head. To WATCH it. If you are afraid a plane will crash, then you also have to run a movie of the plane landing safely. If you are afraid you'll lose your purse, you have to also SEE it safely on your shoulder, or at home, or in your locker. Whatever the bad movie is, you have to watch the good movie right after it.

This will slowly help your anxiety go away because you will realize that the good movies come true more often than the bad ones.

Can you practice doing that a little? Is it hard for you or easy?

yes! im always worrying about what could happen i always look at the negative side of things, i havent checked my breasts in a week :D, it's going quite well so tempting though!

Anon, the swine flu has actually been shown to cause far fewer deaths than the normal flu that goes around every year. Lots and lots and lots of kids have gotten it, and they tend to have milder symptoms and get well sooner than they do with the regular flu. The people who have died from it usually always had something else wrong as well that made it harder for them to get well.

You don't sound depressed to me; depression has to do with fatigue, not being interested in things you used to like, withdrawing, not caring about things, like that. But you do sound like you have a lot of anxiety about things, like you worry a lot. Is that true? Do you find yourself always worrying about things that don't end up happening but you feel like they could?

thankyou you help has helped me a great lot
ive spoke to my mum about it but i think shes getin sick of the fact i always talk about them and how obsessive i am.
shes quite obsessive aswell with certain things (not her breasts) so maybe i take after her
depression maybe?
breast cancer is my main worry and its one of my worst fears really

also swine flu
its spreading in my brothers primary school and im scared incase he gets it
could i die from it if i catch it
because thats what the rumour is going around my secondary school ?

The reason it's not good to get hit in one place so often is that you could get seriously bruised, hurt or have a broken bone!! And it hurts!!

One thing to know about your breasts when you are very young is that there are going to be all kinds of little lumps and bumps as you develop. It is so common that you know what? Doctors have a name for it. They call it "cottage cheese." You know how cottage cheese is all full of small lumps of different sizes? That's like a young, healthy breast.

Really, without a family history of breast cancer, and because of your age, you can only freak yourself out by worrying so much. If I were you what I would do was to mark on the calendar what you felt and where and then MAKE yourself not do a self-exam for two weeks at the least. By doing one every two weeks (no more) you could be aware of any changes. But you can't get obsessed with it, because it's so unlikely. You know how unlikely it is? You are more likely to win the lottery, and the lottery odds are like 16 million to 1.

In fact, by playing sports you are actually reducing your chances of breast cancer later in life, and obesity, diabetes and other illnesses as well. Just by being an active teenager is one of the best things you can do for your health. One study showed that women with a history of recreational activity at an early age had a lower risk of breast cancer later in their lives. So you are actually in the GREAT column here! Not the risk column!

Are there other things you are worried about too, or is it just breast cancer? Have you told your mom about your worries?

just accidentally i get hit in the breast
i do play sports and rounders balls have hit my breasts and it really hurt
like earlier i was wiping my hands in a towel and i just hit them by accident
noone has breastcancer im just worried because i dont want to die young
why ist it good to be hit in one place?
can you actually get breastcancer fromit?
ive checked today and i can feel a tiny lump just nearly under my armpit like the edge of my breast?
i know im only 14 and it may be a bud but i just get so paranoid.
thankyou for your help

Hi, Anon, and welcome to EmpowHer. We're so glad you found the site. Thanks for your question.

Do you know why you are so worried about breast cancer? Do you have a friend or acquaintance who has been dealing with it?

The chances of you having breast cancer are like a bazillion to one. Seriously. It is very rare, and usually is in a family where there is already a history of breast cancer. So I don't think you have to worry.

It's good, though, that you learn what to look for, and that you are learning what your breasts feel like. That's smart for any teen girl to realize. But I want to tell you that you shouldn't be doing it every day. Why, you ask? Because you wouldn't notice any differences that way.

Here's an example. You know how you really notice when someone gets their long hair cut short? That's because there's a big change. But if they cut their hair just, like, 1/4 of an inch a day, you'd never notice it because you'd be so used to the tiny changes.

That's kind of like breast self-exams. You want to do a self-exam maybe once or twice a month at most. That's so you'll actually NOTICE a change if there is one.

And you should also know that there is not a link between getting hit in the breast and developing breast cancer there. However, it's not good to be hurt in one place so often. Can I ask why you are hit in the breast so often? Do you play sports? Or is there another reason?

Here is a very good article for you to read about teens and breast cancer:

http://health.yahoo.com/experts/breastcancer/6/when-teens-worry-about-breast-cancer/

Has this helped a little bit?