I am happy that I can love my wife and my children dearly. However, the flipside of this is whenever any of them show any signs of getting sick I get extremely worried. I simply do not want anything bad to happen to them, and am worried to go to a doctor too late. My gut instinct is to go to the emergency room for every small issue, but I consciousely understand that this is not a logical response.
Do any of you have suggestions on how I can figure out what an appropriate response to different types of sickness symptoms would be?
Some great clinical advice here. As others have mentioned, staying calm is important as part of the process. A few things might help with that:
Focus on the problem and symptoms, not what might be. E.g., not “oh god are they dying???”, but instead their chest hurts when they breathe in, they sound a little out of breath, they do/don’t have a fever. Then work the problem in front of you. Practice bringing your mind back to what is observable.
Part of you, maybe unconsciously, may think that they’ll be safer if you’re worried about them. That if your brain is constantly on alert, gaming out problems, or otherwise figuring out what might happen that your family and friends will be safer. This is anxiety speaking, not love or reason. You do not need to be in a state of worry to love someone, or to take care of them. Working towards an understanding of that can help with your default state and help keep yourself and them more safe on a crisis.