Anxiety questions?

[Ljj44577]

I'll try to keep this short.

Whenever a worry comes into my head, I will look up information relating to that worry all day until I feel better. But then, I start doing it all over again. I have had an OCD problem for as long as I can remember. My anxiety is just an unfortunate part of it. I have magical thinking as well.

I think that I deal with conformation bias. Also I have a problem with reassurance. Whenever I see something that could be evidence to a fear or worry that I have, I worry more and it interferes with me having a good day. It really sucks.

This morning, I kept having disturbing thoughts about my future being ruined. I am constantly worried about my life getting ruined. I worry that I could be bringing this into existence by thinking about it and constantly talking about it.

There are tons of things that I want to say but I'll keep it short.

I have a few questions.

1.) Is it wrong to use the internet to answer distressing thoughts?
2.) What is the solution to compulsive internet searching?
3.) Why is it hard to stop worrying?
4.) What do you think of confirmation bias?
5.) Any advice?
6.) Any thoughts?

[MyNameIsTerry]

1) It depends how you are doing it.

To seek reassurance = bad. To engage in a compulsive activity = bad. To engage with an obsession in a negative fashion = bad.

To use it gather info for use in a positive/neutral constructive exercise like in CBT = good. But only for that exercise, not again & again.

2) You stop. You eliminate it through treating the OCD. ERP is the usual way in CBT but there are others that also help as well as working on healthy behaviours in general.

3) Because it's a disorder using a normal system that is supposed to trigger a very strong reaction from us. It is meant to make us so afraid we run away from that bear or pick up the spear and give it a damn good thrashing!!! If it was such a weak survival system that it didn't do this, we would get eaten by bears who we stood looking at.

4) Everyone on here does it. Every human being will do it. Even those trained in sciences to remove it, do it. Loo at Cognitive Distortions which help you to remove it from your negative thinking. But you can't remove it completely because it's just part of what human minds do.

5) & 6) have been answered from me across other threads so other than type essays here, there is nothing to say.