Hi there! Ocd\Hypochondria!

[Fomalhaut]

Hi,

I'm Fomalhaut, and Ocd/anxiety sufferer with a passion for astronomy/literature/movies and, unfortunately, googling symptoms because of my hypochondria.

In these years I've obsessed about so many illness I've nearly lost the count..."Mad Cow" disease, Sclerosys, Heart Attack, Brain Tumor...The last 2 years however I've become terrified of schizophrenia and since reading the symptoms my psychosomatic tendence has started to "apply" those symptoms to me, especially schizophrenic delusional thoughts.
So now I've unwanted crazy thoughts about "Truman Show", aliens, FBI, mind control and all those absurd thoughts that schizophrenic people think...they run trough my mind everyday!

Of course I don't believe them but what if by continuing to think them I begin to? That's my ultimate fear. Right now I'm trying Inositol for my Ocd and also a very low dose of clonazepam (0,5 mg) to keep my anxiety at bay and it's working miracles...however, the thoughts are still lingering in the background.

Thanks for reading! Hope to have a good time on this forum and find someone that can relate to my symptoms too!

[Oosh]

If you continue to think about them you'll continue to scare yourself with them, that's all.

You've got all of the classic anxious person fears.
Conclusion - you have fears.
These fears were brought to life because at some point they were suggested to you by your anxious side. Then you asked what if and explored them.
Don't explore them.

I fear schizophrenia too. I fear it because it's not being control. As a result my reaction is to not think about it ever. Don't learn about it because you give yourself things to self monitor for. The whole thing is a waste of time and energy.

Never think of it again. It will play no role in your life if you never entertain the idea again.
If it tugs away at your focus break it up, bury it under other thoughts and images and put your focus back on constructive things.

Undo what you've learned about it so you can't monitor for it anymore. Bury it under a load of misinformation. Then never think of it again. Even better bury it under a load of thoughts that make it look silly. Bury it under nonsense. Just destroy what you've learned about it, what you associate with it and never think of it again.

Welcome to the site.

[Fomalhaut]

Thank you Oosh, this is really one of the best advices I've ever heard!
I don't know if I'll be able to forget all the crazy things I've read, I have to try! Maybe distracting myself will work If I do it for long enough.
How I wish I could go back in time and never read about schizophrenia and schizophrenic delusions!

Thank you for the welcome!

[fishdogg]

My brother has the same issues you do. It took me about 2 years to convince him he was a hypocondriate(self denial). His wife wanted to leave him for it, he self diagnosed himself all day on the internet. He still never admitted to the issue, but I had to tell him if you don't stop talking about your self diagnosed medical issues, and the lies about what doctors said to you, that are actually from your self diagnosing, I'm not talking to you anymore. Well he actually quit, once in awhile he will bring something up, and I'll tell him just this issue no more and it better not be a 15 minute drawn out thing. Sucks I had to pull the tough love card out, but it worked. Sounds to me you scare yourself though, like the alien stuff. Do I believe in aliens, absolutely. Do I believe in all the BS a show or the UFO community of whackos puts out. Absolutely not. You said yourself, you are afraid that you might start believing in the crap and their conspiracy theories. Then you said you know most of its not true. So you contradicted yourself. Since you know most of its not true about aliens, then you know most of the BS you've been saleing yourself about the hypochondriac isn't true either. You just got to stop dude, just stop and relax and don't look stuff up anymore. Also when watching stuff in life for example aliens, do what I do, laugh it off while watching it. Instead of thinking you might believe this stuff, change your thought process and think man I'm not gonna believe any of this crap. Are aliens real yes, are you real yes, whackos talking about conspiracy theories real yes, because they want so bad to say,"See I told you are president is a lizard in human form.". Your scaring yourself you just got to stop man, don't let Satan get a foothold on you, because you'll go on a ride that isn't fun in life, and he will take your mind to horrible places you don't want to be, like self-tormenting yourself is what your doing.

[ohwell123]

its not as simple as ignoring the anxiety etc etc some people actually suffer from symptoms which further fuel there anxiety as the symptoms can mimic there biggest fear keeping all that adrenaline going and further producing more symptoms some people grind there jaw through worry and the amount of more symptoms purely grinding your jaw can add to the list is astonishing

ie if you worry about your heart youll then through anxiety most likely produce indigestion and acid reflux trapped wind and guess where all that pain relieves itself yep in your chest area just great