My obsessive thinking/paranoia questions

[Txxxrho]

My big fears are hypochondria, so constantly paranoid about my health/diseases/death, going insane which is paranoia of strange thoughts, randomly that I'm just going to break and hear voices in my head and start haullicinating or something. And other fears that are real things that actually happen to people, etc. But to everyone else is irrational. This all adds into my fears of going "crazy" more so schizophrenic or bipolar, any mental disease that are like debilitating, that is this paranoia like something more than just anxiety and panic? Because I get so obsessive that it really has shit my life down and madee so depressed. It's hard to focus on anything else because I feel like my guard has to be 24/7 or.. I don't know.

On a side note: Does hearing voices in your head make you crazy? Because I'll repeat on head things I hear all the time in my head, songs, radio host, people being interviewed because I watch/listen a lot of interviews. Just sometimes I'll have completely random stuff in my head. Is this my mind fixating on completely normal processes whether physical or mental like usual?

[MyNameIsTerry]

Hearing audible voices is a concern, however if these are when going to sleep or waking up, they are quite normal. If you hear them the rest of the time, its an issue and you should consult a medical professional.

If these voices are not audible i.e. coming from outside your mind, then they are intrusive thoughts.

Eitherway - you are not crazy. People with Schizophrenia are not crazy, its a mental illness.

Do you have OCD by any chance? Fear of developing more serious mental illess is known to be on the OCD spectrum.

Do you mean you are afraid you will become a hypochondriac? We have to bare in mind that there are 2 diagnostic manuals for diagnosis of this and the one we use in UK differs to your US version so be careful in trying to understand the because the HA board on here is very general and doesn't conform to either of the manuals hence I sometimes do see people with OCD on there by mistake. The US version is currently the DSM-V.

If you mean you are repeating things in your mind from the shows, this could be OCD as Repeating is a form of it.

[Txxxrho]

No, I do have hypochondria. That devolved after my early panic attacks and anxiety. Most people I talk to just say it's normal mental stuff that I fixate on like the anxiety physical symptoms that I fixate on. It's like when I'm not fixated and concerned about my health my mind finds something else to keep it occupy, my mental health, etc. it's a cycle I see it clear a day but I just don't know how to sort out the irrational and rational. Anyway, I can't tell. Most of the time it's when I'm trying to go to sleep or waking up in a panic attack that I notice any voices. Sometimes I'll hear my nieces or what they would say to me but it's not like anything more than a song you hear being in your head. That's mostly how things pop up in a similar way but I just fixate on it. I had psycological testing done and generalized anxiety disorder, panic attacks, and major depressive came back. But that was almost two years ago and I got diagnosed with bipolar by the first doctor I saw who only talked to me for a few minutes then diagnosed me and every other pshyciatrist told me I'm not. So that lingers with me. It's just a fear that I'm going to lose it one day completely so I over analyze every thought process.

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Definitely have an OCDness toward my anxiety hence the hypochondria and mental health fears which are basically one in the same because it's just different health things to worry about but both deal with my health.

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I shouldn't phrase it as voices either. It's just mainly dumb things I hear that get stuck in my head or I just imagine what someone would say in some situation, it's hard to explain but never like hearing "voices" talking to me or anything like that. It's obviously irrational because of you never heard how anyone else or how someone would say something, you wouldn't hear people doing imitations or singing songs, etc. it's just over analyzing.. I think but like I stated before I think irrationally so much and have a hard time rationalizing my thoughts especially when my anxiety is on high or I'm panicking.

[MyNameIsTerry]

Rationalising is hard when anxiety is high, it takes time to train yourself to be able to do that and ideally doing on paper such as in a Thought Record can help as it gets it or of your head and onto something you can see. It takes practice though.

A psychiatrist is far more experienced so I would take his/her word for it. Besides, no one can make a diagnosis in a few minutes of any mental health condition, let alone bipolar. I remember reading a statistic in the UK where it said the average time to even diagnose bipolar was 2 years because they often get misdiagnosed with anxiety disorders which is because they are dealt with by GP's and its only when they get to the psychiatrist's & psychologists that the correct diagnosis is often made. So, you should trust the psychiatrist on this one.

Sorry, do you mean you obsess & get anxious over everyday things that don't cause other people anxiety and this is why is irrational? If so, that's quite typical of GAD.

It's hard at first understanding the difference between rational & irrational but as you recover this does very much easier. Try to work on bringing your overall anxiety levels down through things like relaxation techniques. I would also suggest Mindfulness as it will help relax you but also calm your thoughts and give you more control over them.

Don't entertain thoughts about hearing voices or even images upon waking or falling asleep as they are well documented as occurring in large numbers of people without the need for an anxiety disorder to be present. They are viewed as normal brain functioning.

The intrusive ones you should not engage/analyse with or react to or try to ignore. That will only reinforce them. Being non judgemental about them will reduce frequency & intensity over time. Studies have shown all people have them so they never go, or response to them changes though so there is no longer an anxiety based reaction. Mindfulness will teach you how to do this.