Obsessing about meaning of life

[Burdock]

Hi,

An old friend of mine has emailed me with details of a anxiety related illness which is causing her extreme distress at the moment. This is a condition which has affected her in the past, and has just recurred.

She describes it as obsessive thoughts concerning the meaning of life, existence, and the futility of these. Apparently questions such as there occupy her mind constantly, and have resulted in classic panic physical symptoms.

She further describes it as obsessively ruminating on meaningless and insoluble problems- seemingly with the goal of destroying her own belief and mindset.

Finally, she says this is OCD (presumably diagnosed as this in the past) without the 'CD' part.

She really is in a bad way at the moment, and I would appreciate any help or advice particular to her problem. She feels unable to read this forum herself at the moment- hopefully she will in time (as it has been such an amazing form of support for myself)

Thanks everyone!
Burdock / Martin

[seh1980]

hello Burdock,

I think those thoughts are running around all our heads but I guess it has got out of hand with your friend. Could you tell us a bit more about the treatment she has already had? (ie. has she been to see a counsellor or is she on meds?)

Sarah :D

[Burdock]

Hi Sarah,

She says "Seroxat and had cognitive therapy"

Also "I’m a bit scared about taking Seroxat now because of all the scare stories but not sure what other drug will be effective…"

Cheers,
Martin

[seh1980]

hello again Burdock,

I don't have much experience with meds as the only one I have been on is Cipralex, which I can highly recommend. I can understand why she is uncomfortable taking Seroxat and there is no point her taking it if she is unhappy doing so. Maybe she could try a different med that she feels more comfortable taking..

Sarah :D

[nomorepanic]

Burdock

Did any of those posts I sent you help her atall or where they not relevant?

Nicola

[Burdock]

Hi Nic,

I'm not completely sure. She forwarded the email to her husband, and he has told her selective parts (she was too worried to read them herself). She says reading about other people suffering will only make her feel worse (hmm!).

I read it all myself, and I am not sure either. And then yesterday she sent me an email saying it has been referred to as OCD (without the CD) in the past.

All she seems to do is obsessively worry about issues such as the meaning of life- to the exclusion of all other thoughts.

I've read through the OCD material here, some of the postings, and also other stuff on the Web, and I can't find this theme as a usual source of obessional worry.

She is seeing her GP today. I will keep looking too!

Thanks again Nic!

Martin

[Karen]

Hi Martin

I hope your friend's appointment with her GP goes OK today.

Think she might be referring to 'Pure O' OCD which is the obsessive thoughts part without any compulsions.

Has she checked out the OCD UK (http://www.ocduk.org/) website?


Karen



It is not easy to find happiness in ourselves, and it is not possible to find it elsewhere.

[nomorepanic]

Burdock we have some posts on "pure o" ocd on here.

Enter that in the search facility, but if you can't find it let me know and I will take a look for you.

Nicola

[Rich]

Hi

I had a the same experience about 7yre ago when I went through depression I started to think about why i was there and what the point of everything was and worried because i couldn't find answers, although i didn't just worry i paniced about it and couldn't stop thinking about it.
I can think the same stuff now and then i just forget about it 2mins later but at the time I could not stop thinking any worrying about it. I think the main reason for these thoughts were because i was suffering from non realisation at the time so I didnt feel connected with the world, which led me to question life and my existance. Once I felt reconnected again the thoughts just went away. I took Citalpram and they started to work after about 8weeks. I was told my my doctor at the time that he had, had other people thinking very simliar things as me and that those type of thoughts are quite common with someone suffering from depression/anxiety. Your friend will get over these thoughts in time, its just a chemical imbalance in her brain these thoughts sre just symtoms of it and will go away once the brain is rebalanced

Rich

[Rich]

While your friend is waiting for her brain to rebalance she may be able to take some of the discomfort out of her thoughts using TFT (Thought Field Theropy) I didn't really beleave this at first but once I tried it a few times it really did work and its really simple to do om your own and costs nothing to try. You can find info about it on the web are I can tell you a few things to try

Rich

[mjh74]

Hi Martin,

I'm sorry to hear about your friend but about 6 or 7 years ago I found myself doing the same thing and started to feel like a really tiny being in a really huge world. I am one of the worlds worst ruminators and have managed to turn the ruminations/what if's to tailor my worst fear/s that I believe I can't resolve hence being in the situation that I am now. I analyse things about my anxiety down to the n'th until I've created myself my ultimate fear. I have a huge fighting spirit though (I haven't always had this!) and a positive outlook even though I do go through some horrible days of fear. I hope your friend will arrive at a point where she finds she can face up and harden herself a bit more towards her ruminations. I think it's in us all to overcome or at least cope with them but it all comes down to that damn thing we call "time"...

Kind Regards,

Mark

[sal]

Hi Burdock

If we listened to all we hear we would be scared to breath. If we read the instructions just for paracetamol we wouldnt take one but in life we sometimes need this help. I have being there and got so obsessed over stupid things that i forgot who i was or that i even had Sam to care for.

You are doing great supporting your friend and like me i have taken in too much that i have read in magazines, news etc and took a while to realise that we are all individuals and what helps one wont necessarily help another.

Love Sal xx


Dont mess up the best things in your life, just because at present you are unsure who you are.

[LouD]

Hi, i've just read this topic with great interest, i've joined this forum because of horrible thoughts. However, this topic has brought to my attention a period in my life when i had thoughts about the meaning of life (i don't have these thoughts now though). About 4 years ago a relative died and all of a sudden i questioned the meaning of life, why we are here? Is life planned out? Will i die tomorrow?

I was hung up about it for weeks, thinking to myself what is the point of doing anything if we are going to die at the end of it all. I told my boyfriend about this and he told me i was just upset because of my loss and because death is on my mind. He said we all have moments like this and they will eventually pass. In hindsight, i think it was the realisation of how fragile life is and we don't know what the future holds.

[Meg]

I totally agree with your boyfriend.

Plus with anxiety we do reevaluate our lives sometime during suffering or recovery. I know I went through this whole thing when I was recovering and it passed eventually as I moved on.

Meg
www.anxietymanagementltd.com

Your anxiety is the human representation of the pictures that you paint using your many vivid colours of revolving and reoccurring thoughts.
How big is your gallery ?

[gamedesign]

Hi there, I can't believe I have found people with the same symptons as me! I have had this problem for 10 years on and off.
I am going to see an NLP practitioner soon, because apparently this will sort my problem.

[inberlin]

hi,

just wondering if this is less a "problem" and more a state of being human...we all deal with this question in varying levels and i happen to also have a high level of what i call "existential angst" and it comes and goes. when i feel that way it is usually because i am not feeling safe and/or i am feeling alone...we can all feel alone even when we have friends or family around us...for me realizing that this is a question that can't be answered was important, and also realizing that every culture and language poses it and answers it with their own religion or belief system...

sometimes nothing helps the feeling though, and i agree, it just takes time to let it flow away...knowing it might come back but that we will live through those intense times.

hope she is able to come to this site soon!

kelly

[joanne87]

Hi burdock,

I went through the same thing with my anxiety at the beginning and i found www.ocduk.org a great help if you look through through forums there and also they recoment reading brain lock by dr swartz but i think the best book for your friend to read will be IMP of the mind, i have both and found that brain lock was mostly on the complusions side of it but IMP of the mind focuses mainly on the thoughts and your friend should find this a help.

[joanne87]

sorry just realised that post was posted a while ago, oh well if anyone needs to chat about it, i have been there myself and will try and help as much as i can. :)

Jo x

[aw4428]

I know this post was many years ago, but this problem of obsessing about insoluble problems is exactly what I have been fixated upon as an OCD sufferer for the last 6 months. It comes about because OCD latches onto anything with the words "what if". The only advice I would give is that if you find yourself despairing over something like "what if we actually get invaded by aliens", then try and find scientific knowledge and apply critical thinking to fight these thoughts. A comforting thought I have in my toolkit includes the fact that for mankind to have evolved to where we are today, the positive conditions must have outweighed the negative conditions. If it's all so bad, why isn't everyone committing mass suicide? Happiness is hard to find, but there are people in this world who are truly content. Recognise this problem as OCD, and adopt a critical mindset to combat your irrational thoughts, and eventually your OCD will get bored.

[cityinadream]

my first time on citalopram caused derealization and questioning the meaning of life/life theories and i was obsessed with it. it was crazy. i hope she feels better. :hugs:

[PoppyC]

I can really obesss about the meaning of life, why are we here, and the feeling like I am a tiny nothing on an overcrowded planet. I used to get really anxious about it all.
I used to think I was going mad, so in a way it is good to know that I am not alone in how I feel.
I now try not to think too much about it, and have to distract myself, when I start thinking that way, otherwise it just overwhelms me and makes my anxiety really bad, and makes my agoraphobia worse too.
I found reading books related to the issue does help.
I wonder how the people who wrote those messages are.