mentally ill?! worries

[lotus]

Sometimes I worry that my anxiety and panic might be symptoms of some other serious mental illness, schizophrenia for example. I'm terrified that I may start hallucinating, hearing voices, etc. I don't want to become a schizophrenic. :( Today I was cleaning my room, and I found a magazine with an article on schizophrenia, and it said that some of the earliest signs of the illness are depression and anxiety. I'm really scared. The DP/DR, the brain fog and the obsessive thoughts make me feel really weird, and I'm worried that they may develop into a complete loss of reality. Do you ever have such worries? And if you do, how do you cope?

[Meg]

I'm new!
http://www.nomorepanic.org.uk/lounge...?TOPIC_ID=1299
Madness


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 ?

[lotus]

Meg, thank you for the links.
I tried to use the "search" facility in order to see if there were any topics already posted on the subject, but it gave me an error, and I couldn't find any results.
Thanks.

[hunny]

Hi Indie

I think Meg has provided a link to a message posted by me.I had exactly the same thoughts as you.My physical symptoms were gone(or so i thought) and i was SURE i was going to end up schizophrenic.I genuinely thought i was going mad,i could see no way out of the feelings i had.
I used to look at pictures of animals or people and think they were going to jump out and get me,i saw things out of the corner of my eye that werent there and i heard noises that noone else seemed to.I was really frightened.
However that worry seems to have gone and i am suffering physically now!!
You cant win eh?
Anyway,this was supposed to reassure you!!These feelings WILL PASS,you do not and will not have schizophrenia.Pm me any time

Hugs,Hunny x

[GAD]

Hello Indie

i know exactly how you feel, i had these fears for years and it was awful. please be reasured that your not going mad. i coonstantly worried that i had shhizophrenia and that i would all of a sudden start hearing voices. it got so bad that in the end i felt that i was completely petrified of my own thoughts, i found it difficult to be alone and needed constant distraction from my own mind, i ended up visiting everyone i knew all day everyday and would rush out as quickly as i could in the morning!! i suffered for about 4 years with this and it was dreadful until i had CBT and individual psychtherapy that i realised that i was afraid for nothing. i also worried that if i stayed anxious for long periods it would trigger schizophrenia but please be reasured that i have been told on numerous occasions but my therapist that this WILL NOT HAPPEN!!.

I hope you feel a little better knowing that.

Michelle.

[nauseax]

~i can relate to the feelings that u feel as if u may be Schizophenic.but tell ur self u r not! because "chances are" that u r just a little stressed and have panic attacks telling u you have to relax and take things day-by-day.
And even if u DID have Schizophernia, it CAN be treated.~
LOVE YA, FEEL BETTER SOON~aMaNdA

[seh1980]

I also have had this fear at times in the past. All of us anxiety sufferers think there must be something more serious wrong with us but that's just part of the anxiety..

"Life is too important to take seriously" Corky Siegal

[rozza]

I can definately relate to these feelings as well, I'm absolutely convinced I'm going completely mad but as someone pointed out to me, if you are worried about it you can't be going mad as if you really were going mad you wouldn't care. Sorry to use the mad word but that's the word that goes on in my head! You're not alone with this. Have you had any reassurance from your doctor or anyone?

Take care,
Roz xx

'All I want is to be normally insane' Marlon Brando

[kimmy]

hey i thaught i was going schizophrenic, mad. i was absolutly certain i was schizophrenic, all my thaughts in my head spinning round, the depersonalization etc. for months i was thinking it, i couldnt sleep and when i did i woke and that the first thing i thaught of. all thos negative and petrefying thaughts just fed my anxiety and panics. i even visited my doctor every day for about a week once, i was so scared.

If your wondering why im telling you this.....

well now im ok, Im a SUCSESS story on this site. Yeah it was hard, it took along time to not think like that but i did it. I started having panics etc last may 04. I have found out my triggers such as foods, sugery stuff etc. I was always confussed why foods i always used to eat, now make me twitch (thats what i call it, a bit of humer to it) but the tthing is once you have been sensitized to it, its like when your immune systems down and ther bugs can get in easier,

Now a year and a half later, i feel god, yeah some days i think is it back and stupid stuff, but i just except that it hasnt done it to me yet etc and i forget it.

I KNOW how hard it is at the moment but it will get easier, justy take note, so many of us have had theses thaughts and havent yet cracked up. Try not to read things about schizophrenics etc, it can make you worse. Scizophrenics rarely realize they are ill, you know what your feeling is diffrent than normal. thats makes you even more normal.
feel free to pm me or if your messenger kim_wilkinson487@hotmail.com

[eeyorelover]

You are definitely not alone in this Indie. The fact is that most of us are worriers. I know I worry about everything and if I have nothing to worry about I start finding new things. the what ifs are the worst part. I know that I have thought , what if I am going crazy? and what if I go into a fog (u know what I mean) and never come back out of it?
But please just keep telling yourself that this panic thing can't hurt you. You're not mad and you will make it through it.
If you need to talk just let me know.

Sandy
(eeyorelover)

If the world didn't suck... we'd all fall off