I need help! Can anyone tell me if this sounds like Existential OCD? For the past year or so always think “what is the point” about so many things . This started because I realized me and my husband don’t have any friends, so every time I try to exercise or look nice I start thinking “what is the point, why do I care to impress random people” I don’t know .. it’s so fkd I hate this shit I need help or I’m gonna end up killing my self

@rasmus I don’t know if it’s depression because I feel okay until I get this thought that’s why it feels intrusive to me, it’s not like I’m depressed and hating life and then thinking “what’s the point” I just start feeling depressed AFTER the thought because it ruins good things :(

@kayi thank you! I appreciate that! It’s so difficult , it started because my sister in law pointed out that me and my partner don’t go out much & it turned into this thought, it’s so difficult because it’s hard to be around people when they can cause you pain for months and years with one sentence without even realizing :( I don’t even know if I have ocd at this point I just know I have something and I feel like psychologists never really understand for some reason :(

Wait what’s existential ocd? I have this same problem. When I even think about my goals or things that make me happy, I get this horrible pit of anxiety in my stomach and that subconscious feeling of “what’s the point?” It’s really discouraging and it ruins a lot of things that are supposed to make me happy. This is also happens when I want to pursue goals.

Omg YESSSSSSS exactly same! Especially with goals, I want to study, I want to lose weight and all I keep thinking is “what is the point?” Exactly how you’re describing it it’s a pit in your stomach that ruins your goals :( arghhhhhhhj it’s so frustrating! Can you explain yours abit more if you don’t mind? I want to know if we think the same.. and I want to know what it is. Someone said to me it sounds like existential ocd I looked it up but I don’t have the symptoms of it so I don’t know :(

I don't know if it's Existential OCD, might be, but it also sounds like a depression

Yeah I just looked it up and I don’t have the symptoms of it either. I’ll try to explain what goes on with me. Let’s say I want to lose weight, it either occurs when I think about planning it or I’m actually planning it but I start to get anxiety and subconscious feelings of what’s the point? I feel like maybe that feeling comes from other anxieties that I have about my current life and my minds like well you have these one million issues that make you and your life shitty so why even bother. But Idk because I don’t actually have those thoughts I just feel the anxiety. It’s hard to explain. Like when I think about things that I want to do or that are supposed make me happy, I get anxiety! Like my minds telling me it’s never going to happen or something. I don’t know why it happens! It also happens with like literally anything that’s supposed to be nice. Like I can see a sunset and think it’s beautiful and want to admire it but it’ll give me a horrible feeling of anxiety, like wtf? I can’t enjoy nice things.

I know what you mean :( it’s so difficult.. mine is similar, my main one is weight loss, I’m married and I don’t go out with anyone besides my husband and my sisters who I’m really close to and I always think what’s the point of buying nice clothes, what’s the point of putting in work to lose weight when I don’t even have friends, my family and husband love me so why should I lose weight but I still want to lose weight and am actually avoiding getting pregnant because I don’t want to get fatter (I’m about 10-15kg/20-25 pounds) over weight and that’s my main concern but it happens even when I want to buy something for my house I get intrusive thoughts of “what’s the point of making my house nice, hardly anyone ever comes over anyway” but I don’t want these thoughts, they ruin happy things for me just like you said

I’m sorry you’re dealing with this :( that happens to me sometimes for sure. I’m working on overcoming existential OCD, and even though “what’s the point” isn’t technically my main theme I’ll get thoughts along those lines sometimes. Like similar to you I’ll be like “what’s the point of losing weight” because ppl love me how I am, even though I want to lose weight. I’ll overthink so many things that way. **trigger warning: many years ago I had an obsession along the lines of “what’s the point of living if we’re all gonna die one day”. I wanted to live, but it was a super intense intrusive thought

@lyndal I’m glad I found someone who can relate, this is something that I’ve always just dealt with but it’s always gotten in the way of my happiness and motivation to do things. Hopefully there’s a diagnosis for it so that we can learn how to recover from it. I’ll look into it and let you know if I find anything.

And for the living thought I’ve had similar thoughts , I don’t want to trigger you so maybe don’t read this part if u think it will.. but I started thinking because I’m 26 and my teenage years are over ( a long time ago but I only realized it now) that there’s no point in things which is so stupid cause I’m still young and there’s so many things to look forward to but it’s mainly about weight loss and wanting to look good I keep thinking there’s no point. And I when I see old people I feel like I can’t believe they still do their nails and hair and start businesses at the ages of 50+ when there’s no point in doing it ? I don’t even know why I think this it’s sooooo difficult :( :( I want to enjoy life and live in the moment, does anyone have any tips

@aliyah thank you! Yes please let me know if you find anything, I’m glad I found someone too, no one understands :( I hate this so much, I don’t even know weather it’s ocd or not but it’s so difficult

@lyndal I have age anxiety!! It’s a big factor in my “what’s the point?” feelings. I just turned 18 and it’s really been getting to me especially since I’m not where I wanted to be. I feel like I’ll never be able to accomplish things in the age range that I want and it’s something I constantly worry about and I feel like certain ages are a deadline and if I don’t do it by then it won’t even matter anymore or even be an accomplishment when that’s not true. I literally think about it everyday. I’ve been trying to get into that “fuck it” mentality. I’m reading a book called “The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck” and I’m trying to start holding ideals from the book to help me care less.

@aliyah oh wow I actually read that book about 2 years ago, I don’t really have age anxiety but I can somewhat relate to what you’re saying, feeling like there’s certain ages you have to do things but I think mine isn’t as extreme , argh I swear without ocd I’m a happy person but when it flares up it ruins my life :(

I don't actually think it's ocd, just my opinion. But in general all humans have a thing called homeo stasis, which basically means your brain has a survival mechanism that wants to keep everything the way it is. The idea being that you have survived up to this point so something is going right. It doesn't care about your happiness just your survival. So if you want to do something new it treats that as a threat and gives your body fear, anxiety or whatever it needs to. So say you want to lose weight it will manifest by telling you what's the point. Now where the ocd could come in is we're used to believing our thoughts are us, so this warning sign of not doing anything different we take it as us, and try and think through it and work it out, which just makes us not do what we want. So to overcome this response we just have persevere until a habit is formed at which point the survival response will now protect this new habit. So if you force yourself to go to the gym or whatever exercise you do for about 3-4 weeks regardless of whatever thoughts you get, you will then be in this new habit and it will feel weird if you don't go to the gym. Also keep in mind most people ocd or otherwise have this problem

it may not feel completely like existential ocd, but ocd themes are just on a huge spectrum. i myself have existential ocd, and i too have those intrusive thoughts about “whats the point” everytime i get an idea and get motivated to do it. its not like feeling depressed, but rather my intrusive thoughts in this sense are tied together with suicidal ocd and being horribly afraid of depression. and i also have that thing with getting those depressing intrusive thoughts when i look at soemthing beautiful, or im enjoying something. anytime a thought makes you really uncomfortable, its anxiety of some sort, and in this case ocd. if you were depressed you’d agree with the thoughts. like, you would generate those thoughts because you truly felt there was no point and stuff like that. @lyndal especially what you said about actually wanting to enjoy things and looking forward to it really makes sense. intrusive thoughts only feel that “intrusive” because they oppose what you ACTUALLY want, think, believe etc.

@lyndal When you experience these situations, is it more so anxiety or intrusive thoughts? Cause you may just have an anxiety disorder. I have an anxiety disorder and have just considered these feelings as a part of that.

I’m not even sure tbh because ocd is anxiety so I’m so confused but it feels more intrusive, like a distressing thought that comes and ruins my moments and there’s triggers etc

Anxiety is a mood caused by OCD. An anxiety disorder can as well interfere with your daily life and it also has triggers. Differentiating which one it is in our case is definitely tricky.

I’m currently studying psychology and OCD is definitely an anxiety disorder, I think your talking about being anxious? Like ocd making you feel anxious?

Does it make you compulse, mental or physical, or is it just, so to speak, a partypooper thought/s? Might point a finger towards something

Well I think I have existential OCD cause I always think “what if I don’t like this body and this reality” etc.