- Date posted
- 3y
I’m worried if someone can answer my question
Can OCD thoughts cause someone to become delusional or hallucinate? Or just become unaware and become psychotic?? I’m so scared
Can OCD thoughts cause someone to become delusional or hallucinate? Or just become unaware and become psychotic?? I’m so scared
I'm sorry you're going through this. Take a deep breath. We are not supposed to give you any re-assurance, as that won't help your OCD. We need to improve at tolerating the anxiety, no matter the topic. Almost nothing is 100% certain, so yes it's possible that OCD anxious spirals could lead to worse mental states. Try to tolerate that thought and let it go, without resorting to compulsions. You can do it. I have had one psychotic break myself, although it wasn't necessarily caused by ODC thoughts, it was more of a manic episode... and sometimes my OCD focuses on psychosis relapse. But I'm doing fine, using the same toolbox that we use for all OCD themes! Get better at tolerating worries like this, step by step attacking your fear hierarchy. You got it!!
If you don’t mind me asking do you have something besides OCD that caused your psychotic break? Because you mentioned manic episode
@Redrose Thank you a lot
@Redrose I have only been diagnosed OCD. My break stemmed from finally admitting (after 20Y) that I had OCD and addressing my intense ROCD with my now fiancé and opening up. The relief + realization that I hadn’t lost her was immense, lots of dopamine and I kept chasing it in the following weeks right into mania and a break. I realize that may not be what you want to hear but try to tolerate any anxiety and let the thoughts pass by. Best of luck to you. You are stronger than you think!
@JB1020 Thank you for explaining and I’m sorry that you had to go through that I’m glad you’re doing better! However I’m not completely understanding what caused your psychotic break? It happened because you accepted that you had OCD and didn’t lose your fiance so because you were happy about it you went into mania and then a psychotic break?
@Redrose I was having a lot of Relatioship OCD (I didn’t know it was OCD yet). I knew I had some sort of undiagnosed anxiety issue for 20Y. Was putting off marriage and it was causing a lot of problems. We finally addressed it, I opened up about essentially everything, all my fears and my past “anxiety attacks” and “irrational thoughts”. It was a real scene, and she was hurt by the ROCD thoughts. But I felt massive relief someone didn’t abandon me after disclosing all this. Within 24 hr I knew I would marry her. Lots of dopamine. Lots of relief, crying. I agreed to see a therapist. I admitted I probably had OCD. I kept leaning in. Wrote my vows next day. Started apologizing to friends for things I had always wanted to. Wasn’t sleeping much. Dealt with a lot of past issues related to OCD. Just kept chasing the high and going further and further. 1 week of mania, and then about 36 hours of reality gone/blurring and 8 days in a ward.
@JB1020 Oh man that must’ve been tough to deal with but a relief at the same time! I’m so happy for you that she stuck by your side you deserve it and congratulations for making her a fiance! How are you now? Have you had another break or are you way better? How do you deal with it? Did you know that you had a psychotic break or at the time it was happening you didn’t know what was going on ? Do you only realize it after you get out of that state of mind? Sorry for the many questions
@Redrose Thank you for the kind words. I’ve been doing well. When you enter psychosis, by definition, you don’t realize you’re leaving reality. Pretty quickly my fiancé realized something was wrong and that we needed help. Then I had to pull back and reflect and I realized she was right (was back in touch with reality briefly) and then the next 36 hours was a blur of the two - my mind kept wanting to go there and I kept trying to pull myself back. In the months after I had a few more close calls where I was very anxious and and spiraling (was still in a high dopamine state), but each time I pulled back and never lost touch. 6 months of a low dose anti-psychotic post discharge which I have been off now for 6 months. Wedding is next month. Been doing great. When I get psychosis OCD or fear of more mental illness diagnoses I do exposures. I don’t even regret the break or feel shame about it. I learned a lot, become more open to religion/supernatural themes (I’m agnostic), etc….
@JB1020 Ahhh okay! That makes sense thank you so much for sharing this you are defeintly strong! I wish you all the best and I hope your wedding day goes smoothly
The book Neurologic: The Brain’s Hidden Rationale Behind Our Irrational Behavior by Eliezer Sternberg is a great reference for this topic.
Thank you a lot
Possibly. The brain is a powerful thing.
Are you serious????
@Redrose Just because you hallucinate doesn’t mean you’re going crazy. I used to “see” ghosts as a kid but it was because I believed in ghosts SO much, my brain showed me ghosts. Same thing for aliens, angels, faeries, etc. if you believe in some tight so much and you want to see it, eventually your brain will show something. Neuroscience and other fields of study have been studying this for decades.
@Nica Makes sense!
I’ve never been diagnosed with OCD, but I relate so much to what people here are going through. I used to think it was just anxiety, and I felt like I could handle that. But lately I’ve been spiraling—constantly afraid that what I’m feeling is something worse, like psychosis or losing control of my mind. I feel so detached and scared, and I just want peace again. I have anxiety doing the smallest things, like the thought of waking up everyday and even eating give me straight up panic. I am afraid all the time, it’s paralyzing. And a lot of people say someone with psychosis wouldn’t worry that they’re in it, but then I convince myself I’ve been in it this whole time, and haven’t known, and that maybe I’ve been doing weird stuff. Idk. I also get really scared of labels. Even the idea of OCD makes me feel like I’ll never get better or like I’ll be stuck like this forever. I just want to be okay. If anyone has felt this way—confused, overwhelmed, or scared of what’s happening in their mind—I’d really appreciate any support or encouragement.
idk why this is such a recurrent thing for me , I get so scared through the day when I’m not distracted when I think about psychosis. or being put in a mental hospital that it gives me bad anxiety, one time I had a panic attack at the thought of having it 💔 I can’t pin point if it’s intrusive thoughts because it’s a fear of mine .. or not. I think this is the worst thought / fear I have
Hi guys! I had really bad harm ocd about 2 years ago and I went through therapy and eventually got really good at handling it when it would pop up. The other day, I was scrolling on TikTok and came across a girl talking about a guy who was presenting a lot of schizophrenic symptoms but no one paid attention and got him help, he was having a lot of delusions, hallucinating, thinking everyone was out to get him, thought he was Jesus and his dad was the president and ended up doing horrific things. The day after that, I was dealing with some work drama and had the thought of “what if all my coworkers are against me and trying to get me fired”. That really stressed me out, cause I don’t normally think about them like that and I went down a rabbit hole of thinking that was the beginning of me developing schizophrenia, ended up googling stuff all night, taking tests, crying and seeking reassurance. I had a thought the other day “your dad is the president”, this one didn’t stress me out as bad as I knew it was just the video I had seen and it was an intrusive thought about it, and I also didn’t believe it. Today I was with some friends and I got a prize at a place we went and it said “lonely” on it. I do have my moments of feeling lonely and this week has been specifically trying so I had a thought like “oh someone’s out to get me cause I got this”. I know this isn’t logical and it wouldn’t make sense to just randomly get it if someone was truly after me and it was just a stupid prize at a random place, anyone could’ve gotten it. Im just struggling a lot with schizophrenic OCD and thinking I’m in the pre stages of it. In my good moments, I don’t think I am at all and it was all just sparked from the video I watched but in my bad moments, these thoughts feel real!! They really stress me out and make me feel like I’m going to lose my mind causing me to lose my job/ end up in a psych hospital/ never live a normal life/ end up alone, never see me my loved ones/ hurt my loved ones. I just want to feel normal and not like I’m about to lose my mind and everything I care about. Please help!!! Anyone else going through something similar and can help me get through this!
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