- Date posted
- 2y
Is there a point in overcoming existential ocd?
I made a post yesterday about being unsure of what my thoughts are and have come to the conclusion that they are the result of the development of several new ocd subtypes, probably due to an abundance of life change and stressors. In particular, my thoughts fit with existential ocd, death ocd, health ocd, and mental health anxiety. I’ve struggled with so-ocd in the past and know how long it took for those thoughts to become manageable. It took so long and I feel like I just don’t have it in me to do it. It’s been a week of intense fear, panic, and intrusive thoughts and I already feel like I don’t know how much more I can take. I feel like all of my nerves are exposed and I’ve been shaking and nervous to the point of being sick 24/7. What I’m really struggling with is how to combat these thoughts, or even to believe there’s a reason to. With so-ocd I was able to get to a point that I could tell myself I am not my thoughts and knew I didn’t truly believe what my brain was telling me. I’m finding it a lot harder to do that, especially with the existential ocd. I’m not a religious person and don’t believe there is any greater “point” to life. Before the ocd thoughts this past week, I was perfectly at peace with this. Now, thoughts about what the meaning of life is eat at me all day. What’s been particularly scary about this is it’s really hard to combat those thoughts when I view them as true. My ocd will get me to a point of anxiety and a panic attack that makes me feel like I can’t do this anymore. I try to tell myself that I deserve fight through this and learn to manage this, but my ocd tells me I don’t. As soon as I try to tell myself that it will be worth it to get help or fight to overcome my thoughts, the intrusive thoughts tell me it’s not worth it because there’s no meaning to anything. I fought so hard to overcome my so-ocd and now I’m still unhappy so what’s even the point. Then the death/health ocd takes over and tells me that I could have a month to live so what’s even the point of spending all this time on “healing” and “growth” when it could all be for nothing. It’s really hard to combat these thoughts when they seem so true. I’m someone who genuinely does believe there is no greater meaning to life. It is what we make it and we could die at any second for no reason. I’ve always been at peace with this, but with these new intrusive thoughts, I don’t know how to combat them. When I don’t believe in any higher power or overarching purpose in life, how am I supposed to combat the existential and death related intrusive thoughts? It’s like the ocd is directly feeding off my preexisting beliefs, so it’s hard to view them as anything but true. Before this week I would have told you I was in therapy and on medication because I believed I deserved to have a healthy and fulfilling life. Now, when I try telling myself that, it means nothing. Has anyone else with existential ocd or death ocd faced this? It’s like the ocd itself is directly preventing me from getting help because it tells me there is no point, and I fully believe it/have no argument to prove otherwise. How did you overcome this? How did you get to a point of believing you deserved to seek help when your brain is constantly telling you there is no point because life has no meaning and you’re going to die anyway? It’s like my brain is telling me it’s perfectly possible that you will be miserable for the rest of your life and can die that way regardless of how much work you put in to not feel that way because life has no meaning and it sucks, so what’s the point of seeking help when it doesn’t really matter in the end. It’s like I truly have no idea why I want to beat ocd because I don’t believe there is any point, and my ocd takes advantage of this and says “exactly, so why do it? There’s no guarantee you aren’t going to feel this way forever anyway, so might as well save the effort and disappointment of going to therapy just to go through another in the future anyway.”