Does anyone else check their pupils a lot? I was doing good with not checking them for a couple weeks but now I’m back to doing it again because I’m scared I’m going to have happen with my brain
Thank you guys ! It’s just so frustrating, I deal with chronic tension headaches and sometimes they get so intense that I check my pupils without even thinking. I’m working on it though.
Hey there, checking is a compulsion which only makes the OCD loop continue. I used to check my eyes all the time for possible signs of illness. Understanding the uncertainty is a part of life, and we can never be 100% certain about anything is key to recovery from OCD. I am 63 years old and I spent a lifetime "checking" myself for illness. ERP works, allowing thoughts/fears/feelings while you do value-based activities is so helpful. Reach out for therapy, NOCD is the best, explore their library of videos on their YouTube channel. Take care!
Clarissa, I’ve had Health Concern OCD for years!! I hear you. I feel like 90% of my life has been worrying, checking, ruminating, etc. it’s like I am always ready for an awful diagnosis or for something awful to go wrong with my health. You’re not alone. I’m new to NOCD, but like the person up there 👆 said, checking just makes if worse, even though it helps temporarily for a few minutes, believe me I know. Here for you.
I have the same problem as you. When I read somewhere online that different sized pupils can be a sign of some brain related issue I constantly check them in mirrors, phone camera, windows - just wherever I can. It is tiring. I know that it is irrational to do it all the time. At times I can go for a while without checking. A good method for me is that I think that people around me would point out that my eyes look weird if something like that would happen and I do not need to check it all the time because of that. Going outside for a bike ride or just for a walk also helps a lot - even if it is for a short time.
I had a migraine a little over a week ago after a few months of tremendous stress and anxiety. For a few days I was okay apart from a mild headache but then i got it into my head that I have a brain tumour. Yesterday I had the worst panic attack ever caused by all this overthinking. I started getting really dizzy, numb face and arm and I was convinced I had been correct and did have a brain tumour. The panic attack subsided after I calmed myself down a little bit but I am so anxious that I have a brain tumour. The numb feeling disappeared after the panic attack. But i have a dull headache, had a twitchy eye sometimes, and neck twitches. Sometimes when I really think about it I feel like I can’t focus or keep my vision straight. I can’t stop panicking about it I’m really really scared that there’s something wrong with me. I’m gonna go to the doctors to ask about it but i just needed to vent. I feel like recently I’m spending all the time thinking I have a brain tumour and it is honestly terrifying me so much.
For the past three years I've smoked marijuana nearly everyday. It helped with my anxiety and quieting my brain and helped me sleep. Recently, it began to make me feel more anxious, i would wake up nauseous and even threw up a couple of times which really triggered some health anxiety. I decided to quit because of this and i'm almost 2 weeks out from the last time I smoked. My body is slowly recovering but my brain just doesn't seem to quit it. I went to my GP a couple of weeks ago for a routine checkup and everything came back normal in my blood work and exam, yet that hasn't stopped me from completely obsessing over my health and feeling like (in my mind, not my body) i'm seriously ill- which is giving me extreme anxiety. Because of my reoccurring stomach issues my GP referred me to a GI who I had an appointment with yesterday. He was very unimpressed by everything I said and seemed like everything is pointing to IBS-which is not serious and something my mother also deals with. He ordered some extra tests to make sure I wasn't dealing with inflammation and he said he was very confident that my internal vital organs were a completely fine. I'm still waiting on those test results and his confidence should I have made me feel better but i'm still freaking out. Everybody in my life is tired of hearing about it and I just don't know what to do anymore. I feel like i'm pushing people away. I feel good and like myself when I'm distracted and doing something fun, but mornings and nights and when i'm doing something mundane it's the worst. I feel like I can feel all of these pains and sensations but I have no idea if it's real. I've even started asking Chatgpt for constant reassurance and constantly googling my symptoms. I'm in a horrible loop. I should mention that on top of quitting weed, I also just graduated college, moved back home and my boyfriend and I started the longest period of long distance we've ever had to do so i'm just not feeling like myself at all. My psychiatrist just put me on Zoloft (my vomiting and intense anxiety coincided with when i began taking Prozac again so she wanted me to try something else) I'm only on day 3 of the meds but nausea and insomnia are the two side effects im dealing with right now which is just making my anxiety so much worse before the meds have even kicked in. Does anyone have advice on how to break this cycle of constant checking-i feel like taking a deep breath has even turned into a compulsion.
This might be super specific, but something I struggle with is feeling the need to consistently look up things for reassurance. I feel the need to look up the same things over and over again just to make sure. Example: googling what to do in serious situations like a car crash, if someone’s having a heart attack, seizure, etc. I’m (soon to be) a healthcare professional and I feel like I know these things like the back of my hand. I feel like if I ever get to these (extremely unlikely) situations, I won’t know what to do. I feel the need to constantly reassure myself the proper protocol for situations that will probably NEVER happen. Anytime I think of this possibility, I can’t help but become trapped in a spiral of googling what to do. It’s come to a point that I’ve started noting down what to do over and over again if these situations happen. I really just want to know if anyone relates.
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