Hey guys, I’ve been dealing with a lot of DPDR with my anxiety and ocd being pretty constant. I have a fear I’m going into psychosis. Idk if you can be aware of your own psychosis and I know we’re not supposed to ask for reassurance but I truly feel crazy and the dpdr and existential ocd is not helping. I feel like I can’t even do the exposures because my anxiety is so high. Anyone else been through this?
i've been through this and the best tip i can give you (even though you've heard this a million times) is do your best to accept the derealisation - that's how it went away, at least for me
@ocdposting I can handle the dpdr on its own but when the ocd thoughts start flaring up and my anxiety gets higher then it comes back and kind of puts the cherry on top of feeling like I’m losing it 🙃
Yeah I know what you mean the ocd thoughts are the worst. I feel like I just can’t accept that the world is real
@Anonymous Exactly 😞 it’s like logically I know it is but the ocd and panic is making me feel like something is really wrong
I’m not an expert and just telling you what has helped me in my journey. Let the DP-DR be without engaging or judging it and choose to go about your day in line with your values. I know it’s easier said than done. It took me a while to learn that I can choose to disregard rather than distract myself and go about my day. And that I can sit or bring the DR-DP along for the ride knowing that I can handle the discomfort. All while accepting the uncertainty. Hope this helps you!!!
Hi! I’m sorry you are having to deal with this. I’m also dealing with derealisation and I’m really struggling. I’m convincing myself that something is terribly wrong with me… but i know it’s impossible for all these things to be wrong at once! I constantly feel like I’m in a dream and I can’t wake up or I’m in a coma and nothing is true. I can’t explain it to anyone but everything just seems “off” and it’s terrifying
@Anonymous I know exactly how you feel 😞 I recovered from dpdr in the past with erp with a NOCD therapist but I didn’t finish the treatment and it ended up coming back years later (now) from being under a lot of stress. I would check out the depersonalization manual he also has a YouTube called the same thing and “ocd and anxiety” channel on YouTube. They’ve both been helping me the past few days! Also the dare app helps to calm down there’s an sos mode and you can do like a guided meditation that sometimes helps. I really hope you find relief soon!
Hi did this pass
@Evan3 Yes it did!!! I’ve fully recovered from it before years ago and I’d say it’s gone 99% of the time now only periods of high stress and it’s much more manageable than it was when I made this post. I’m able to identify it as ocd where when I made this post it felt super real to me.
@Not_kw Did u get like delusional intrusive thoughts ever that tried to prove u are truly crazy? I am so scared of myself everyday.
@Evan3 Absolutely!! Anxiety will convince you of so much like people that are hypochondriacs their brain will convince them that they have a certain illness and they will actually feel those symptoms. Once you start identifying the thoughts and rationalizing with them it helps so much. I got to where I believed every thing I thought but ocd isn’t rational.
@Not_kw Thanks! It makes me feel rly good when other people seem to understand.
@Evan3 I know what you mean! I felt super alone and like no one felt the way I did but that’s just the ocd making you think these things. The YouTube channels “OCD and anxiety”, Trey Jones and “OCD recovery” helped me a lot also to realize I’m not special I don’t have the worst case ever it’s literally just ocd and anxiety lol
Hello everyone! (Existential Obsessions) I have struggled with anxiety since I was a young boy. I remember worrying when I was younger that I was inadvertently trying to harm my mother, even though I love my mother more than anyone in the world. It’s shifted more times than I can count, from worrying about poisoning or contamination to thinking that I had heart disease. It’s all the same animal just shape shifting into whatever I fear most at the given time. Currently, (trigger warning) I am constantly obsessed with the fear of developing some sort of delusion or schizophrenia. I am 25 years old (I know that it would’ve probably developed by now) and have no schizophrenia in my gene pool. But I am constantly checking my thoughts to see if they sound delusional or if I am hallucinating my reality. This of course if extremely frustrating for someone with OCD because there is never going to be any definitive proof that I am not going mad. It has caused me extreme discomfort over the past few months and has brought me to extreme states of panic. I was wondering if any of you deal with existential OCD or fears of losing touch with reality. Of course, some days this seems laughable and others I can almost taste the insanity. On paper, everything in my life is going amazingly but in truth I can’t seem to enjoy any of it because I have these nightmarish intrusions of everything falling apart around me. Is this a common symptom? P.S I already run a few miles a day, meditate, do yoga and am working on strengthening my CBT. Any other suggestions?
Has anyone actually overcome existential OCD? This theme has seriously not only caused dpdr but its just scary. Like i constantly feel like im living ina dream and nothing is real. Its definitely alot worse at night as it used to be all day. But its so draining makes me not wanna even live if im gonna deal with this forever. Also makes me scared ill get pyschosis or something too. UGH
hi! I really need someone to help out right now. I would appreciate it so much. Thanks:) I know this is kind of long, but please help me out and read it. please help confirm for me that the symptoms im experiencing are just extreme existential OCD, depersonalization, and anxiety. it would make me feel a lot better. 7-8 months ago a traumatic event led me to experience severe depersonalization. ive had OCD for as long as i can remember basically, but it’s become a lot worse from this. i am a very big overthinker, so i tend to over analyze a lot of the things going on around me, my perception of everything, my thoughts, etc. it’s gotten so bad because of the depersonalization that i at times really can’t function anymore. one day, all i’ll be able to think about is the irrational fear that i somehow am going to die and there’s something terribly wrong with my brain, like cancer or something. then the next, i’ll be freaking out, worrying that im gonna go crazy. like this is some kind of early onset schizophrenia. i start doing research and i start obsessing over each and every thought i have, everything i see, etc. then i’ll be paranoid about my family, worrying that none of them are real and they’re imposters or something. i know it’s irrational. i recognize that and don’t genuinely believe it. but the fact that this thought worries me concerns me even more because it leads me to believe im going crazy. i am having existential crises regularly. like, all the time. it’s actually ridiculous. i’ll be reading a book and i start contemplating the English language and how it came to be, and then language altogether, and then how humans were able to create and understand language, and then how they were able to sound it out, how sound exists altogether, and so on. lol. like what the hell? a few days ago i was looking out of my bedroom window, and all the sudden had the intrusive thought come into my head, “what if this is just a simulation and what you see outside of your window is merely a two dimensional image?” and then i almost had a full on panic attack. anyways, those are some examples. i’m so worried. i feel like i have no control over what freaks me out anymore. i feel like i have no control of my brain altogether. i don’t want to go crazy. i don’t want to feel like im stuck in a dream anymore. im so scared. somebody please help me. i live my life in fear, worrying about everything i perceive. im exhausted. i can’t tell anyone because i don’t want them to worry, or think that im going crazy. that’ll only reinforce my fears.
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