Need help with Solipsism.

@Mikecicle Do you feel normal now like you did before hearing about Solipsism. I feel like there’s no getting past this.

@Mikecicle if its OCD. there is no way he can just live his life and stop focusing on the thought, he needs treatment, stop focusing on your thought in an mental exhaustion state is easier said than done.

@Jusne Is it possible to recover from Solipsism OCD and go back to normal. I feel like i’m at a dead end.

@Delo Yes there definitely is, and I totally understand what y mean by dead end, I had struggled with it too, and be sure to identify if u feel anxious or depressed. because feeling hopeless can also contribute to depression, I had moderate depression because of solipsism for 2 weeks, but i always thought it was just anxiety, but anxiety can only make u frustrated not a feeling of complete despair, i won’t minimize what ur feeling and what u go through because i get minimized what i felt alor before too, by my mother who thought i was being dramatic, solipsism feel so fuckung isolated and lonely, and it frustrates me now, i somehow got out or depression but is still stuck in ocd pattern, just started therapy and will do my best, I have seen peoples on tiktok, and other posts them improving and recovering from solipsism ocd, the key is acceptance, I know it sounds dangeruous and hopeless because no way i would accept solipsism. I know how hopeless it feels trust me, actually, and i know u might think im fake too, and i also think u might be fake but just in case u are real. i want to help u, im still in progress, if u are real and somehwere in the world, i wish we could both recover and meet someday, if its appropriate and promising.

@Jusne Thanks, one thing I realised today is that the Solipsism feeling of being at a dead end and so scary and never ending, i’ve had that for other obsessions and fears. Is that OCD, in the sense of that’s what the OCD does. It creates those feelings?

@Delo YES, i had this dead end feelings for other philosophical themes too, but now solipsism seems never ending, i am not diagnosed so I don’t know what im suppose to be doing, just researching all day and trying to stop myselr from seeking reassurance

@Delo if ur not sure if ur ocd, talk to a psychologist or psychiatrist a licensed one. they can do a diagnosis

@Jusne OCD is not something that happens to us, it’s something we actively do.

@Mikecicle so u mean im the one who created this suffer? I can control my compulsion but never obsessions, but thinking about it, I do care alot about what I am obsessed on regardless of my brain reacting to it.

@Jusne How are you doing now ?

@ajn123 Its been okay lately, still regular ocd flare up but I’m actually living my life lately and responding to ocd so much better now. The same themes still pops up, but most of them are gone, new themes come. But I feel like a brand new person than when I first encountered ocd, tho somedaye I still get pushed into despair and on edge. But really Im doing much better

@Jusne That’s great to hear, not just for myself but for you to. Do you still struggle with the solipsism ocd as much, it’s honestly killing me. Or have you found a way to overcome it, or even make it less consuming?

@ajn123 I have overcame it, and yoy absolutely can too!! I accepted the fact that it could be a possibility but its not the truth. But by overcoming it I don’t mean it is gone forever, its comes back sometimes, but really only a few times per month. I hope you get better too, I know you can !

@Jusne That’s made me feel so much better, thank you for this. And I’m guessing even when it does pop up, you can deal with it so much better. I’m guessing it was a hard recovery with acceptance?

@ajn123 yes, it was a really long process. I didnt have enough insurance to have access to treatment so it was just me searching up peoples experiences and finding out what works for me.

@ajn123 Im glad Im being helpful!! I wish you the best

@Jusne Even now my ocd is trying to tell me you’re not a real person either, it’s very exhausting but I think you know how I feel as I’ve seen you saying similar things on other posts. Do you have any advice on how to accept it? I’m starting therapy soon which is exposure therapy which I’m guessing could be similar to what you did yourself ?

@ajn123 I really really really get how you feel 😭It was really hard atfirst but I started by not responding to the anxiety symptoms that came along with the thought, not addressing the thought. I almost always gave in on the first few weeks. But as time goes by I started to tackle the thoughts by exposing myself to thingsthat concerns with it, and tell nyself whenever the obsesiin comes that maybe its true maybe its not.

@Jusne Were your intrusive thoughts around solipsism ocd constant? Mine are all day and I wake up in the night thinking about it, I can’t find any relief from them at all. I think I’m getting a bit better because I can actually eat now but it’s so draining. Was there anything you did in your day to relieve some of the anxiety?

@ajn123 How are you doing ? :)

@existentialgirl I’m doing a lot better thank you, getting there day by day. How are you?

@ajn123 Not really well, struggling with this type of ocd. How did you overcome it? Like everything is a trigger for me. I’m a nurse ( I LOVE my Job, I am an emergency room nurse in a hospital; literally, along with my colleagues, we help people in life-threatening emergencies) like I’m doing these kind of things and is like what’s the point if this could be part of my imagination like I’m not really helping anyone. My grandmother is undergoing chemotherapy and obviously I suffer for her, but it's also like, what if this isn't real? And I dissociate a lot. If you suffered this, you can imagine the rest of thoughts. And since my conscience is the only thing I can prove, and not the others, I will never be able to know if I am wrong or not.

@existentialgirl I struggled with the thoughts of never being able to prove it. But if you think about it, how would you like to prove it? I used to think if I could go inside their minds and see that they’re conscious, that would be enough for me to be satisfied. But if you could go inside someone else’s mind and see that they’re conscious, wouldn’t that make them even less real? It would mean you truely are the only real person. The fact that everyone is so seperate and private is what makes us individually conscious. But anyway, the best way to start overcoming this is with triggers, triggers are the best, and you said you have a lot of them, which is actually a good thing. Everytime you are triggered and a thought pops up, don’t engage with it, don’t figure out what that thought might mean, don’t try and prove it wrong, don’t try and fix the thought, or follow it down a rabbit hole seeing what this might mean about your life or future etc etc. you have to see the thought, and gently redirect your attention back to what you were doing, avoiding a compulsion. This will be hard at first but I can tell you first hand it gets easier and more natural to do. If you do it for long enough your brain will realise that these thoughts aren’t a danger and you can deal with the uncertainty, our brains our hardwired through hundreds of thousands of years to recognise that other people are real, that’s how humans survived. You will return to this baseline when your nervous system calms down and you can tolerate the uncertainty. The best piece of advice I can give you is, be consistent before it feels like you’re making progress, you’re rewiring your brain, it won’t be fast but neuroplasticity is a very real thing. You might even slip into meta ocd, where you question if you’re doing it correctly, or ruminating whether you’re actually recovering, but you treat those thoughts exactly the same. I know how harsh these thoughts are, I really do know, but they get lighter the more you stop doing compulsions. It’s going to feel like the wrong thing to do and that you’re ignoring the truth or being reckless if you don’t figure the thoughts out, but trust me you’ll thank yourself if you don’t.

@ajn123 Wow, your message really motivated me, thank you! I also completely understand what you said about it being much less real if we could explore other people's consciousness. I'm going to try my best to let the thought go and trust that at some point, with my nervous system relaxed, I'll be able to see it differently, as you said. Thank you!