Has anyone else had an extreme fear of psychosis?? I made the mistake of reading so much about it that my mind is now always on “the lookout” for signs of it. This includes fixating on background noises, etc out of fear of hallucinations or hearing things. Naturally my mind has convinced me I must be, even though my psychiatrist has assured me I am just having anxiety/ocd. Has anyone had this and if so how did you get through??

This is a huge fear of mine. I also catch myself checking my perceptions and then remind myself it’s just OCD chatter. Embracing uncertainty: I may or may not develop psychosis. Who knows? And if I do I hope the people around me help me find the right support and treatment. Keep fighting the OCD!

Ocd cannot cause psychosis. That’s a common misconception that runs rampant online, but not in true medical or scholarly articles. That’s what’s so hard about the Internet, it can steer us wrong. I read so much about it and schizophrenia that I stopped just reading the true facts, and instead went to peoples firsthand stories to which made it worse because they often don’t realize what actually caused their psychosis, so they blame it on their stress or anxiety. This has been scientifically proven to not be true. Hang in there.

I do the same thing. I also just got through 5 months of really bad DP/DR so I’ve been on high alert for signs of psychosis or schizophrenia. When your brain is overstimulated too and in flight mode you are hyper vigilant and aware and it just makes things worse thinking about every little thing. I have thoughts all the time though of “I’m going to hallucinate something” or I have to go to the psych ward, and I have to remind myself that if I’m having those thoughts my reality testing is intact and I’m not psychotic.

Reading stuff like this that I relate to so heavily makes me want to cry. It’s so shitty but also so comforting to know I’m not the only one. I’m still working on getting through this. You got it.

Yes I have those thoughts before it’s my own fault because I read some much stuff about what ocd can cause that I’m so fixated that I maybe have that too I know it’s in my head but it scares me to when I think about it

Thanks I will I need to stop searching stuff on the web that is a compulsion and it’s gonna make my ocd worst

I’m in the same boat. But I found that it’s so true. I’ll be doing great for days, and then I have a bad day and realize that the reason it was bad is because I looked online. It never helps. The sooner we realize that and let the symptoms our mind has created pass, the better off we are.