Anyone else notice that when they go through OCD/Anxiety flare ups all their thoughts just feel so distorted? Like it’s like anything I look at I instantly have a sense of anxiety with any thought it pulls up. Almost like you just simple become anxious from something as simple as thinking. I have a horrendous fear of Psychosis but my psych assured me this is part of anxiety. Any tips on how to get past??

Exactly. And then with my fear of psychosis it has me question every thought or fear “are these considered disjointed thoughts? Or delusions?” And it terrifies me.

@Drepet123 From what you know about what psychosis looks like, do you think you’d be able to articulately explain what you’re experiencing if you were experiencing psychosis rather than severe anxiety?

@Sunrise22 That is very true. And the fact that I am over aware of everything screams anxiety, whereas psychosis is the unawareness of everything happening. That’s a very good point.

@Drepet123 ??

@Drepet123 Hey Drepet, So this is my current obsessional theme—yay, relapse! I’ve had other forms of OCD through the hears. Primarily Harm OCD, a little POCD, some existential OCD, and just other generally off the wall or weird intrusive thoughts. My initial fear of this started with hypnopompic hallucinations. I became scared that something I wasn’t familiar with was happening and it triggered anxiety. Which then in turn lead to the compulsion of researching, which then gave me content for other “symptoms” of psychosis. For awhile I hyper focused on things in my visual field, looking for a “testing” myself for hallucinations. Then it morphed into hyperattentivness to background noise, also scanning for auditory hallucinations. Lastly, it’s currently settled on paranoia intrusive thoughts. The best course of action is ERP. For me, that’s involved writing out various scripts where I either write as though the thoughts are real, or placing myself in situations that trigger than anxiety. My two biggest compulsions are researching and avoidance. I’ve taken every online test a million times to check for psychosis. I’m sure you have, too. So, my homework exposure is to go out in public for an hour and mindfully expose myself. This means resisting my two biggest compulsions. For the first twenty minutes or so I generally feel increased anxiety, but after awhile it drifts away. The key is staying with it until it decreases. Just like physical fitness, you do exposures daily to improve your mental fitness. While I was walking I sang a song to myself in my head about how beautiful psychosis is. Having humor helps, too. I’d say to myself, wow, this mall trip is pretty interesting in the middle of this full-blown psychotic episode! Also, generally literacy about OCD helps. If your current therapist isn’t well-versed in ERP/CBT then I’d ask them to provide a referral. This app also lets you video conference with therapists who specialize in it. Good luck!

@CSquared That’s exactly what I do to! I listen to all background noises etc and say “well, I mean it could kind of sound like a voice” and then suddenly boom you think you’re hearing things (when I’m well aware I am not). Then I focus on my speech, my thoughts, etc and it’s just exhausting! It’s also hard because you realize there’s no such thing as true silence, which makes me focus on all sounds that much more. I also research soooooo much and find so many stories that prove that what you and I are describing is not psychosis, but always dig until I find the one that “proves” it could be. So then my anxiety does its best to mimic those new symptoms too. I’m glad I’m not alone. I agree I have taken so many of the tests online and all come back with “no indication” but it’s like I just can’t get my mind to accept that answer.

@Drepet123 OCD is insatiable. It will continue to eat. Starvation (in this case eliminating compulsions) is the first step towards recovery. If you lined up 100 specialist and 99 said it was OCD, and one said it was maybe psychosis, your OCD would believe the one over the 99. It’s how the disorder works. Start treatment if you aren’t already!

@Drepet123 This has been happening to me lately, there will be noises like a fan or generator that are around me and my brain makes out voices or words from the sounds can someone please give some advice or something, it’s very scary