I know I don’t have schizophrenia, but my fear is that I will develop it. I felt like I was seeing things out of the corners of my eyes tonight. I thought it was my dog a few times and nothing was there. Any advice on dealing with this theme?

Accepting the presence of that feels so scary. But I’ll try it now because I felt like I smelt something that wasn’t there. I’m going to focus on acceptance of this sensation and my discomfort

@ThreeLittleBirds Yes acceptance is soooo hard .. it’s so hard.. my therapist had me sit through my fear without any reassurance it was the hardest thing ever

It’s scary because it makes me question if I can trust myself or what I’m perceiving. Have you practiced any erp for this theme?

Yes tonight is hard for me. I question every single little sound I hear. I keep music on because I’m afraid of a voice appearing or something.. I start thinking what if I start seeing things and it scares me so bad I just wanna close my eyes.. at night on my way to bed if a random thought pops up I start freaking out and having a panic attack ..I just don’t understand

I just want us to be better ?

Yes I’m praying as well. This is so hard

I’m in the same boat I’m waiting for nocd to have an ocd therapist in my state too, I don’t trust anyone else. Every medical professional I’ve spoken to seems to know very little about OCD

@ThreeLittleBirds Yes.. I feel you! Same

Man it’s hard!!! These have been the hardest days of my life! I’ve completely became obsessed with the thought !

Have u seen a psychiatrist

@ bp224 I have but this is a relatively new theme and I don’t have a high level of trust for my doctor, I’m scared to be held against my will or for whatever I say to be blown out of proportion, I don’t know if I can trust that he won’t put me on anti psychotic meds

@ThreeLittleBirds I understand.. what started this fear for u

@ bp224 I was put on very heavy sleeping medications due to having ocd nightmares and several weeks ago I was beginning to wake from sleep and I heard a voice that wasn’t my own. I woke up completely into a roaring panic attack over it and that’s what triggered this theme for me. Then it morphed into thinking I was seeing cars drive away and then seeing them again and being paranoid if I was delusional or if I was becoming confused. Mind you I literally wake up shower and get dressed so while I’m driving to work I’m often still groggy. I can rationalize that it’s my tired brain because I get most paranoid about it when I’m waking up or getting ready for bed.

@ThreeLittleBirds Omg my fear started in January 7th. So I have hypochondria so I always think the worst of the worst .. well that night my coworker told me her mom was hallucinating.. so maybe that triggered this.. well it was 2am and I was In bed either getting ready to sleep or half sleep I felt I heard something in my ears or something idk like a ringing in ears maybe or a fullness feeling in ear idk but I hoped up and panicked really bad and was like omg am I hearing stuff and yeah I’ve been obsessed ever since.

@ bp224 Everything about sleep for me is traumatic, even right now I’m nervous to fall asleep. Will I have nightmares, hallucinations as I wake. Idk. I’m scared of what tomorrow will be like, will it be a good day or a bad day. I feel like I just don’t have control anymore on my experiences.

@ThreeLittleBirds Yes I’m stalling going to sleep because I feel like I’ve obsessed over this fear way to much today and when I’m On my way to sleep the random thoughts will appear and cause me to have a panic attack