I need advice from anyone dealing with any sort of existential OCD. How do you get over the depressing feelings from your thoughts? My thoughts feel unbearable at times and I can't figure out how to cope. I've started ERP, but my mood gets so low sometimes because of these thoughts I feel like I can't handle it. To be more specific, my intrusive thoughts are from Andy Weir's story The Egg.

I'm not even entirely sure what my compulsions are since I'm pretty sure they're all mental. I just want to feel hopeful and enjoy life again without ruminating on these negative scenarios, especially the one I got from that story. I feel awful.

I think I just mainly ruminate on the negative interpretation I have of the story and try to always show or prove to myself why it isn't true.

@PeachyPopsicle That's probably it. So try to avoid proving it. That's the compulsion.

Thanks, I've been fine with this story for years, I legitimately had obsessive thoughts about it several years ago for a couple of months and got over them without ERP. My thoughts have been way worse now though and I'm having a much harder time. To be specific, it's the whole everybody being the same soul or person thing that's messing with my head. I don't necessarily want to get into any discussion over the story on case it just causes me to spiral, but I'm hoping therapy can help me have a more positive view and help me not to get so lost in obsessive thinking.

@PeachyPopsicle Hey! So sorry for the delay, I think we live different time zones! So, the whole everyone is just one guy thing is bothering you, right? Well, there are a lot of wild theories like this one, and you cant disprove them alright, but the good news is that you have no logical reason to think so. Sure, I might be you and vice versa, but you don't have any evidence to prove it, so is simulation theory and a thing similar to these thoughts called solipsism. You can keep searching for the truth about that( which you won't find) or just surrender yourself to reality, be pragmatic about it and toss that thought out. In my point of view, The Egg is a fantastic short story, but its it's just that, a story. It doesnt hold the meaning of life what happens after we die or the nature of God, it's just the author's fantasy.

@HopefullyOptimistic Your comment on solipsism and these types of theories honestly make me quite anxious haha. I'm really trying to not get caught up in obsessing over things like this because these types of thoughts have been the worst for me to overcome. I've been fine with my view of reality and all, so these types of thoughts just seem to go way against what I feel and am even interested in (I've had no interest in studying philosophy). I'm going to be working on my exposures more this week though, my therapist suggested spending an hour each day, so that's my plan for this week. Hopefully it relieves some of this anxiety I have over these types of thoughts. Thanks for your comment by the way! Even if it does make me a little anxious, but that's what exposures are supposed to be about, right? :)

@PeachyPopsicle Yeah you know it! Tbh the only way these things will go from your mind is by staying away at all costs. Try not to interact with the thought in any way, because I know its absolutely horrific. And these thoughts don't interest me in any way, I'm always pretty nervous from the possibility, and philosophy itself doesn't help so much, there is no logical refusal to solipsism, or fantasy short stories. We can only dream, and I've grown to understand that existential questions are literally nonsensical, because they make us question reality, and reality is all we have in this world. So sorry if my comments are bothering you, I'm struggling too with that. But when they come to my mind, I say to myself "what if god is actually santa, and we become his elves after we die?". That's crazy, right? So is solipsism. And the Egg for that matter, it can be a little compelling but in the end you don't have to believe it. Everything was great when life was simple, right?

@HopefullyOptimistic Yes, I try to keep in mind that my brain can come up with all sorts of weird scenarios, philosophical or just straight up bizarre and try to keep that perspective in mind when it comes to these thoughts. Trying not to interact with the thoughts is the hard part because they drive me to ruminating. But I know these kind of thoughts aren't the important ones.

@PeachyPopsicle They were never the important ones. Also in philosophy this whole dilemma we're in is called the problem of other minds. It's a problem, even to the most enlightened people in existence. If you want the logical explanation of people like me existing, you can find it on the Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy. But the problem is existential OCD cant be reasoned with, logic won't help. Also are you religious in any way? I hope you don't mind me asking!

@HopefullyOptimistic Maybe I should check that out then. I know it's logical that other people that aren't me exist, my brain just hates that the story planted this thought in my head that I can't easily get rid of. I don't mind. I was raised Christian and still identify with that faith although I don't feel my faith is the strongest. I haven't gone to church regularly since I was a kid, but I try to read and study the Bible some and would like to eventually join a church I can attend regularly.

@HopefullyOptimistic I gotta ask, does reading up on some of this philosophical stuff help you in anyway? Just wondering if I should incorporate that into some of my exposures, but I can talk to my therapist about it next week. Currently I'm working on exposures that involve me reading a summary of The Egg (on Wikipedia and a review of Logic's Everybody album) and trying to re read the story itself again.

@PeachyPopsicle Not much really! I'm just familiar with the concepts because I've taken a philosophy course in school. But it can help sometimes, because literally everyone who studies philosophy has these thoughts pop in to their head. And I just want to know how they live with it. For me it all started with simulation theory. I dunno how but I just woke up one day with my brain telling me "you're in a simulation and you're the only one alive". That made me have a panic attack, and I really don't know what happened, I've been familiar with simulation theory for years.

@HopefullyOptimistic And being religious can help, when your faith increases, you'll start to take a lot if the things in the bible for granted. And that's great if you ask me! Worship God in your own way, he won't mind.

@HopefullyOptimistic I haven't had much Philosophy, I've only taken a Greek and Roman philosophy course, so it didn't deal too much with these ideas. I was just curious since you seem a little more knowledgeable about some of these philosophical ideas than me. I'll probably just stick with the exposures that I've got assigned and then talk to my therapist about anything else she thinks could help. Thanks, I really do want to grow in my faith and feel like that can be something positive in my life, I just need to work at it along with everything else I need to improve.

@PeachyPopsicle You're welcome! And you still have a lot of info regarding philosophy, it's that my course had a lot of things to say about Descartes, and he has this evil demon arguement, that his whole world was an illusion created by a genius evil demon. Yet he was a devout Catholic, and that helped him overcome a lot of disturbing notions such as ours. I've always thought of God not existing for scientific reasons, you cant make sense of real life without him, that or become an existentialist. And the first option is in my opinion the better one, call me a pragmatist but its way better to think that God runs the whole thing than to grapple with existential crises. Good luck with your exposures, and if you ever wanna discuss it again I'm here!