- Date posted
- 5y
- Date posted
- 5y
Hey friend! Common symptom in OCD, particularly if your theme revolves around health OCD. I have the same theme currently, and I’ve dealt with your particular issue in the past—although now it’s morphed into something else. The best part is I was having hyponopomic hallucinations upon waking up during that time as well. Like with all other obsessions, the answer is ERP therapy. For me, that meant exposures where I’d stare at images that cause visual hallucinations, or I’d set up screens to flash things in my periphery at random. Eventually, I stopped caring and focusing on it at all.
- Date posted
- 5y
My main concern is how do I know that if is 100% my OCD. I sometimes sense movement in the corner of my eye and that my be because after some recent experience with seeing spiders moving in my peripheral vision I associate that experience with everything now. A stain on the carpet sticks out to me and I’m scared that it will move before I realize that it’s just a stain with my own eyes and that is whats driving me crazy. I don’t know if this is a form of hallucinations but my peripheral vision seems to heighten my whole environment to a degree that wasn’t there before and I don’t know how to manage it.
- Date posted
- 5y
@midnightlight You can’t know it’s 100% just OCD. Not anymore than you can be 100% certain something bad won’t happen. The risk of being in a car accident is exponentially higher than the risk of developing psychosis, yet we still ride in cars every day. The same is true here. It’s just your OCD has latched on to this particular thought/awareness and you’re hyper-focused on it.
- Date posted
- 5y
@NOCD Advocate - Carl Cornett Is seeing spots crawl in my peripheral vision part of being hyper aware?
- Date posted
- 5y
I am terribly sorry you feel this way, I also have this issue with my OCD. To be honest, I am glad I found someone else with it as that provides assurance nothing is wrong. I talked to my therapist about it, the visual field is quite tricky. Our visual mistakes things for other things all the time, especially out of the periphery. You must first ACCEPT that you’re anxious about this. Rather than being afraid of the things you may see, know that everytime it occurs it’s an OCD thing/typical occurance with your visual field.
- Date posted
- 5y
I totally agree with both replies above. You said "how do I diagnose this". To me, that question appears misguided. Perhaps you can change it to "how can I respond to this effectively?"
Related posts
- Date posted
- 23w
I started dealing with OCD when I became fixated on health issues, particularly the fear of contracting a life-threatening disease. If I experienced any kind of medical symptom, no matter how small, that even remotely hinted at something potentially fatal, it would drive me crazy, and I couldn’t stop obsessing over it. Then one day, I started having intrusive thoughts about accidentally hitting someone with my car, and I would end up driving in circles to check if I had. Eventually, I found myself overwhelmed by a flood of new obsessive thoughts and compulsions. One day, while I was at the park, a squirrel came near me, and for some reason, I felt like it attacked me. I Googled it and learned that squirrels could carry rabies, which spiraled me into a deep fear of rabies. I became consumed with the thought I received a bite from a squirrel, raccoon, or bat any time I’m in areas that trigger me. It started off only being inside then transferred to even being in my own home. This made me obsess over every physical sensation in my body, compulsively checking to make sure nothing was wrong. One compulsion that I hated the most would to be putting rubbing alcohol on me to make sure that I had no open wounds. Every day feels like I’m walking around in a fog of anxiety, constantly worrying that I won’t even make it to old age. Sometimes, it gets so overwhelming that I just want it all to end. It stresses me so bad at times to where my brain feels like I’ve been studying all day.
- Date posted
- 22w
I don't know what to do anymore, the fear of psychosis and schizophrenia is so bad in so hyper aware of everything I hear and everything I see, I've always had eye floaters now I convince myself that it's really me hallucinating, I've always had tinnitus but now I'm convinced it means I'm going to go crazy soon, I can't sit in quiet because all I'm focusing on is what I'm hearing, and searching for any sounds I can't distinguish, when there's background noise I get so anxious if I think I heard something but im not sure I did or I'm just anxious, I'm terrified I'll start having delusions and sometimes my brain confuses some sounds for other sounds for example say I'm hyper focused and I breathe and my nose makes a whistling sound my mind interprets it as a scream and I freak out thinking I'm hallucinating only to focus closer and realize it's my own breathing, earlier I was so anxious that I couldnt tell if I had an intrusive thought or heard something, I don't know how to make it stop, I've been through this theme before I just forgot how hard it was I'm having a panic attack please help
- Date posted
- 18w
How to know if you actually have it or if I’m just making up the symptoms? I have a lot of intrusive thoughts constantly and even have a “theme” but it really surged after I search up what I was experiencing, but then again I search up a lot of what I experience and constantly have to recheck things. My parents say I’m normal but I know I’m not, (both of my siblings have adhd) I find it immensely hard to focus from turning 17-18. Please let me know what you think l! Thanks!
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