Existential Anxiety Anyone else question their life’s purpose or wonder if there is an afterlife. I have been obsessing over the idea that we are mortal and it’s stressing me out. I want to live in the moment and enjoy my life, but I can’t stop obsessing over these thoughts. Can anyone relate? What helps?

Religion & Spirituality OCD

DefeatingThis!

Date posted: 4y ago

I’ve been there . It’s a question many of us ask especially those of us that battle with OCD, and it grips our minds at times. One thing that I learned to do is let it go and trust God. I’m a Christian , so in regard to my belief system I had to learn to be okay with placing my faith in Jesus and leaving it there. In regard to specific ERP around this topic , maybe one of the NOCD advocates can give a better answer. Hope this helped a little.

Kuan462

Date posted: 4y ago

Thank you, it helps to know I’m not alone. I have been researching religion a little bit more, I’m pretty spiritual, but with a busy life with kids and the pandemic it’s been hard to feel connected to those things. I have one parent who’s Jewish and one who is Christian, neither especially religious. Maybe a good time to look into those religions and see if anything clicks for me.

Aylagoose55

Date posted: 4y ago

@Kuan462 Thats a good idea guided meditation helps me sometimes

Aylagoose55

Date posted: 4y ago

I have the same problem I understand your pain its awful thinking about the future and that someday we are going to die I hope we both can live in the moment someday and I know that day will come

Kuan462

Date posted: 4y ago

I hope that for us too, I think the pandemic triggered this distorted thinking for me. It’s hard to feel connected to the world when you are so isolated! (Right now in my area it’s rough)

Carl Cornett

Date posted: 4y ago

Sure. I mean, entire religious doctrines and schools of philosophy have been dedicated to that very question. There’s nothing out of the ordinary about having them, but it’s just what your OCD attaches to. I’d caution trying to research the subject to arrive at some “answer”, because there can’t really ever be a 100% guaranteed conclusion one way or the other. Me, personally, I’m fairly confident there is no afterlife nor deity of any sort. However, that’s a conclusion I’ve made based on the evidence and not something I can “know” for sure. Researching a religion or ideology to try and figure it out with certainty is a compulsion.

Kuan462

Date posted: 4y ago

Thanks for clarifying that for me. I do think I sometimes get lost in my OCD and don’t realize that maybe these thoughts are intrusive and the drive to find answers are compulsions. My intrusive thoughts prior to this were never of this nature, so this is new for me - and super unpleasant! I’m hoping to be able to label the thoughts as intrusive and try not to give in to the compulsion of delving deeper into them

Carl Cornett

Date posted: 4y ago

@Kuan462 If it feels urgent, if you can’t let it go, if you feel the need to seek answers or research, if you feel distress that you can’t know...it’s probably OCD driving it.

Kuan462

Date posted: 4y ago

@NOCD Advocate - Carl Cornett That’s exactly how it feels, the thoughts cause me to cry and feel emotional, then I’m googling spirituality and trying to find answers, it ruins my mood and hinders my happiness .. makes it hard to be present with my kids which is the worse part. Labeling this as a function of my OCD helps already

Carl Cornett

Date posted: 4y ago

@Kuan462 This is why mindfulness is such a great tool. It helps you examine something accurately. Not the content of a particular thought or going down the rabbit hole, but seeing it for what it truly is. “Ah, I’m distracted. I’m feeling urgency. I’m fearful right now.” And practicing letting that feeling be felt rather than analyzed.

Kuan462

Date posted: 4y ago

@NOCD Advocate - Carl Cornett Wow that makes a lot of sense, thank you for the insight. This is definitely a challenging time for me; pandemic, lots of adjustments (college student), kids are home from school. Probably why it’s flaring up. I appreciate this, thanks so much

Carl Cornett

Date posted: 4y ago

@Kuan462 Any time!

sophielove

Date posted: 25w ago

Existential OCD and fear of aging

Hello, I am a young girl struggling with OCD, specifically existential related OCD. I feel constantly like my life is pointless, like my goals aren’t significant, because, I’m just going to be forgotten and die. What is the point? I don’t want to get old and not be able to do what I love. Sometimes I wonder if not existing would be easier, but I don’t want to die yet. It’s really confusing, and I’d love some tips I could get for motivation. I really want to be spiritual, but I struggle in believing in stuff so…?

catnipppp

Date posted: 18w ago

existential crisis

Really bad theme right now is death, I keep thinking about how one day or at any moment my heart will stop my brain will stop & my memories & everything I know will all fade away. It is giving me so much anxiety I’m only 18, but I realize it all happens to us it is bound, we are born to die. I know it’s a silly thing to be scared because it’s not helping the quality of my life worrying about it and even when I do die, I won’t care , if you don’t have a working brain then how can you care 🤷‍♀️. It is tainting my everyday life currently & honestly making me terribly depressed & it is giving me derealization & making me feel nihilistic, I’ll remind myself it’s okay but then with my ocd i don’t stop thinking and thinking about it and it’s seriously so hard to stay present in the moment because this thought just feels like I can’t scrub it away it’s miserable I struggle with religion, but I do pray to anything that’s out there possibly listening, because it is comforting, it just feels like this whole experience Is pointless & I am afraid of the unknown and what is to possibly happen but I’m subjected to it anyways so why should it matter

ana444

Date posted: 8w ago

Been obsessed with death

Of course we can’t stop the inevitable but with my ocd it’s all I can think about. I’m afraid I’ll be alone for ever and I’ll fear forever. Fear does not stop death it stops life. But how do I stop fear??? I can’t think of anything scarier than the fact that our conscious will vanish for eternity. I am only 20 years old but I mean the last 5 years flew by like nothing.

Be a part of the largest OCD Community

Share your thoughts so the Community can respond

Related posts

Be a part of the largest OCD Community

Be a part of the largest OCD Community