I don’t know if I have schizophrenia or if my ocd is making me think I do 😢😢😢

If it’s a concern, I would seek a professional assessment / opinion. Schizophrenia is horrible and mean, I have watched my brother struggle with it and it became severe last year, it was heartbreaking to watch. He is now on the right meds that have reduced the voices and it is amazing to see him take his life back and see him smile again and be able to function. It is treatable & he is an amazing human that is managing his schizophrenia. He recently begged me to buy him a door mat with a suquril on it that said “Welcome to The Nut House - it’s a little squriley in here” he thought it was Hilarious! Then he says to me “I hear voices, so I AM a little nutty!” So ya, he has a new door mat. OCD loves to create fear around things that we don’t understand and maybe it is schizophrenia and many it’s not, and if it is - there is treatment available.

I had OCD around this when I was in college. I was a psych major for awhile and didn't know I had OCD. I spent an entire semester worried that I was going to develop schizophrenia. I also had massive religious OCD. I constantly doubted my salvation and constantly asked for assurance. But it never worked. Now I know why.

People with schizophrenia doesn't think about it as a mental illness. Don't forget that

Most schizophrenic people are not dangerous and it is a very treatable disorder because so much is known about it. Why do you think you might be schizophrenic? I believe that due to the inappropriate represenation of ocd in the media many people with ocd think they have schizophrenia jnstead of ocd because the ocd "talks" to us in our heads. We are aware we dont want the thoughts and arent making them willingly and then we begin to worry that we are hearing "voices" when we are really hearing our brains rambling, we are not halluncinating. Ocd often manifests in the form of internal dialogue such as "touch that and you'll die" or "That person hate you". That is by definition not enough to qualify for a schizophrenia diagnosis. If you do not hallucinate, if you do not have delusions, if you do not suffer from extreme paranoia or disjointed thought process. It may not be enough to warrant a visit to the doctors.

In my brothers case, and is common with schizophrenia - he would hear voices from birds, electronics, vehicles talking to him and making fun of him. He understands those things do not actually speak English and it is not real, although it feels so real in the moment when they are relentlessly teasing him.