# How do I get over my fear of Schizophrenia?



## Nessie91 (Jan 5, 2012)

I am so terrified of this it's my biggest and most frightening obsession. I have been diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder and OCD could that be tricking me into believing I have it? 
None of my family has it either. 

Sometimes at night some random thoughts would pop into my head and it doesn't make sense.. it could be random words and I'd think wtf? Since that happened every night I have to sleep with the TV on.. it doesn't effect me when I have background noise?! I do get random words stuck in my head sometimes my name and other words too. I really don't understand what wrong with me.. I feel like my mind is racing and I can't get my mind off it! 
I don't want to go crazy :afr I often feel detached too.


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## Luctor (Aug 10, 2012)

I'm pretty sure that's simply the obsessive component of OCD. 

If you have no family history of schizophrenia, and your pdoc hasn't picked it up yet I'm sure you're fine.


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## Luctor (Aug 10, 2012)

Oh and knowledge is power. Maybe research the details of both schizophrenia and OCD. Become familiar with the symptoms of both. And if you're still concerned, make an appointment with your pdoc. I assume you have one, considering your other diagnoses? 

Are you on any meds, or in therapy?


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## Nessie91 (Jan 5, 2012)

I'm not on meds. I've had an assessment done (no CBT) and the doctor told me I have anxiety disorder, social anxiety, health anxiety and Pure O-OCD (which is just obsessive thoughts) He did a test on me for Schizophrenia, he read out a bunch of question and I answered no for the majority of them..he said the likelihood of me having it is slim..but it doesn't help me at all. 
It's stuck in my head and I can't shake it off it just keeps coming back because it's not solved by any mental health doctor and I can't get over it..
The doctor even said when I explained my schizo fears he laughed.. he just looked at me and said you're mind is very strange place. :/


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## Luctor (Aug 10, 2012)

I'm not at all familiar with cognitive coping strategies for OCD, but maybe you could try reframe your thinking. 

So, try acknowledge that your schizophrenia concern is irrational and just a symptom of the OCD. Then maybe try reaffirm why it is you aren't schizophrenic. You're coherent, insightful etc. 

So in other words rather than letting your mind run rampant with this irrational belief that you're schizophrenic, try challenge that thought. What evidence is there to support your concern? What evidence is there that you don't have it? Keep asking these questions and eventually you'll see this thought as insignificant. 

I hope this helps. And I hope you feel better.


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## tehuti88 (Jun 19, 2005)

I agree with Luctor, this sounds far, FAR more like OCD than schizophrenia. I too recommend looking up the diagnostic criteria of schizophrenia and reading up about what it's really like. You'll quickly see it involves far more than having random recurring thoughts that won't go away unless you distract yourself. That's not a typical symptom of schizophrenia. In fact, you'll find that that's DEFINITELY a symptom of OCD.

There's a quote I paraphrase rather poorly around here, but it goes something like, if you're worried you're going crazy, you have nothing to worry about, you're still sane. On the other hand, if you're SURE you're not crazy, that's when you should start to worry.

The fact that you're questioning this and worrying about it shows you're still in touch with reality. I suggest maybe doing random reality checks every so often, stopping to calm yourself and clearly assess the situation and see exactly what might be making you think you're losing it, and showing yourself that so far, you're still in your right mind. Which you obviously are, based on how coherent and sensible your post was. 

I too hope you can find something that'll help calm you down. The doctor laughing at you was uncalled for. :no


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## LainToWired (Nov 10, 2011)

This used to be a problem with me. Silly OCD makes me ruminate over going crazy over and over again. Really frustrating. Still happens, with bipolar, schizophrenia, and psychopathy. I know how irrational it is when I could have gone over the deep end ages ago, and I haven't.


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## BoringBum (Jan 10, 2011)

I have read of people having this subtype of OCD - schizophrenic OCD or something. It is just OCD latching itself onto the belief that you may be developing schizophrenia. So, you have OCD, which is itself a pain to deal with at least initially, but you shouldn't take the thoughts for truth. They are just a way that the OCD is expressing itself. I would recommend working on the OCD to get the "pure o" thoughts to calm down. "Brain Lock" by Jeffrey Schwartz is what helped me with my purely obsessional thinking. Read some reviews on amazon for more information. He goes over a 4 step outline on how to proceed with the therapy.

1. Become mindful of the thought that is bothering you. Really focus in on it, and just see it for what it is, a thought that is fueled by OCD. You are not the one that is consciously and rationally thinking these thoughts; rather, these thoughts are happening to you. One woman described it as, "It's not me, it's my OCD." 
2. Once you realize that this is all the workings of your OCD, you shift gears by engaging in a pleasant activity that you enjoy. You can play a computer game, go out and shoot baskets, jog, read, listen to music, whatever. Just do something that will kind of shift your focus of attention. What you are doing is kind of slowly rewiring the mind's thinking pattern at this point, so the obsessional thoughts don't have as much fuel. Try and do this for at least 15 minutes.
3. When you happen to get that obsessive thought again while doing the activity or perhaps throughout the day, just brush it off as it being the result of the OCD. When you kind of ignore it like that, it will tend to diminish in intensity.

Remember, if the thoughts are bothering you and have an obsessional nature to them, it is most likely OCD! If the thought switches themes to something else (OCD gets bored of the schizophrenia panic and decides to latch onto something else, remember, it is most likely the OCD if the scary thoughts get directed elsewhere!). But you have to practice the exercise and remain vigilant, but at the same time dismissive of the thoughts. I recall reading that it might take a few weeks work, but the thoughts should start to decrease in intensity. There is also another therapy for OCD called ERP, exposure and response prevention. I am not too familiar with it, but you can look it up for more information. Dr. Phillipson is a guy who specializes in Pure O OCD, he has a website where he uses ERP to help patients. You can read more about that there. But I used the technique from Brain Lock and it seems to have gained me quite a bit of relief. It is still not perfect, I can't make sense of my Pure O thought, because the thought in my case seems to have some objective truth to it, unlike many cases of OCD. But whatever, for now, I am grateful to have found some relief from this thing at the time being, and Brain Lock was responsible for that.

You don't have to get the book. You can watch him explain it in this video:


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## GettingBetterNow (Mar 27, 2011)

It may be just your obsessive thougts. If you did have it and stop it early it's a condition where you can live a very fine life as long as u take meds.


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## PureOschitz (Aug 27, 2015)

Are you still having these problems?


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## Brawk Shady (Jan 19, 2015)

You might have intrusive thoughts, which can be a symptom of OCD. Intrusive thoughts are usually negative and/or inappropriate. I have intrusive thoughts, and a lot of mine diss things I really care about.


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## preachercassidy (Apr 11, 2015)

listen, I'm paranoid schizophrenic with social phobia. I know different people have slightly different symptoms, but an EEG of bipolar and schizophrenic are more or less the same so there are commonalities, meaning you might have slight bipolar. do you ever experience depression - not wanting to see anyone, or eat, or sleeping too much or too little for long periods, then suddenly waking up and finding yourself overly altruistic, elated, chatty with everyone you see?? are your moods unpredictable??

schizophrenia; you more than likely hear voices and sometimes see things that aren't there. I hear almost constant chatter that I can't really make out, most of the time the voices sound like they're in a room next to the room I'm in even, when I'm standing in a field, they're normally quite loud like it's someone arguing about something. constant chatter in my head is an other one - not being able to shut your brain up leading to insomnia. do you have sensory delusions where your senses are heightened to an uncomfortable level: being uncomfortably aware of the clothes you're wearing, everything you see is too sharp, too bright, smells are really strong, hearing is too sharp. sometimes you are literally transported to other locations, you 100% believe you're in this place, you even know how you got there, when and why - this is the part where people are staring at you and your behaviour is not normal from their perspective: you're in a supermarket but in your head you are back at home or wherever. I'm sure I don't have to explain paranoia to you, oh and you might be OCD about things - not necessaily the same things, I get compelled to do certain tasks, it feels like someone suggested I need to do it, then it's all I can think about I give it 100% of my attention till the task is completed: it's weird the OCD is a blessing, so long as I concentrate on that task most of my other symptoms go away. when the task is completed they come back, until I'm given a new task.

If you recognize any of this , you need to go talk to someone. don't worry about it though, with the right medication and support from any friends or family, most people don't even notice and you can have a more or less normal life. Anyway I've read some studies on bipolar and schizophrenia and we're supposed to be more imaginative and creative, we can't all be savants but I'll settle for creative.


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## preachercassidy (Apr 11, 2015)

do look at CBT, it does help with all kinds of mental health issues including OCD and social anxiety. You don't have to involve anyone else unless you want to. Go out and buy a book called 'Mind Over Mood', I have a copy here right now. It's an exercise book. basically you work your way through the book at your own pace, it explain's what the objective of each exercise is as you progress and it's jargon free. by the time you finish you will know how to recognize thought patterns that might be self-deprecating or paranoid or obsessive; grade the extent or level of distress this thought pattern is causing; come up with a counter attack thought pattern and replace the distressing one with the positive one.

I found this book worked very well for my social anxiety too.


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## ChrissyQ (Apr 15, 2009)

*schizophrenia*

I recently got diagnosed with schizophrenia it is something to be very afraid of that is for sure!!! Talk about mental TORMENT! SA Is nothing compared! Be afraid! Be VERY AFRAID!!!


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## Loki180 (Sep 5, 2015)

People told me that I had Schizophrenia, walking around I can see people who are not there, faces, figures shapes and shadows. It is not very nice. I am 24 and I have to sleep with the light on, is it Schizophrenia? No, am I crazy? well kinda but no. The mind seems to spite itself sometimes, when it happens, and I know its easy said then done, but just repeat that its not real, its all in the mind.

It helps me, that and the light.


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## livetolovetolive (Jun 11, 2015)

Nessie91 said:


> I am so terrified of this it's my biggest and most frightening obsession. I have been diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder and OCD could that be tricking me into believing I have it?
> None of my family has it either.
> 
> Sometimes at night some random thoughts would pop into my head and it doesn't make sense.. it could be random words and I'd think wtf? Since that happened every night I have to sleep with the TV on.. it doesn't effect me when I have background noise?! I do get random words stuck in my head sometimes my name and other words too. I really don't understand what wrong with me.. I feel like my mind is racing and I can't get my mind off it!
> I don't want to go crazy :afr I often feel detached too.


I had such an intense fear of schizophrenia. For a solid year-year-and-a-half it was my obsession. I would do test after test, research it for hours. I think I have become an expert on schizophrenia because of my level of obsession. I worried about it so much I couldn't sleep and couldn't think. I became completely burned out. I could not get out of bed, I lost my will to live. I saw several doctors and specialists who all assured me it was severe anxiety which led to severe depression.. not schizophrenia.

The only reason I'm telling you this is so you can be sure how much I REALLY thought I was getting it.

Anxiety can be incredibly convincing. You can shape it into your worst fears. In your case (and mine, before) that worst fear is schizophrenia. Anxiety doesn't just sit there and make you feel like crap. It affects your thought processes. Your mind likes thinking and drawing conclusions. There is no real conclusion to anxiety.. it's just noise.. so if there's too much of it and no solution appears, the brain runs crazy with conclusions.

A great conclusion is the onset of schizophrenia. The type of generalized anxiety/depression you have mirrors some of the criteria for the prodromal stage of schizophrenia. The surest criteria for it is a high level of shizotypy. You are hyper aware of your state of mind and how it relates to your environment, hence you have very little schizotypy, hence you are not in the prodromal stages of schizophrenia, hence you are not developing schizophrenia.

The best thing you can do is avoid researching it, looking up symptoms, doing tests, all of that stuff. Don't think about schizophrenia. Force yourself not to look it up when you get that itch. The feeling that you're getting it will go away and maybe you can face something closer to the actual source of your general anxiety (all it is!) and fix it.

Good luck.


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## WhiteSheep (Jun 20, 2015)

Maybe it would ease your mind to know that having schizophrenia isn't the end of the world. There's a lot of good meds out there, I know, I take some of them to stay sane.


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