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Casual Contributor

Anxiety turning into OCD??

Hi all, 

I've always had anxiety (panic attacks sometimes, but mostly generalised day to day constant anxieties that stop me from feeling happy and accepted) and sometimes with OCD symptoms (things like checking doors consistently or scratching my skin during bad spells). Though recently it has developed into a further depression and more intense OCD. I feel embarrassed? I feel like I have been working so hard and finally started seeing some kind of progress, and now I feel that I've gone back so far that I've passed where I even started. I mopped my floor 4 times the other night, washed my face 16 times, washed my hands 16 times too. It happened for two nights, and then nothing again? I feel so incredibly anxious. I don't know what to do. I feel like I'm going loopy and like I've just made it all up for myself and I am the reason it has gotten so bad. 

3 REPLIES 3

Re: Anxiety turning into OCD??

ocd is all pretty much related to anxiety, i'm pretty anxious and have both.  it's probably about the what if imdidn;t do it properly kind of thoughts.. somewhere you end up doubting and think of a worse case scenario, so you repeat the exercise which kind if calms you a bit but the what if thought comes back again.

 

hope i'm explaining it right, i never remember the theory.  probably the thinking should be about doing it once and realising the thinking is an overreaction - nobody ever died from not having s clean floor.

 

Re: Anxiety turning into OCD??

@Why 


@Why wrote:

I feel like I'm going loopy and like I've just made it all up for myself and I am the reason it has gotten so bad. 


I've certainly felt like this before - like maybe I WANT to feel bad so am just exaggerating things. What made me fret about this a little less is I read a comment from someone that decribed OCD as "the ultimate placebo effect". So, you feel like you've made it up for yourself because you've got a brain that likes grabbing onto possibilities. 

 

Also, sometimes we realise we are doing things that we COULD stop (as in, we intellectually should have the power), but not stopping seems so much harder. So, the boundary between "I've made this up and it should be in my control" and the opposite is...blurry. Brains with anxiety don't like blurriness.

Re: Anxiety turning into OCD??

Do you see a psychologist? It's probably worth making an appointment. 

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