Worrying about getting in trouble?

[kdubg]

Does anyone ever worry about getting in trouble or going to jail, when you have done literally nothing at all wrong? I feel crazy

[Fourteen14]

Does anyone ever worry about getting in trouble or going to jail, when you have done literally nothing at all wrong? I feel crazy

These kind of thoughts are more common than you would imagine. It stems from the OCD end of anxiety (intrusive thoughts).

It varies from person to person, from women who are terrified they will do harm to their kids, men who are terrified they will sexually abuse/assault kids/women, down to fear of being accused of crimes/jail, fears of developing severe psychiatric conditions, to plain old worries over general health and mortality.

If you imagine anxiety as the result of fear (and panic), the thoughts trigger the physical symptoms which then keep the thoughts going and so the cycle continues.

One technique that may help is to write down your worst fears, and then critically analyse them.

For example:

Did I commit a crime?

Is it reasonable to assume that anything I could have done would warrant legal intervention?

How would a court jury come to a verdict with no/any evidence to support it.


Put yourself on the opposite side of the argument, if your close friend/relative was having those same thoughts, would you be concerned there was any risk of them having the police take them seriously?

What you also need to keep in mind, is that criminal prosecution is incredibly difficult to achieve even on those that have committed serious crimes, why would they waste limited resources on someone that hasn't?

I once dealt with someone who was convinced that the police were secretly investigating them, because they thought they had set fire to a hospital several years ago, to the point they handed themselves into the local police station (the police then called the mental health crisis team to collect them).

They were suffering with chronic severe anxiety disorder, (extreme fear of irrational thoughts) with no other underlying mental health condition.

In comparison to the above example, I am hoping the fact that you are on a forum discussing this (rather than the local police station), goes some way to helping you realise that your thoughts are related to mild anxiety, and likely highly treatable.

Best wishes

[Riley20]

I sometimes worry about things like this, I think it's almost something normal to worry about if you have anxiety as doing something majorly wrong like that, whether intentional or not, will always drastically change your life which is what we fear.

The only thing you can really do is reassure yourself that you haven't committed a crime and that you're a good person :D