Fear of Schizophrenia, help!!!

[pokeynokey]

background info: I've had anxiety and ocd since I was 9, mostly fears of getting sick

I stopped smoking weed in May this year after 2 years of heavy use and right when I stopped I felt so derealization/depersonalization. Noticing this scared me and I started worrying about mental illnesses that I would explain why I was feeling the way I did. I looked up symptoms multiple times a day online and found out that schizophrenics can feel dr/dp, I started obsessing over everything, If I was having normal thoughts, If things I heard were actually there, etc. I starting seeing a psychologist for GAD/Hypochondria and I've made some progress, but I still worry that I'm going Schizophrenic every single day.

My family has no history of Psychotic illnesses, I smoked weed, and I've done acid 5 times.

Does this sound like OCD/Anxiety? or the early phases of Schizophrenia? :/

[SAG]

You have OCD/ Anxiety. Schizoprenia brings hallucinations etc. But it doesn't matter, you will convince yourself that it is schizoprenia. that is the nature of OCD and Anxiety. OCD/Anxiety brings us our greatest fear at a particular moment. When we conquer one fear our subconscious gives us another fear to deal with. The goal of conquering anxiety is not to treat the fear but to treat what produces the fear. In anxiety and depression, what produces the fear is lack of self confidence and low self esteem. If we have confidence and self esteem we do not fear, when we don't we fear. To gain self confidence and self esteem we have to do 4 critical things.
1. Be thankful for the good things you have in life. Thank God for everything even though you don't feel your life is wonderful
2. We have to intensely encourage ourselves to the same magnitude we scare and discourage ourselves with our anxiety. This is call self talk. It must be systematic so that it becomes a habit.
3. Distraction. Whenever we are not anxious we are distracted. Whenever anxiety comes, take 10 minutes timeout, do deep breaths and then distract yourself.
4. Build on small victories. If you walk to the park today, savor it and congratulate yourself. If you had a good night's rest, be thankful and congratulate yourself. Remember you didn't get anxious suddenly, it was a process, so getting back to health is going to be a process. It may be quick it may be slow, it may be moderate, but it is hardly instant.

[Marlow]

I have the same fear, The only exception is that my aunt was schizophrenic but I had never met her. I had overcome the fear for a couple years but this summer some DP/DR came over me and with it PANIC, that of which I had never had before. I started with some therapy but find that what you need to do is what SAG said, and thats work on the things that make you mentally healthy. Look up mental health, it should consist: Relationships, Social, Fun, Spiritual, Diet, Sleep, and Exercise. Work on those and you are bound to improve. I hear ya though, Im terrified that I am Schizo.

Marlow

[jessed03]

Agree totally with Marlow. Sorry to hear about your Aunt, my cousin has schitzo, he was also pretty much my idol growing up too, so it definetly brings a lot of distress and worry of myself too, so yeah, it's important to focus on the healthy things, afterall, we could win the jackpot tomorrow, or be involved in a freak accident when one of our arms is cut by a stray windshield wiper from an alien spaceship 1000 galaxies away haha. It's just the uncertainty of life that we have to live with, but by focusing on the right balances at least we can ensure our body and mind are healthy and peaceful, allowing them to respond to challenges better.

If we worried about all the tragedies that could befall us, we'd never sleep again... Afterall...Who can be totally sure the Vikings won't randomly decide to resign Brett Favre!!!