Anxiety is making me believe I have schizophrenia

[DamnAnxiety2hell]

Nobody in my family has any type of mental disorder, my anxiety started from a marijuana induced panic attack. Just today I went to visit my doctor and she asked if I've been hearing or seeing things which aren't there. This got me thinking. What if I do have it? Now ever sound I hear I question it. Was it really there? What made that noise? I also heard that marijuana can trigger schizophrenia, I'm so scared and worried it's driving me into believing it. Please help!

[KitahD]

Heck - I understand!! My anxiety has me fixated on becoming bipolar or schizophrenic. I don't hear voices or hallucinate but I obsess that I will hallucinate or hear things. I see movement out of the corner of my eye and wonder if I'm hallucinating. It's stupid but I can't stop worrying about it.

[DamnAnxiety2hell]

Exactly! It's good to see I'm not the only one in this situation :)

[KitahD]

My therapist always looks and talks to me like I'm text book OCD anxiety yet somehow I think it must be right. Grrr.

[blondieqtpie]

Anxiety can lead you to think many things - true an false. But dual or more diagnosis is not uncommon. Also most people with schizophrenia are not aware or their dilusions or what they hear or see is not really there. But if you are worried see a psychiatrist for diagnosis.
But I can say when I was in college and took abnormal psychology I kept putting myself into the position where I was like ... Am I this? Or that? Btw I have panic and anxiety disorder and OCD and PTSD. So I know now I was just letting my anxiety get to me and my OCD made me obsess a bit over different disorders I thought I may have.

[blondieqtpie]

Oh and I do believe in the paranormal so sometimes I have seen things out form the corner of my eye- which is your peripheral vision. And I've heard the odd whisper of a word or two in my ear. Many believe that you see spirits from your peripheral vision easier and I come from a family where the females have been Psychic and told that I'm a receiver. I have had dead people come into my dreams to give messages to people I know and believe sometimes I hear part messages too. And yes I've thought many times if I'm making it up or I'm hallucinating--but I know I'm not. We don't know all of what is out there so who knows.
Maybe what you hear or see is real... Maybe it's not.

[Kyle McMahon]

The good news is, you don't have these things. People that have hallucinations and hear voices, don't typically realize that those are abnormal experiences. It's like the old saying, "Crazy people don't know they're crazy". If you're worrying about it, you've got nothing to worry about.


Nobody in my family has any type of mental disorder, my anxiety started from a marijuana induced panic attack. Just today I went to visit my doctor and she asked if I've been hearing or seeing things which aren't there. This got me thinking. What if I do have it? Now ever sound I hear I question it. Was it really there? What made that noise? I also heard that marijuana can trigger schizophrenia, I'm so scared and worried it's driving me into believing it. Please help!

[Sarah W]

Hey, I had a really harrowing experience with marijuana about two and a half years ago. Within a few months I went through several months of derealization during which I seriously thought I was mentally ill. (It may or may not be related--could've screwed up my chemistry, maybe.) Here's the thing though: I've had this thing off and on since I was a teenager where I sort of heard a whispering. The more stressed I am. The more I'm "looking" for it. I'm not sure I would call it a hallucination. It's somewhere between a thought and the sensation that it's audible. I know it's not real. Telling my GP what I was going through that summer, he thought I might be schizophrenic--because I used the key words "hearing whispering". I've talked to several psychologists and psychiatrists since though, and it's always been their opinion that I was suffering from anxiety and depression. I think there was a time when I was unwilling to believe that it could be that minor because it really felt like there was something horribly wrong with me--especially when I was at my breaking point--but that's how a person with anxiety thinks. For all my fear of being a schizophrenic, I may not be able to put myself in someone who suffers from that disorder's shoes at all if they don't constantly worry that they're going crazy.

I even worry that if I don't stop worrying that I might be crazy that I might be more vulnerable to going crazy because the only way you can definitely not be crazy is if you're worried you're crazy--because, after all, "crazy people don't know they're crazy".

I think part of my concern springs from a family history of mental illness, though.

I hope this helps. I'm just saying what I think I would have liked to have been told two years ago.

[Chris80]

Thanks for bringing this up! I thought I was the only one. I think im going schizophrenic all the time, but im sure im not if that makes any sense at all lol.

I just feel so different to everyone else and never would have thought anxiety could be this bad.for this reason I keep thinking there has to be something really wrong.

My psych keeps telling me its normal for what I've been through and I shouldnt be so harsh on myself. I don't want to be like this forever, so scared I will never recover

[jayj404]

I too had a marijuana induced panic attack. I know everybody else basically said this, but you don't have schizophrenia. I honestly don't think that marijuana can trigger schizophrenia. The fact that you are worrying about it means you are perfectly fine.

[KitahD]

"I even worry that if I don't stop worrying that I might be crazy that I might be more vulnerable to going crazy because the only way you can definitely not be crazy is if you're worried you're crazy--because, after all, "crazy people don't know they're crazy". "

Holy cow - that's me 100%!!!!

[sweetypie]

I didn't say this in your other thread, but I agree that panic attacks and anxiety induced by marijuana are common. I've never had marijuana because I'm very afraid of drugs, even prescription drugs, but I've had friends who took marijuana and got anxiety or panic attacks from them. I even know a guy who got agoraphobia because of his marijuana usage.

I do get the fear of becoming schizophrenic though because schizophrenia runs in my family. I saw my Mom have it and she had no idea that she had it. It's gone now, but it's still hard for me to convince her that God wasn't talking to her during that time and she wasn't seeing real demons. It was schizophrenia. And her father committed suicide because of his schizophrenia. He was alive during WWII and thought communists had secret devices everywhere and were spying on him and everyone he knew.

I've also had friends with schizophrenia, so I've seen a lot of people have schizophrenia and think God was talking to them or that they were able to see into other dimensions and things. And it's so hard to talk to them about the fact that they have schizophrenia. I've had my life threatened over telling my friend that I thought she had schizophrenia and that the government didn't really spy on her through stop lights because she thought I was in on it.

So I hate when people say,"As long as you are scared of it, then for sure you don't have it." Then I'm scared of losing my fear because then I think I will have it!

I think what helped me with my fear is seeing another friend get schizophrenia and her accept the truth right away and immediately decide to take pills. I disagree that all schizophrenics don't know they have schizophrenia. Seeing her, she told me as soon as her stuffed animals started talking to her that she was going to see a therapist about it and started taking pills right away and was fine immediately. There's this stereotype that all schizophrenics are completely unstable and unable to understand what they are going through. But after seeing her handle it so easily and get on medication and get better, I feel less scared of schizophrenia than I used to be.

I think if you are aware of the possibility of getting schizophrenia like you and I are, then if you get it, you handle it so easily that it barely disrupts your life. Or at least that's what I'm choosing to believe at this time.

[DamnAnxiety2hell]

Well I doubt I have it, it doesn't run in the family nor do I hallucinate or hear things. I just got a bit worried because I heard that weed can trigger it.

[farrah01]

"I even worry that if I don't stop worrying that I might be crazy that I might be more vulnerable to going crazy because the only way you can definitely not be crazy is if you're worried you're crazy--because, after all, "crazy people don't know they're crazy". " Holy cow - that's me 100%!!!!

This made me laugh so hard!! Lol I'm the same way, and I have said something similar to my husband, and heard how ridiculous it sounded as soon as it came outta my mouth. Lol

[trinidiva]

I truly believe that when you start to slip from reality, you don't realize it. There is another post on this forum that kind of fits that criteria, I think that person is having some type of mental break.....

[sweetypie]

I truly believe that when you start to slip from reality, you don't realize it. There is another post on this forum that kind of fits that criteria, I think that person is having some type of mental break.....

I thought the same thing, too, and that's why schizophrenia used to scare me. But I've had friends get it and realize that they have schizophrenia and handle it really well, getting the help they needed right away. This friend of mine that did this in particular made schizophrenia seem like no big deal.

And I really appreciate her because I have fear of schizophrenia, too, (it runs in my family) and saw my Mom go through some terrible things because of it and she still hasn't fully accepted that she had schizophrenia. And I've seen other people lose it, too. And I think it's that fear of your own mind controlling you and you having no idea what is going on that makes it so scary.

Seeing my friend handle it like it was nothing made it feel a whole lot less scary. It gave it less power to destroy my life if I ever do get it like my Mom and grandfather both did.

[Ahlstrom]

You don't have it bro, trust me. My first panic attack was weed-induced and after two months I thought I was developing schizophrenia. You're going through the EXACT same shit that I went through, start to realize that you're not going nuts and your brain will chill out.

[lee2]

Anxiety is awful and it tricks u into paranoia,anxiety,panic,depression,anorexia,etc...b ut we can defeat it...it takes time...I know for me meds have help ed..and I was against them..but I seeing a lik light

[Perses]

I truly believe that when you start to slip from reality, you don't realize it. There is another post on this forum that kind of fits that criteria, I think that person is having some type of mental break.....

Yes, trinidiva, I absolutely agree with you re the post you're referring to. It's very sad and troubling. In a psychotic break, you really loose touch with everyday reality, and your fractured mind starts to impose its own strange chaotic order on the world as it perceives it.