how can i stop obsessing?

[blah27e]

I keep obsessing about my eyes. i worry about what will happen if they come out. and i have developed a habbit where i stick my finger inside my socket to make sure they wont come out. so now i worry about myself poking them out. i think and do this pretty much 24/7. i dont stick my fingers in my socket as much, but i still do it though. i take 40 mg of prozac a day. im going to change to paxil or welbutrin soon to see if that makes any difference. my dad says i dont have ocd, but i think i do. this is why i think i have ocd, when i turn the channel or something i have to go up a few channels then down then back up. and when i say my prayers at night whne i get done i have to repeat a few words over and over again before can go to sleep. if i touch something on the left, i gotta touvh the right side, then both left and right at the same time, the the middle. theres alot of stuff like that that i do. what do u think? and do u have any ideas on how i can stop obsessing over my eyes? and stop poking at them?

[Robbed]

Simply put, allow yourself to obsess. But at the same time, when you start obsessing about your eyes, resist the urge to pick up on the thought, react with fear, and poke at your eyes. If you just let obsessive thoughts pass, then they will WITH TIME disappear. I emphasize the 'with time' part because it might take a while. Whether you have OCD as such is hard to say. But here's a good way to look at it. Everyone has obsessions. It becomes a disorder when it goes from being an occasional thing to being a problem in life. This frequently happens with anxiety disorders. So if it wasn't a big problem before your anxiety started, then I would look at it as a result of your anxiety disorder rather than primary OCD.

[agoraphobia]

Hello,

People that have anxiety disorders most usually pick up what I call rituals and good totem bad totem. Let me explain.

Rituals is something that is done to ward off anxiety. It is as though if you do not do these things, then the anxiety will occur or be worse.

Good totem bad totem, for example is like a certain shirt you wore one day when you experienced alot of anxiety or had a panic attack that felt very bad, so you may see the shirt as bad totem and not wear it any more, esp. if it was newer shirt.

Good totem is just the opposite.

As for obsessing over the eyes, and the compulsion to touch them, I would recommend that you try breaking the stimulus/Response bond by touching your chin instead.

I know this may not be easy to do, but if you do this, and keep doing this, the obsession will lessen to the point that it will probably disappear.

Also, for reassurance, your eyes can not be poped out, pulled out ...etc.

You may have eye damage if you have a very bad accident, but even at that, it would be dang near impossible for your eyes to pop out. More eye may be exposed, but not poped out.

The eye is a very complex organ that is actaully one piece, which consist of the optic track, which is attached to the brain and part of the skull by muscle and connective tissue, and inside of the optic track, again it is secured by muscle and connective tissue.

This is from an ophthalmologis:


Human eyes can't pull out on stalks
"As many of you know, I am an ophthalmologist (eye surgeon), actually
a retina surgeon. So, on about a weekly basis, I operate on people's
eyes, making beautiful incisions on the surface of the eye, through
the tough connective tissues on the surface, exposing the muscles and
the lovely white eyeball (globe) itself. Sure, the eye is attached to
the brain by a "stalk", the optic nerve, but, there is a whole lot of
stuff in front of the stalk. Hey, God (or whatever creative force you
believe in) made your eyes to last!!!!
"Think about it, if your eye could hang out on a stalk, then no one
could wear contact lenses, since they'd get lost back there in near
your brain (which is impossible)!
"Try this experiment at home: Look in the mirror, gently pull down
your lower lid. You'll see that inside the eyelid it is pink. And,
down at the bottom, the pink bit meets up with the white of your eye,
and is attached VERY firmly there. Well, there is exactly the same
thing under
your upper lid. You just cannot reach much farther than 8 mm above the
colored part of your eye because all the connective tissue stops you!
"Also, the "stalk" only has about 10 millimeters (less than
half-an-inch) of 'play', so even if one COULD pull out the globe in
that fashion, it would never clear the eyelids. I routinely hook the
muscles and pull with a great deal of force on the eyes, they never
come forward more than about 3 mm (which makes the surgery a lot
harder, believe me!!!)...
"In fact, when we REMOVE human eyes (because of a tumor in the eye, or
due to severe trauma to the eye) we carefully cut away all the
connective tissue, and separate the eye muscles that envelope the
globe, until all we are left with is the lovely white eyeball and the
optic nerve to which it is attached. We then pull as hard as we can so
we can cut the nerve as far behind the back of the globe as possible
(this is especially important for eye cancer cases). Even after
clearing all that tissue away, I can tell you from much personal
experience, that indeed, the eye only can 'come out' several
millimeters..."

I hope this helps. ;)