You have nothing to lose except some of your anxieties hopefully
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After the event I was sure I was paranoid, and constant anxiety, avoided places like the plague, I thought the government thought that I was 1. an arsonist. 2. a pervert. 3 a terrorist.
I thought they thought about me each differently after 2-4 months of thinking they were thinking that i was a arsonist, then 2-4 months later, a pervert, then 2-4 later a terrorist.
I know it's been a while since this topic was relevant- but anxiety is a common symptom of schizophrenia, even in its prodromal stages. While it is true that there is no causal link between anxiety and schizophrenia, there is a very strong correlation between continued stress and schizophrenia in those who have genetic predispositions. After all, in studies with identical twins, there is still less than a 50% chance of one twin developing schizophrenia if it develops in the other. With this in mind, the stress of severe anxiety can increase the likelihood of schizophrenia (and conversely, early schizophrenia sometimes results in extreme anxiety). Sure, anxiety alone won't be enough to cause it, but it could be the straw that breaks the camel's back.
Also, many people who are developing schizophrenia are very much aware that something is wrong with them- it's not until their first psychotic break that insight is lost.I know this isn't the most... consoling of messages, especially for sufferers of anxiety, but to completely deny the correlation, however small, would be untruthful.
People with anxiety already have a propensity for over worrying and worrying about things that are extremely unlikely to ever happen to them. so although your info is accurate on the surface, it does not apply to more than 99% of people who are battling anxiety.
I know this is a really old thread but I just wanted to say how grateful I am for having stumbled upon it. I also suffer from anxiety and my worries are exactly identical to the original poster, so when I read you guys's responses, it really made an impact on me. I'm so thankful for your beautiful and encouraging words. You have truly helped me today!
Hello I’m about to be 18 and I started having anxiety issues about 2 years and a half ago. I haven’t been diagnosed with any disorder but I do suffer from obsessive thoughts and I worry a lot about stuff, and I’m a hypochondriac. When my anxiety started my constant fear was fainting and then after 1 year of seeing a psychologist my anxiety calmed down. I was okay for a year , I would have anxiety but I could deal with it using the strategies my psychologist taught me. Then last spring all of a sudden I started fearing going crazy, after reading a clockwork orange ( a book) . And then I started fearing schizophrenia in May. And during the summer I would worry sometimes but it calmed down. My senior year of high school just started August and this whole year I’ve been fearing being schizophrenic, in September I went to see my psychologist and he told me I couldn’t develop it because I have no family history or traumatic past, and I don’t live in a bad environment. But then I started looking things up on google ( I’ve done this for 2 years now) and now I’m convinced that I’m in the prodormal state of schizophrenia. I also have vision problems , my vision is very bad, and whenever I’m looking at a projector I see flashes of colors, kinda like the TV color bars. I see floaters and just línes and stuff. My vision gets very dim sometimes. And then the reflections in my glasses scare me, and I’m always checking to see if I see things from the corner of my eye. I’m just really scared I’m hallucinating, I’m always checking what I see and hear. It’s driving me nuts, like I know I’m not hallucinating and that it’s irrational but my vision is scaring me . And then I feel like my memory is really bad like sometimes I’ll be thinking something and then I’ll forget it, and my speech is freaking me out like I’m starting to stutter sometimes. And now since I’ve read up on all the symptoms I’m really scared I’m going schizo, like something I’ll get thoughts that people are gonna hit me( at school my friends always hit me in a playful manner so now I’m on alert) and I know these thoughts are irrational and that nobody is gonna hit me. I know all these anxious thoughts are irrational but they’re scaring me . I also have tinnitus which is a condition in the ear, I’ve had it for 2 years and I heard that when people are going schizo they have tinnitus. I also saw a story that said that people would have anxiety disorders a few years before going into psychosis so I’m really scared. I also saw a story that people in the prodormal stage of schizophrenia have insight that they’re going schizophrenia so that’s scaring me too. I’m really worried and scared, and I’m losing hope . An article said schizophrenia takes years or months to develop and that sometimes an anxiety disorder goes before it. I’m also trying to be a lot more outgoing and I go out with my friends a lot so I’m not having withdrawal, I also have good grades. But still I’m really scared and losing hope somebody help me....