I feel like I’m driving myself crazy, please help

[saxman20]

Hi everyone,

I’ve been struggling with anxiety for a while, and I think I came to the conclusion that I have OCD and illness anxiety. This all started after taking an abnormal psych course while dealing with depression and anxiety. The course only made my anxiety worse.

For a while now I’ve been dealing with the anxiety of having schizophrenia after learning about it in my psych course, and I’ve been so worried about it that I feel like I’m literally driving myself insane. I would worry about whether i was displaying symptoms of the disorder and I feel like I’ve been almost tricking myself into having them, if that makes sense. I know people with illness anxiety disorder can make themselves feel phantom symptoms of what they think they have and I think that’s happening with me; at least I hope that’s what it is.

For a while I’ve been scared of having delusions and recently I’ve found myself thinking things that are basically delusional. Like I’ll think “what if the government is after me” or “what if people can read my mind?” I know it isn’t true and I dismiss the thoughts. I also feel like I’m thinking these things because they’re what I learned about during abnormal psych. I feel as if my brain just uses the information to fuel my anxiety and make me feel crazy, it really makes me anxious. Just as I said, I know that those scenarios aren’t possible and I don’t believe the thoughts, but I really hope I’m not losing my mind. I just want some reassurance or for someone to tell me that I need to do something about this