u/-Apple-pi- — reddlx

For context I became severely ill in September/November, underlying chronic illnesses came to me at full force. Which the anxiety of the situation I was constantly ruminating and living in an endless cycle of health OCD (still learning to cope with this and to stop googling things). However, due to the anxiety I started to experience DPDR and/or dissociation. I began to obsess if I was real and in this body (i literally am cause I’m typing this) and felt so detached. (My best advice for this is to continue living life as if nothing changed, stop holding onto that fear because it will continue the cycle. Your brains just protecting you! If something was wrong that would be okay too!)

With this mental state I started to fear losing my mind, developing hallucinations, you know the gist.
So here’s my advice, based on my experiences, on how I’ve reduced my schizo-ocd to basically nothing.

STOP GOOGLING!! You have to get off of Google, distract yourself. I understand how tempting it is, trust me, my biggest compulsions for so long(even before a diagnosis) were checking across the web. Many times the internet will make you more worried! Especially seeing other experiences that may be nothing like yours!
So please, for your sake stop. Even if you still do try and limit yourself from 2 hours rabbit holes of information. You may feel better temporarily, but in the long run it does nothing but continue the cycle.
Acceptance. I’m not sure if this is radical acceptance per se, but acceptance nonetheless. Accept where you are. “I’m anxious and that’s okay.” “I’m dissociated and that’s okay.” You know the vibe and learn to accept the future for whatever it may have in store. I particularly found myself getting better when I started to challenge these ideas. “I could have schizophrenia so what??” “I could get psychosis anyways, so what?” Of course reassurance is a no-no, but taking the fear away from these was so big for me. Because even if I developed a psychotic disorder, it’s still me! There’s still treatments! So who cares?
Stop avoiding media in fear. This is a big one for me but I highly suggest consulting a professional as I know personally, and for many others, certain media can trigger thought patterns etc. For me I know I can’t watch health shows, even though I loved House MD before my health OCD got bad. But I also had to remind myself I’m not going to develop psychosis reading Bunny! And, if I did, so what!

Just know, anything can happen, so what?