#or about like interactions btwn meds

[aropride]

the cdc now recommends you take an ibuprofen and walk it off, advice you could also get from literally any dad ever

[mentalillnessmouse]

So last year I dealt with what I described as an existential crisis, which actually seems like it’s Existential OCD: I’m obsessed with these existential thoughts that give me a lot of anxiety and send me into thought spirals, leaving me to constantly check by googling questions or asking for reassurance on the Internet. A trip down the dark rabbit hole of the Internet led me to a militant atheist website, which left me with a toxicity I’m still healing from. I’m now really sensitive to (1/2)

(2/2) anything having to do with science/faith, among other things, since it brings back anxiety. I was caught btwn 2 friends (one was wearing a “remember you will die”shirt oh help) who argued about that today. the anxiety went away for awhile after being really bad (which doesn’t seem possible for undiagnosed MI, but idk) but lately it seems like it’s creeping back. Part of me wants to get a quick fix with meds—anything if I can avoid going back to where I was—but they take a while so idk.

Hi Anon, 

While we aren’t able to provide a diagnosis, we want to do our best to help you out. 

For your friend that you got in an argument, I think that it would be beneficial to talk to them seriously about why the shirt made you uncomfortable to begin with. Having clear communication with them will be key here. 

I believe that it would be most beneficial, however, to talk to a therapist or psychiatrist, if you are able, to determine the most efficient long-term solution to help you through this, especially if this is impacting the quality of your life. While medication might take up to a month to start making a noticeable change, your doctor might combine this with therapy sessions in order to help organize your thoughts in the mean time. 

For short term relief, why don’t you print off the results of the questions you most often google? If you feel the anxiety creeping up, having those results near you to just reach over and reread will most likely be helpful. This idea stems from an article I read about a lady who’s life was being impacted because she consistently worried about leaving her straight iron plugged in. She would go home from work several times to check on it. However, someone suggested that she bring the iron with her to work so, when she felt the familiar anxiety creeping up, all she needed to do to reassure herself was to look down in her purse and look at the unplugged iron in her purse. 

Here are some of our resources on OCD:

The ocd foundation has some fantastic links for finding help, resources, links and information about OCD.

This post gives information on what tics are and how they are treated.

Managing OCD at home

MayoClinic’s guide for coping and support

This website offers insight about overcoming OCD

Anxiety and Intrusive Thoughts: An Introduction

How To Overcome Intrusive Thoughts

Ending Scary Thoughts

Coping with Intrusive Thoughts

Here are some other resources that you might find useful:

Anxiety management techniques

You Feel Like Shit – An Interactive Self Care Guide helps you work through bad episodes and takes you through things that might help you feel better.

Here are some exercises you can do that helps to keep you in the present: grounding techniques, mental grounding exercises, physical grounding exercises, soothing grounding exercises.

Help Guide, a site containing articles to help understand, help numbers, “tool kits”, and self help.

This is a guide on how to make a comfort box.

-Mod Aesh