ANXIETY AND OBSESSIVE THOUGHTS

[Haylee92]

I have obsessive thoughts of spiders crawling all over me and a fear that I’m going to go psychotic and lose the plot. i have panic attacks from the moment I wake up to the moment I go to sleep due to this phobia. I see a psychologist and she assured me it’s just an anxiety disorder, Pure O (obsessive thoughts) and also Depersonalization.

i have been given lots of homework to do and ways to try and cope.

I am just wondering if anyone else has ever experienced this? And did you ever recover?

I just feel so very alone right now..

[Hang10]

Hi Haylee92

Welcome to the Beyond Blue team.

That nightmare would be very scary. Sometimes dreams are so real like that they greatly impact us even when the dream is broken by waking up.

I sometimes dream of escaping from something and having my teeth fall out of my mouth. Usually it happens when I stressed out it like my mind can’t fully relax and go in a deep sleep.

Awesome that you got some help. Maybe when you were younger you might have had a bad experience to do with a spider or something like one. Sometimes past hurts or scares impact on our mind and comes out to affect us later in life.

Maybe too your life might be a bit heavy and your dreams are causing you to have these stressful nightmare.

Maybe some form on relaxing before sleeping might help. Listerning to music. Light reading might help, your mind relax before you sleep. Sometimes caffeine and too much t.v cause me bad sleep.

I hope things improve for you. Keep a record of when these dreams are happening to see if their a pattern. Keep trying as their be an answer for you to help you get a better nice sleep experience.

Even if it just long times between nightmare this will lead to your mind sleeping better and overall happiness.. Believe you can overcome this. The nightmare is more scared of you and what you can achieve. Stay strong.

[geoff]

Hello Haylee, welcome to the site.

I feel so sorry for you because I have a fear of feathered birds flying around me and there is no way I would ever walk into an aviary.

This is related with OCD and I know that there is 'exposure therapy or desensitization' (Systematic desensitization) and what these programs do is gradually make you accept spiders.

I know the thought may scare you but there are levels you have to do so that it will finally make you not to be scared.

You can't progress from level 4 until you can cope with level 5 so this maybe the homework you have been given, but remember to compliment yourself from moving to each level, but you need to keep practising.

Please let me know how you get on. Geoff.