I Don't Know If I have An Illness or Not?

Question

Every time I get time off from school and work for a holiday (Summer, Christmas)havingem to go through a phase where I worry extremely about having a mental illness or disorder. I worry about becoming a Schizophrenic, or a Psychopath, or sometimes I worry that I have OCD or Depression Ect. Whenever I look up symptoms of the illnesses I worry about I start believing I have those symptoms and I get really worked up and sometimes get panic attacks. Its wierd because some of the symptoms only show up when I look them up through research. For example, when I looked up the symptoms for Psychopathy, I started thinking I didn't care about others and I started thinking bad thoughts of death. I would have never thought this if I didn't look up the symptoms. Any insight into whats going on would be great.

Answer 1

You need to find a hobby and stop looking up mental illnesses. You don't have enough to worry about so your imagination runs away with you! Try creative writing!!

Everybody has certain characteristics to their personality that we can box  in to a "mental illness" but it is when those symptoms are ongoing and interfere with normal life for a long period of time that they can be classed as real illness.

Answer 2

It sounds to me like you are experiencing Paranoia, But if I were you I would check into the doctor's office to get a possible diagnosis.