So, I'm starting to figure out more about my "obsessive" nature. As I may have mentioned, the depression really sapped a lot of my mental energy, and without it to weigh me down, it turns out I get anxious and over-think an inordinate amount.
I haven't quite determined if "obsessive" is the right word for it, since I don't much act on those obsessions. However, if something happens to make me curious, I'll go pretty far out of my way to find enough information to stave that curiosity. Sometimes that's as simple as scrolling through a couple months worth of social media posts by a friend I haven't talked to in a while.
Sometimes, it's as convoluted as finding someone's tumblr through a series of mutual contacts in order to see if they said anything negative about me on a particular day.
I get paranoid and overworried about what others think of me, which is why "obsession" seems like an accurate term to use for it. Once an idea sticks to my mind, it takes a great deal of energy to loosen its grip. Typically, I just wind up mulling over it for a day, a week, a month, however long. I can function, and I try not to let that anxiety directly influence my actions, but the exact nature of it all still eludes me a bit.
My initial suspicion is that it is an anxiety-disorder-related symptom, however that's speculation at best. I'm growing more confident that it is the root of this symptom which is causing my stomach lining to wither away to a sheet of rice paper, and to that end, it's becoming more clear that I need to find an adequate way to address the concern.
Unfortunately, I'm still discovering and documenting the side-effects I've picked up from the SSRI, which has been a relatively great success for me. Among them, tinnitus, tremors, light-headedness, and exhaustion. Swapping SSRIs would be an arduous process for statistically unlikely gains. With that in mind, the idea of adding another medication to the mix sounds... incredibly short-sighted and risky. Not to say it is certainly a bad decision, but I do think it's liable to cause far more problems than it will solve. With that in mind, I can try lowering my current dosage in order to gauge the effects it has on my symptoms and the depression, and I can try to employ manual techniques for controlling anxiety and paranoia. I've already begun using a few, such as this no-Facebook experiment. However, their efficacy is temporary at best and questionable at worst.
Still, I feel like I have to do something. I've begun to feel distinctly as though I must be creepy lately. Whether or not there are many other people who see me as such remains to be seen. I just can't stop paying attention to what's going on around me and analyzing it constantly. It's not something I want to do or choose to do- just something that my brain does if it's not absolutely engrossed in something else. I can't help but have so much I want to know about others' situations and opinions. I just want to be as informed as I possibly can be.
That's not an excuse of my behavior. Merely an explanation. It may stem from a trust issue. It may stem from anxiety. I don't fully know, but this is my attempt to sort my mind out on the matter so that I can actually work to become a better person.
That's really all I can do, right?
No comments:
Post a Comment