Hi to anyone who bothers to read this. I'm struggling right now through the most anxiety-ridden point in my life. The anxiety is driven by my incredible fear of becoming schizophrenic. It's so hard to be a hypochondriac and panic-sufferer, because I end up over-thinking every little symptom, emotion, etc. Stupidly, I did a little Internet research about schizophrenia, and now I'm incredibly afraid that I suffer from it. I have many symptoms of depression, but these match the 'negative' symptoms of schizophrenia. I have also 'heard voices' twice, once as I was falling asleep, and once very late at night while I was on the computer. I've been told by family and friends that these are normal, that everybody 'hears voices' from time to time. At the time, both of these instances seemed very harmless, but then of course the hypochondria-me set in...and I've been a nervous wreck for weeks on end. My family and friends think I have nothing to worry about, but I keep worrying about how nobody would recognize the early signs of schizophrenia in me anyway, and that one day I might just lose control. I'm wondering, can hypochondria extend to include fear of mental illness as well as physical, and does it sound like I'm terrified of nothing?
P.S. Does anyone know how severe anxiety can effect sense of smell and taste? I seem to have lost both of those and just blamed it on stress. I read about a relationship between impaired sense of smell and schizophrenia, which worries me. Does anyone know for sure?
