Can't stop thinking about existential topics. God, Death, Free Will and Existence of self.
I am 24 years old and I've been suffering from OCD my whole life, but I only started treatment at 23, about 10 months ago, and my condition is getting worse and worse. My doctor increased my therapy dosage two months ago, and a month ago he increased it even more. I have OCD issues related to hygiene, physical rituals, mental rituals, and to the doctor's surprise, I even resolve OCD issues in my dreams, there is anxiety, stressful dreams,and I don't have the money for ERP sessions but I tried it on my own, it's impossible to always recognize OCD thoughts, it's often impossible to stop certain loops. I have spent thousands of hours thinking about existential questions, I tried all religions, the first one being the one I was born into - Christianity, which I left at 16 to become an atheist, which i am now, again, i think.Anyway, everything points to the fact that free will doesn't exist, I accepted determinism and the death of the self without any issues, but weakly scientific claims keep resurfacing that the self does exist after all, along with free will, sufficiently backed by nonsense to trigger my brain and throw me into doubt. I no longer know what is real or what I believe in. A month and a half ago, stuffed with new medications and barely conscious, I went and enrolled in law school at the university. I passed the entrance exam and did better than about 1,000 other candidates out of roughly 1,200. Which means I can study despite constantly thinking about other topics, but it isn't easy. Faculty starts In less than two months, and I can't study extensive material (which I already started studying three months ago because I was afraid I wouldn't finish everything on time) while dealing with existential questions at the same time. I will talk to my doctor about this soon, but I had to describe my problems somewhere while I wait for my appointment. I don't know what to think. What about you?
Posted Aug 18, 2026, 12:08 PM UTC