Hi doctor, I am 27 years of age. I had gone to study in abroad. I was extremely lonely there. I am a huge hypochondriac and when I started getting sleep problems, I started thinking I had some fatal disease. Subsequently, just three months ago, I somehow became convinced that I had schizophrenia and vigorously started searching about my symptoms on the internet. I started feeling extremely detached from my surroundings and from everything around me. I also started feeling detached from people. Nowadays, I feel extremely scared of any noise made by inanimate objects around me. Even a running air conditioner scares me, though I know that it is a non-living thing. It seems as if I have lost the ability to process things. A bird chirping scares me. While I know it is a bird chirping, I still get scared of that noise? A newspaper moving in the air scares me, even though I tell myself that it is a newspaper. I know this does not sound good. My question is, is there any possibility this is not a psychotic illness? Could this be anxiety or depression? And if it is a psychotic illness, is it possible that it might go away and not last like schizophrenia? Will I ever be able to work? Please help me.
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