iancl

Hi all,

I've always suffered from anxiety and some obsessional thinking but over the last year I feel like it has gotten much worse. In particular I have become fixated on the fear of bedbugs in my apartment--even though I have never actually had bedbugs or any concrete evidence of having them, I find myself waking up nightly to check, feeling uncomfortable in my bedroom, heart palpitations while falling asleep, etc. Additionally, I have begun compulsively and obsessively checking my skin for signs of "bites". What complicates this is that I have had a skin condition (eczema) my whole life so my skin is always featuring some new anomaly. But any new mark of redness fills me with such dread and anxiety I often have to rush to the bathroom to examine it, usually over and over again in order to assure myself it isn't a bedbug bite. This has now morphed into a full fledged ritual where I will periodically lock myself into the bathroom at work to study my skin on my arms especially to make sure there is nothing suspicious.

I know intellectually that my anxiety and compulsions are not really founded in anything and very bad for me, but it's getting to the point where I feel like they're out of my control. I see a therapist but I don't find her helpful in this area; I've taken Wellbutrin in the past but it had no effect.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Ian