Is it a mental problem or am I just being paranoid?

Hi,

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Since this has been occurring persistently for the last few years and appears to be causing you significant impairment, I would ask you to get it evaluated in detail by a psychiatrist. I do not mean to scare you, but at your age, you are vulnerable to a lot of psychiatric disorders. Your symptom could be an obsession. Obsessions are recurrent ideas, images, impulses, thoughts, feelings, etc., which keep entering into our mind in spite of us knowing that those thoughts are unwanted and excessive. The more we try to resist those, our anxiety gets increased more. Now, this obsession could be part of an obsessive-compulsive disorder, depression, prodrome of schizophrenia, etc. It could also be a sign of an underlying neurological condition. My advice is that if you are comfortable with your parents knowing about it; get them involved too or maybe a close friend. Pay a visit to the psychiatrist at the earliest. Even if it is not an obsession, since you have had it for years, it is best to get it evaluated and treated at the earliest rather than wait for it to increase and maybe even develop into a psychiatric disorder. Thank you.