Obsession with death: some sort of psychosis?

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pezar
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07 Oct 2014, 8:30 pm

I was thinking about how when I'm not on my meds I start talking and thinking a lot about death, suicide/homicide, and morbid stuff like that. The thing is, I don't REALLY want to kill myself or somebody else, but I talk about it all the time, which freaks people out cause they think I'm really gonna do something horrible. The weird thing is, it goes away when my antipsychotics work, so I know it's not me being a wannabe goth/emo but something wrong in my brain. It's not an obsession either, because I'm not searching online for photos of dead bodies and stuff. It seems to be related to my psychotic disorder. Anybody else have the same or similar problem? And keep in mind I don't mean that you're literally suicidal, but you talk about it like some sort of tic-I also have Tourettes.



Aspinator
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07 Oct 2014, 8:40 pm

Personally, I feel it is perfectly normal to consider what happens when we die. That has been a question since man has been around. I think it does make some people uncomfortable because they don't want to face the fact it is going to eventually happen to them.



As Woody Allen said: " I am not afraid of dying; I just don't want to be there when it happens".



Raleigh
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07 Oct 2014, 11:11 pm

I become obsessed with death. I'm attracted to songs with death themes, then I listen to them over and over to death. I watch music videos with death themes (more imagery than actual gory scenes) I think about it constantly.
It gets worse (more obsessional) the deeper my depression gets (I'm not on any sort of medication)
I don't talk about it these days outside of therapy. That just freaks people out and I end up at the mental health unit - a place I would much rather avoid.
I'm not necessarily suicidal. Death just seems more peaceful compared to life.
I've been told that death ideation is linked to feelings of disconnection i.e. the more detached you are feeling from life, the greater the ideation.


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07 Oct 2014, 11:19 pm

pezar wrote:
I was thinking about how when I'm not on my meds I start talking and thinking a lot about death, suicide/homicide, and morbid stuff like that. The thing is, I don't REALLY want to kill myself or somebody else, but I talk about it all the time, which freaks people out cause they think I'm really gonna do something horrible. The weird thing is, it goes away when my antipsychotics work, so I know it's not me being a wannabe goth/emo but something wrong in my brain. It's not an obsession either, because I'm not searching online for photos of dead bodies and stuff. It seems to be related to my psychotic disorder. Anybody else have the same or similar problem? And keep in mind I don't mean that you're literally suicidal, but you talk about it like some sort of tic-I also have Tourettes.


If you are not having hallucinations, then you probably aren't having a psychosis. What you describe also doesn't sound like a major delusion.
The way antipsychotics normally work is that they limit the functioning of an allegedly (but rarely proven) overstimulated/overfunctioning part of the brain. When you are off the meds, those allegedly overfunctioning parts should be more active and thus expand your ability to think in that direction (whether the expansion is beneficial or not.) More likely, you lack as much of a capacity to think about death while on the meds.
The Jungian school pf psychology, would claim that your thoughts about death are for more beneficial to you in your struggle against psychosis than the meds. It should be noted that much of modern psychology is based on Jung's work, moreso than Freud. Although, it should be noted that the Jungian school traditionally dismisses medication for psychosis, especially long term psychosis. Their reasoning is that they believe meds never result in recovery, tend to have bad side-affects, and cause a state of psychological, social, and often even physical dependency that is harmful to the patient. The Meyers Briggs Personality test is an example of work based on Jung's work.

People are overly frightened about death and they think anyone who thinks about it is dangerous and evil.



pezar
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07 Oct 2014, 11:45 pm

Raleigh wrote:
I become obsessed with death. I'm attracted to songs with death themes, then I listen to them over and over to death. I watch music videos with death themes (more imagery than actual gory scenes) I think about it constantly.
It gets worse (more obsessional) the deeper my depression gets (I'm not on any sort of medication)
I don't talk about it these days outside of therapy. That just freaks people out and I end up at the mental health unit - a place I would much rather avoid.
I'm not necessarily suicidal. Death just seems more peaceful compared to life.
I've been told that death ideation is linked to feelings of disconnection i.e. the more detached you are feeling from life, the greater the ideation.


One of my most favorite songs is about nuclear war-Blackened by Metallica. When Metallica bought their music catalog from Warner, they named the new company Blackened Records, which indicates that I'm not the only one who finds meaning in that song. Another of their songs that I like is Disposable Heroes, about a soldier who fights and dies in a pointless war. War themes are common in Metallica's pre-1995 music, and the common thread is that war is pointless and unnecessary and causes mass death to benefit an elite. I've always felt disconnected from life, it's probably part of being aspie, we are typically frozen out of the party and networking circuits and end up alone.



Raleigh
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08 Oct 2014, 12:03 am

pezar wrote:
Raleigh wrote:
I become obsessed with death. I'm attracted to songs with death themes, then I listen to them over and over to death. I watch music videos with death themes (more imagery than actual gory scenes) I think about it constantly.
It gets worse (more obsessional) the deeper my depression gets (I'm not on any sort of medication)
I don't talk about it these days outside of therapy. That just freaks people out and I end up at the mental health unit - a place I would much rather avoid.
I'm not necessarily suicidal. Death just seems more peaceful compared to life.
I've been told that death ideation is linked to feelings of disconnection i.e. the more detached you are feeling from life, the greater the ideation.


One of my most favorite songs is about nuclear war-Blackened by Metallica. When Metallica bought their music catalog from Warner, they named the new company Blackened Records, which indicates that I'm not the only one who finds meaning in that song. Another of their songs that I like is Disposable Heroes, about a soldier who fights and dies in a pointless war. War themes are common in Metallica's pre-1995 music, and the common thread is that war is pointless and unnecessary and causes mass death to benefit an elite. I've always felt disconnected from life, it's probably part of being aspie, we are typically frozen out of the party and networking circuits and end up alone.

Cool. (Sorry I meant the songs, not being alone) This is one of my favourites:
http://youtu.be/C7cczTyQ4iY


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