Thinking your mental health is worse than it is?

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I have OCD about mental health—what a catch 22! My mental illness is not severe—I’ve never been in a psychiatric hospital or a treatment facility, and I get up in the morning and go to school. But for some reason I think I have every mental health issue in the book when I really just have anxiety, OCD, and (almost resolved) depression! Does anyone else have this problem?

Well, my mental health is pretty bad (I have a bad case of OCD), but I have only been diagnosed with that one mental health condition. Then again, my main obsession for the past year and a half is fearing all sorts of mental illnesses, so that's probably why !

The impact of anxiety (GAD/SAD) on mental health is underestimated. I have experienced GAD as long as I can remember and the higher the anxiety level the more "cray cray" I feel.

I think that I have done it a few times because I don't know enough people to accurately compare myself to.

I went through a psychotic depression in my early 20s & I would research lots of mental conditions & thought I had most of em for various reasons. Lots of disorders have overlapping symptoms which made things more confusing. I do have more than a few disorders thou, dyslexia, ADD, autism, anxiety, panic disorder, OCD, & low grade depression & the last 4 are managed well by meds but I believed I had more mental disorders than that including codependency, bipolar, & about 5 personality disorders to name a few.

People around me acts like I'm exaggerating. My therapist doesn't think so. Don't know what to believe.

Diagnoses so far: OCD, Social Phobia, Mild Schizophrenia, Asperger's Syndrome, Depression/Depressive PD

In my teens when I was deteriorating more rapidly in terms of mental health, throughout the long pauses between school counselling sessions and family problems I began researching mental illness symptoms online, metaphorically a slippery slope to find oneself on!
I became convinced for about a year at 15 that I had bipolar disorder due to the unstable mood swings I had. A few years later my depression was so bad I sort of lost touch with reality in my isolation and began to wonder if I was also schizophrenic.
In hindsight, that's a problem for anyone researching any mystery physical ailment online, too. I think it generates a lot of stress as one discovers more and more dire facts they identify with, which is so like the escalating nature of anxiety.
This said, I would never take your mental health lightly... I believe everyone, even if they have no mental illness diagnosis on record and have a good quality of life can benefit in some way from the occasional session with a psychologist or simple therapist.

That’s probably because your peers only see what you want them to see, and you probably feel more comfortable with your therapist.

I've questioned it after being told a million of times that it's "all in my head" and that I could easily change my "habits".

But the more I think about it. My actions are almost involuntary with very little control. The things I break and the damage I do to myself and property.... It's extremely hard to not do these things and I've tried countless times. When I'm going through a flurry of emotions and unpleasing thoughts, I tremble, clench my teeth, lose all joy in the things I love and sometimes break something.

I realized that this wasn't something I was doing on purpose. So, I do think my mental health is in a bad state. That it's worse than what people have tried to convince me to believe.

It might be true. People that're close to me say that I'm very bad at hiding my discomfort despite the fact that I think I'm very good at it. The other day my sister impersonated me and she kept flapping her hand in front of her eyes, I had no idea I did such a thing, at least that often, but they think that I'm acting but don't even know what is an intrusive thought or sensory overload.
Only my father a bit understands me because he's suffered from similar things all his life, he just doesn't accept it as a mental error/difference.

Also I talk with my therapist half in writing. So it's easier for me to express myself.

It was the opposite for me. I was searching different disorders online when I was 15 and some of them seemed to describe the problems I have and claimed those disorders. I find out later I was diagnosed with those when I found my medical records. Mom never told me when I would say all the time what was wrong with me and why am I so different. She knew but yet kept saying I am normal when I would say I wanted to be normal.

I’m the opposite: if anything, I’ve been in denial about how mentally ill I am. I hurt myself & others. I’m still sick, but I’m becoming more aware. I’m working on integrating suppressed/repressed parts of myself & living as a whole human being.