Delusional Parasitosis

In the year 2021 I had learned a lot about myself, I had experienced some sort of mental collapse. I was extremely lonely, exhausted, and lost. No one could save me, I had to get myself right on my own. So I made efforts, made a few appointments and did tons of research online about different symptoms and what my case could be so I could mention that to a doctor. I saw a psychiatrist and ended up with a prescription for methylphenidate. Apparently I was diagnosed with ADHD and from what I can tell it explains a lot about my behavior. So I went home with my prescription and took it the following evening before work. Suddenly I was able to focus on a task and get actual work done again.

I continue to take the medication, however I started noticing some symptoms of a rash. I only thought it was a skin sensitivity for the longest so I thought it was just that. Now here is where it got confusing, I started feeling my skin crawl. You know that feeling when a bug crawls on your skin? Yeah, imagine that but there's no bug, so now my skin is always tingly or slightly itchy. The next day I am laying in bed on my phone and I see a small brown bug crawling slowly on my comforter.

I jump up yelping frantically trying to find the bug and catching it but the little thing disappears and I couldn't find him again. So I immediately start searching online what bed bugs look like because I was so scared that there was an infestation. The bug I saw did not look like the ones on the internet though so I was a little able to relax and maybe though it was harmless. The following day I smelled a very pungent odor but only for a quick moment. I couldn't find the source of the smell but it was recurring throughout the week.

I saw what I believed to be a bedbug but as soon as I tried catching it POOF it was gone again. I told my mom and my sister I might have bed bugs while vacuuming my bare mattress. I thought I was seeing bed bug eggs in the stitching of my mattress so I got a waterproof mattress to lock them in. My mom and sister were in my room looking at me repeatedly vacuum the mattress pointing at nothing. I didn't know I was the only one that could see them at the time.

A while back I had gone to the dollar store randomly and came across this book called "bedbugs". I thought it was interesting so I bought it and started reading it later that day. When I started reading this book I didn't think I had bed bugs yet. It wasn't until one night I took my medication after not taking it in a while and I thought I had seen a bug once again but lost it right away. So I went find the book in my car because I never finished it but I connected some dots and read the last chapter of the book.

Turns out the main character in the book was on some psychoactive medications and caused them to hallucinate and become delusional. I was taking my medications every day as as well and I was becoming so paranoid and delusional I could barely tell what was real or fake anymore. I thought I was infested with random bugs. The other medical term for it was called 'Ekbom's Syndrome.' I looked that up and was relieved to find out I wasn't actually dealing with a bug problem. I was suffering from delusional parasitosis, it was just my luck I had that book way before the incident.

I was not only just paranoid of bugs... I was also paranoid that people were stalking me. That is a story for another day though.