- Username
- OCDGuy123
- Date posted
- 2y ago
Yes, to a point. I think we should support and encourage each other. But the problem is that so many of the people who post on here are seeking reassurance. You try to encourage and support them, and they reject it. Another thing I've noticed is there are a lot of people who will make a reassurance post and then get all ticked off when no one responds. Or they will ask people to respond to their posts.
I second Lms526 and excalibre - support and encouragement are good, reassurance is not. That said, I do kinda feel like there's a difference between wanting a second opinion and seeking reassurance; I don't normally ask for reassurance because I know it won't really help, but if I'm facing a conundrum or life-related challenge and I feel like I'm in a stable place emotionally, I'll sometimes look for another perspective to obtain an idea of how my stance compares. Once I've done that ONCE, however, I'm done - even though it doesn't feel compulsive, I never allow myself to ask the same questions twice because it's difficult to distinguish between OCD-related doubt and a desire for another viewpoint. I don't ask community members to read my posts either, although I am happy when they do.
Sounds like a good approach.
Yeah. Yes to all of this. It’s like if you can tell someone’s having a really really horrible day I’m not sure if reassurance is the right word but seeing a little bit of something is immensely helpful.
yeah there's a difference between reassurance-- "your OCD fears aren't true, you're a good person"-- encouragement-- "you've got this, you will beat this, I believe in you"-- commiserating-- "I'm so sorry you're going through this. You deserve better."-- and advising-- "You need to do some self-care." The last 3 are gooodd
there's also tough love. "suck it up. do your erp. and go to sleep."
yes, i think helping people see more clearly ab a situation is different than reassurance in some instances possibly
A suggestion. I saw a post of @OCDtreated on Twitter and I’d like to share with all of you who want to recover. “I am not a fan of OCD forums. Full of reassurance seeking.” I kinda agree with him on this. When people are troubled by OCD, they are more vulnerable to negative stuff and more skeptical with positive information. Although an OCD online group/forum can be helpful in some way (knowing that you are not alone, reducing the stigma, finding understanding), it can also be not that helpful. We talk here without any therapists’ guidance, and it’s so easy we post “unhealthy” information or questions to seek reassurance. One way to get better is to “getting comfortable with being uncomfortable”. This requires you to get more involved with your life, less from OCD. Constantly checking on ocd forums is not getting on with your life. However, I am not saying that you should not visit OCD groups any more.
I have no issue with the fact I’ve been blocked (title is to hopefully get some traction) but with the lack of monitoring on this community discussion board. There are users who are consistently reassurance seeking and nobody seems to be addressing this. It’s not helping them when people reassure them and It’s not helping others who then feel they’re helping by feeding into this. There are a lot of younger users and newbies (even long time sufferers) who aren’t aware of the issues of reassurance seeking. It breaks my heart to see how desperate some of the posts are. Again I’m not sure what the purpose of this discussion board is as it’s changing from being a space where we all support/motivate each other and can find sources for educational information surrounding OCD to a place where people are using it as a compulsion and for reassurance. Whilst I understand that it’s impossible for the board to be heavily monitored. It’d be amazing if NOCD would do a talk or make a post about reassurance seeking and let us know what the purpose of this space is. I’m not saying this to moan I’m just becoming concerned about some of my fellow OCD sufferers. *I’m not completely guilt free myself before I get an ear full.
I already don't like this app. It has the same problem as being on the OCD subreddit or in any OCD online group. It inevitably just devolves into people doing compulsions (reassurance seeking, mainly) at each other. My unpopular opinion is that people with OCD shouldn't have support groups unless they're HEAVILY moderated by a clinician. This one clearly isn't. I scrolled for 5 min and almost every post is someone saying "I'm worried about x, do you think it's true?". That's a compulsion! This app is not facilitating ERP it's hindering it.
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