- Date posted
- 6y ago
- Date posted
- 6y ago
Hi one important point. The content of thoughts is irrelevant, it is the same process amongst all people with ocd. KEY is not to check the mirrors and carry on driving. Become careless....and that's ok! When you get home have the most vivid images blood, crash, carnage, hospital, you being arrested, emarassment, losing job, family disowning. And tell yourself fine great!.....if that happens so what....will die ok .....then what?..you will then touch the key fear and your mind will see the fear for what it is 'just a pointless worry'. Next time you have these thoughts....act carelessly. Also actually try and deliberately want to run people over as ERP.
- Date posted
- 45w ago
@Parwaiz My sibling has OCD and she has had therapy for years and this is the exact same thing she told me. Which is the hardest thing to do. But i get it
- Date posted
- 6y ago
Hello there! I’m 24 years old and I also have extreme OCD about driving. There are times I’ve been late for work because I would hit a pothole and would have to turn around because I was scared it was a person (even though I knew it was only a pothole) The fact that you’ve been able to stop turning around and checking is amazing. I went out for groceries today, and as I’m typing this I’m currently fighting the urge to get in my car and drive back to the store parking lot to make sure I didn’t hurt anybody. Even though I know I would never hurt anyone. This subtype of OCD has been extremely difficult for me because it involves other people. It feels selfish to not turn around and check. Even though I know that they’re only potholes and little bumps in the road, I just have to check. How did you get the courage to stop checking? Because right now my 10 minute drive to work takes me 45 minutes. All the checking that I do eats up my time and energy. I know that resisting the urge is the only way to make myself better. I just don’t know how. I haven’t gone out with my friends in a while because I’m afraid to drive. I’m feeling a lot more lonely because of it.
- Date posted
- 6y ago
ggiglio the only way I'm able to deal with it is just to tell myself that I'm confident in the eyes, ears, and sense of touch that God gave me and to go from there. It's not easy, I may not turn around and check but I still check mirrors and other drivers, as well as constantly worry afterwards. The key is just to be confident and to be "careless" like Parwaiz says. One thing too that can help is taking baby steps. Maybe just do a short drive that you're used to at first. Ride with other people in the car, just make sure that you do eventually get back to driving yourself too. We can do it, fam!
- Date posted
- 6y ago
Parwaiz thank you for the encouragement and yes, this is probably a great way to approach things. It's definitely difficult though, the thoughts that enter my mind once I get out of my car are sometimes extremely difficult. I still have trouble sitting with the anxiety after not responding to the compulsion, I think a lot about all of those things you said and it creates a lot of negative feelings. My mind sometimes also says like "well, what if by avoiding checking you actually did do something but now you're not going to notice because you're so focused on avoiding responses." Then of course the bad feelings from when I do check but then think "what if I missed something while I was looking away." I've just gotta learn to do like you said and let the negative thoughts come and just sit with them for a bit. Thank you!
- Date posted
- 6y ago
You're welcome. This is the nature of ocd....the bully is never satisfied. Stand firm on the ground. 1) drive normally 2)bump is a bump 3)when get urge to look focus on road ahead. When you get home imagine worst case scenario and multiply 100 times for maximum effectiveness thinking of being in prison..and ruining someone's family by running them over. The thoughts cant make things happen! Try moving the wall in front of you using your mind...tell me when you are successful. What you are saying about avoiding and checking....this is just bully rising up to you. Refuse to be bullied....soon bully will find its place which is in the trash!
- Date posted
- 6y ago
Common form of OCD ive read a lot about
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 2y ago
I have it as well. I just take it day by day. Some days are better than others.
- Date posted
- 45w ago
I have developed this theme in the past two weeks. I have been driving since I was 16. I am now 40 I drive for a living. I’ve been at this company for almost 10 years never ever had to worry about hitting anybody or anything never even came close Until now, intrusive thought came in what if you hit that guy on the corner and it was all over. I don’t even like talking about it because I know I have to work and do this again. Some days are better than others and I know I need to stop checking it just makes it worse because when I check and I don’t find anything my OCD is still not happy most of the time once I get home and settle down, I realize it was all bs. I don’t want it to get any worse so I’m starting my own ERP with it to try to force my way out
Related posts
- Date posted
- 12w ago
Hi, I’m new here!! I’m praying I don’t get judged for this. But, back in late May of 2022 ( literally right before I graduated high school), I added this one random girl from my school on Snapchat. She posted something about a graduation party , so I swiped up on her story basically saying how I can’t believe we’re almost graduated. She replied and we had a really short and simple conversation. The next day ( i believe) , we started talking a lot , and I just so happened to see her at the highschool when we were grabbing our graduation outfits and doing the rehearsal. When I saw her irl, I kinda got turned off ( I heard she was kinda crazy) , and on top of that , she was a little ugly irl. I remember seeing her Snapchat bio , and she was close friends with my female cousin ( a year younger than me) , who I happened to experiment sexually with when I was 10-11 years old. I remember going to work later that day and having sort of a lightbulb flick thought ( it wasn’t a good thought though) , what if my cousin told her about what happened when we were younger? So I started to kind of panic and immediately distanced myself from that girl. I also experimented sexually with one of my female friends when I was 10-11 , and from that day onwards, I’ve been pretty much living in paranoia and a little bit of guilt about someone finding out and my life being ruined . On top of that, It’s gotten worse to now sometimes I wonder if a girl I added off of quick add ( Snapchat) is underage even if they told me they were 18+ or had 18 and above in their bio, and I get so much guilt and anxiety about that. I even had a quick thought last February on what if I did something inappropriate with my younger cousin when I was 15-16 but I just can’t exactly remember when it happened , and it still eats me alive when I think about it, because I don’t know if it happened or not. I’m sorry for the long vent, I just wish I felt normal again. No matter how much I try to do things that old me used to do, life always feels “ off”. I always kept the top part about when I was younger a secret up until early (ish ) 2024, then I vented to one of my best friends and he told me that that’s a normal thing to do at a young age. Since then, I have told multiple friends and they all say they did similar stuff, but my brain just can’t accept that. Please help me, I quite literally overthink everything nowadays. 2021 was the last full year that I felt normal ( coincidentally, the best year of my life so far) . It’s not just about sexual related things either, sometimes I’ll wonder if I messed up something at work or hit a car while driving/hit someone and drove off. I just wanna live my life how I was supposed to live it after highschool ( carefree and happy) before whatever it is ( I think it’s ocd) hit me unexpectedly. Thanks to anyone who read this , I just needed to pour it out regardless of how negative I felt typing this, I hope someone can relate , because I feel so alone in my head at times.
- Date posted
- 11w ago
So, I know my capacity to get fixated on things. And it's normally something that's relatively remote but, my latest issue is really getting to me and I was wondering if people have any advice. I'm avoiding getting too into specifics, as I don't want this to get reassurance-y but, in essence.. I came to the realisation recently that people who I'd been "friends" (feels like the wrong term now) when I was younger were not very nice people, and normalized a lot of very unpleasant behaviour towards other members of the group. They really normalized it, sold themselves as figures of authority, as older and more responsible and grown-up than others, and looking back, they acted horribly. And coming to this realisation, that I'd been manipulated into just accepting their behaviour has just... broken me. My OCD has latched onto it and I can't stop feeling irreversibly tainted by it. I've talked to others about it, and they've reassured me, told me it's not a big deal and that I hold myself to too high a standard, but none of that sticks. I feel better for a bit, then think 'Maybe when you told them you were skewing it to make yourself look better' or 'Did you leave out a crucial detail'. I keep ruminating over and over, trying to remember exactly how everything played out, trying to figure out if I fed into the behaviour, if I did something bad myself (because y'know, I feel like I was accepting of it at the time, so what does it say about my own values?). I know I need to stop doing all this if I want to improve, but then some part of me keeps saying 'So, you're just going to let yourself off the hook then?' Normally, I can rationalize my own fears to some degree, assure myself something won't happen, but the realness of the situation, and the fact I only came to understand the reality of it because the thought had been bothering me means it feels so much more all-encompassing. I know confessing in itself is a compulsion, but I keep feeling that if I'm not I'm somehow concealing what I 'really am' from others around me, and any positive interactions are me deceiving them in some way. I feel like I can't enjoy anything in life right now, and a good part of me feels I should not enjoy it ever again. If anybody has any advice on it, I'm all ears. Or even hearing if you relate to these feelings, I might appreciate the solidarity at least.
- Date posted
- 9w ago
This list by ai gives a good summary of my symptoms. Does it resemble OCD or is it something else? 1. Compulsions (OCD-specific behaviors): • Feeling the need to flex or contract muscles an even number of times, equally on both sides of your body. • Needing to reverse actions (for example, if you roll your eyes or trace a line with your finger, you feel compelled to do it again in the exact opposite way). 2. Intrusive Thoughts (OCD-specific ruminations): • Daydreaming about people you care about getting hurt (e.g., school shooting, injury, or kidnapping). • Sometimes feeling like you might want something bad to happen to someone you find attractive—possibly because of a desire to help or save them, though it’s confusing. • These thoughts can sometimes provide a twisted sense of relief while remaining distressing and confusing. 3. Sexual Orientation OCD: • Experiencing confusion or doubt about your sexual orientation. 4. Contamination Thoughts: • Feeling like things are contaminated, especially after touching something gross. 5. Sensory Compulsions: • Feeling the need to smell your hand after touching areas like your ear or hair. 6. ADHD-like Symptoms / Additional Observations: • Fidgeting or moving your legs when standing or sitting.
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