- Date posted
- 3y
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 3y
No but sometimes my mind will drop a worry that consumed me for months. And then I get a relief. But I always get a replacement worry. But if you're doing ERP it sounds like it's working!
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 3y
Oops me again. Was gonna say definitely some people and places can be more triggering than others.
- Date posted
- 3y
Thank you for your answers! I definitely agree, and like all illnesses, some factors tendto trigger/accentuate the intensity of the symptoms. I'm not doing ERP "officially" atm, but I try little exercises at home since I just moved, I need to find a new therapist though. I do recognize the cOCD symptoms I have, and I know I have anxiety as well, but I feel like I still need to adress the trauma part (my OCD started after a specific series of events, linked to this subtype) and now that I changed my environment, I think I should probably combine ERP/CBT with psychotherapy cause I feel ready to talk, and like talking will help with the trauma part
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 3y
@Anonymous* Ah that's a nice plan. I did CBT for a very long time for my GAD. I in hindsight recognized the OCD symptoms 20+years ago but wasn't diagnosed until now. I think it's great you're going to do both!
- Date posted
- 3y
@Catperson10 Thank you! That's the thing, I have both (GAD I'm 100% sure I have. One doctor said OCD and GAD, one said GAD/PTSD) and my dad has had OCD traits my whole life that i would recognize as "extreme/over the top" before. Since I don't have any other subtype and my main compulsion is actually avoidance, I'm still struggling to differentiate between the thoughts linked to OCD and those linked to GAD, cause the way we're supposed to deal with them is different. Can't wait to see a doctor I saw a long time ago, when I "only" had anxiety. At that time, my biggest problem was my dog phobia š
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 3y
@Anonymous* Ah that's great you get to see someone. Right now my anxiety response is varied and one day I'll panic going to a public place and then other days I'm standing in line not noticing a person next to me. The second part is super rare. I'm hypervigilant.
- Date posted
- 3y
@Catperson10 And do you feel like your hypervigilance is more GAD based? Or you don't try and go there? Sorry if this question is somehow triggering, you don't have to answer obviously. This is currently my biggest struggle.
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 3y
@Anonymous* I'm not sure. I have had anxiety since I was really young but I got retriggered with a food allergy that sent me to the ER. But I'd had contamination worries prior to that so it's not the cause it just made it worse. But I'm not sure yet. I'm only on week 2 or 3 of ERP.
- Date posted
- 3y
@Catperson10 I see and relate to this (tw food poisoning, 2 short hospital stays, and I worked in the medical field, so I saw confirmations of my fears without taking confirmation bias into consideration). In theory, one can have those worries/traits and function, and one event can trigger a higher level of OCD, that can become debilitating. It usually isn't linked to the subtype, but for health and contamination, I guess it's blurry. I think ERP (which is a super specific CBT) helps for both in practice/day to day life. And "regular" CBT helps to deconstruct the thoughts that are more real life based and a result of anxiety. Lots of luck with your ERP
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 3y
@Anonymous* Ah that's a good observation. I was doing really really well up to Feb 2020 (touching doorhandles and all). I'm hopeful this will help as well.
Related posts
- Date posted
- 22w
I feel like Iāve had a lot of different categories of ocd. Some categories stick with me more and are repetitive. Iāve been doing well with mental health - not having anxiety stick around. When the physical feeling of anxiety sticks around, every thought is horrible, but when the feeling of anxiety is gone the obsessions donāt really impact me. If I can keep anxiety at bay, my life is good. Iāve been doing well lately, although this week I was scrolling through tictok and watched a video about someone in a coma and wondered if I was in a coma right now and didnāt know it. I had a panic attack for about 15 minutes. Anxiety, sweating, etc. It didnāt take ahold of me and it quickly lost its impact on me. It still shook me and I was just like āwowā where did that come from. Now I am staying away from social media. Is that avoidance? Should I make myself keep watching social media? Many ocd problems have come from social media or watching a movie or show that triggers something and then spirals. I am limiting what I watch, which I believe is good because I shouldnāt be watching that stuff anyway. What do you think?
- Date posted
- 18w
iāve unfortunately fallen into the cycle of trying to figure out my thoughts and find answers as to why i feel so distressed. this still pertains to the situation regarding changing my room for those reading who have seen my multiple posts over the last few days. iāve been so distressed and in so much panic about it. iām also panicking over my other room looking so different from when i left it. itās been making me feel crazy because to me thereās no reason for my anxiety to latch so hard onto something that seems so minuscule. i was thinking i was having anxiety over change, but itās like symptoms of ocd too thatās making it really hard for me to let go. SO i started thinking maybe it was perfectionism ocd? iāve realized over time that i do compulsions to where things have to feel ājust rightā, but i also do that with any environment iām in. like it HAS to feel cozy to me and provide me comfort in order for me to feel at ease. and this change is causing me to panic because thereās something wrong that i canāt find an answer to. maybe the different colored carpet? but itās also more than that it feels like. however, now itās spreading into other areas of my house where iāve always been fine in and possibly to just any area iām in at all. hence why itās making me feel crazy because thereās no reason for me to be THIS distressed over that as iāve never really had this problem before. and when i did it would last maybe an hour to a couple of days at most, but this has been going for over 2 weeks with my really bad anxiety being this week. iām doing a little better, but itās still hard when i can feel that panic waiting for me to acknowledge and just engulf me in the ocd cycle. iām also analyzing basically any feeling i have so i just feel off in general and like iām going insane. iāve been so hyper focused on how i feel and that will send me spiraling too. multiple themes then start coming in like existential ocd and fear of solipsism. not to mention my harm and contamination ocd that just adds on when iām this vulnerable. then i worry if no one is real, then no one feels the way i do. or just in general that what if no one feels the way i do. honestly, i think being out of college and in my house with nothing to do is causing me too much time with my thoughts. which is why iām so distressed about everything that pops into my brain.
- Date posted
- 12w
Some background: Iām a woman in my 30s whoās been struggling to find the right diagnosis for years. Since 2022, Iāve had multiple psych hospital stays, and with each stay came a different diagnosis and different sets of medications: Bipolar II, CPTSD, MDD with psychotic features, āhigh functioning BPD,ā and most recently, Schizoaffective Disorder (depressive type). Before all of that happened, I had been seeing a therapist for CPTSD and AuDHD traits for 2 years, but after they left the practice, I struggled to find someone I trusted again. Most of my breakdowns happened during my last relationship. Looking back, I was in survival mode with them, leaving who *I* am behind. I got to the point where I started doubting my own reality from the abuse. This eventually added up and landed me in my first episode of psychosis. That combined with my attempts is what got me my schizoaffective diagnosis. After finally leaving that relationship 1.5 years ago, Iāve slowly rebuilt my life: new town, new job, new friends. Many of my old symptoms (major ones) havenāt returned, which makes me believe I may have been misdiagnosed due to reliving past childhood trauma and stress responses from the abuse. Through all of this, Iāve felt like nothing ever truly fit. I journal, I reflect, I replay the recordings and Iāve even watched old vlogs āthe puzzle pieces still donāt come together. Itās left me feeling like Iāll never really know whatās going on, and Iāve started to fear that my diagnoses will just keep stacking up without ever leading to effective treatment. Recently, I opened up to a friend about this. She mentioned that her neighbor went through something similar not exactly like me but she thought it would give me a starting pointāmultiple diagnoses that never felt rightāuntil a new doctor finally identified it as OCD. That one diagnosis changed everything for her. It made me realize I really donāt know much about OCD beyond the stereotypes. I didnāt know OCD could involve intrusive thoughts, rumination, or mental compulsions. My friend encouraged me to look into it, especially as I start searching for a new therapist. Facebook and Google lead me here⦠So now Iām wondering: could OCD be a better explanation for what Iāve been experiencing all these years? Questions for the community: 1. What steps did you take to find out if OCD was what you were dealing with? 2. If you had a long history of misdiagnoses, how did you finally find a clinician who got it right? 3. How did you advocate for yourself when people dismissed your concerns? 4. Is there anything you wish you had done earlier in your OCD journey? Thank you so much if you made it this far. Iām really grateful for this space and just want to start finding answers and the right kind of help.
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