Can real event ocd, or ocd in general make you feel bad for something you did that was actually wrong? I keep thinking about things I’ve done in the past that are defiantly wrong and shitty things. But I’ve never really thought of them before. I knew they were terrible things, and I’ve not gone back since. Maybe 10+ years ago (when I was 19-21). I thought real event ocd was your brain taking things that are trivial and twisting them to make you seem bad. In these cases I’ve grown as a person l, I’m really not proud of myself and hope to never go back to that place. Is this ocd, or am I suddenly just feeling remorse for being a terrible person? I just feel the need to confess to my wife again, even though she knows most of it.

I think people with ocd forget that we can criticise our actions or words (that were not the best, not something ocd twists) without criticising our whole selves.

Yeah I’m my case, I don’t know. I’ve hurt people in my past, and it was just shitty. If that’s the case then there was harm done. I just terrible regret it, and never really thought about it because I had just moved on and changed my ways....until ocd started last summer. This always gets thrown in the mix of all my themes when the cycles restarts, and I can’t tell if it’s the ocd, or if I’m just feeling more remorse for my past mistakes. I’ve gone months without it ever bothering me, and then it hits me again

@Ocdislame We all hurt people in our lives. It’s a natural part of being human. My advice if you can’t tell whether it’s ocd or not. Is to still do exposures and once the emotions don’t feel as overwhelming you can look at everything more logically and clearly.

@M Yeah that’s the thing. When I’m feeling fine I just look at it and think how it was not a good decision. But it’s more of a “is what it is, I just need to learn from it and move on”. The reason I don’t know if it’s ocd is because of other therapy I was going through when I recalled this memory the first time. I have other primary themes, and this one just kind of pops it’s head up after a while, and it’s just hard to differentiate

@M Thank you for your input though. It was helpful.

@Ocdislame I completely understand. I’m the same way too. I’m glad I could help

Thank you for this. I can’t really go into it, but what I didn’t was definitely wrong. I don’t know if I caused any hurt or pain to whom it was inflicted on, but at this point I can’t really reach out for forgiveness. It’s just something I will have to live with. The thing is, I’ve always known it was wrong, but just kind of moved on and accepted and I guess learned from it. It just always comes up when my ocd is flaring.

@Ocdislame You don’t always need to reach out for forgiveness. Just forgive yourself

@Anonymous Thank you. It just makes ocd that much harder to deal with. Most people here fear they’re just a bad person. But it’s not real to them. For me, some would say I am just a bad person. Or was kind of a shitty one in my past. So it is just true. I don’t know how erp will help with that.

But was it something just kind of trivial? Like stealing a candy bar when you were young?

@Ocdislame No not trivial

@Ocdislame I’m not going into details only because confessing makes ocd worse and just riding out the anxiety is what I’m taught to do in therapy, but no, it wasn’t trivial.

@Anonymous No worries, wasn’t looking for details. I just feel like a lot of example i see are people that are stressing over things that are wrong but mostly harmless. Doesn’t mean their suffering is any less, but it makes me feel maybe what I’m dealing with isn’t ocd. Thanks for your feedback!