- Username
- lets_be_happy
- Date posted
- 2y ago
I used to believe it was. I now be careful with my phrasing when I talk about my mental disorders. I think of my disorders as a seperate thing from me. They are not my identity, they are not a part of me, but moreso I battle with them or I have it. I like to think of my disorder as like some type of little annoying goblin that follows me around. I replace "I keep thinking about" with "my OCD keeps telling me-". It has helped tremendously with my self confidence, and it keeps me from hating who I am because of those thoughts. This is what has worked for me, It was weird at first but it helped
Thank you for this comment, its nice to have another perspective about this!
@Solaris Definitely! Everyone has thier own way of dealing with mental illness & identity. It's my own little way to boost my self confidence.
I love that! A “little annoying goblin” 🤣
Yes a lot. I literally cant dissociate myself from ocd since it's a part of me and it will always be. And thats okay
Yeah, even though it’s not who we are, we do have to accept that it’s a part of our life. I’ll have to try out balancing that line
Yes! I used to feel like my anxiety and ocd were my identity. I get what you mean with the processing phase cause for awhile I felt like all I did was do ERP exposures, listen to anxiety podcasts, read books, etc. There's this quote by @anxietyjosh on instagram that was really good, he said "you've got to stop making anxiety the centre of your life. Our threat response thinks it's being helpful when you give it attention, so when you make "recovery" the focal point of your life, you unintentionally tell anxiety that it's still important." That way of thinking helped me stop identifying with my anxiety, however for OCD, it's a little trickier. I did do what Bluusticks said and named my OCD something (I chose OCD Demon). Idk if you've heard of Dr. Patrick McGrath but he says "There is no 100 percent ability to get rid of your OCD; it is a treatable disorder, and you must always be working to fight it." ...and I'm just like 😐 how is OCD not going to be my identity then? 🤔 😂 So what I do is I keep both of these ways of thinking in mind and try to keep things simple. I have anxiety, but I'm not going to let it be my identity, I'm going to be smart with my resources and not make recovery from it the focal point of my life. I have OCD and while I can't get rid of it, I'm going to continue to face what I can't control so it doesn't control me.
Yes, that is exactly what I’ve been doing! But I never connected making “recovery the focal point of your life” as a way to actually make the anxiety worse. But I guess we could consider that a compulsion in itself 🤷🏻♀️ Thank you so much for those resources too! I will use them wisely 😁
When I was younger, yes. But you can’t let anything take over your life and indenting that way because it’s not healthy and it could even ruin your life and relationships.
Have any of you ever felt that you were misdiagnosed from a provider who diagnosed you with something different than OCD? I have was previously diagnosed with depression and severe anxiety. I was put on medications that made me feel numb and I felt my head and thoughts were in a constant fog. I eventually chose to go off of them and slowly tapered off the medications intrusive thoughts came rushing back in like a Dam that cracked open; flooding everything around it. In the beginning, depression and anxiety diagnoses made sense because I believed that doctors know what they are doing because they are educated and trained in the field. As I began to question things, their diagnoses did not make sense. My intrusive and repetitive thoughts and actions made me feel like a horrible person, depressed, and anxious. I was told I had a chemical imbalance leading to my depression and anxiety, but I figured out what was really causing it was my thoughts. I eventually came across false memory OCD and other types of OCD that I never knew was OCD. I felt as though I finally knew what was going on and things would become easier by knowing, but in many ways things have not become easier. I feel that mental health awareness has improved, but the the services, education, and access to services have not caught up to the same extent with improving. I have learned that at the end of the day, it is important to not always accept what I am told by others including professionals and to question things. At the end of the day, it is myself that I am left with and nobody can know me the way that I do.
Do you ever get depressed over how long you’ve been dealing with OCD? I’ve been dealing with it for over two years now. I mourn what my life could have been like if that one thought hadn’t popped into my mind. Makes you feel like life is going to be like this forever. In those moments, what makes you have hope or a feeling that things are gonna get better?
I’ve experienced OCD since I was 11 years old (I am 29 now), and was diagnosed with it in 2021. So, I’ve lived more than half of my life dealing with this disorder in silence. I’ve recently been feeling like I’m no longer a good person. That all of the things I’ve held close to my heart and loved, no longer matter to me. As much as I try to go back to those things, it sometimes feels so foreign and makes me feel anxious. Has anybody else experienced this before? If so, what are some things you’ve done to help you find happiness and joy in the things you’ve cherished?
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