- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 3y
Racism OCD?
Does anyone have the theme of racism for their OCD? Am I the only one?
Does anyone have the theme of racism for their OCD? Am I the only one?
Its not a theme for me but I regularly get intrusive thoughts like racial slurs when seeing different people. I know they are just thoughts however.
The part that gets me is this thought involved one small true statement and ocd is just running with it.
Same. Lately, I’ve had my ocd cling onto bits of innocent truth and twist it into something racist and evil. Ocd does a fantastic job at blurring the lines between what you really believe and what it wants you to believe. It’s so hard to tell if I actually think these thoughts because it feels so real. It feels like I 100% do. But I don’t want to believe these things.
Well I can tell you one thing racist people don’t worry. They just are racist. I mean maybe some of them had a change of heart. But I feel like it’s still something they do not worry about 100%. My best advice is to sit with the thoughts as hard as it is!
@Princess4677 Also just read something that even if intrusive thoughts are about something true, ocd distorts it and frames it in a way it isn’t. Which made me feel a little better.
@OCDewewew Oh yeah totally ! It’s with every theme too but it’s all mental torture for sure :/
I have this fear a bit especially since I’m white. People claim that white people naturally have it in them and that’s scary to me lol.
i can relate to this. in middle school, a friend called a classmate of ours a racial slur and said that it was me and not her, that classmate threatened to kill me and brought a gun to a school event and i remember being terrified and my friend at the time thought it was rather funny. ever since my OCD will latch on this when i have friends who are of different races, like i have to be fearful. i myself i’m a minority and that singular event really impacted me and my OCD latched on to it the most bizarre ways.
Oh my gosh I am so sorry!!!! That sounds awful.
I suffered this in 2020, I think it’s actually what started my OCD. Understanding that everyone has internalized racism to some degree or another makes your OCD take that truth and blow it up in you and make it seem morally corrupting. What helped is letting those thoughts be there, accept them, even say a slur to yourself when you’re alone. You’ll realize that instead of having them transform you into a racist, they’ll eventually die and you’ll be the person you once were.
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Honestly, saying white people are racist for me personally doesn’t bother me. I get so triggered when people are racist Bc it makes me question all my intentions. Everything I do and think when it comes to my ocd racism theme makes me feel awful. But thank you so much for speaking on ocd and everhthing. I feel like we all support each other. It makes me feel so good. I’m sorry you have to endure any racism at all.
I wanna start out by saying, I am really proud of how far I've come in recognizing my OCD tendencies and learned about how it can show up intersectionally for BIPOC folks who have racialized trauma and how me, being a White person, how it manifests itself for me. I'd also like to say, this is gonna be more of an analytical and reflective post. Please feel free to read and respond with any critiques or thoughts you have. I'm embarrassed about it nowadays, but it's important to acknowledge because it was a HUGE part of my teenage personality, unfortunately. I used to be a HUGE Shane Dawson fan 😭 like, his content was my strongest hyperfixation to date. So at this point in time, I feel like I'm still trying to decipher what kind of racial commentary and satire and jokes are genuinely funny and which are just perpetuating stereotypes and straight up minstrelsy. Shout out to D'Angelo Wallace for making the video essay that woke me up to seeing this issue more clearly. I try to be aware of how I can easily fall into just laughing at racial stereotypes without being aware of the serious consequences it has for BIPOC people, but at the same time, I don't want to be too worried about everything being racist and therefore that means it's bad and should be banned, cause that's also not always helpful, I've noticed. So racialized fear and polarization is something I'm deconstructing. I hate to admit this, too, 'cause it's embarrassing, but my OCD seems to latch onto racial issues. I end up obsessing about whether or not I'm causing marginalized people harm or not, particularly when it comes to racism. I believe this is because I know I was one of those White kids who was into "edgy" humor when I was a teen. I think it's just lingering guilt from knowing that was wrong, but OCD makes my guilt and rumination and therefore compulsions to "fix" it so much worse than most people. It's frustrating, but I have come a very long way in confronting and dealing with it. I'm very proud of myself for being aware that that's an issue I have. I've got to give credit where credit is due, to my biracial friend (who also happens to have OCD) for essentially helping me learn this, albeit the hard way with many arguments about racism and trauma. It's something that isn't talked about much, but we're learning to build bridges in our understanding of how mental health affects us as people with different forms of racialized trauma. Mine's not so much trauma, but social stigma, whereas his was from actual bullying and harassment and physical assault, simply because of his race. I've also learned how to recognize and deal with my own mental health issues WHILE confronting race because of Black advocates like Tony Nabors who does Racial Equity Insights, F.D. Signifier who does really great intersectional analyses on social issues pertaining to Black people, and D'Angelo Wallace for being the first Black YouTuber that made the problem with Shane Dawson video that finally helped me break out of my lowkey toxic parasocial/trauma bond relationship I had with him, lol. Does this post seem too wordy and analytical for this forum? Let me know if this isn't the right audience for this type of writing and reflection. I just wanted to talk about it because it's something I had to figure out largely on my own. Wondering if anyone else relates to this or can see themselves in this.
my OCD is doing what it does best and it’s randomly selecting themes. Once I’m not scared or react to one it bounces to another. And then i temporarily forget all of my coping skills for that theme. Rn it’s fixating on the time I had a panic attack and it’s trying to make me have one again
Themes constantly switching. I’ve been suffering with real event ocd the last year and am currently in therapy treating it. it’s nowhere near as bad as it was last year and it’s felt like a nice break. there’s days where it gets bad but i can’t compare it to the stress of last year. However i’ve noticed every time i overcome a theme a new one hits me out of nowhere. i’ve suffered with ocd since i was 9, and ive had multiple themes. i’m in a 2 year relationship with my partner and it’s amazing. she’s probably my second proper relationship due to the fact my first relationship gave me so much fear to get into another one as i was cheated on, and needed a few years to get over that. i kind of guessed that ROCD would creep in at some point as it just felt inevitable. anyways, i know my partner is not cheating on me, she’s beyond loyal, we are so so in love but i think due to that first relationship i had, being cheated on really messed with my head. it’s like my brain is telling me my partner has someone else even though i know in my heart nothings going on, and i trust her with my life. i also think because im in the happiest relationship of my life, anything that would indicate loosing her makes me feel sick and riddled with anxiety. and i know that’s completely normal for everyone. i think the most frustrating thing is, is knowing that my OCD has finally crept into my relationship which is something i never wanted it to do. this is a brand new theme and i have no idea how to treat this. i will speak to my therapist but if anyone has been through this theme and any advice in the meantime i would really appreciate it :).
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