Mental block while writing/doing college work

Does anyone experience some kind of a persistent mental block while trying to do important college work? I've been trying to write my final paper (english is not my native language, I don't know how you call that) which is 100+ pages long, true, but it isn't anything too complex. I've been trying to do it for the past two years at this point and while I'm prone to procrastination I could not count how times I tried, with limited success. The one thing I know for sure is that my ocd goes crazy after the first 5-10 minutes. Has anyone found a way to work through such symptoms? It's extremely frustrating, especially when I know that this stuff is well within my capacity to get done in 2 weeks, not 2 years.

"Pure" OCD

OCD can be c...

Date posted: 3y

I have something like this: I look at the text that I'm supposed to finish writing and almost immediately I have this thoughts that everything is out of order, the text has bad quality, I just cannot do it. And then I give up and procrastinate. Or I start to write but I also obsess over checking every sentence and after 5 minutes I'm already exhausted. Does that sound familiar?

ocdalltheway

Date posted: 3y

It does sound very familiar but it was a few years ago. A few elements of that are still bothering me but I mainly solved it by just going for it, writing what came to mind (if anything) and accepting the "risk" I might turn in a bad quality paper. Such worries are still present currently but in my attempts to define what was bothering me (compulsing, rationalizing) I'm just completely lost. Just the anticipation of writing takes away huge amounts of energy. I'm worried about my general ability (unfounded), the right way to respond, if I'm gonna fail again and a million other things. It doesn't really help that I go to a public library with hundreds of other students just to provoke my Harm and related OCD themes.

April307

Date posted: 3y

Hi! I'm so sorry to hear that you're having a difficult time right now. I fully understand the feeling of having OCD get in the way of work. I've had many instances where an email that should only take me 2 minutes to write and send could take me about an hour to write and send. Or, I would just sit and stare at my computer and not be able to do anything out of fear. So, I get it. I think that it's really important that you find an OCD specialist at NOCD to work with. When OCD is beginning to impact your life in many ways, it helps to have someone start you off with baby steps. What helped me get through work was by just doing the work, but it's important to not engage in any compulsions while you do the work otherwise you're just feeding the OCD and you won't feel any improvement. Here is a helpful article that my NOCD therapist gave me when I first started treatment. It taught me how to respond to my thoughts: https://www.sheppardpratt.org/news-views/story/how-to-respond-to-unwanted-obsessive-thoughts/#:~:text=There%20is%20no%20one%20right,if%20you%20wish%20to%20entertain. I hope this was helpful to you, you got this! :)

ocdalltheway

Date posted: 3y

Thank you for the article and kind words, it reminded me of a few things. May I ask, what type of compulsions were you encountering while trying to do it? Or If I rephrase it, were you compulsing by trying to do it the "right" way and effectivelly obsessing about your obsessions and compulsioms?

veinsoul

Date posted: 25w

in need of help

I don’t know what I can do. I guess this is more of a depression thing than OCD but who knows. I have been battling this ongoing war within myself for years now and it’s been affecting my academic performance. situation of mine right now: I haven’t done a lot of work for my classes this month and I feel like I’m going to fail the semester again. I don’t know what it is but I can never seem to begin any work. I know I am capable but why can’t I get myself to start? why has this been going on for so long? I don’t understand. I have a history of good grades back in high school before I turned 17. I don’t even know how to describe it. it’s like I’ve been paralyzed and cannot do any work. but I can somehow do offside tasks like pinterest boards or random youtube videos. if I get rid of those, what do I do? I end up sleeping. because I’m tired. I have a low vitamin D deficiency & have been trying to get energy. I’m at a loss. I also bought unnecessary stuff on sunday when I went out with my family. I bought some things for the kids and I ended up buying myself a dress and a few accessories. now I have to work extra to gain that money back doing uber eats because I need it asap. it’s like I don’t want to work, for now. my coworkers who are around my age don’t work as much & I think to myself, “wow, they must be getting in the work done” meanwhile I’m working 3 days a week (which isn’t much) and attending school. I feel like if I change my schedule again, I’ll ruin it for the rest of my driver coworkers. I’m in a lead position at work so having to put on a mask is quite tiring. there’s so much I want to say that I don’t think it will fit in this post. I have booked a mental health session with a school counselor. all I want at the moment is to have my own place and be in a better mental state to take care of my cats. they mean a lot to me but this stupid ass undiagnosed mental issue is getting in the way. sorry for the long rant. I am tired.

moomoo22

Date posted: 24w

pls reply if you have help

i am a freshman in college and i have always struggled with depression, anxiety, and OCD. i have never received help for my OCD despite being medicated for my other two issues. i have noticed that what most of my panic stems from is my OCD and more specifically my OCD around school. i haven’t been able to get myself up for class for multiple days and im starting to panic about everything im missing and think about every little thing i have to fix. i am so behind that it makes me want to panic and i feel like i cant fix this. i just want my mind to feel normal but it feels like my whole world is falling apart all because i am feeling stuck in school. please help me i just want to feel okay but i dont know how to. i have tried doing all the assignments i can do to catch up but it isn’t enough i still feel so panicked

uncertain_Aly

Date posted: 21w

Does OCD impact your ability to get to work?

Often times I find myself spiraling out in the morning about all sorts of things. When I try and catch myself and figure out what I am obsessing over it’s like it goes away. I haven’t moved. I have been sitting frozen on the floor because I can’t go to work because I am behind on work and I hate being late and I hate being messy but I am frequently late and my room is cluttered and full of stuff. I want to be good and move and go to work but I don’t know what is coming today and I hate my job so I know I will get bored and when I have nothing to keep me busy and engaged I like start thinking and taking an inventory of what is going on and then I will feel a sensation and what is the sensation? How did it happen? And I know that I will pick up the bad emotions in the office and get contaminated, I was really worried about things like this as a kid too I cried because I had to touch dirt in kindergarten. I know I am this way and I have been this way for a while but at the same time I think I might just be normal and like I don’t know why I get stuck in thinking like this. Then I begin to doubt that OCD is real because everyone has a brain with wiring and everyone gets stuck in thought sometimes. I feel disabled from whatever this is because I am stuck. I literally cannot move because I don’t know what’s wrong and I know I have to go to work even though I feel like every moment I spend there is making everything worse because other people are so stressed and I get it from them. And I don’t feel ready because I just feel off and something is wrong and I just don’t know what to do because if it’s OCD or not OCD everything anyone knows about me is coming from me and I worry that I am often masking all the thinking I’m doing because thinking all the time is rude and inconsiderate and inconvenient for those around me, but I can’t stop. I just don’t feel right, right now - and I want to know WHY?? Why is everything off all the time? How do I even know that I am not making up the experience of OCD in my head to cover up something really wrong with me and now I am taking on the symptoms of OCD like an actress, because this could be something that I can latch onto as a final hope for explaining why I am stuck. So stuck so deeply and terribly stuck sitting on my floor next to my bed just scrolling to avoid thinking because any time I start thinking I am left with no answers or help or anything just this swirly feeling. I know I am trying, maybe not my best, but as much as I possibly can. I want to be a Special Education Teacher but I have so much so so so much doubt and uncertainty about every decision I make and everything I know that I can’t get there right now. I can’t do anything right now until it feels ok and then I will. It never feels ok. I know I have to be ok not feeling ok about it. I can be unsure and still be ok. I know it’s just my thinking and my body but I just can’t get past this feeling. And then I know that because I can calm myself and be ok even though I spent 2 hours of my life today already feeling stuck and spinning around and around and around in my head - I don’t feel sure about my OCD and I think it’s a bit of a scam made up by people to cultivate pathology around deep human thought because one day I might figure it out and we all think a lot.

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Mental block while writing/doing college work

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