- Username
- KayKay<3
- Date posted
- 5y ago
^ thats just reassurance and makes OCD worse. Dont do that. Its hard but just recognize its your OCD. Tell yourself its just trying to play a game and you’re not going to play today. You’re strong and you’re able to fight this! Hype yourself up, sounds strange but standing in a mirror and telling yourself YOU are in control NOT your OCD puts things into perspective. Youre on vacation! Youre in a happy place and your OCD wants to take that from you, dont let it. ?
I’ve had this happen with medical issues, like for example my stomach hurts and I start to think the worst after googling the symptoms. In my case my girlfriend is a medical student and she’s great, so every time I have an ocd induced worry about that she reassures me and explains to me why it’s not possible, that usually calms me. Maybe try to talk to someone who can tell you why you don’t have rabies or something like that? Sorry if I’m not being much help here ?
OCD totally sucks, I'm sorry it's getting in the way! This is one of those situations that's not a realistic risk. If the lemur had rabies it would be noticed by the staff and very sick. Since I don't have this specific fear I'm able to realize that but I can totally relate because when it's about something I am afraid of my mind comes up with all these what if scenarios also!! My exposures are mostly about accepting some degree of unlikely risk, not seeking further information, and not compulsively cleaning. So in this situation I think you would say if I was infected with rabies I would have noticeable obvious symptoms and I would deal with it at that time and until then I'm not going to worry or do further rumination and research or checking. Also OCD might try and make every sensation like a slight headache into something greater than it is so try to be aware of this and acknowledge that it's OCD! I hope this helps I can totally understand what you're going through!
Anytime!! The part about research to 2 am made me laugh! I've been there! It's great to be able to connect to others and even help process triggers with them, it helps me process also!
Thank you both for the responses! Yeah, I’ve definitely been doing a ton of reassurance seeking, and I know that I truly do need to tell myself that I can handle sitting through the unknown and anxiety and not let OCD steal my good time. Thanks so much for the motivation to fight it, it really helps hearing it from someone ❤️
Thank you so much for this- it really is helpful to understand how I can best navigate this kind of fear and obsession and how to not fuel it more. And especially the accepting of risk even if it is unlikely, and choosing to move on, not doing research (until 2am, reading actual laws about vaccination of zoo animals....ha!) and not checking is what I really need to do. Thank you for helping me feel validated and not so alone in this!
I know sometimes I have to just laugh at some of the things OCD makes me do. I think it helps me put it all into perspective. ? Yeah I love that connecting with others and giving and getting insight definitely helps us all get through it.
For sure!! It's definitely nice sometimes to be able to laugh at how ridiculous OCD can be!
Hi all. This is my first time posting on this, and I’m a little concerned about it, but recently my OCD has reached some new levels that are getting pretty overwhelming. It would mean a whole lot to me if some of you would read this and offer me your two cents. Today I was at my girlfriends house for a Passover dinner and nuts were out for a snack. Something about me that’s important to know for this story is that I have an extremely sever Peanut allergy - life threatening. I carry two epi-pens on me at all times. Back to the story, although I am only allergic to peanuts and no tree nuts, these nuts that were placed out were assorted tree nuts, that were likely coated with peanut oil. I lost control. This was the most out of control I have felt in years. I watched the mother eat a nut then take a taste test of the chicken. I was convinced I was going to have a reaction. Later we sat down at the table, and I was in complete fear. The father offered me matzo, but I was too afraid to have anything he touched. I even ended up looking at my girlfriend, who is well aware of my condition, that I was going to end up in the hospital for sure. All I could think about from that moment on was a two-hour mental clock that’s end would signify I would no longer be in danger of going into anaphylactic shock. I had no control and was shaking all throughout the dinner. I truly had no clue what to do and felt completely overrun. Just one day before that, I had another freak-out. This one took place on a vacation, where I had to apply sunscreen to myself. I was absolutely terrified that I had gotten poison ivy from earlier in the day and that I was rubbing it all over myself, and would one day in the near future wake up with it all over me. I tried to voice these concerns to my mother, but I just couldn’t listen to her answer. No matter what she says I dismiss it because I believe she has no clue what she’s talking about, while I, on the other hand, am a self-proclaimed poison ivy “expert.” I know this is terribly long but, here’s what I’m getting into. This condition has been tearing me apart. I am constantly in a state of unrest and I feel that it is tearing down my relationship, even though my significant other is typically understanding. The worst part is, as much as I want to never have OCD again, I am completely afraid to break free from it’s shackles. I believe that my OCD has always given me significant intelligence, and recently had even let me see the world in ways that I could never have before. I have always said that it is the silent killer. OCD is the most subtle death to anyone. It has torn me apart and managed to make me feel dependent on it. As much as I find it horrible, I find it beautifully; and I don’t want to lose something that could potentially make me who I am.
I can’t deal with this OCD bullshit anymore. It’s to the point where every time I walk out my house and come back in I have to sanitize my shoes then the floor where my shoes stepped. I even have my boyfriend doing this and he doesn’t have OCD. I can’t even enough life like I use to anymore I have constantly be cleaning and disinfecting. All these chemicals that have gotten on my skin I know that can’t be healthy. I’m scared the thought of even walking in with my shoes and not using disinfectant triggers me so badly that it ruins my whole day. This all happened when weeks ago I saw a skunk at night walking through the apartment complex I lived in. Then I took my dogs to the vet to get their vaccines. Even though there was no contact I still freak out about rabies. Then the vet assured me that everything was ok. Then I see this stray cat that walks around the apartment complex and he is always trying to come up to my apartment door or the walkway then I’ve seen him walk we’re the skunk area was so now I’m like what if this cat has rabies and I walk where it walks and track it in my house and get rabies. God forbid. It’s to the point where we have a shoe rack and we have to disinfect every time we walk in and out. The other day I had guest and when they left the whole entire house was mopped and I even had bathe my dogs too since they were walking around where everyone was stepping. I even threw away their dog bed and bought them new ones. Please help I can’t live like this anymore.
I have extreme fear of rabies and it triggered my usually bearable ocd to the point i cant function normally. Whenever I pass by something on the ground resembling a bat my brain tells me its a bat and that I have touched it with my hand and that I have rabies now. Sometimes I take a photo of potential triggers to be sure I wont ruminate later aka ask myself what if it was this or that and i just look at the photo i took and be sure its nothing. The triggers are also becoming harder to bear everytime, for example 3 days ago it was night and I saw something small and dark on the ground and didnt see it clearly, phone was almost dead and i couldnt take a photo of it, probably wouldnt anyway because there were two people nearby so i just left myself a note in the phone that it was nothing and I didnt touch it, but you guessed it, my brain says its a bat and that i touched it, creating a false memory and now i feel like i cant know what actually happened..rn i cant think of anything but being terrified of dying of rabies because i cant trust my memory. I feel like Im going crazy
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