How do you deal with your family being insensitive and joking about OCD? My dad said that he once had a coworker with OCD and he intentionally triggered him and laughed as he hyperventilated. I told my mom I didn't think it was very funny and she excused his behavior and said that's just my dad's sense of humor.
As much as it hurts, other people’s actions toward mental illness isn’t something that we can control. We can educate them, tell them how it makes us feel, etc., but it all comes down to them and what they choose to do. My dad is hurtful to me sometimes. He’s called me a retard a number of times and he has imitated a disabled person as he watched me take my medication. Nothing I say will make him change, so I have to be the bigger person and learn to sit with how it makes me feel.
Wow, I'm so sorry, your father treats you like that...
Classic gaslighting tactic, excusing behavior but saying it's just a "joke". Honestly, I'm sorry you go through this, i have no major advice except that you should talk with your therapist about that so that they can introduce you to some healthy copying mechanisms until you're able to move out. It's not normal and you don't deserve to listen to such toxicity.
*by
Thank you! I'm glad I'm not overreacting to what he said or anything
@ashpuppy Of course you're not overreacting!
Wow, I had an ex on purpose triggering me... I send me down the rabbit hole, I had been what felt like the way to recovery from POCD and he did that to me, even though he knew about my issues... Different senses of humour, fine, but causing someone pain, not fine... If his colleague had an infected finger, he wouldn't have grabbed and squeezed it either... Arg, sorry for ranting, but that really makes me angry...
My family always jokes how they wish I had "cleaning" ocd and how much better I would be if I had this type of ocd. It really hurts my feelings and even tho I've told them to stop they don't. Its really hard not having family who gets it.
My mother just said that yesterday, I told her that no OCD theme is good to have... She said it still would be better, as it would mean it has a productive outcome. :(
@Zoë_84 Ya my aunt said that and everyone laughed and I was like...you clearly don't understand how debilitating ocd can be
@levilore_ No, most people don't get it... I also suffer from the fear of leaving my apartment. My boss knows about it and said - Then just go outside... - that should me, that he doesn't get it. Mental health issues are hard to grasp for those, who don't suffer from them.
Maybe show them the video that is posted by the therapists on the app here. The second one from the top called “OCD is not a Joke”. It might be relevant and help them understand. Also talk with your tharepist about it then they can help talk to them an help them understand.
Apparently, there was a TikTok trend for a while where commenters pulled something similar - I have to wonder if they're oblivious to how sadistic they're behaving, or if they know and simply don't care.
My OCD has been attacking my Dad lately. For whatever reason my ODC says “what if u r face gets red around him or while you’re talking to him and ppl think u like him or what if I have a panic attack around him and ppl think that he must’ve done something to me to make me afraid of him and HE DIDNT! He’s never been anything but a loving great Dad. It makes me feel like such a horrible person. It causes me at times to avoid him and I don’t want to. I just want these horrible thoughts about my Dad to go away. Has anyone else experienced this? And if so how did you cope? I HATE myself for this😭
I'm looking for some comfort. I'm having a hard time at work this morning unfortunately, because I mistakenly mentioned my OCD to a coworker who is completely ignorant to anything anxiety related. He replied, "I dont like labels, you just have tendencies" he seemed to scoff at the idea of needing a therapist. I was reminded of how fragile i am, because I got so angry at the thought of all the internal suffering and torment i went through because of ocd, and that some people have no clue just how severe it can be.. And to think someone completely ignorant to it thinks they know what I went through when they dont even have an inkling..I'm hoping someone here will reply and remind me there are people who get it. It's not a joke, it's not exclusive to keeping things orderly, it's not something you can just get over
I have a family member who has a mental health degree but seems to use their knowledge to label all of our relatives as narcissistic or as having other negative psychological traits. This usually happens whenever someone disagrees with her. Recently, she told me that if I feel guilty about a recent argument we had, it's not her problem that I haven't appropriately dealt with my OCD. I feel like this was a strategy to get under my skin and to use my OCD against me, because this relative knows how important my recovery has been to me. Has anyone else here experienced this type of gaslighting (disregarding your feelings or opinions based in your OCD) & how have you handled it, whilst maintaining fidelity to ERP?
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