Anyone else struggling with their ocd at work? For some people works a distraction. For me it’s where my main focus of overthinking is at the moment. I’m ruminating a lot and can’t see it getting better.
Totally, I get it at work all the time and it can pull me right out of what I’m doing. I find that if I do a quick uncertainty statement in my mind, “I’m feeling anxious about ——, I can’t be 100% certain that won’t happen, I’m willing to live with that uncertainty happily.” It seems to help bring me back into the moment!
@Anon. That for me is the hardest part. It’s the not knowing. Like sure you can go back and check and do the very compulsion your mind is telling you to do but that isn’t going to help in the long run because the next day it’ll be something new. I just need to be able to live with the uncertainty
@.Anonymous I’ve found for me living with uncertainty is like working out a muscle at the gym. I’m not going to go bench press 300lb the first time at the gym, it takes practice. Same with uncertainty - I get better at embracing it the more I practice it. One small thing that helps me with this is embracing the uncertainty with small OCD things. I have a lot of different OCD types, so when I embrace the uncertainty for less anxiety provoking OCD types for me, the more anxiety producing OCD types become less powerful. Also, I found that by embracing the uncertainty and not giving into compulsions for the FIRST OCD symptom/type I experience in a day helps set the tone for my OCD and my willingness the rest of the day.
@Anon. Hey thanks for this! It’s deffo something to try as I’m running out of options lol. I was having an okay day today until one thought. I haven’t given into that compulsion today even though I want to
yes!!! out of nowhere a month or two ago, i starred really struggling at work with panic attacks and OCD symptoms
@sabm Ah that’s the same with me! I’ve had OCD for a while now and it even left me unable to work for a year. However I started this new job in April and was completely fine to a certain degree then bam out of nowhere last month I started questioning everything I was doing. Am I doing this wrong? Have I put the wrong information on this form? What if I’ve sent this to someone else’s email? Today seems the first day in over a month I’m alright. I don’t want to be alright though, I want to just enjoy my life without the what ifs.
@sabm Me too!
@Anonymous Ah it’s horrible right? How are you getting on with it at the moment?
@.Anonymous I’m glad you’re having a good day! Thanks for asking! I feel like I’m turning a corner with this thanks to a combo of therapy and being fortunate to have a supportive boss who was very compassionate and understanding when I told her ocd symptoms were affecting my ability to hit deadlines. It sucks, especially because my ocd symptoms flair up when I CARE about a project 😅 and sometimes compilations make it feel impossible to hit send on an email (or this message!!!) but we have figure out a way through this before and we’ll figure it out again!!!!
i feel like work is so unbearable honestly. like the last four years work has not been a trigger for me (ive been a barista the whole time) and didnt even really experience agoraphobia until a month and a half ago i got promoted to be a manager and all of a sudden out of NOWHERE work got so terrifying like the hardest thing ive ever had to do. all of a sudden im terrified to have social interactions and get out of bed even though ive never struggled with that part of OCD
@sabm I’m so sorry your going through that! I used to work as a barista as well so I can understand to a certain degree. I have another therapy session tonight so hopefully that will make me feel more positive
@.Anonymous do you see a therapist through NOCD? if so, has it been helpful for you?
@sabm Hey! So I’m not seeing a therapist through here. I was going to but I live in the UK and the price was a little high for me financially. I am seeing an old therapist again as I’m starting therapy through the NHS again. Are you currently looking for a therapist?
@.Anonymous im seeing a therapist, but want to see a NOCD specialist as well
Sorry to hear about the changes to your OCD at work. Do you think the added pressure may have triggered it? Im experiencing something similar with a new position at my job. I was fine doing more work at a different position. Now Im doing less work at a higher position and my anxiety is crazy. I dont know why. Its telework, and in my own home, but ocd is ridiculous now. It shouldnt feel like you barely survived a day each day. I dont even want to wake up to move a few feet to go to work. I am at the point where Im ready to leave less than a month in. I hope you find some mental peace soon!
@Raider916 Hey! I’m sorry your experiencing that. I completely understand that feeling of barely surviving a day. It’s like when it hits your end time a weight gets lifted off of my shoulders and I feel like I can breathe again
Kinda. I would look information on ocd when my doubt about having ocd would kick in. I have not been diagnosed with ocd, at least not yet.
I just started a new job, and im also struggling to focus at work. Ocd and anxiety feels worse. I dont want to not work because i think its worse to have idle time, but there are days where i dont want to work with ocd.
@Raider916 I completely understand. It seems like work is so hard to do at the moment. And your right, not to work you will have more time on your hands. I went off sick due to my OCD for a year back in 2020. It was good for me as I needed to address the fact I had ocd and I wasn’t getting the correct help. However now, two years later I’m starting to get the what ifs again. And like yourself I’m in a new job. I started in April and up until a month ago I was alright. All I want to do is hand my notice in and not work. It’s becoming unbearable
OCD doesn't take a break just because you have work to do. What are some ways that OCD has popped up for you at your work?
Hi! I’m new to the NOCD community, but I’ve been dealing with OCD since I was 12. I’m almost 29 now, and my biggest issue is health anxiety. It’s gotten to the point where getting work done is nearly impossible because i can’t stop spiraling. I’m lucky that i work remotely, but also makes it easier to be in my own head… Asking for advice - how do you all deal with the intense anxiety and are able to make it through a 9-5 work day? Any suggestions on how I can actually be productive? Thank you!
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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