- Date posted
- 2y
Is this a compulsion?
Everytime I have a thought, I start panicking. To relax myself I watch How I met your mother. But is this a compulsion?
Everytime I have a thought, I start panicking. To relax myself I watch How I met your mother. But is this a compulsion?
I’m not a professional or anything but I don’t think so. Because a compulsion is something you do that your OCD says will make the thoughts not be true, right? (Anyone correct me if I’m wrong). So I don’t think watching something like that goes under that category, especially if your watching it to distract yourself.
Nah, that’s actually a good distraction (and an amazing show). Let the thoughts be there, but allow yourself to enjoy the show.
I’ve done the same with Harry Potter or Friends, because it relaxes me more, especially since I’m Friends no one is perfect and they all make mistakes which kind of comforts me. But I have thought the same thing about if it is a compulsion because it is a go to way to try to relieve the anxiety I feel.
Do you watch the show because you feel like “you have to” to stop the thoughts? If you do then it’s a compulsion. If you want to just watch the show because it’s fun and can turn it off whenever you want then it’s just a distraction. Hope that helps! Remember, analyzing things can often lead to feeding rumination. “Maybe, maybe not” can be a good way to respond to intrusive thoughts.
@EmilyCruce That’s interesting. I’m not sure if mine is a compulsion but from a young age I’ve felt that ‘I had to hear something in the background to sleep’. Whether it was my mum reading me a story… or watching a tv program. I just feel like I get comfort from it. The pet few years it’s been more of a ‘putting a video on made by (my favourite YouTuber) makes my thoughts subside a little. So I have to have him on every single night’ no matter where I am I feel I have to have it on. I used to have a different favourite YouTuber but because she’s female it triggered my (what I hope is) hocd. So I can’t watch her anymore (very rarely). I don’t think I’ve ever gone a night sleeping without listening to something
OK, this might sound really dumb, but when you guys get intrusive thoughts, do they just come once and then go away? I’ve heard that repeatedly thinking about an intrusive thought is considered ‘checking,’ but it doesn’t feel like I have any control over how many times it comes up in my head. It’s not like I’m trying to check anything—it just keeps showing up, almost like it’s terrorizing me every time. I can’t seem to stop it from looping, stop remembering it, or prevent it from coming up. Every time it does, I feel horrified, and I already know it’s going to horrify me. I don’t think I’m actively trying to see if my feelings have changed, so is this still considered checking? How do other people get an intrusive thought and just move on? Doesn’t it pop up a million times for them too? I always thought that was normal, but now I’m hearing this could be a compulsion, and I feel really confused, scared, and lost. Is this why my OCD feels so extreme? Because I really don’t feel like I can control how many times the thought pops up.
So, yesterday while I was laying in bed, I was relaxing when suddenly I had an intrusive thought about someone, but the thing is that it brought me a sense of enjoyment or calmness for a few seconds before it went away. Once it did, it was only until hours later when I realized what had happened and I began to freak out because I'm reading everywhere that when someone experiences this type of thing, the anxiety happens shortly after the enjoyment or "false" enjoyment. Can OCD do this?
Recently ive been getting very scared to even be angry bc of the horrible thoughts I have and it feels even more real when I'm angry or even annoyed. Rn I was not even super annoyed at my neice but I felt a twinge of annoyance since she went up to my face and was yelling at me while I was resting on the bed and I got this image of doing something bad to her and I felt my hand twitch very little. I got nervous and felt relieved when her dad told her to stop screaming for no reason. I've been hyperfocusing on my bodily reactions (mainly my hands or how I'm feeling like did I just enjoy that? Was I considering???) And I've noticed the small twitches whenever I'm mad or annoyed and it's scaring me so bad! Like do I want to act out? Am I holding back??? I used to not even twitch at all when mad and I felt 100% sure I'll never act out but now it feels like I don't know bc what do these twitches mean?, I do know I don't want to ever act out but it's so scary. Recently whenever I feel angry once the argument is over I cry really bad after I'm alone and I pray so i never want or act out. And when the annoyance passes I also feel so guilty and want to stay away. Im scared these are real urges and i research for many many hours to make sure they arent urges or impulses and i also tend to ask chatgpt or here if the anxiety gets so bad 😕
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