- Date posted
- 3y
First signs of ocd as a child
What was your first signs of ocd as a child. I think mine was confessing but I haven’t heard of many other people with that ..
What was your first signs of ocd as a child. I think mine was confessing but I haven’t heard of many other people with that ..
Yess, also confessing for me! I always felt incredibly guilty as a child if I didn’t say everything to my parents. And the enormous fear of losing my parents.
@sannesophie I’m not sure why I felt I had to confess but I felt like I just had to do it. I remember it being so distressing and I would cry. And I would confess some of the most stupidest things
i had a paralyzing fear of tornadoes. i used to sob and ask my mom constantly if we were at risk of getting a tornado daily. when i told my therapist about this she laughed and said her daughter struggled with this too and it’s how she knows she had ocd
@nonny12 I had a huge fear of dressing up costumes, like the big ones. I was hysterical when I saw one. Not sure if it’s ocd related but I had that fear for ages
@ocdgirl123 I had the tornado theme too!! Was always very paranoid about the weather
I didn’t realise this until later on but I had magical thinking ocd when I was little I remember riding my bike and I get a thought like “if you don’t go through that puddle your family will die” and another thing I remember I would the same things loads of times until it felt perfect like I remember I had one mat near the front door and one near the back door (garden door) and I would get a thought telling me to do that every time I came in the house about like five times or something. It always stressed me out sometimes because I HAD to do it cause sometimes I wouldn’t want to because I’m tired of doing it but it made me so uncomfortable that I literally had no choice and then when I got older it went away a bit or shall I didn’t realise because I would always listen to what my intrusive thoughts told me so it become automatic but I always thought I was quite odd but had no idea what ocd was until I become a teenager and started experiencing debilitating themes like health ocd/health anxiety and so
@🌧☕️ I understand. At least you managed to figure out the cause. All the best 🤍
Seeing horrific stories on the news and freaking out
@jay71 I’ve had this !
@Myheadhurts35 Horrible isn’t it
@jay71 Yepp
I had to pray a single prayer every single night or I would die in my sleep. So I was a 10-12 year old repeating a prayer like "I don't want to die please don't let me die Lord." And I would continuously say it allowed in different ways until I thought God heard me. I would say it loud, say it soft, say it slow, say it fast, say it with diction, mutter it, do it a million times and my parents were just glad I was praying, although they were very weirded out.
Mine was symmetry and putting thing's in order by colour and stuff like that.
I would do the same simple tasks over and over, or think the same thought/phrase repeatedly until it felt right
I was convinced something horrible would happen to my mum if I didn't have my eye on her always. I was also scared I was gonna develop an illness, and when eating I had to visualise each bite of food going down or else I became convinced I would choke :/
@DisturbedGalaxyBrain🌌 My mum couldn't even go down to take out the rubbish. It would take 30 seconds but I had to go with her. :(
@swyd7 I had this !! I could never do sleepovers. I had to stay with my mum. And when I was younger 9 times out of 10 my mum would have to pick me up
Mine was not able to let go of certain topics, alltought it changed frecuently, also, it's not necessary that this manifestet on your childhood at evidence that you possess it
I don’t know if anyone else had this. But even till this day. I can’t go to sleep without something fluffy. Either in my hands, touching my face or arms. I have to have something fluffy. It’s so strange
My mother told me that when I was a baby, just barely old enough to be able to walk, I was playing with my toys and every few minutes after completing a certain action with a toy, I'd run over and give her a kiss. One time I even came to give her a kiss while crying. I guess even babies recognize compulsions don't provide lasting relief
I was about 6 or 7 but there was a period of time where I kept feeling like I would have to go to the bathroom. Even if I had just went, I’d feel like I need to go again. My parents took me to the doctor and I didn’t have anything wrong, but I believe that was the beginning of it. Constantly anxious as a child. I also started having the fear of throwing up at age 10. Constantly avoiding people who’s stomach was hurting, and if mine was hurting I’d ask my parents for reassurance that I wouldn’t throw up.
@Jul14 I had both of these things too !
I don’t recall much from my childhood and my dad can’t really tell me much either as he worked all the time as a single father raising 3 but I used to bite my nails until they were nothing, making a hiccup noise when I felt scared, I also went for a nap and recall this vivid image of my dad looking sad and I still remember it to this day, I always have to have fuzzy socks on even in summer and they cannot get wet, rub my feet together when I go to bed until I go to sleep, kept a close eye on my bratz and Barbie dolls because I had a dream they were trying to kill me I wish I knew more I’ll ask my mom to see if she remembers any weird behaviour, oh and hoarding hoarding anything and everything.
@EndangeredHobbit The feet thing to go to sleep !! I still do that till this day
@Myheadhurts35 Me too lmfao! Used to drive my sister nuts because it would keep her up
Thematically, probably symmetry or sensorimotor! Things like, I had to scratch the exact opposite side of my body if one side had an itch; trouble with matching the exact tightness of my shoes with laces; and then the thing that really tipped my family off was carrying around a wet washcloth if I didn’t have access to sinks, when I was around 4yo. What I remember was obsession/discomfort with a “sticky” sensation on my hands if they weren’t wet. So if I couldn’t compulsively wet my hands at the sink (say, if we were running errands), I started carrying a wet cloth. My mom, an RN, rightfully considered OCD, but I never had formal treatment. This was the early ‘90s, and my untreated OCD has morphed and grown in many ways over the last 30 years! Finally getting targeted treatment now 🧡
1. I saw a documentary on parasites, and was convinced I had a tape worm for years after that 2. I had to step on all the cracks in the pavement, each foot hitting the same number of cracks 3. I asked my mom the same list of questions before I went to bed each night
I don't really know if these will count as ocd 'proof' and I'm almost trying to prove to myself that I have ocd at this point. I really don't know. And these don't even mention my current themes (pocd, soocd) and rocd but its kind of stopping idk. So here's what I wrote do you think it's worth mentioning or it even counts as ocd idk? -Blinking in a certain way, breathing in a certain manner till it feels right, making sure that im breathing right, holding my breath for a bit again and again, made sounds that disturbed others (my mom) because of that. -Focusing too much on my eyesight and what i see to make sure I don't have symptoms of an Illness in the eye, checking my body reactions a lot and getting scared. Checking my pulse regularly for a heart attack. Fear of dying, researching random illnesses of symptoms I have -When i was a child I pictured my family dying a lot and got intrusive thoughts about their heads being cut off, especially in Eid El adha (where we basically sacrifice cows and sheep) I couldn't handle being there because I was scared that the guy killing the cow will accidentally cut my mom's head instead and I'd picture it so graphically. random intrusive thoughts about me doing harm to others but they didn't make me anxious just disturbed, fear that someone will get in the house and kill my whole family since I was a child that I have a slight fear of doorbells. Can be sensitive to gorey images but not always a persistent fear unless I'm focused on it. In the streets I get stressed out by cars around me because I get thoughts that someone will shoot me and kill me from the car. Fear of dying in general as a kid I saw a video that talked about if you see fish in your dream it means you'll die soon and I wasn't able to sleep for a long time without literally collapsing out of tiredness because I was scared of sleeping and dying in my sleep. -Irrational fears when I hear really loud sounds, as a kid I'd hear sounds of parties or so and it stresses me out because I got intrusive thoughts about someone playing party songs but killing everyone in the enjoyment of the killing. Doorbell sounds stress me out and I keep hearing the doorbell ringing in my ears a lot that I check the door randomly sometimes. -When I play games I have to do things a certain way and I can click on a button multiple times in a different pattern until it feels right, repeating prayers constantly until they feel right. Same with the breathing from before idk if these count -I question morals a lot, I'm not sure If it's in an ocd manner but I am really scared of being a bad person with bad morals, I get scared I'm racist and sometimes I see someone from a different race and I get racist thoughts like racial slurs or so get in my head, I question morals in general a lot and the idea of them and why they exist. And that makes me scared that I'm just a terrible person and I don't want to be. I can fixate on "trying to do what's right" too much that I end up messing up more -Immense guilt on things from a long time ago that I already dealt with. -what I'd say my worst compulsions are (pure o I think) : Checking constantly, feelings or thoughts or reactions. Sneaky reassurance seeking from friends and confessing my thoughts. Excessive ruminating trying to find an answer, can take so long out of my life that I can't eat or drink. Researching my thoughts and asking people. Repeating prayers in my head constantly even though I'm not religious anymore but I get so disturbed by my thoughts.
TLDR; i'm terrified that my past confessions/need for reassurance to the wrong people will get back at me one day from them not knowing it was undiagnosed OCD/not understanding. back when i was 17/18 i began struggling severely with POCD. at the time, i wasn't diagnosed and had not much idea what OCD was, so naturally i just thought i was a terrible person. i needed reassurance from everyone - even coworkers, friends, anyone, some who barely knew me. i'd tell people about the thoughts i was struggling with and when i look back it upsets me because i know deep down they thought it was weird. i don't know why i felt the need to tell these people about my POCD. i even remember one of my supervisors looking at me with this horrified look on her face. the job i worked at back then, i sometimes had to do parties for children so naturally i refused because of my theme, i was (still am if i'm honest) scared of children. i ended up not being kept permanently at my job (i was seasonal) due to me not doing the parties. i ended up going back to that job a year (ish) later after being diagnosed. i made it clear i had OCD and wore lots of pin badges about it and made it my mission to spread awareness of what OCD really is. i was on meds (still am). some people had left naturally, so i know there's some people out there who never actually found out i had OCD and i am terrified they think of me as this dangerous, weird p*do because of my intrusive thoughts whenever they hear my name/think of that job. i'm terrified that my old coworkers talk about me and describe me as a bad person. i had someone come into my new job a few months back, and being in customer service, we were having a friendly chat and she mentioned she just started working at my old job. i said i used to work there, she then asked me if i was *my full name* and i said yes, she said she'd heard about how bad my manager was back then. she tried to follow me on instagram and i blocked her. i'm terrified on how she knows about me, what does she know? what was she told? it haunts me to this day. what if she thinks i'm a bad person, because my old colleagues have told her stories of my POCD? why was i even mentioned? but yeah - long story short i'm just mortified that i was so open about POCD and that there's people out there who know about it that probably shouldn't, some who i know didn't like me very much anyway, and that it might come back to me later in life and i'd lose everything, and just overall the thought of someone thinking of me as a bad person. anyone else relate?
18+ did anybody else do things as a kid that they are ashamed of? i feel like im haunted by my actions as a child. i was very sexually aware at a young age and i didn't know it was bad (under 10). this made me do things that i maybe shouldn't of done with others around my age, some a few years younger. i'm so mortified i feel like im a bad person but i was also a kid too just learning. anybody else experienced similar? i didn't have the best parents ever so i wasn't taught what's bad and good very well. but it really triggers my POCD and just OCD in general.
Share your thoughts so the Community can respond