I hate having ocd as an artist. In some ways I think it’s stunted my growth. I’m an animation major, and I absolutely love drawing, but ocd instills this constant anxiety that everything I draw will turn out bad. It causes me to not want to pick up the pencil. Anyone relate?
Ocd makes me avoid making creative plans because of my triggers and compulsions but that’s me playing safe. I’m tired of it! PAINT!!! That’s the beautiful thing about creating is your never know what will come out ❤️
I can relate! I paint in watercolor. Since the beginning of the pandemic, I haven’t been able to relax enough to paint. Painting used to be my “therapy!”
I see this as the perfect opportunity for ERP! When you choose to not pick up a pencil because what you draw might be bad the compulsion is avoidance. When we are not living for our values we are allowing OCD to live! Pick up that pencil and DRAW! Let that anxiety be there! Maybe you draw the worst thing that has ever been drawn and maybe that might mean you are a failure at being an artist (what are you really afraid of here?) BUT maybe you draw something freaking amazing! Also talk to your therapist about some exposure ideas in this area.
Ugh yeah I hear you. Perfectionism with OCD is so hard. I love Monitica’s advice: do it anyway! Do it scared! Maybe it will turn out bad, and that’s ok! ☺️ For me when I have these fears around making art, I intentionally make something “bad” and just choose to enjoy the process rather than getting stuck at the fear of the end product. You may believe that OCD has held you back in your art so far, but that doesn’t have to keep you from doing this thing that you love moving forward. And now you inspired me to make some art, too! Lol 💜 🎨
So I have OCD about OCD itself. Like I will be talking about harm OCD or POCD that I struggle/struggled with as a kid and it come up sometimes now but it was rlly bad as a kid (I’m 16 now) and then I’ll worry “what if you don’t have harm ocd or pocd, and when you have pocd you can’t get the images and thoughts out of your head but because it doesn’t make you feel as physically sick as sexuality OCD what if I’m making my POCD and harm OCD up for attention?! Can anyone relate...
Anyone who makes art, what kind of struggles you face with it because of ocd?
Sorry, this might be very specific. I have this OCD theme where I'm afraid of supporting a problematic artist by accident. I really love music, its my number one coping mechanism and I tend to fixate on musicians that I love. I love learning about the history of my favorite bands or musicians and collecting merch. But I have this fear that I'll find out a musician is problematic and I'll be a bad person for liking them or their music still. I have this one artist I love, hes really helping with my mental health recently and provides me with safety and an escape and im afraid one of these days I'll find out something awful about him and have that ripped away from me. Does anyone else experience this?
Share your thoughts so the Community can respond
