I don’t know if I have ocd

Hey, I’m having trouble with intrusive thoughts lately and I was wondering if I even have ocd because I feel uncomfortable if I don’t solve the intrusive thoughts. I have the same themes showing up in my head all the time, they are suturing and not part of my character, but they make me worry that I’m a bad person, that’s why I need to solve, mostly I check the thoughts and analyse my emotions with it. I did go to the doctor , I’m waiting for my therapy appointment, I’m worried what if I don’t have ocd?

Pirateonthesea

Date posted: 2y

Hey! I’ve had OCD for over 7 years and I’m pretty good at detecting it in people ,if you’re comfortable can you share some or one of those thoughts as an example so I can see? So far it is sounding like ocd.

Need_advice

Date posted: 2y

@Pirateonthesea Hey, ok , but the thing is my anxiety is not super high, but these thoughts are on constant repeat I believe it’s mild anxiety , sometimes I don’t experience any anxiety about these thoughts at all. I think I’ve just learnt to cope with them a little more because last year it was worse than this year , maybe I’m just more tolerable. I need to think about it. I will give examples of a few themes. One of the themes is me being afraid that I am going to harm somebody by accident. I’ve had a thought last year that I’ve caused a car crash by kicking some object on the side of the road and thought something bad happened because of it. As I was thinking about it, I heard sirens in the background thinking that it’s got something to do with it. Later on in the day I’ve started researching news stories about a recent car crash. I didn’t see one,I was overthinking about it , I even left the house to go check for evidence. Eventually I managed to get passed it because I didn’t see any evidence , the longer I kept the thought waiting , it started disappearing over time. I got over it. Whilst I was typing this ,I wanted to still check news stories about this. What if the intrusive thoughts were intentional and not intrusive? *me drinking water in front of or next to cables* what if I spilled water on the electric stuff, maybe on a broken cable and I cause a fire? I check to make sure I didnt. This one was very common a few months ago. Kept checking plugs and sockets , have to be careful with touching the light switch after washing my hands or any type of switch. Need to make sure my hands are completely dry. Magical thinking theme: What if I was a bad person in my past life and did something bad to someone. I was asking my intuition to prove that thought wrong , I also looked at past life tarot readings to know who I was ,but couldn’t get an answer because I don’t know if it’s really my intuition telling me the truth. I remember I wanted reassurance, I told my mum about it and she said I’m being ridiculous, I still couldn’t convince myself if I was or wasn’t a bad person , I searched up on the internet how to use my intuition properly. This thought disappeared too, but I don’t remember how. What if I reincarnate disabled because I’ve had an intrusive thought in this life? I still have an issue with contamination and sexual themed intrusive thoughts and checking stuff , i don’t have immense anxiety about them at times , but I know I will solve them later like I’m post poning the thoughts I can’t seem to let go of the thoughts properly.

Pirateonthesea

Date posted: 2y

@aleksandra55 Yes that sounds like ocd then not a severe type but sounds like you have it mild, though the thing is with ocd it gets worse as time goes on. At first mine didn’t cause me as much anxiety too but as time went by (years) it become extremely worse. So I would try and battle this before that happens. Instead of post poning them try and learn to face them head on.

Need_advice

Date posted: 2y

@Pirateonthesea Yeah , I thought I have it mild , I can relate to the symptoms. I need to overcome this, you’re right. Thank you for giving me some help, I appreciate it

Anoymous

Date posted: 2y

It very much sounds like OCD to me, and your worry about “what if it isn’t” and posting this question is very characteristic of how a mind with ocd works - we can have a high sense of urgency to know and know with certainty, and creativity of thought such that the mind find a way to doubt what we know. When you say you don’t always feel anxiety, anxiety doesn’t alway show up in the physical way which is what you may be thinking of, sometimes it is just that sense of must know, can’t drop it, it consuming your mind space, a nagging open question that won’t go away despite reassurance. All of this is a mind not at peace. Additionally, I think ocd is now not classified as an anxiety disorder b/c for some people the feeling they are fighting off with compulsions isn’t anxiety. It could be disgust or something else that feels intolerable to the person.

Need_advice

Date posted: 2y

@Aaanonymous That’s very helpful to know that anxiety doesn’t always show up in the physical way. I feel like I’m just not going to drop the thought, I’m holding on to it until I’m ready to figure it out and until I have an answer

Need_advice

Date posted: 2y

@Aaanonymous I post pone the thought. I just think that I will find the answer some other time , some thoughts are like bearable enough for me to hold onto for a while and then later get an answer

Need_advice

Date posted: 2y

@Aaanonymous Yeah, I can’t wait to tell everything to the therapist, I’ve been dealing with it for so long and I don’t want to live this way. Thank you for the help

melaniebermn

Date posted: 22w

Confused about ocd

How to know if you actually have it or if I’m just making up the symptoms? I have a lot of intrusive thoughts constantly and even have a “theme” but it really surged after I search up what I was experiencing, but then again I search up a lot of what I experience and constantly have to recheck things. My parents say I’m normal but I know I’m not, (both of my siblings have adhd) I find it immensely hard to focus from turning 17-18. Please let me know what you think l! Thanks!

Aldxma.steph

Date posted: 21w

Hello everyone I need some advice

I don’t have an official OCD diagnosis, but I will be asking my doctor tomorrow if I can get referred to a psychiatrist to get an official diagnosis. The way I came to the conclusion that what I’m dealing with is OCD is because a month ago I just started having the most horrible disturbing intrusive thoughts that go against all my values and beliefs and attacking the stuff/people I care about the most. Mind you, I have never had anything like this happen in my life. I feel that I have always been someone with a peaceful mind and one of the worst intrusive thoughts I can ever remember having before this happened, was “what happens if I cut my finger right now” while I was cutting fruit. That’s pretty much it. After this whole horrible intrusive thought spiral started happening I was so scared because I have never had such awful intrusive thoughts like this that were the complete opposite of me, it just quite literally started out of NOWHERE, and that’s what was so scary and terrifying. It was like my whole life got turned upside down because of this and I’ve been mainly isolating in my room, feeling so much anxiety and dread and guilt/shame. I get four of the same thoughts and one intrusive image repeating over and over again even if I would not try to think about them, and it caused me so much distress and anxiety that I would be so anxious and cry everyday just thinking how I could ever possibly think such horrible intrusive thoughts like that. It’s caused me insomnia which I’ve never dealt with before and I went three days in a row without being able to sleep no matter how hard I tried (even while taking melatonin). Other days I struggle so much to fall asleep due to the intrusive thoughts being much more present at nighttime, and even when taking melatonin that doesn’t do anything because of my mind being so active and having so much anxiety. Is this what they call an OCD flare up? After constantly looking up all the symptoms of ocd (the more and lesser known ones alike), I noticed there were some symptoms of it that I displayed in childhood when the ocd could’ve been more dormant or mild you could say (skin picking), because once again I have never had such horrible intrusive thoughts like this out of nowhere and constantly repeating in my mind that felt like they were out of my control. I noticed that these intrusive thoughts started on the second day of my menstruation when I was in a lot of pain and was feeling very emotional/stressed. One of the things I’ve heard a lot is that during the menstruation cycle is when ocd flares can happen more often due to the increase in hormones during that time, and I wonder if that’s what happened to me? I’m also overall such a big over thinker and have been for as long as I can remember. I also have had anxiety and depression since middle school as well. Any insight would be very much appreciated 😭

Huskydog

Date posted: 21w

I have a question.

I had my second session with a therapist and they told me they don’t think I have OCD. They think that I have just intrusive thoughts. They also said they don’t do diagnosis. I also noticed they did not ask me questions about my different themes.This has made me so confused. Even though I had a terrible fear that a therapist will tell that I don’t have it, (which is the main reason why I had not gone to one) I did suspect I had it because I identify with many of the symptoms. On the website it says that they treat it but I don’t think they are like a specialist. On the first session they described OCD mainly as needing to have things symmetrical and fear of contamination. I have a feeling that they don’t know much about it. I also didn’t mentioned all the themes I think I have because I’m scared to be misunderstood. I am not sure what to do. I can’t afford seeing an OCD therapist at NOCD. Can anyone give an insight, has something similar happened to you? Thank you!

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