I have anxiety about whether I really have OCD. What if I've been misdiagnosed and I'm taking medication for nothing? Thinking about it is also a symptom of OCD, but what if I'm making myself sick?
This runs through my head 24/7
Not to go about the reassurance route, but do you really have OCD if you haven’t had the “am I SURE this is OCD? This could all be real!” thought? :p Look at the first two words of your second sentence. Catch yourself there!
Thank you!
I spent about four months obsessing about this very question to the point where I could no longer function. I’ve had to learn that you can’t know 100% for sure whether you have OCD (I spent so much time worrying I’d somehow lied or misrepresented my experience to loved ones and therapists), but chances are if you’re worrying about it so much then OCD is very likely!
It felt good to know that this questioning is normal, thank you. :)
A few things here- Many regular psychologists don't actually understand OCD. Misdiagnosis seems to be a pretty big issue with it. Regular talk therapy is ineffective for OCD at best, and can actually make OCD worse. ERP therapy (Exposure and Response Prevention) with an OCD expert is the ONLY way forward if you wish to treat your OCD. If you're in regular talk therapy for OCD, you need to switch to ERP to make progress. Many talk therapists claim to treat OCD. They really can't. Far too many therapists don't know that ERP is the only way to progress when OCD is the issue. I am not an expert, but l've never heard of this “four theme“ thing. Here's what I do know for sure: OCD is the doubt disorder and can latch onto and make you doubt things in your life to the point of torturing you. It attaches itself to what you value the most and can cause immense pain, suffering, and debilitation. It has countless subtypes. You could doubt your sexuality, your relationship, contamination, whether or not something really happened, if you're transgender, if you're actually a pedophile, if you're going to lose control and harm yourself/someone, etc. You can research the subtypes for more information and specifics. With these worries comes intense distress, rumination, questioning, endlessly trying to reach answers (“What if’s”), fear, and also compulsions that are designed to provide relief from the fear. This relief is only temporary. In fact, these compulsions actually reinforce the disorder and make it worse over time. Doing what OCD wants you to do actually feeds it and makes it get stronger until you are completely debilitated and under its control. Compulsions will differ depending on the subtype. For instance, with my subtype, Relationship OCD (ROCD), I fear that I don't genuinely love my partner or have the right feelings. Compulsions for me include checking current feelings, mentally reviewing encounters to see how I felt at a certain time, latching onto words or statements and overanalyzing them/comparing them to my values, imagining how I'd feel leaving the relationship, debating if I’d be happier single, asking myself and mentally debating if someone else I know would make me happier, ruminating about how I feel, asking others what they think of my partner, taking relationships quizzes, etc. . . . When I doubt my attraction to my partner, I may scrutinize their appearance, frequently check what I think of their looks, mentally compare their looks to past crushes, research photos of models and compare feelings I have towards them, ask myself if I would be happier with one of them, etc. You get the idea. ERP gives you necessary skills to withstand discomfort, teaches you to identify unhelpful thinking patterns and compulsions, then uses exposures to gradually expose you to discomfort and your fear while not resorting to compulsions. This method of therapy has been shown to give people their lives back. This is not the case with regular talk therapy. If you’re having trouble finding an ERP therapist in your community who specializes in OCD, you could use NOCD therapy, which is what I use. All of their therapists are OCD specialists who use ERP and have at least a Masters-Level certification. All NOCD therapy is via Zoom so you can do it in your own home. They will also make a diagnosis in the first session or two.
From my basic understanding (I've been diagnosed with OCD and GAD).. But I do feel as if I have multiple comorbidties.. Dealing with Trauma and memory issues so I am trying to get a second opinion with a different psychologist
Good luck and take care! I hope you get better as soon as possible.
@dnl-mobius You as well.. I hope for all of us to recover quickly 🙏
@donnocd I hope so! <33
I always get multiple opinions before taking a medication for something I'm diagnosed with. Some psychiatrists said I didn't have OCD while others said I did. It took me two decades to get a correct diagnosis.
Oh my :(
That's too bad. I talked with three doctors and one of my teachers, all said I was correctly diagnosed. But I still don't know, of course.
@Anonymous Is it okay to ask why some of the psychiatrists said that you did not have ocd
@Anna,hi! - Sure. They said that OCD has four themes, and my health obsession didn't fit any of the themes. However, this year I was diagnosed with OCD because a health obsession also has characteristics of a contamination obsession. Contamination is one of the OCD themes. This is the first time a therapist told me this, so hopefully I get the correct treatment now.
I was diagnosed with OCD around the age of 6, subtype- contamination primarily. It calmed down as I got older and I assumed it had gone away, but also didn’t realize it can show up in other ways, and it still had been effecting me which I know now. I’m not 31 and I’ve been in therapy for a year and it’s helped a lot, although I sometimes get thoughts that what if some of the stuff I’m dealing with isn’t ocd and I’m exaggerating. I feel like thoughts will feel sticky and I’ll do certain compulsions but then the thought eventually vanishes if I do it a few times which makes me think maybe it’s not OCD since other people/friends I know would probably do the exact same thing. Not sure if I’m making sense, but I guess my question is if that thought comes up with anyone else? Just being unsure if something you’re doing actually is ocd or not.
I'll start by saying, I have not been clinically diagnosed, as I do not have the funds to see therapists or psychiatrists in my current situation. Once I'm in a better spot, I very much intend to. That to say; after months and months of having issues with anxiety, specifically health related, my partner was the one that mentioned OCD. I did have some somewhat OCD related behaviors in my youth, though those likely could be explained by potentially undiagnosed ASD (as my mother is on the spectrum as well as a sibling, both diagnosed.) But I never considered OCD taking form in a health sense. I posted earlier about how I've had 4 days of pretty minimal anxiety and intrusive thoughts, and it has led me to doubt the OCD label I've been working at treating? I don't want to be the person that identifies themselves with a disorder they don't have, which is why I hesitate to self diagnose with OCD or ASD or anything else. At the same time, I've read that a lot of even clinically diagnosed people with OCD doubt their diagnosis. It makes me wonder if I will always have this doubt, and if that means it is worth it or not to get tested? I know that if I do, they can actually do ERP (whereas I've been self taught and self guided so far) so that would be worth it...
Ok basically I’ve had OCD symptoms since I can remember but now that I’m thinking about it maybe I don’t have OCD what if I believe it so much I have the symptoms I’m not sure and I’m so confused I guess. And I wanna get tested or therapy but I don’t even know if I have it so I’m scared to and I have to remind myself of the time I had a symptom before finding out about it so I can confirm it I don’t know how to explain what I mean I wanna get help but don’t know if I have it
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