- Date posted
- 5y
- Date posted
- 5y
Keep posting and share your thoughts and feelings.
- Date posted
- 5y
Also will look into taking the 90 minute interview with professional.
- Date posted
- 5y
Sounds like pretty classic OCD behavior to me! Treatment for OCD is pretty standard across all themes: CBT, ERP therapy, and mindfulness training. You can learn more here: https://ocdla.com/cognitivebehavioraltherapy Since you’re just figuring this out, I’d also recommend grabbing a book on OCD. There are tons out there to choose from but here are some recommendations: https://ocdla.com/ocdreadings Welcome to the community!
- Date posted
- 5y
You are not alone. All of those themes trouble me as well...
- Date posted
- 5y
I have EXACTLY the same contamination issues you described, also showering till feels alright and perfectionism that I now getting less. Yes, sounds like you have mild OCD. There are a couple apps or websites you can do a survey to see how you rate (kinda).
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- 5y
I think you might like this book – "The Complete Guide to Overcoming OCD: (ebook bundle)" by David Veale, Rob Willson. Just $5.
- Date posted
- 5y
Have I got OCD? Only a trained health professional can diagnose you as suffering from OCD. The following is a screening questionnaire from the International Council on OCD. 1 Do you wash or clean a lot? 2 Do you check things a lot? 3 Is there any thought that keeps bothering you that you would like to get rid of but can’t? 4 Do your activities take a long time to finish? 5 Are you concerned with orderliness or symmetry? If you answered yes to one or more of these questions and it causes either significant distress and/or it interferes in your ability to work or study or your role as a homemaker, or in your social or family life or in relationships, then there is a significant chance that you have OCD. This test can be a bit over-sensitive to diagnosing OCD, so if you think you might have OCD, it is best to talk to a health professional and get appropriate help.
- Date posted
- 5y
Thank you so much for your comment. Extremely helpful. Will definitely look into the book you recommended.
- Date posted
- 5y
Here are some key ways in which you can lessen your OCD and improve your life. 1 Imagine how you would like to be different, in terms of how you feel and behave. Picture yourself being this way in your mind’s eye. 2 List all of your hopes, dreams and aspirations. Imagine how being utterly free from OCD would help you towards them. 3 Develop a mental image that represents your OCD when it is trying to force you to carry out a mental or behavioural ritual –a bully, a demon, a computer virus, Nazi propaganda on a radio or choose your own mental image. 4 Develop a mental image that represents defeating your OCD. 5 Find inspiration for overcoming adversity –choose a role model or metaphor that helps you to stick with progress and resist the urges to check, wash, seek reassurance, review or analyse in your mind. 6 Identify someone who you can share (and celebrate) your progress with. Help them to see that you need cheering on in your progress, NOT reassurance or debates over safety etc! 7 List all of the strategies that you employ in your mind and in your behaviour that are maintaining your OCD. View these like bad habits you are going to train yourself out of and do not respond to such urges by giving yourself reassurance or try to suppress such thoughts and urges. 8 Imagine that you have a twin, who is the same as you in every respect, but is free from OCD, and use them as your guide in changing your behaviour. 9 Test out treating your problem ‘as if’it’s a problem of worrying too much or being too cautious. The trick is to do this even though you’re not 100 per cent sure. Remember that looking for certainty is very much the problem, not the solution. 10 Find a metaphor for treating intrusive thoughts as events just passing through your mind. Traffic passing in the street or leaves on a river are just a couple of examples. The trick is to allow your mind to take care of itself, without interfering with or responding to the intrusive thoughts. The flow of thoughts in your mind should be as much left to its own devices as the blood flowing through your veins. 11 Deliberately practice refocusing your attention on to the things you can see, hear, smell and feel in the ‘real’outside world, here and now. 12 NORMALIZE your doubts, images, thoughts and impulses. This means fully accepting that your intrusive thoughts, images and doubts are normal and part of being human. 13 Embrace each time you have an intrusive doubt, image, thought or impulse as an opportunity to accept them willingly into your mind. Think of it as keeping your friends close and your enemies closer! 14 Practice assuming the best. OCD has a habit of knocking your rose-tinted spectacles off so get back to normal by assuming the best rather than the worst. 15 Listen to music that helps you to get into the frame of mind to drive your true values and aspirations straight through OCD and out the other side. 16 Focus on getting better, more than feeling better. Measure your progress in terms of your levels of distress and ability to function across the course of a couple of weeks. 17 ‘OCD loves a vacuum!’As you recover, fill the gaps in your life that your OCD might leave behind with hobbies, exercise, education, friendships, deepening relationships with loved ones or furthering your career. There’s evidence that doing so will help you keep OCD out of your life.
- Date posted
- 5y
https://youtu.be/pJp9vlp84Wk Check out these YouTube videos.
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- 5y
Thanks for your comment! The information you provided is greatly appreciated and will not be wasted.
Related posts
- Date posted
- 22w
I've never seen a therapist or been diagnosed, so I went surfing through to find this community. I've seen a lot of OCD symptoms written online. Here is what I experience that I feel may be OCD. If any of you guys agrees, please let me know. I have only ever been able to call my mom by her first name. I have never been able to not do that. She tried to make me call her mom once as a kid but it felt so wrong that I started crying. Everytime I see a wet floor sign, I say "piso mojado" out loud. I have plenty of harsh intrusive thoughts, such as committing acts of violence when I see people not using their turn signals, interrupting performers at a concert. I make myself re-press on my phone alarms 10-12 times each day in the same rythym until it feels fully set to go off. Light switches get flicked off and on, I can't stand not doing it. I have to double-check everything and make myself re-look through the same drawers at work for hours. I love to write, but I never get far because I need approval from others. My head is also always filled to the brim with thoughts which has made writing and things like memory a lot harder. I can't use spoons. I can only use forks for almost everything. I can't stand them. That's all I can think of for right now. Please let me know what you guys think. Thanks!
- Date posted
- 21w
I've never been diagnosed with OCD, but have thought for a long time that I do have it. I've tried to bring it up in therapy but have been shot down as "OCD tendencies". Luckily I'm with a new therapist and am planning to bring it up again. Especially after reading a lot of your posts, I'm really resonating with them. Especially my anxieties and obsessions with my health. God forbid I feel any weird pain or ache, I instantly think I'm dying. Sometimes I get a weird pain in my head and think it's a stroke or aneurysm. Ill go as far as the perform the stroke FAST test. This happens multiple times a day. I also have HUGE anxieties about death and my mortality. If I think about it too much, I get this deep cold pit in my stomach and spiral. Even talking about it causes me sooo much distress. I'm just worried I'll be dismissed or told I'm just self diagnosing because I related to a post online. But if any of this sounds accurate, please let me know. I'd love to be reassured of my obsessions rather than just dismissed as being anxious.
- Date posted
- 15w
This list by ai gives a good summary of my symptoms. Does it resemble OCD or is it something else? 1. Compulsions (OCD-specific behaviors): • Feeling the need to flex or contract muscles an even number of times, equally on both sides of your body. • Needing to reverse actions (for example, if you roll your eyes or trace a line with your finger, you feel compelled to do it again in the exact opposite way). 2. Intrusive Thoughts (OCD-specific ruminations): • Daydreaming about people you care about getting hurt (e.g., school shooting, injury, or kidnapping). • Sometimes feeling like you might want something bad to happen to someone you find attractive—possibly because of a desire to help or save them, though it’s confusing. • These thoughts can sometimes provide a twisted sense of relief while remaining distressing and confusing. 3. Sexual Orientation OCD: • Experiencing confusion or doubt about your sexual orientation. 4. Contamination Thoughts: • Feeling like things are contaminated, especially after touching something gross. 5. Sensory Compulsions: • Feeling the need to smell your hand after touching areas like your ear or hair. 6. ADHD-like Symptoms / Additional Observations: • Fidgeting or moving your legs when standing or sitting.
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