Help with understanding lying

My son has OCD and I’m starting to catch him lying about thing related to OCD. For example, he’s always gotten good grades and he’s bright but with OCD he misses a lot of school due to anxiety. When he misses school he needs to make up his work. I’ll remind him to go to x teacher and get with them about the assignment. After school I’ll ask him about it and he’ll say she wasn’t there or that he talked to her and they made a plan. He recently admitted that sometimes he’s lying about what really happened. He said the teacher will have said to come at 1:00 but OCD said he could only go at 2:33 or 2:34 (very specific) so since the teacher wasn’t available at that time he didn’t go. I’m trying to understand a way to help with this. Some sort of ERP he could do and help with understanding if I should be concerned there is more lying going on. Any tips?

Username: AnonymousAnonymous

Date posted: 1y ago

Also does anyone see a theme here? That would at least help me focus on something.

Username: sjsmith98sjsmith98

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 1y ago

It sounds maybe like Just Right OCD, though I'm not a therapist nor do I have Just Right so I'm not 100% sure, but it could be a start to look into. I would say maybe start at something at home, if he's focused on time, try to think of ERP involving time you could do at home where he learns that he can do things before things feel just right. I think the lying most likely comes from being embarrassed or not wanting to admit why he can't do things at certain times. At least for me when I lie about OCD that's the typical case. I beat myself up over things I feel like I can't do because of my OCD. Hope any of this helps! A therapist through the NOCD would definitely be able to make a plan specific to his needs too, I think they have an option to meet just you and the therapist? Just something to think about!

Username: seaangelseaangel

Date posted: 1y ago

I’m not a professional but I struggle with OCD. I’m in my first year of college & I’m starting to slack with my work because of how bad my OCD has been (the anxiety that comes with it). In my experience, there were times where I did something similar, like “I have to leave the house at 12:12 or something bad will happen”. Pursuing that action of leaving the house at a certain time is the “C”: compulsion part of OCD. A therapist told me when you stop doing the compulsion, the thoughts will let up. It’s hard to do. I hope this helps

Username: SadLlama2525SadLlama2525

Date posted: 1y ago

Man, going to school when you have OCD is literally the absolute worst. Especially when you have to talk to the teacher about catching up on work, because, what if they ask where you were, and that’s not something you feel comfortable sharing, what if they tell you you’re faking your anxiety or just need to toughen up, or tell you it’s no excuse and it’s unfair to other students to give an extension. Add that on top of the anxiety about time, school, grades, the teacher’s reaction, it is really hard. School is not easy for a lot of kids, but especially when you have something like OCD, so I completely understand where he’s coming from. It might help if you email the teacher directly or schedule an IEP meeting about his situation and work out some way to get him his assignment and the instructions for it without having to personally ask his teacher each time he misses. I know I don’t know the exact situation, but I know that if my parents had helped me out like that when I was in school, I would have far less teacher-caused trauma and anxiety than I do now.

Username: AnonymousAnonymous

Date posted: 1y ago

@SadLlama2525 Thank you for responding. This is so helpful. He says he dreads school because all of his triggers are there. Thank you for also bringing up some things I may not have thought of.

Username: SadLlama2525SadLlama2525

Date posted: 1y ago

No problem. I hope you guys are able to work things out to make it easier for him.

Username: Nina Smith

Date posted: 3y ago

My almost 11 year old (in 1 1/2 weeks) son, has just started experiencing Moral OCD. Now that I’m understanding more and more about this type of OCD, I guess there might have been signs of other behaviors, but nothing that interferes with his day to day life. He is having deeply disturbing thoughts over and over! Then he feels the need to confess, I’ve asked him to stop confessing about 2 days ago, and the anxiety has gotten so bad, I’m on the verge of letting him confess them because it’s heartbreaking. He wants to same reassurance over and over and over. Asking the same questions as if we didn’t have a conversation 2 seconds prior! At this point, I need reassurance! Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Username: Maybe,MaybeNot

Date posted: 3y ago

Trying my best to word this without asking for reassurance- I am really struggling with the thought that I may have lied about something to my husband 2 years ago and that it was something important. I don’t remember feeling like I was lying at the time. I believe I probably left out certain information because I did not think it was relevant to his question, but now my mind is trying to tell me that I thought I was lying at the time and/or he would think it’s a lie. I am trying to remind myself that this is a very gray situation, and that someone can say something is a lie, and someone else can say it’s not a lie, and that’s it’s a matter of opinion. My main compulsion is confession and I’m really sitting through the urge right now because I know if I confess this something will just take it’s place. Any feedback on dealing with obsessions around lying?

Username: Rhys34

Date posted: 2y ago

Lying

Does anyone else with ocd lie a lot? I found myself lying when I first started ocd treatment to try to make everything seem like I had a picture perfect life when I don’t. And it just went from one lie to another. Now I feel extremely guilty. I am much better now but I still feel that guilt. I don’t wanna lose my best friend. I know shes figured a lot of shit out. She’s a genius (literally). But she’s never treated me any differently. She holds me accountable which is one of the many many things I love about her.

Be a part of the largest OCD Community

Share your thoughts so the Community can respond

Help with understanding lying

Related posts

Be a part of the largest OCD Community

Be a part of the largest OCD Community