- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 2y
Faking disorders
Anyone else with this theme? No reassurance please. Also sorry this post is really long! Guys I’m trying to nip a new theme in the bud. I discovered r/fakedisordercringe last night and went down kind of an awful rabbit hole. Now my brain keeps telling me I’ve been faking ocd and other mental health troubles I’ve had in the past because my life is easy and I’m bored and want to be special or something. Admittedly I kinda feel like I made myself mentally ill with subconscious intent to punish myself— like I did some attention seeking stuff out of boredom and lied a lot as a young teen, but I went pretty far with how much I hurt/sabotaged myself so there must’ve been something else going on that was deeper than just surface-level faking. And the way my brain functions has changed radically as a result. I definitely have OCD. These people accuse other people of making mental illness their entire personality, and it makes me insecure about how much I talk about mine. It isn’t my personality, but it takes up so much of my brain space and I’m done with being alone and not talking about this stuff. Sometimes I seriously lose touch with my interests and positive attributes because it feels like the villain in my intrusive thoughts is all that exists. And it’s not true— I’m passionate about music and nature and sometimes I feel an immense joy lust for life. I have a few close who I love very dearly and could talk to for hours and the grip of the thoughts temporarily melts away. I was also diagnosed with autism when I was very young, but in most situations I don’t “pass” as autistic to others because I am very verbal and articulate. I’ve always struggled with things like making friends, sensory overload, changes in routine and holding jobs, but to a lot of people it probably just looks like I’m shy, anxious, incompetent, who knows? There are some people on the internet who are mostly self-diagnosed and post cute posts and say things about autism that feel weirdly infantilizing and make me uncomfortable—but ultimately I, a stranger, can’t be the judge of whether they’re really on the spectrum. Especially because I fear many people on this subreddit would probably come for me just because of how I carry myself a lot of the time (“not disabled enough”, “insulting to the people who are really struggling”). I think my OCD impairs me a lot more than my autistic traits these days but like. Did my parents “fake” my diagnosis? Other parents thought they did but I don’t fucking think so. I don’t want to let this toxic negativity overtake my brain; I had a really good day yesterday and I want my hope to reign.