since people with ocd basically have false alarms, how do we know when it’s something serious? like i have health concern really bad and i freak myself out, but what if the one time where i don’t and try to stop the compulsion it’s something serious?? how do i know it’s just my ocd messing with me or if it’s not??
This was huge for me in the start of ERP (I have the same theme.) We are reassurance seekers and checkers as a main Compulsions (I was an avoider also) so have you seen a Dr or Drs recently?
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I was JUST thinking about this. Like… how are you supposed to know to dismiss a health concern or to pursue it?!?! I also feel the same about relationship OCD. How am I supposed to know whether I should get out or relationship because I can’t stop thinking about whether I actually love someone OR dismiss it as my ocd?! Super lost here.
I can't speak on ROCD but if you been cleared by a Dr (yearly physicals are usually advised anyways) then the trick to a lot of health concerns is give it a little time; for instance, one of my symptoms was dizziness or palpations. Give it 3 to 5 minutes and they usually resolve... during that time I'd personally go "been here done this it's ocd" and they would sometimes intensify but usually ease up when I stopped feeding into them (no self checking! No googling! No reassurance). The goal to tell yourself is if an ambulance don't need to carry you into the er than you probably will be okay. Another question is when to follow up with pcp. Follow up with persistent symptoms that doesn't go away. Ocd symptoms are anxiety symptoms and they won't sustain themselves. When you're anxiety levels come down later in your erp you'll be able to evaluate the situation to make a decision but at first it's probably going to be an ocd paychosomatic tantrum. I hope this explains some.
It started when I became an adult, and started receiving my mental health diagnosis. I hyper fixated on each and every action I did and how it could be related to my diagnosis’s. It then lead to fixation to my physical health — making appointments and seeing every specialist I can to rule out every possibility. I currently have been suffering with obstructive sleep. I woke up the past few days with severe pain from the lack of sleep whilst believing I was oversleeping. Luckily my fit watch tracks my sleep cycle and it turns out I am not receiving any sleep. I had an extreme panic attack — bursting into tears on the phone with my mom wondering what this case might be. She told me it could be sleep apnea and that a simple sleep study could figure this out. However, knowing my family history I made appointments to every specialist I can to make sure it is nothing serious. The unknown of health can be scary to me. Watching my mother suffer with her physical health chronically since I was a child lead me to be very conscious and aware of how my body is functioning. This morning was one of the worst moments of physical pain. I should just take one step at a time with the sleep doctor instead of taking measures to see every specialist that could pertain with this issue. However, that is very hard to me. I don’t want to ever wake up in the pain I was this morning. Does anyone else suffer with health-related OCD? And if so, how do you find a sense of ease during moments like I expressed?
so i was on instagram and it came up with other signs of ocd then someone commented this doesn’t mean you have ocd now im stressed that its not ocd background - i had so-ocd for a few years then got treatment for it but am now on the waiting list for further treatment for other stuff but i dont have another theme which makes me feel like its not ocd my day to day life consists of touching the door handle every time you go past it or someone will die, and inability to send emails without re reading loads of times and getting other people to check because im scared i wrote something bad but the what if it’s not ocd thought is triggering me now and i don’t know what do
Does anyone have any advice for how to know the difference between ocd and real feelings/thoughts? Sometimes an intrusive thought will come in and I immediately know it’s ridiculous and I can just leave it alone and it won’t bother me but other times I really really don’t know. It’s when ocd hijacks and twists my real feelings and thoughts and tries to manipulate me into believing they’re something they’re not or something that doesn’t align with my true morals or intentions. But since it’s twisting and mixing with real feelings I get so confused and scared. Everything gets jumbled and I feel like I can’t trust myself or my own mind. Yet other times and other topics I can laugh off and push away just fine. Make it make sense. And then I start to think well maybe I don’t have ocd at all and I’m just in denial because I don’t want to accept that these scary/concerning things are true about myself. Or maybe that’s just the ocd talking.
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