- Date posted
- 2y
OCD & Childhood - A Massive Drabble
Just to preface, I'm getting help. I'm currently waiting for a referral from the HSE and I'm attending fortnightly support groups online. I'm just using this to rant I suppose. It's a long read though so I'd back out now aha. It's also messy AF TRIGGER WARNING: GROOMING, MENTIONS OF SELF HARM, MENTIONS OF SA The more I've started looking back at my childhood the more everything starts to make sense. It's only now I'm realising that I might have been groomed online when I was 8. I never called it grooming cause it never fit the description, but talking to other victims of grooming they've told me it was. I was introduced to MSP and Moshi Monsters when my Nana passed away. During her funeral/mouring (I can't remember if it was during the funeral or if it was weeks after) my dad set up an account on Moshi Monsters for me. I suppose I used these games as an escape and to talk to my friends on there. I was exposed to sex and I met some weird people on Movie Star Planet. I felt so scared by these people, I genuinely don't know if they were my age, older teens or actual adults. I'll never know cause the chatlogs are gone. I remember one instance that made me so uncomfortable. A group of people were in my room in the game and they sexual comments towards me and they'd act out sex in the game and tell me to join in. One day I'm listening to the radio, a mother is concerned about kids games online being targeted by pedos. And this is when my life changed for the worse. I genuinely thought I was in trouble and the police would be barging down my door. This, along with the death of my Nana just completely broke me. I started getting scary intrusive thoughts about wanting to hurt myself, especially *there*. I'd basically a mental breakdown and had to be sent to CAMHS. They thought I was schizophrenic and that I was raped. I vividly remember "the ladies" interviewing me and wouldn't let me out until I told them a thought I was having. I remember having to take a few days off school. I couldn't sleep, I had to take this medicine prescribed from the nurse to help me sleep. My mum had to be in my room while sleeping cause I'd just start having massive panic attacks and crying hysterically. During the days off, I was with my dad playing games on the PS and whatnot. I remember getting my barbie and Ken dolls, acting out the sex I saw in the game, and loudly saying "look Dad they're having sex!". Understandably my dad FREAKED out. Not at me, but ofc I thought I was in trouble. He was fuming, I'd be too! My mum had to console me and I just "confessed" about the chat rooms and the weird people online. I just remember crying into her shoulder and I couldn't stop. I had to go to my therapist and talk about what happened. I couldn't even utter the word sex, I had to write it down to her while having a panic attack. I eventually got diagnosed with anxiety and autism. Got some CBT sessions and after a few years I was "fine". I don't really want to write out everything about this part so I'll leave it. That shit was traumatic though, and I honestly felt like my childhood just died then and there. Life has been plauged with anxiety since. And looking back, I'm quite mad that I wasn't diagnosed with OCD sooner. I've spoken to some therapists and they've agreed that the intrusive thoughts (and some other instances, for example I fully convinced myself I murdered someone and that I stole a toy from a shop) sounded like OCD. Anyways I was "fine" until 14 when I had another breakdown. Got therapy for my anxiety but I started to notice a weird theme. I was so scared of adult men preying on me. So much so that I convinced myself that one of my teachers was a predator and that I was keeping this "secret". Why? Cause he was my only male teacher and I heard stories online about them being weird. I knew it wasn't true and I felt so bad about thinking this. It wasn't just my male teacher though, it was genuinely any man. I was so paranoid about predators, not just for myself but for my friends and my little cousins. Then one day when I was 15, it just flipped, what if I'm the predator? And then that's when shit hit the fan. I couldn't deal with that. I was so panicked about this, and it must have been true. I thought I'd have to keep this a secret till the grave. I didn't understand why I was having these fucked up thoughts. I thought, maybe I was trying to see from a predators POV? Didn't make any funking sense but I was so scared of this. It wasn't until months later I confessed this to my mum. The same way as the grooming thing, on the same shoulder crying my eyes out. Thankfully my mum KNEW I wasn't a horrible person, and that there must be some reason why I'm having these thoughts. One day she watched a British soap called Doctors. Some guy thought he was a pedo, turns out he had OCD. My mum was like "oh my god that's Ivy to a T!". I came home from school and she told me. My first thought was "OCD? Sure isn't that the cleaning thing?" (I was so uneducated). I won't write out everything but eventually 2 years later I got an OCD diagnosis. Why did I write this? Well I'm just trying to put the pieces together. I'm now realising my POCD theme didn't start when I was 15, it started when I was 11! I'm remembering these thoughts and paranoia I was having. I won't go into details but it's interesting how OCD has really plauged my life, and I'm glad I'm starting to understand how it did. I'm also starting to understand *why* I'm having a POCD theme. I'm certain it's from the grooming. I don't know though, once I talk to the therapist that'll help with the OCD I'll know if it played a part in the theme. Protecting children from pedos was a massive passion of mine, it just freaked me out once my OCD turned it onto me. Sorry for writing this monstrosity aha. It's been on my mind for a few weeks now. It's only in the last while that I've been delving into my childhood truama. I'm sure there's other stuff I've yet to uncover but I'm happy I've kinda gotten somewhere and that I'm finally in a stable enough place to delve into it. Thanks for reading if you have. I just needed an outlet to rant cause I've been having a bit of a shit night thinking about it.