- Date posted
- 2y
Undiagnosed and unsure what I should do
Hi, I’m 18 years old and just yesterday, I realized a lot of what I do lines up with a lot of OCD symptoms. Specifically, intrusive thoughts often accompanied with the compulsion to confess those thoughts, feelings, etc. mostly to my bf but sometimes to other family members. It will go away for short (and sometimes, but rarely, longer) periods of time, but when it comes back, it gets the worse the more I confess. As, I’ve gotten older, the obsessions have changed, but the confessions have almost always been around. I can even remember one instance at church when I was probably 9 or 10 having negative thoughts about other and being unable to stop them unless I kept confessing them to my grandparents who eventually spanked me for it (it was so upsetting though, I WANTED to be spanked). At times the thoughts have been so distressing I isolated and avoided things as simple as eye contact with others for fear of doing or having already done something disloyal towards my bf, predatory to children, etc. At times I will even shake my head and repeat a word out loud to try and drown them out. However, I am in a good place right now after learning more about why I have these thoughts, and I almost feel weird sharing all of this while it has subsided, (but I’ve told myself I have it under control many times because). I also have just about every auto cannibalism habit in the book, which apparently can also be an indicator of OCD. Obviously, I can’t be sure until I talk to a professional, but I guess I just wanted to see what you all thought, as I found a lot of comfort already just hearing so many stories like mine. I have been hesitant for so long to talk to anyone because I’m usually able to “manage” it, and I thought it couldn’t be OCD because I didn’t have the stereotypical compulsions until I learned my incessant confessing WAS the compulsion.