does anyone else ever feel like calling a private investigator on themselves so they can confirm or deny an event that took place ? desperately racking my mind for the memories, timeline, evidence is so exhausting bc it was too long ago to remember ☹️
OMG YES. I’ve been right there with you. You’re just waiting for the shoe to drop.
@SeaDu yeah exactly omg and then ill get more memories popping up but idk if they’re real or not😖
You kind of want to get cctv footage of the event and watch it over so u can prove that the “false memory” u are thinking is true or not so u can move on
@Anonymous YES LITERALLY. i feel like finding out is the only thing that will cure this theme 😭
@hhsudidjdjjs - This would be a compulsion. I do recommend that you work alongside a specialist in OCD, false memory OCD theme is very treatable with ERP. ERP stands for Exposure and Response Prevention. During ERP, you’ll gradually confront situations and triggers that cause you anxiety and discomfort, but instead of doing the actions that make your thoughts stop, you’ll learn to sit with the anxiety and accept the uncertainty behind the thought. Eventually, you’ll find that the anxiety is significantly minimized over time. Essentially, it’s a treatment that teaches you how to effectively respond to OCD thoughts, images, and urges. It’s the most proven way to get better and reduce your OCD symptoms quickly. Here is a helpful resource that goes in more in-depth on ERP: https://www.treatmyocd.com/blog/what-is-erp-and-does-it-work-for-ocd-cbt. Also check out- https://www.treatmyocd.com/blog/false-memory-ocd If you are interested in learning more about the therapy that NOCD provides, Our Care Team will typically begin with a free 15-minute call to discuss treatment, answer any questions you have, and book your first appointment. Please feel free to schedule a convenient time that works best for you here: https://learn.nocd.com/scheduler
@Stacy Quick What do you do if you have tried erp and still the thoughts are there 24/7?
@68273 - Remember the goal of ERP is not to 'get rid' of the thoughts- everyone has thoughts- the more attention you pay to them or the more you try to get rid of them- the more they will be there. The goal is to learn that you don't need to give meaning to intrusive thoughts. I would wonder if you are unintentionally paying attention to the thoughts or giving them meaning. If you are still seeing a ERP therapist, I would recommend doing some work in regards to distress tolerance and recognizing when you are doing mental compulsions, this can be invaluable.Also take a look at these- https://www.treatmyocd.com/blog/5-strategies-for-breaking-the-cycle-of-rumination & https://www.treatmyocd.com/blog/what-are-mental-compulsions-in-ocd
If u keep thinking of this theme, does new “false memories” pop up? and u visualise a situation that u don’t know is real or not but deep down u know it isn’t real but OCD comes back with a what if its not a “fake memory” but u just cant action on it?
@Anonymous YES - so many memories idk what’s real and not i can’t place them i could find out but it would require more knowledge than i have access to rn
I tell people who have these obsessions to live as if something has not happened- the thoughts can be there and you don't need to engage with these thoughts- don't try and figure it out or replay things, if and when you are arrested well then you can figure it out and deal with it at that time, in the meanwhile you just keep living your life towards your values. Also check these out- https://www.treatmyocd.com/blog/false-memory-ocd-symptoms-causes-and-treatment & https://www.treatmyocd.com/blog/false-memory-ocd
@Stacy Quick thank you 🫶🏻🙏🏻 these r super helpful comments and i am trying to live like nothing happened as best as possible
like i’m scared that SOMEONE knows if it took place or not, but that person is not me ugh i hate this feeling i want to be free
Remember that OCD is the doubting disorder, it wants to have you doubt your memory. Remember that the more we try to replay memories or situations in our minds, the more muddier the memories become, the less reliable they feel.
@Stacy Quick So what do you do? Mental compulsions seem automatic
@68273 - You can learn to spot them and to not engage- it takes practice- lots an dlots- but it can be done. You can do this 💪🏻
I have a bunch of real event/false memory and there is one that I remember I got in the middle of a horrible episode and I believed it was false but now I can’t remember why I thought it was false and now believe it could be real and it’s just bothering me so much because I want to remember the details to why I believed it was false in the first place and I’m just in a horrible spot and feel disgusting and am getting intrusive thoughts on my themes when I try to check if they are intrusive or not and I can’t function like i don’t wanna be around anyone because all I want to do is confess but I can’t because then I’ll obsess on confessing and they won’t understand.
So hard to not engage the thoughts because even though it's from the "past" (i don't even know if im remembering things correctly and it kills me) and i can't change it, I just NEED to prove it to myself that it didn't happen this way. If you'd asked me questions maybe a few months ago, I would have been able to lucidly explain things. Now I just feel like I'm in a constant swarm of thoughts, not knowing if anything is real. If my brain is to be trusted. Wish I could just get hypnosis to forget
So. I was in a traumatic relationship. for a long time. it was filled with gaslighting, manipulation, abuse, cheating ect. I would OBSESS over finding out where they were, what they were doing, who they were talking too. but I couldn’t leave. I tried so hard but I never could. they would call me names, physically hurt me, throw things, break things. because I would question them all the time. but I just couldn’t leave. no matter what I knew. they would manipulate me. I fell for their childhood trauma. it’s like I lost all logic. but I also feel like I have a pretty good memory with memories. not all the way, but remembering a lot of the traumatic things. especially now that I’m no longer with them. I keep remembering things that’s happened. even from my childhood. one time way before I even started dating this person, I had an intrusive thought about a friend of mine. that was with me. and I freaked out. I thought I had acted on the intrusive thought the next day. I asked my friend for confirmation but they said nothing happened. but the memories about it feel SO REAL. so VIVID. but they swore that nothing happened and they had no idea what I was talking about. I’ve struggled with intrusive thoughts for my whole life. so fast forward to now, that ‘false memory’ from my friend randomly popped up and I started obsessing about it, and my childhood ‘memories’ that have popped up. and then I was reading an article of someone doing something horrible, and then it sounded ‘familiar’ and so then I’ve created this whole memory of me doing something similar to the article involving my partner doing it also. the memory keeps adding new things and conversations around it. when it involves an actual real memory. but it’s like it’s been twisted from what I remembered before. I also suffer from bad anxiety. I’ve stalked pictures. my search history to figure out what I was doing that say when the real event happened. and I’ve found some things but I can’t look through my texts because I got a new phone. it has been hounding me for months. MONTHS. trying to figure out if this new ‘memory’ is real or not. if it’s been fabricated by an intrusive thought from reading the article and thinking ‘what if’ or if it actually happened and because I’m no longer in this relationship it’s a ‘repressed memory’ but the thing is I have horrible horrible anxiety and I don’t think I could have gone this long knowingly that that happened without remembering it until now. because I remember a lot of the horrible things that they did. this ‘memory’ is fuzzy, but it brings me horrible anxiety when I think of it, like I feel like it happened. but I also feel like it didn’t happen. because I know I would never do anything like that. but WHAT IF I DID, because I was manipulated. idk. is this a false memory. I really need help. because it’s been debilitating. that relationship was really traumatic. and I got manipulated into a lot of things. but I wouldn’t have just went forward knowing that that happened??? there’s no way I could have just forgotten it. because before when I would think about that night it was different, until now. but what if I just made myself forget what truly happened?? I’m a pretty self aware individual, but somehow that relationship really REALLY put me into a trance somehow where I allowed things that I have no idea how I would even allow because before I met that person I would have never allowed someone to cheat on my constantly or talk to me the way they did. or allow abuse. like I don’t understand it.
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