‘Real event’ OCD? I don’t see much about this anywhere and was wondering if anyone else suffers with this? When I was younger I had contamination ocd and health anxiety. Now I’m 23 and obsess over something that actually happened. It’s killing me.

You’re not alone. I like to think of Real Event OCD as those moments where you remember doing something dumb or weird, and you feel your whole body cringe. Only in this case, OCD adds guilt and shame to it and makes you feel like that moment defines who you are as a whole, and also blows everything out of proportion. As difficult as it is in the beginning, obsessing over it won’t really make things better. OCD distorts so much crap already, you don’t deserve to spend all your time thinking about the past.

Many people here have it.

I mean that I have seen people write here about their "real events" and nobody answers or says anything, which might potentially make the person feel horrible sensing that indeed they did something unforgivable. However that's not the case. The thing is that 99% of people like us, with OCD, are hardcore perfectionists are quick to judge and doubt. What I am saying is that you shouldn't be surprised if you don't get lots of "support" (though it's mostly reassurance they do) compared to other themes such as homosexual OCD. However your theme is just as valid, you have OCD.

Thanks for your reply! Yeah, my ‘event’ didn’t hurt anyone and was completely accidental and I handled it in the best way I could afterwards and never gave it another thought.. but recently my brain is telling me that I’m some monster and will be disowned and arrested when everyone realises what I have done (because the event would be sort of bad if it was done on purpose). Of course, my rational brain knows that nobody in their right mind would disown me for an accidental event but it’s so hard to convince myself when the ocd takes over. So glad I’m not the only one.

Yeap - my main struggles are with real event OCD.

Oh I see! Thanks for clarifying. I’m not going to post about the actual event I’m currently obsessing over because I have finally stopped reassurance seeking. Thank you for validating that for me! Sometimes it’s hard to realise that.

Thank you @fernandov :) it’s good to hear that I am not alone. How do I find posts specifically about real event ocd?

I don't think this app has a way to do that. However, I gotta warn you - real event OCD is a huge trigger for people here since it is about something that did happen. I've seen people here looking for support on it and they seldom get it. However, there are two or three people here who have had it and have been successful so we can always count on us.

Sorry what do you mean by ‘it’s a huge trigger for people here’? :)