Guilt
Why do I feel so much guilt?! Is this normal with ocd?? I feel so many guilt and idek for what it’s like I feel guilt for even other peoples actions like my family or always wanting to do the right thing and then think back on times when I haven’t Is this common??
Yes. Treat guilt like you treat anxiety for ocd: sit with it. Allow it to be there and go about your day. Show your brain that the guilt feeling is irrelevant by doing something else.
@noneuclidean But how do I do this when it is tied to real life events or my families things?!
I’ve experienced this for years. Your OCD is going for your identity. Also, you could be picking up on things that maybe you’d actually enjoy doing or adding into your routine. Helping more ppl out, not doing things that you feel are no longer serving you, you are feeling responsible for connections you have with human beings and your/our own hand in them. Could just be an assumption but that was a part of my guilt, me owning up to how I’m not separate from others and have to take responsibility for my actions or non actions. Now I definitely did not need to feel the amount of guilt I was but I was definitely growing as a person and growing pains are rough. Excess guilt is not beneficial for us though.
@JordTheNord So did you feel guilt for other peoples actions? Is that what you’re saying?
Guilt can be also about how we view ourselves - that we are valuable and deserve love only if we are "good all the time". It can be tied to self-image.
I think beside fear and anxiety, guilt and shame are also part of OCD for many people. I think, If you would not have guilt in first place when intrusive thought came it would be less likely for thought to stuck. Ocd attack our values and fears... and it also feeds on overresponsibility. I had savoir OCD once, it was feeling that when I will not act on behalf of my friends, familly, needy people, something horibble will happen to them... it was overreaction from OCD and trauma... we should seek to help others, but there is a big difference between unreal overreaponsibility and real comptency and responsibility...learning about competency and social borders helped me to this type of saviour OCD. Also to me personally helped a book - "Courage to be disliked" - it is not about OCD, but about one psychologist view of life, but for me it was beneficial to this type of overreaction.
My OCD presents the exact same way. I was diagnosed at 7yrs old and I’m now about to turn 22. You’re not alone.
So I cant remember if I've ever asked this here, but has anyone ever done something awful that their ocd convinced them to do and now can't let go of the guilt? And I dont mean like terrible terrible things but like lying to someone, cheating, or something else that can cause heavy guilt. If so, how did you get past this? I feel like I'm not sure how to forgive myself when my moral code is so high.
Am I supposed to feel guilt and shame over my past experiences to this extent? Someone else posted abt real event ocd and how they feel guilt and shame and someone responded “it’s okay to feel guilt and shame, and some mistakes are really bad” and now I’m thinking that my guilt and shame is how I should be feeling over the past. Like how do I know if my OCD has blown up real events or if these real events are something to dismiss.
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