- Date posted
- 5y ago
- Date posted
- 5y ago
That is precisely the "secret" to recovery, friend. Do NOTHING. When you leave the waters alone, they calm down on their own. When you are panicking, if you literally sit and wait without mental compulsions, just observing the pain, it will still be painful and it will grow but it will come a point where when it reaches its max will start do dwindle and you are going to feel a lot of peace. Anxiety cannot kill you - how you respond to it might.
- Date posted
- 5y ago
Oof. I have to admit I do this, like search around on the net and see if other people do the same sht I do because if I don't, I think my thoughts are actually true, and that this isn't OCD. But if I didn't realize that it was actually OCD, I would not have learned of how I should have tackled my worries, i.e. I wouldn't have learned about ERP. I guess, to some extent, these questions are helpful, but when done repetitively that's when it becomes a form of reassurance seeking and compulsion
- Date posted
- 5y ago
I feel though like asking if anyone else does something can also be a form of community seeking. Like ocd can be so lonely and I have no one else to talk to about it and I just want to know if people can relate.
- Date posted
- 5y ago
Here to support this message. Reassurance seeking is a cunning foe.
- Date posted
- 5y ago
I definitely do this! But it’s just nice to know you’re not alone
- Date posted
- 5y ago
When you ask once, that is support. When you ask more than once in different ways - that's a compulsion.
- Date posted
- 5y ago
Very true. You’ve made me realise that now! It’s so hard to sit and not find a way to deal with your overwhelming fear though :(
- Date posted
- 5y ago
Very true and helpful words!!! Please let me know any other tips you have. Especially when it’s based on real events.
- Date posted
- 5y ago
I don’t know how to explain it, but I’ll try. I see faces and shapes in random places or patterns, like when you see shapes in clouds, but I find them everywhere, I believe it’s called pareidolia. The sh*tty part, is that if I’m currently obsessing with let’s say death, my mind tricks me into seeing skulls, or when I was struggling with scrupulosity, I saw crosses, or the face of Jesus even on the pattern of bathroom tiles, or shadows or stains. I don’t know if that makes sense lol, but it really really sucks.
- Date posted
- 3y ago
Thank you so much for posting about your experience with pareidolia. I’m going through an extreme flare up of OCD, and my pareidolia has become out of hand. I suffer from an extreme fear of schizophrenia, and pareidolia was my OCD’s way of tricking me into believing I was hallucinating. I was not. It’s really common for OCD brains to make connections and habitually notice things until it’s all we see. For me, I can’t look anywhere without pareidolia popping up, but that’s because it’s become a compulsive thing to check that it’s pareidolia and not a hallucination, so I’ve basically invested hours into training my brain to be supper good at seeing Pareidolias.
- Date posted
- 5y ago
I have asked this type of questions in the past, but only cause I have a form of ocd (or at least I hope it’s also a part of ocd), that I’ve never heard of before. And actually when I post them, no one seems to relate with it ?
- Date posted
- 5y ago
What form of ocd is that tqh?
- Date posted
- 5y ago
Wow I’ve never heard of that! It sounds super difficult though, I can imagine how stressful that is every day :( hope you find help x
Related posts
- Date posted
- 11w ago
Hello! I just got diagnosed with OCD a week ago and joined the app today to find a sense of community. Since my understanding of treatment is minimal at this point, I'm confused why everything on here tells us not to seek or give reassurance? If someone could explain the reasoning behind that it would be greatly appreciated, as I want to make sure I'm not only watching out for it in my personal life but also using this app appropriately.
- Date posted
- 9w ago
When I was a child, before I knew this was OCD, I struggled with constant "magical thinking" compulsions (don't step on the crack or mom's back will actually break, etc). When I later learned this was OCD, it almost immediately solved it. Any time I got a magical thought, I would say to myself "that's just an OCD thought. ignore it." and it just stopped coming! Like seriously it fixed the magical thinking stuff forever. But of course the OCD has resurfaced in other ways. So naturally, I've tried to use the same strategy since I had so much success with it previously. But I wonder sometimes if telling myself "that's just OCD" is almost functioning as a reassurance compulsion? I hate how meta this gets. For example, I have ROCD that comes and goes. So sometimes I'll get a thought like "what if i'm still in love with my ex?" and then I'll tell myself "that's obviously just an ROCD thought" and will feel relief, almost like reassurance. But it comes back. So is telling myself that it's OCD a reassurance compulsion ?? It's just so weird because it worked so perfectly as a kid with the magical thinking thing.
- Date posted
- 9w ago
This list by ai gives a good summary of my symptoms. Does it resemble OCD or is it something else? 1. Compulsions (OCD-specific behaviors): • Feeling the need to flex or contract muscles an even number of times, equally on both sides of your body. • Needing to reverse actions (for example, if you roll your eyes or trace a line with your finger, you feel compelled to do it again in the exact opposite way). 2. Intrusive Thoughts (OCD-specific ruminations): • Daydreaming about people you care about getting hurt (e.g., school shooting, injury, or kidnapping). • Sometimes feeling like you might want something bad to happen to someone you find attractive—possibly because of a desire to help or save them, though it’s confusing. • These thoughts can sometimes provide a twisted sense of relief while remaining distressing and confusing. 3. Sexual Orientation OCD: • Experiencing confusion or doubt about your sexual orientation. 4. Contamination Thoughts: • Feeling like things are contaminated, especially after touching something gross. 5. Sensory Compulsions: • Feeling the need to smell your hand after touching areas like your ear or hair. 6. ADHD-like Symptoms / Additional Observations: • Fidgeting or moving your legs when standing or sitting.
Be a part of the largest OCD Community
Share your thoughts so the Community can respond