Does everyone have the same problem with not being able to designate whats a real memory and what is fake and constantly worries that the memory u think is fake is actually real and your OCD is just suppressing it? Ley me know if people have had an experience with this and if u can designate between real and fake?
Yes I have. Typically if the "memory" or though starts with "what if", it's OCD. if I feel immense distress or a sense of urgency to figure it out, its probably Ocd. This one is so hard and I'm sending you all the support!
@Anonymous Thankyou i just have a vision of something after a rather drunk night out to do with cheating on my girlfriend and i dont know weather its real or not and i struggle to designate weather it is and it stresses me out and makes me think i am going to loose my girlfriend, everyone i know believes i wouldnt do such a thing but why cant i believe that i wouldnt?
@TDR 17 Yes I understand as I have dealt with very similar thoughts. You feel that way because your OCD is dominating your thoughts. Once you habituate to that anxiety , it gets easier with time and practice.
@Anonymous OCD defo dominates my thoughts but i just think why do i think that ive cheated if i can’t remember anything and i get a vision i must have cheated if i had a vision or memory normal people would think its a memory
@TDR 17 I'm no expert but it sounds like your need to figure out why and to figure it out maybe a compulsion. I know it's so hard. You've got this!
@Anonymous I mean this isn’t the first time I haven’t remembered something and thought i have cheated, i feel like OCD makes me think the worst possible thing every-time i can’t remember anything and alcohol is involved i hate it, its been a month and i still cant get over it
Go to someone you trust who was there if possible. This helps me quite a bit with childhood.
@SachaBJ Everyone there, which included my friends, my girlfriends friends, my girlfriend and her brother all said that i haven’t done anything and they wouldn’t believe me to cheat but i just was blackout idk what i did
I have this especially after drunk nights out or events from yearsss ago. I’ll get an intrusive image and go down a rabbit hole of trying to figure out if that image was a real memory or false…anyway by trying to figure it out I always lead myself to more confusion as I find coincidences/ clues / real details mixed with false and I just wind up more confused / feeling like an indenial criminal. All over one image🫠such fun it is to have ocd.
@LillyX I get exactly the same i feel guilty because I’m feeling anxiety from it and its not going away, i also feel like why would i think such a thing if it wasn’t true like is my brain really that powerful to make something up like an image of me kissing someone with no face or is it real and im just blaming OCD? I am struggling so much with this as a very sticky OCD thought but all the evidence suggests that i done no such thing but why cant i just leave it, i think its because im in the doubting my own thoughts, brain power and OCD stage
Without trying to seek reassurance, I’m wondering if anyone has insight on identifying an intrusive thought vs reality. Something that’s always really helped ground me in moments of false memory ocd is clearly remembering the exact moment the thought arose and how it started as “what if I cheated and don’t remember.” Then the images come and are extremely distressing, but I’ve always found some comfort in coming back to that moment of “this started as what if.” It feels like my brain is almost getting more creative with the thoughts now, and I’ve been having probably the worst anxiety of my life the past couple months after another intrusive thought entered my mind. I woke up after a night drinking and thought to myself “did you kiss your friend and don’t remember?” (Didn’t happen, undeniably proved). The rest of the day I stayed anxious about other things I could have done and poured over all my memories of the night. Then the next day I finally had found some peace based on all the evidence from my friends who were with me that nothing bad happened. I then thought “what about when you went to the bathroom,” which I hadn’t really been thinking about before, and then my mind immediately started flashing with images of me performing sex acts in the bathroom with some person who has no name, face, details, or anything I remember about interacting with them. I think I’m just concerned that this was a moment of genuine memory recall since I hadn’t been thinking about the bathroom before, and it was more of a sudden flash of images and “did you do that” vs “what if you did that.” I’m wondering how others are able to identify that something is an intrusive thought vs reality.
any advice for when you get false memories that feel really real? especially something that had JUST happened, it’s like ur brain distorts it. i feel like i do something wrong 24/7 then i get over it and ocd latched onto something new
Does anyone else’s false memory intrusive thoughts of what could have happened feel very, very real?
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