- Date posted
- 1y
fear of seeing something disturbing on your own.
I was diagnosed with ocd at the age of 21. I notice its gotten a bit worse than better the last couple of weeks. I'm unemployed and not in school so my mind isn't stimulated with things that are important like that. But I've been unemployed for a number of years and I haven't had it to this extent. I become frustrated with myself because I used to tell myself with time my control over ocd will become more and more easier. What's been on my mind in the past couple of months is a video that was circulating on the internet of a cat getting killed in an extremely disturbing way and the description of the video is whats been constantly repeating in my mind. I love animals and especially cats so I've been a bit haunted by this description and even the quick still images I've seen. I deleted social media and blocked social media from my phone on an app called stay focused which makes it impossible for you to Google certain words or open certain apps. This has been helpful for a long time, but in my ocd mind I realized that the terms wouldn't be blocked if I spelt things different or didn't use a space. My mind is going a little crazy thinking of ways to google this even though it's something I would never look at or even read about because it's so upsetting and disturbing. I usually get over things like this in the long run even though it's upsetting in the moment. But, there's something about this particular incident that keeps repeating in my head, as if my mind is LOOKING to be upset over something. Than I go through guilt of wanting to get over it and move on (if that makes sence) what my fears are are "what if I google this to MAKE sure its fake and I watch the video that will traumatize me" or "what if looking at it will put this to bed in my mind finally and I can move on" or "am I a bad person and bad animal lover for wanting to get rid of this memory of this description of this video that's absolutely terrible." The idea of exposure therapy in this incident doesn't help but would traumatize me worse. I would also want to know if anyone deals with these kind of thoughts of "what if I google this and look at this terrible thing" how do you work through these thoughts without an app that controls what you see or google. How do you gain control of it where the internet feels safe and loving and not a smorgasbord of disturbing images and scary things. I thank anyone who takes the time to read this and gives me advice on letting this go and moving on.