Has anyone overcome their false memories? Mine feel so real I am losing hope. I don’t know what to do. I don’t want to accept them, the methods they have for ocd don’t really help. Please don’t respond if you will just say I am asking for reassurance.
i have overcome my false memories. it’s difficult because it feels like if the memories were true, then it would change my whole world upside down. but, the only thing that has helped me is giving ERP time. not digging back into my memory. in the moment, it’s the worst feeling. but with time, my mind got clearer and i got clarity. sometimes it tries to sneak back up, but it’s been months and months now where i rarely ever think about it. i encourage you to just take the risk for even just one day or one week! risking that it could be so worth it to stick with the uncertainty and just see what happens! you got this
@Dani.c Did your false memories pop out of nowhere and you thought how could I have forgotten such a major thing???
@Anonymous. do you mean in the beginning or when it pops up now?
@ANONYMOUS-001 What do you mean?
@Dani.c In the beginning 4 months ago it started, I was very stressed and I started reviewing my past if I did something wrong. I had this bad feeling I couldn’t explain and I kept thinking until I got a memory
@Anonymous. okay gotchya, i had the same exact thing with one of them. my mind came up with a horrible image of something after i was trying to figure out what i possibly could have done wrong. i had to stop reviewing the false memory and looking for answers and now i have the clarity! it’s possible it just takes soo much time and you have to be willing to risk it for a while that you won’t have certainty!
@ANONYMOUS-001 So you understand the feeling? I hate it, it’s literally torture
@ANONYMOUS-001 Does it feel real to you like a real memory that’s awful and you have no idea how you went so long without thinking about it
@Anonymous. Like maybe back then you didn’t think it was such a big deal and you got over it but in reality it was and then you just forgot about it
@ANONYMOUS-001 Are you scared that it was a repressed memory?
@Anonymous. I have these all the time and I’m on guard all day every day. They feel like actual memories from the start. It’s horrible like I remember them.
@ANONYMOUS-001 Like I feel like this is a serious mental illness and it should be called something different than just OCD…. Like it feels like borderline schizophrenia or delusional thoughts disorder
@Anonymous. the thing is though, almost everyone has these kinds of thoughts! we just obsess over them and try to figure it all out. so you starting with thinking you did something wrong, then tried to review the past until you could find something. then once our brains give us a thought or image of what it could be (could be absolutely anything whether it happened or didn’t) then now we are obsessing over if it happened or not. someone without obsessions would have probably stopped wondering at the initial thinking i did something wrong stage (because they probably wouldn’t obsess and search for reasons and certainty)
@Dani.c But to imagine something that never happened is more than just obsession, I think that phycologist need to re label this disorder especially false memory ocd, it’s more than just an obsession if you are imagining things that never happened
@Anonymous. well we could imagine things that never happened all the time. like i could imagine myself petting a dog, and if i tried there’s no way to prove that it did or didn’t happen. i just don’t care to look into it because it doesn’t mean anything about me. it’s when we attached meaning to the thought and are unable to have uncertainty is when we obsess!!
@Dani.c But I am saying the attaching meaning and having it feel like it actually happened is delusional, I think it’s more serious then just having an obsession
False memory OCD is such a pest. It’s really hard to deal with the feelings of certainty and anxiety, trying to discern if things are false memories or real memories, what if they’re real memories, what if my OCD is right, what if because my OCD was right about one thing it’s also right about this thing, what if it knows something I don’t or haven’t realized yet, what if the real memory it’s taking from is actually false and the false memory is true. And it’s worse because the theme and false memory is so high stakes and it’s terrifying to consider what if it’s actually true and the consequences, but that only feeds the OCD, and it doesn’t help that I keep mentally prodding at it to see if the feelings of certainty are still there. It makes the false memories seem so real, and it’s like it wants me to admit the false memory actually happened when I don’t know that it did, and I’ll never know. I try to sit with the uncertainty but my OCD makes this feel so real and it creates so much certainty that this did happen that it’s so hard to keep telling myself that I don’t know, that this could be a real memory or it might not be and I’ll never know, and to remember that this came up a few days ago and I was pretty sure it was a false memory and I was handling it. Like remembering the false memory made it an actual memory. I have no idea if any of this makes any sense - it’s getting so meta lol. Reading all of this, it’s no wonder it’s so hard to sit with the uncertainty about if it’s a real memory or false. It’s been on my mind over the last week, too, which probably doesn’t help things, because the deeper I try to delve into it, the more complicated it becomes, and trying to point out that logically, it doesn’t make any sense, doesn’t help because my OCD comes up with scenarios and what-ifs and ways that this could have happened. It’s really tough to sit with when my OCD is so convinced this is true and it wants me to be convinced, too. I could really use some support, validation, encouragement, anything. If you made it this far, thanks for reading - please take care of yourselves. ❤️🤗
Can it feel like you literally remember a false memory happening? And it feels like the memory has always been there and you vividly remember it happening that way? Because I don’t even know if I’m experiencing a false memory or not but god it feels so fucking real. Like I literally remember it happening. But what’s weird is the original memory was kind of different. 2 years later, the memory is not the same, but it feels like I literally remember it happening. And in this memory, I’m fucking snapping. I’m acting on my thoughts. I feel like a fucking psycho. I hope this is just OCD
I experience crippling, debilitating false memory OCD. It started with a “what if” thought 6 days ago and has spiraled into a never ending loop. My mind is telling me that “maybe you did this terrible, awful, unforgivable thing years ago and you don’t remember it and it’s only a matter of time before it catches up to you and your life is over” I’m really needing some coping mechanisms and support. I’m really scared and my body is exhausted. I just want it to stop. It is full panic attack all day, every day. Please if anyone can relate or help me.
Share your thoughts so the Community can respond
