Physical compulsions all day every day

Can anyone relate?? Is anyone else's OCD so bad and ingrained in them that there whole day is taken up physical compulsions? So whenever I try to do something whether that is getting off the sofa, walking into another room, making a coffee or even typing this question I can't do it normally. Some examples are When getting off the sofa I stand up and have to instantly sit back down again before I can then stand up and walk to whatever it is I am going to do When making a coffee I have to get the cup out of the cupboard then put it back before getting it out again then flick the switch for my coffee machine on and off umpteen amount of times before I can even make the coffee When typing a message on my phone I have to delete a few words that I have typed just to re-type the exact same words Every single task that I do is done like this and I'm sure anyone would agree that this constitutes severe OCD that is going to be extremely difficult to break. I just wondered if anyone else's is this bad and if anyone has some advice they can offer me

Mariam14

Date posted: 1y

Yes I can definitely relate. I have this thing where I’m set on the “perfect number” when it comes to doing anything and I usually repeat daily things that I do to that number. I have a lot of pets and I usually pet all of them the same amount of times or just with about anything. I have to eat my food in the same number patterns and it does feel very exhausting. I’m hoping that the treatments do help us out and we get to enjoy ourselves and manage the ocd.

Joe87

Date posted: 1y

Thanks for your reply Mariam. Can I ask how long you have been like this and is it to the point that you are distressed with it on a daily basis?

Mariam14

Date posted: 1y

I didn’t realize that it was ocd at first but this started for me last year around this time. I was coming off of anti depressants so I had assumed everything I was going through was because of that but I recently realized that there may be other causes and I was diagnosed with ocd a couple of years ago but yeah it’s fairly recent that I started to feel in distress and it’s at times a indescribable feeling. What about you?

Joe87

Date posted: 1y

Yeah so mine started about 4 years ago now. There were quite a few things in my life I wasn't happy with at the time. I was under a massive amount of stress and pressure and also had some bereavements that year to deal with. I can only think that it was this combination that triggered it. You could quite easily say that I had clinical depression before the ocd started. I'm certain of that now although it was undiagnosed at the time. As for how I feel I am constantly distressed every day because this OCD has taken over my life

Date posted: 1y

I can relate. I started trying to elimanate one ocd thing at a time. For me it was hand washing and washing my hair. Unless I did it a certain way I would have to do it again and if I didn’t I would get so nervous and get short of breath because I felt something bad would happen. I have been trying to get rid of the hair washing routine for two weeks now. I have finally managed to do it. The other ocds I still have such as hand washing and counting the times I scrub each hand and using my turn signal when driving flicking it seven times before I leave it on. I will be trying to get rid of that one next. It’s a slow progress. You got this. Try little changes.

Joe87

Date posted: 1y

Thanks for you reply. I have tried eliminating one at a time but the intrusive thought and feeling is so intense that I don't think I have gone any longer than 15 minutes in the past 4 years without doing a ritual apart from when I am sleeping or sitting/laying down. So basically anything that involves physical movement will involve doing a ritual (basically repeating the task)

Date posted: 1y

@Joe87 Try singing a favorite song when you try it

Elliesmith

Date posted: 23w

Question

So with my theme of ocd, ( hocd ) I get persistent intrusive images, and thoughts. It’s not like one or two a day. Like if I’m out for the whole day they’re constant. I feel I can’t even look at a girl now without her intrusive thoughts about her or about me fancying her and even sexual intrusive thoughts.. It’s awful. It’s everywhere I look. Is this common with ocd with any themes? Like is it constant for you guys too?

Anonymous1486

Date posted: 18w

Is this OCD?

I’m hoping to get some feedback or hear if anyone else experiences similar things. Lately, I’ve been noticing a lot of repetitive behaviors and thoughts that feel hard to control. Some of those things are: - I often get this uneasy feeling, and if I don’t do certain things in a specific way, it just doesn’t feel "just right." - I have to wash my hands until it feels "just right," and if I try not to, I get a thought that something bad will happen if I don’t. - I dislike using public bathrooms and even shared bathrooms at home. - When I shower, I have to wear socks before stepping on the floor. If my feet touch the ground, I feel like I have to shower again. - I get hyper-fixated on cuts, worrying about them getting infected, and I avoid touching water or anything else to prevent bacteria, even if I can’t cover them with a bandaid. - I can’t use dishes that have just been washed because I think they haven’t been cleaned properly. Instead, I use the ones that have already been dried and stored. When I type (like on emails or texts), I’ll fix what I write over and over, trying to make it "just right." - I have a strange dislike for certain numbers (7, 4, and 6) and feel uncomfortable around them. - I also have to follow routines, like making my bed in a certain way, and I can’t stop until everything is in the right order. - I get stuck on intrusive thoughts, like needing to wash my hands repeatedly or constantly checking things (like if I turned off the stove) because I fear something bad will happen if I don’t. - I’ll even repeat things in my head, like words or phrases, to make the "just right" feeling go away. - Sometimes, I treat inanimate objects like they have feelings and worry about hurting them, even though I know it's not real. - I’ve always felt like I’m being watched, which causes a lot of distress. There’s more, but these are some of the main things. I feel like these thoughts and behaviors control a lot of my day, and I just can’t stop them even when I know they’re kind of irrational. Does this sound like it could be signs of OCD, or is it something else? Or just normal behavior?

jupiter

Date posted: 8w

I don’t know how to live anymore

(Long post warning) Hi, I’ve been struggling with severe OCD for six years now. it started in 2019 with my theme being getting sick/emetophobia. it devastated my life. I almost didn’t graduate high school from it. I remember washing my hands for three hours one day until they were nearly bloody while crying and asking why I could not stop doing it. I remember id have to write and rewrite sentences when I did my English homework and that’s why I nearly failed that class. I remember how I would spend up to thirty minutes to an hour pacing the halls of my apartment while my mom was asleep until I neutralized the thoughts about throwing up and I could finally go to bed. I don’t know when it happened, but my theme switched. Sometimes in late 2020 or early 2021, it switched to POCD. It started with a single thought, and I focused on it and it’s been my theme since then for four years. It has been absolutely destroying me. I feel so disgusted and lost and just tired. My compulsions are severe now. I thought they were bad before, but now they’re ten times worse. I can’t eat, drink, change my clothes, walk, or even do things on my phone normally. I’ve developed so many mental compulsions that it’s so intricate and complicated yet at the same time I’ve done them so much that they’ve become normal. An example I have is if im putting on a shirt and I have a “bad” thought, I have to take it off and put it back on two more times (that’ll make it 3 times I put the shirt back on - odd numbers are my safe number). I have to have a good thought on the third time otherwise I have to take it off and put it on two more times to make it five times I put on that shirt. If not that then I just put on a different shirt because the original is now tainted with my bad thought. I can’t open apps on my phone. It’s with the numbers again. If I open TikTok once while having a bad thought - I have to close it and open it two more times and so on. Sometimes I do it up to 30 times. So I just don’t do things usually. I don’t turn on the TV because I know I’ll redo it. I don’t open a book or grab it off my shelf because I’ll have to repeat the action. I can’t even lay in bed without getting up and redoing it even if im exhausted. I just feel so helpless. I don’t know what to do. I feel disgusting and even now my minds screaming at me that I am dirty and what I think is true. I just wish I was free of this, I wish I could just live my life. I’ve wasted hours and days because of my compulsions. I mask it so well around my friends. I don’t do them in front of anyone or I’ve learned to hide it well. But when im back home alone, it goes haywire. I just want to live again.

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Physical compulsions all day every day

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