Can anyone relate to the fear of blood clots? That makes up 80% of my OCD. I’m primarily health OCD but I also have religious OCD. I’m a Christian (I think) and I’m terrified I’m not actually saved and am not going to be with my family when I die.
Hi, the truth is anyone of us could have a blood clot at anytime. It’s also true anyone of us can hit by an asteroid at any moment. Or get eaten by an alligator. Or get abducted by alien. But you only worry about blood clots because that’s what your OCD attached itself too. You showed your brain that this thought is scary and that it should keep sending it to you to keep you safe. The way to decrease the thoughts is to simply let the thoughts be there. I even try to agree with the thoughts. For example if I were you and I got a thought about a blood clot, I would think to myself “Yep OCD, you are right. I’m going to die of a blood clot in 5,4,3,2,1. Wait I’m still alive? Okay maybe in the next 5 seconds. 5,4,3,2,1” etc. Doing things like this will help take power back from the thoughts as you are showing your brain you are no longer scared of the thoughts. Overcoming OCD really comes down to accepting uncertainty. Can I tell you for 100% certainty you won’t get a blood clot? No. Can I tell you for 100% certainty you will never win the lottery? No. OCD likes to worry about the future because we have no control over it. There’s no way to prove the future so there’s no sense ruminating over it. If that makes sense?
@GregJ I know. But I have a 2 year old son and I just can’t shake the idea of him being left without me and crying for me. That’s what makes me so scared.
@planon I completely understand, I have 2 daughters, they're 14 and 3 years old. At the time I was worried about blood clots, I had just had a miscarraige and scared myself into thinking I'd gotten blood clots and I was gonna die. Once I was cleared from that it was something else like heart attack or stroke if become concerned about. It dragged on for a couple years and now all my health worries are gone and I have what I consider even worse thoughts that I don't even like talking about. I'm so sorry you're struggling with this, and I hope you get better soon 💗
@planon That would be scary if that happened. A lot of things dealing with your son would be scary. BUT there can be a lot of great things to focus on as well that are even more possible than the scary ones. You can think of how great you get to watch him grow up and all the the awesome times you’ll have. You keep focusing on a negative possibility instead of a positive possibility. Same with the Christianity thought. What if you are saved and are a great example for humanity but you just don’t see it because of the OCD. OCD wouldn’t make you a bad person. Doesn’t make any of us that. Just makes us feel like we are. Your son’s super lucky to have a mom that cares so much for him she’s terrified of a possibility that directly effects her life all for the sake of him. I’m Sure he would want his loving mother to focus on the good stuff (easier said than done and I’m sure he’ll understand as he grows) and see her smiling happy with him.
@planon I know that’s what makes OCD so tough. But OCD is robbing you of good memories but preoccupying your mind with worrying. Worrying is not going to change anything. Worrying won’t prevent something bad from happening. So why waste your time on something that provides no results and robs you of good memories?
So about a month ago I was having intense fears about blood clots and I was scared to sleep and and I couldn’t eat, etc. I ended up going to the doctor and getting an ultrasound done and everything was fine but I was still a little worried they missed something. I just had to remind myself that it was ocd and that I was healthy and eventually that fear went away. I know that’s probably not the most helpful but I know how you feel❤️
I’m literally struggling with that right now. I did an exercise where I recorded myself saying my OCD thoughts about “my legs are different sizes, it’s definitely a blood clot”. “You’re going to die because you’re not getting your leg checked.” I’m playing it over and over to desensitize myself to the rhetoric of OCD.
I used to have a fear of blood clots, this was actually back before I even thought I'd had ocd, but I'm sure that's what it was all along. I went to the dr and had tests done to check for blood clots and they all came back negative.
@Nev20 Yes but you can get a blood clot at anytime. Literally for any reason. It can just happen completely randomly even.
yes i do!! and the fear of vomit or just being sick??
@OCD_yousuck I struggled with the fear of getting sick for a long time
Gosh, I had exactly the same thing about a month ago, got ultrasound and all clear 😬 I guess this is a common one!
I didn't realize this could be part of it but makes sense. There a blood clotting disorder that runs in my family and the other day I have severe pain in my thigh (likely just muscle cramps) and was convinced it was a blood clot. I didn't go to the hospital or anything. I just kinda wanted it out and it went away.
Is anyone dealing with responsibility OCD? I don’t see it talked about much, but it’s one of the subtypes I struggle with the most. I just feel like everything I do is in order to “protect” my family and friends. That means everything from magical thinking, to repeatedly calling people to make sure they’re ok, to bargaining with god to keep them safe (even though i’m not religious at all). I spend A LOT of my time worrying about other people and trying to control what they do. For example, I’ll try to talk someone out of taking a trip because I feel like something bad will happen, or I’ll stalk someone’s Instagram to make sure they’re posting regularly, because that means they’re ok. Logically I know I have no control over other people, but OCD tells me there’s always at least SOMETHING I can be doing to keep them from getting hurt or sick. And obviously the pandemic has made this 1000x worse. Can anyone relate?
My OCD is generally around my health. It is hard for me to differentiate between what is real and what is OCD. I have a skin condition (HPV) and it’s truly not bad at all although my OCD theme is very focused on it. I’m in constant fear that it will get worse, spread or ruin my life some how. Does anybody else have health anxiety OCD? Or OCD about contamination? I feel like it’s really difficult to combat my OCD at times because there is a level of rationality behind it. I do have the skin condition already that I’m worried about so my OCD has “evidence” to make me more worried about it. Does anybody else have an OCD theme that is hard to differentiate between what’s real and what’s OCD? Sorry for the long post but I’m very interested to hear more about your experiences!
Hi guys! I believe I have an OCD since I was around 12. I remember then I had a lot of intrusive thoughts about religious things and I had a counting compulsion (I thought that If I don't count to 8 in specific moments, someone gets hurt) During later years it was really changing - I stopped being religious, so the OCD theme also stopped. Then I had I reckon SOCD, harm OCD and many others. But for know my main topic is ROCD. But because of the fact that this is my main intrusive thoughts topic I start to have this awful thoughts that this is not OCD, I'm just with the wrong person and I need to accept this fact. This is really struggling for me, because i really love my bf and Im in the healthy realtionship but Im so tired of having this kind of thoughts, sometimes I cannot sleep because of them. Also the fact that I've never been diagnosed (I cannot go on theraphy right now unfortunately) is another trigger because I have thoughts that I dont really have OCD, I just making this up, because I cannot accept the truth. Is there someone with similar experiance? Or maybe someone who can have advice for me?
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