I don’t know whether i have false memory ocd etc. I use to have OCD when I was growing up but then I thought I left it behind however I had one night very intoxicated and I don’t know if I’ve committed an awful crime, I have not officially got a diagnosis so don’t know if what my brain is telling me is true, what do you all suggest I’m waiting for a referral to see a therapist
If you've been diagnosed before with OCD then you still have OCD it just needed that trigger to show its ugly face again. What you described in your post sounds like false memory OCD but I'm not a therapist nor a doctor. Your history of OCD is a good indicator that that is what this is. I've found some coping mechanisms to sit with the anxiety surrounding my own uncertainty and that's the key to breaking the cycle. Try when the thought comes in saying "maybe it did" or "maybe it didn't". It's not easy to sit with the thought that gives you anxiety and say those phrases but it's the only way to take power away from your OCD. Also try separating yourself from your OCD. Assign it a name and when it tries to convince you of a thought, say "sure whatever you say John" or whatever name you assign it. Also when looking for a therapist ensure they are familiar with ERP and CBT. Medication helps me tremendously but start off with therapy and see if that helps. The gold standard in OCD treatment is ERP therapy and medication. I hope this helps. God bless
@OCDisHell I’ve never had a diagnosis when I was younger but know when you just know I had varies forms of it from repeating things to cleaning etc. but I thought I got over it. Thankyou for all this advice it means a lot
@Anonymous Sure no problem. Ah gotcha, well if you've never been diagnosed I would start with getting a solid diagnosis and then go from there.
@OCDisHell This night has hit me like a tonne of bricks, I feel as though I’ve let my family down etc. I can’t get out of bed and this has been going on for a year
@Anonymous I'm sorry you're going through that but I've been where you are and it does get better but you have to find motivation to move forward. No it's not easy but the other choice is to let OCD run your life. You have to make your OCD the enemy and fight back through therapy, medication, a combination of both. Also, get up and get going. OCD loves to thrive in self loathing and keep you stuck. I lift weights and go for walks and every rep/step i tell myself "thats one more rep/step towards beating OCD!". The only one who can get you moving again is you. Fight the good fight man. God bless.
@OCDisHell But I literally don’t know if I have done it and I believe I’ve done it more than not doing it because I was so drunk it’s made it even harder, I literally can’t move on its hard
@Anonymous That's the part that gets us stuck in the OCD cycle, looking for 100% certainty. It doesn't exist. You are looking for the solution that doesn't exist. I haven't been to therapy but one thing I hear repeatedly is to live with the uncertainty. This is how you break OCDs hold on you. I will say this and this is going to be reassurance in a way which is also not good but it may provide some temporary relief for you, people who are capable of evil do NOT worry about being evil. In other words they wouldn't be worried about it like you are. I don't know you but logically you just being worried about it tells me you're not the person you're OCD is making you feel like you are. Please seek out help whether that be therapy, medication, or a combo of both which is recommended. You will find it easier to combat your OCD symptoms and get back to life. I wish you all the best. God bless
@OCDisHell The only way to find out is to hand myself in due to how bad the crime is in my head and that’s next if I want to carry on with life because since this night I haven’t lived I don’t enjoy all because of this
@Anonymous There's not much else I can say, but you have to remember it's not you it's your OCD and fight back against the OCD. Your mind is fixated on the "supposed" event and you have to shift to combating your OCD. Beating OCD needs to be your focus. Again I wish you the best and please seek help from mental health professionals. God bless
@OCDisHell Thanks for these comments means a lot. God bless
@Anonymous No problem. Keep you're head up and keep fighting. I promise there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Take care
How do you know the difference :( I genuinely cannot keep living in this torment. it all started with an ‘intrusive thought’ where I had like a hazy flash of something reading an article. and I remember thinking ‘what if’ and ‘what is this’ and then that intrusive thought turned into me ‘remembering’ something else. which caused me panic. then I started trying to find evidence because it contradicted what I remembered this entire time. this was last year in like september. fast forward to march this year, it came back up- but this time stronger and with more ‘details’ and what nots. and I’ve been ruminating on it since then trying to remember and connect and It’s like I’ve added all of these details. but are they real? or is this just my OCD? I just feel like if it were real I would have never been able to keep it to myself. but also what if it was so traumatic that I blocked it out? because it all makes NO sense for me to do something like that. but it also fits what I was thinking at the time. idk
I’m reaching out for educational and self-awareness purposes, hoping to better understand something I’ve been mentally struggling with for several years. Around five years ago, I began having a deeply distressing memory involving the fear that I may have acted inappropriately toward my younger sister when I was around 13–14 years old. The details are vague, fragmented, and unclear—but ever since this thought first appeared, I’ve treated it as if it were a real event. I’ve carried immense guilt, fear, and anxiety for years, convinced that I must have done something horrible. Despite asking my sister (who remembers absolutely nothing, has never shown signs of discomfort, and has told me more than once that she would’ve spoken up if anything had happened), the doubt and guilt never went away. The memory feels real, yet there is no external confirmation, no direct recall, and no evidence beyond my own mental images and fear. I’ve also struggled with obsessive thoughts in other areas, such as health anxiety since childhood—frequent doctor visits, checking my pulse, obsessing over illness—and only recently learned about false memory OCD, which aligns with my experience. I’m not currently seeking therapy but would greatly appreciate your professional opinion from an educational perspective: Does this sound more like a real memory, or more likely a false memory created by OCD or anxiety-related mechanisms I am stuck between a normal person or a s*xual abuser
I have had the same false memory/instrusive image of me doing something horrible to someone when I was 12 and they were younger. It is a memory based on a real event. I truly don’t know if it’s real or not but obviously, the more I think about it the more I think it’s true. This has led my mind to become slightly paranoid. I worry that if this horrible image in my head is true then one day the person I might have hurt will come and k*ll me. I’m really scared I feel like I won’t feel better as long as this “memory” is in my head. Does anyone have advice?
Share your thoughts so the Community can respond
