- Date posted
- 1y
any advice helps
hi everyone, welcome to my first post. i’m not exactly sure where to start so i’ll just share a little bit of my story. i always considered myself “normal” growing up, no issues mentally. then after covid hit, i was 17 when it started, i was severely depressed, and anxious; but it was manageable because it was situational, the world had been put on pause so it was easy for me to understand why i was feeling those ways. then it became general. the depression and anxiety weren’t geared towards covid or the loss of a normal life anymore, now it felt permanent. then, the OCD behaviors slowly started showing up. the urges and thoughts grew more and more intense and now it’s a couple years later and i’m 21 now and i learned to to pull myself out of my dark places but the one thing i can’t shake is the OCD. it paralyzes me, i live my life in fear and anger because i can’t go more than an hour without doing something because i feel like i HAVE to or else something bad will happen, or i’ll just simply feel so uncomfortable if i don’t complete the urge that it will consume my mind if i don’t give in. i have reoccurring urges that i know will come up when i do certain things (like i have to click my phone on and off and set and then unset my alarms 3 times before i go to bed and if i don’t do it perfectly or it doesn’t feel right then i have to do it again, BUT i don’t like the number 6 so if i do my alarms 3 more times then 3 + 3 = 6 and that feels uncomfortable. therefore i have to do it 3 additional times so that it lands on 9) OR i’ll get 1 time urges that just happen out of nowhere in the moment and i don’t do them religiously. if i were to make a list of every urge that i do everyday, it would take me years to write all of that. it is absolutely exhausting. i’m so tired of living this way and feeling like a prisoner in my own body. i feel like i’m a puppet and something is controlling me 24/7. i want control of my life again. i don’t want to be constantly consumed by these thoughts and urges. i don’t want to feel like my family is going to die just because i thought that in my head (it makes me scared even just typing that right now because i feel like it’s going to happen because of me). i live all day every day like this and i’m just drained. i really could use some help, i haven’t been able to see anyone about this and i don’t know where to start. please leave any advice on how you guys deal with your OCD and soothe your mind. i just want to be at peace in my own head. thank you guys so much for reading, it feels good to get this off my chest.