xokyaxo
- Date posted
- 1y
Is this common?
I’ve had the same themes of ocd on and off for years. I have a new theme i’ve never had before now. Has that happened to anyone else?
VGHVGH
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 1y
One thing I’ve learned is OCD isn’t truly about the theme. It’s about uncertainty and can attach to anything that is important to us or that we feel responsibility towards.
OoOcCdD66OoOcCdD66
- Date posted
- 1y
As the person above said, OCD is not defined by the theme. It can be ANYTHING. And I mean that. In your ocd journey, you'll find yourself fearing things you've not even necessarily read other having before. OCD is not defined by the theme, it is defined by the behavior that the theme causes. For me, I've had so many different themes/worries pop up I can't even keep track. Sometimes multiple in a day. Right now I have about 5 or more "themes" that keep weaving in and out or even happening simultaneously. It's a very ruthless disorder. But I think the more you and all of us embrace ERP and what we need to do, we will manage! In fact I know that! ERP has helped me many times and in general is why I'm able to still function despite being a wreck on the inside sometimes. And I'm far from perfect...I still give into compulsions despite me knowing better. But as you probably already know, compulsions do nothing to help in the long run. Often times it makes it worse...not only by reinforcing the fear, but also sometimes broadening them or creating new ones. Example being reading someone else's story, either out of a need to compulse or just curiosity, and then snowballing. You may take on their fear despite it not being yours, or it may add gas to the fire if you are experiencing a similar theme. Just stay strong and do the work! I'm sure you're no stranger to it. I believe in you and all of us!
ah727ah727
- Date posted
- 1y
this has completely happened to me trust me. when my ocd first started at 13 it was more aimed towards fear of loosing things so i was a hoarder to an extreme ocd level. today my ocd centers around losing people. basically i’m scared of never seeing people again which makes relationships really hard in the breakup. a lot of times you might think your ocd has switched themes but really you still have the same core beliefs and like i do in losing people or things and it takes a second to realize how it’s all connected.
Related posts
Anonymous
- Date posted
- 24w
Fear of change
Hey fellow OCD warriors! Wanted to ask if anyone else’s OCD tends to latch onto change and catastrophize with all kinds of worst-case scenarios. There’s a lot going on in my life, and even though they are all exciting things that I truly want and am happy about, I’ve had moments of deep fear at so much change happening and even a sadness that I can only think is a kind of grief of entering a new stage of life/a new me and leaving the old one behind. I am in my mid-20s and a lot of this centers around nostalgia and fear and intrusive thoughts of changes like my parents getting older, myself aging, friendships growing apart leading to loneliness, etc. I know I need to treat it as any other OCD flare-up and do ERP, but it also feels different than other OCD themes because I feel blue and like existentially sad. Even as a young kid, I always hated change and the thought of growing up (even if exciting things were happening) - like I cried when I turned 10 because I was leaving the single digits behind forever! 🤦♀️ I feel like I’m preemptively mourning things like losing my parents or my health even though I am healthy and my parents are too. I don’t want to waste the time I have ruminating about the future. I haven’t heard this kind of theme mentioned a lot so just wanted to see if any others could relate.
Mk3
- Date posted
- 23w
Rocd
I’ve had different themes of ocd throughout my life. Can they all differ such as how the thoughts may present? Currently my thoughts feel so true immediately (like they genuinely feel like what I think) but in the last theme I feel like it may have been more of a “what if I think this” type of situation
RaRaRa
- Date posted
- 20w
Ocd episodes question
Im still searching about pure o ocd while I still look for a specialized therapist so that's why I'm asking the following thing lol Is normal to have months and/or years without an ocd episode? I noticed I had a considerable amount of episodes in all my living years but sometimes they took a year or a bit more than a year to appear, in worse scenarios I noticed the took just months to appear once again Is that normal? Im kinda feeling guilty about it because I notice some people live 24/7 with ocd since they are kids while my thing is more like, episodically, not 24/7 since I was born? My last episode started in August of last year and is still haunting me but I know people had it worsened since their earlier years of life
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