I am doing a school project on OCD and I have some questions if anyone would like to answer them I could quote them but leave them anonymous if they prefer. This would be shown to my small class and my teacher and that would be it. My questions are Do you like it or not like it when people use OCD as an adjective? And how has OCD affected your life and those around you?
OCD is way deeper than people think, Mostly they think it's about orderness, Keeping things in perfect way but no, That's not it. OCD gives you anxiety, Fear by giving you thoughts you hate, Giving you uncertainty about the future, that something bad will happens, What bad will happen varies to person to person. For me it's that I won't be able to have a lifel want, Or I will become a bad guy. Now to get relief from these thoughts, Images that comes in our head, We do compulsions which are most of the time weird impractical things, Some call them rituals which gives us temporary relief for that moment, Then once again whern the thoughts come you have to do compulsions, and it goes on like this. The thoughts come anytime, sometimes they are guaranteed to come in certain places depending on person to person. To be honest in short OCD for me is like that one bully which gives you band aid after beating you. That's all.
Thank you so much for view on these questions! Would you prefer I leave you anonymous or use your username? And would it be alright if I include your profile picture? Again, thank you so much!
@Anonymous You can use my username and profile pic
I have used OCD as an adjective in the past before I understood what the disease is all about. Now, I don’t quite like it when people do that. It misrepresents the full gamut of themes and subtypes within the OCD community and makes people think that OCD isn’t serious and that it’s all about organizing and cleaning. I’ve had OCD my whole life, but I just realized it. It hasn’t set me back, to my knowledge. But, it has definitely made my life miserable. Being unable to let go of worries or past events makes me spend days and days in an anxious haze to the point where I can’t eat or sleep. It’s exhausting.
This information will be very useful for my presentation thank you so much! Would you prefer I put you as anonymous or may I use your username and profile picture?
Use OCD as an adjective, as in saying something like, "I'm so OCD about that"? I personally hate it. I understand people are doing it out of ignorance, but I feel like people doing it just further increases people's ignorance about OCD. I wish more than anything that all my OCD involved was simply having a strong preference for things to be clean or organized, but OCD is far more debilitating than that, and it's because of things like that being said by people that many people in my life treat my OCD like simply strong preferences rather than an actual illness. Regarding how OCD has affected my life? Well, I've had OCD for literally as long as I can remember, (I likely inherited it from my grandmother), and as a result, life has been hard. Last I checked, OCD is technically classified as an anxiety illness, and boy does it fit there well. I've spent so much of my life avoiding "triggers" and "stressors" that might cause my OCD, and thus me, anxiety, so it's caused me to miss out on many things or it's caused me to spend time being anxious when I should've been able to enjoy myself. My OCD has heavily contributed to me placing very little value on my life. And what's worse, it even affects those around me that I love. My husband readily and willingly abides by all my OCD's "rules", and even though he's more than willing to do it to make me happy and decrease my anxiety, it causes me to feel guilty because I feel like he's missing out on things too and needing to do extra effort because of me. Same goes for my parents, best friends, and cousins with whom I have all lived with at some point. But then when someone in my life treats my OCD simply like strong preferences rather than a mental illness and thus exposes me to my stressors, I become angry at them and build resentment. So yes, OCD not only strongly and negativity affects my life, but it also affects those around me too, whether it be the decisions they make or the emotions I build towards them. And the sad thing is, since I've had OCD my whole life, I don't know how to live without it, even though I despise it.
This is incredibly helpful for my presentation, thank you so much! A few more quick questions, would you prefer I leave you anonymous or can I put your username and profile picture?
@Anonymous Feel free to use my username and profile pic.
As some of you guys probably know, if I’ve been leaving annoyingly chirpy comments on your posts (?) I’m a huge believer in ERP. It works consistently with my OCD when nothing else has, its pulled me out of some dark places, etc etc. But I also see a lot of posts asking a heap of different questions about it. I totally get your frustrations and confusion. It was easier for me, in a way, because I was so hopeless when I discovered it I went, “if this doesn’t work, I’m just gonna give up an end it.” It was my last resort so I guess that helped in a way, but it did work. It really did. So where I’m going with this is, If anyone has any questions about ERP, dump them here in the comments and I’ll answer them as soon as I can. All questions, any questions, throw them at me. I want to help, I know what you’re going through and as an obsessively good researcher (even before my OCD kicked in) I have a tonne of different explanations on how it works, why it works, how it feels, and so on and so on and so on. Honestly, I just wanna be useful. I wanna help. Being able to help people through this stuff makes my OCD a teensy bit worthwhile. Give me your best shot :)
Asking as a college student. Can anyone relate?
Part of my goal is to give back to others who have struggled like me so I would love to answer questions anyone has about OCD, Anxeity, or Depression! As a background around 2 years ago I fell into a really bad stint of depression, anxeity, and severe OCD. Through help with NOCD and lifestyle changes I was able to get my life back on track and create a wonderful life for myself! Drop any questions/ reach out if you just want to talk below!
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