Tips?

Hello all! Hoping everyone has been feeling good! For the most part id say ive pretty much gotten thru my most recent episode but i will still have some hiccups, which brings me here. My hardest theme is POCD. Somedays i can shake it off , even laugh and other days im just in mental prison. For me, the two most triggering factors regarding this theme are groinal responses & false memories . When one takes the back seat it doesnt seem so real but if one is at the forefront i can still get stuck ruminating on it. so heres my question, especially for those who are parents …. How do you move past false memories? My situation was changing a diaper, having an intrusive thought/urge and then almost INSTANTLY started questioning if i acted on it and just didn’t realize? So ofc i replay the moment. Over and over again to no avail. I know the whole deal with ocd is to accept the uncertainty, but how do you accept something of this nature? Deep down i dont think ive ever behaved inappropriately as i have no desire to and because of this i know its why ocd latches …but when i obsess , re-imagine, re-play the scenario, it FEELS real or like it could have happened? Ive asked here before and got some responses but it does seem like for me it starts as an intrusive thought and quickly turns into false memory, not like how it seems for most people where they may search for a past event and the ocd adds new details creating the false memory. So just wondering if anyone can relate or give advice on how to stop questioning reality 🤌🏼

malikali

Date posted: 1y

reality doesn't exist it is an interpretation of signals to the brain and your body isn't even equipped to process all the information out there, a good example being light, we can only see a small subsection of it there are more colors and spectrums that we can see. period. then there's sounds we can't hear particularly high or low frequencies only animals and machines can. so what I'm saying is that you don't even experience reality you take signals and process them with Ur squishy brain and then Ur brain is like "I think this is what's happening" and usually we all go "oh ok" sometimes were like "wait wtf" but always it's only an interpretation and not really real. it's just a dream, enjoy it

Anonymous

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 1y

@vallakid Thank you for your take on this 🫶🏼🙏🏼. But how do you differentiate what is actually happening. Vs what you’re brain is imagining happening . How can it get so distorted. You should just KNOW if you did something, but what I think reinforces this fear is like how many things on a daily basis do I do and just forget ? example put my hairbrush back in the cabinet, but I don’t necessarily recall doing that 🫠

malikali

Date posted: 1y

@Anonymous you can't KNOW coz a memory is a fragment of an interpretation of a signal that was incomplete so even people without OCD still have thoughts about false memories and things like this and they get confused too, it's the attachment to these thoughts and memories that is the root of your distress. no-one knows and thats oki coz it's just life and life has alot of beauty in it if you can search it out 🙏💕

TF39

Date posted: 1y

I can really relate. Its instantly become a false memory for me to

eb123456789

Date posted: 25w

Identifying Intrusive thoughts / false memory

Without trying to seek reassurance, I’m wondering if anyone has insight on identifying an intrusive thought vs reality. Something that’s always really helped ground me in moments of false memory ocd is clearly remembering the exact moment the thought arose and how it started as “what if I cheated and don’t remember.” Then the images come and are extremely distressing, but I’ve always found some comfort in coming back to that moment of “this started as what if.” It feels like my brain is almost getting more creative with the thoughts now, and I’ve been having probably the worst anxiety of my life the past couple months after another intrusive thought entered my mind. I woke up after a night drinking and thought to myself “did you kiss your friend and don’t remember?” (Didn’t happen, undeniably proved). The rest of the day I stayed anxious about other things I could have done and poured over all my memories of the night. Then the next day I finally had found some peace based on all the evidence from my friends who were with me that nothing bad happened. I then thought “what about when you went to the bathroom,” which I hadn’t really been thinking about before, and then my mind immediately started flashing with images of me performing sex acts in the bathroom with some person who has no name, face, details, or anything I remember about interacting with them. I think I’m just concerned that this was a moment of genuine memory recall since I hadn’t been thinking about the bathroom before, and it was more of a sudden flash of images and “did you do that” vs “what if you did that.” I’m wondering how others are able to identify that something is an intrusive thought vs reality.

footballNY32

Date posted: 24w

POCD FALSE MEMORIES ADVICE?

Hello everyone I need some advice. I’ve struggled with what I think and hope is ocd for a long time. It started when I was 14 I had a concussion and my brain convinced myself for 9 months that I had this concussion. Then I had a gf at 15 before we were official I did a terrible thing im regretful of it for sure. I kissed another girl. I told my now ex girlfriend about it and I started to overthink the situation and think maybe I slept with the girl or maybe we did more than kiss. In reality we didn’t. when I turned 16 I started having thoughts of maybe I cheated on her with other girls at our school. It would be false memories of me sleeping or doing things with 4 or 5 other girls. That eventually went away as I would ask reassurance like a crazy person. Then one day what I believe was either Christmas time or new years around that time I had this thought “what if I SA’d my ex little sister?” This thought tormented me for so long I couldn’t believe it. As she was so young it would be impossible for me to do that without someone noticing plus that’s absolutely horrifying and disgusting and I’ve never ever ever ever been alone with her or desired to. Then what I knew would happen came along with me thinking I SA’d my little sister or my baby brother at the time. It was a horrible experience. Then it went to me thinking I was a pedo without the false memories. Then it went to my other siblings thinking I did something to them in their sleep, I did something to the pets, etc. As I got older I realized what ocd was and what I was going through and it eventually all went away. But as time goes on I’m now almost 24 I have spiraled back into thinking I SA my ex little sister. It’s crazy because I’ve never had that desire or anything at all it would absolutely break me if that was true. With something like this saying maybe not maybe it did is crazy because it’s a serious thing. I’m getting therapy on Monday and am just wanting my life back. I just recently got engaged to my beautiful fiancé and I want to be regular again. Anyone have any advice or even have gone through the same scenarios? It’s just so tough.

izabela’socd

Date posted: 24w

Fellow False memory ocd people

Hi, I’ve had ocd since I was 12 but the hardest theme I’ve ever encountered was false memory ocd and POCD. I’m convinced I’ve molested children and people and it disgusts me to my very core. Is there anyone else going through this? I really need to talk to people who are going through the same thing as me and can share their story because I feel so along in this false memory cycle because it feels like a real memory and I feel like I’m tricking everyone around me into thinking it’s false. Please help

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