- Date posted
- 1y
My 3 “weirdest, oddest” OCD symptoms
*Before beginning, I just want to clarify that when I describe these sx’s (symptoms) as “weird,” I mean what an average person without OCD would probably consider weird. I don’t judge them, but do still admittedly feel considerable embarrassment if I experience them in public.* In general, most of these triggers during high stress or when things in my life seem out of control. My best guess is that the anxiety relief I feel from fulfilling a compulsion helps me feel like I have a little more “control” and things are okay. This isn’t a thought process I actively have when obsessing, but more like a feeling based on what makes my sx’s worse and when they pop up. Some of these sx’s are associated w/ intrusive thoughts, but sometimes it’s just like everything “feels wrong” if I don’t do the compulsion correctly. I came up with random names for the sx’s: 1) “Reorienting in space” - sometimes I feel the need to say certain things (like if talking to myself) or think certain things facing specific direction. I’d experienced this before, “grew out of it,” and now it’s somewhat back. It used to be like I had to face East, or north, or whatever, but now it’s more based on facing specific objects. So like facing a doorway, facing the front of my house, or even the direction of a specific place in my city, etc. It’s STRANGE but yeah so there’s that. 2) “Overcoming imagined barriers” - so this isn’t really something that bothers me much at all anymore, but it still stands out as one of the weirdest experiences I’ve ever had with OCD. This trigger is similar to the last one, except in addition to facing a certain way, I would imagine a literal barrier that exists like somewhere up ahead of me, and I would have to convince myself I’m physically moving past that barrier in order to feel like I’m “in the clear” and like I have “control.” Often the first barrier I imagined wouldn’t suffice. It wasn’t far enough away, it wasn’t “strong enough,” etc. It would often take me upwards of 10 attempts or more every time this would occur in order to move on. After typing this out I understand my brain 10 times less. 3) “Desire for control of others’ behaviors, events, & objects” - so this isn’t as extreme as it might sound, I don’t like try to control people. It’s more like I’ll have to wait until someone stops coughing to put my phone down, waiting until someone stops speaking to proceed with whatever I was doing. Or waiting for train noises to stop, cars to stop going by, to mentally “move on.” Though I’ve found it’s been getting more out of control lately, and I’m not helping things by reinforcing the symptoms ever time I complete the compulsion. I’m sure there are other odd ones I can think of, but these 3, especially the first 2, take the cake 🎂 for me. If ANYONE can relate to ANY of this I’d be cool to know I’m not the single weirdest homo sapien there ever was, but I’ll be happier for you if you can’t relate.