vtocd and staring

@alyssaw Exactly! Thank you for making me feel less alone ❤️.

@Clare ity I did this for 30 years -- concurrent with HOCD. You're far from alone! Being in public, or around anyone honestly, was a nightmare. Truly thought I was losing my mind. It's 75% better and continues to improve with ERP. Totally treatable.

@ConsciousPilot Right! I’m sorry you suffered so long. It def took me years to know what it was and all my other ocd things were lol. I’m glad you are doing better! I am doing better than I was too. ERP is hard but worjibg :).

@ConsciousPilot I’d say also I’m about almost 75% better on that too. Trying to kick that last bit though.

@Clare ity Better late than never -- right? Glad you're on the mend as well!

@ConsciousPilot True! Ty

@Penny24! Definitely. Therapy if you can! I tried on my own and before and it was hard. Start easy and work up, in the car in a parking lot watching people walk by. Look where you are afraid to.. then in public w strangers and then w people you know. But really get yo the point you don’t care at all with each step before you jump to the next level. This sounds like reassurance but people do not all always notice like you feel they do. And confronting that by doing it and noticing that the worst doesn’t happen helps. Ive told people and found out they didn’t have any idea, and they totally didnt care and thought it was funnny! still i feel like others do and get offended so that is proof that you can’t prove to the beast that it will ever be satisfied. It is so hard. Do exposures a lot. Don’t avoid people and conversations. It also helps to note id never notice if you looked at me because I’m so oblivious lol. And I wouldn’t punch you in the nose or call the police on you if you did (lol seriously my fears.) I still have it happen and go back to doing exposures. You have to accept when you are doing it that maybe they did notice. Maybe the worst willl happen and maybe spend time working on accepting that if it did life would still go on, no matter what happens. Almost like if the worst happened you’d at least get it over with lol. Ruminating makes it worse. By that I mean … did they notice (maybe! Is the answer.) and not keep trying to figure out by their reactions or things that happen if they notice (something I still do :/.) worrying about rumors, or people doing whatever scares you about this, and trying to “confirm” if they noticed etc is not helpful. Just accepting they did, or maybe a leap of faith that they didn’t at all and keep moving forward . Hope that helps. Monitoring gaze is hard. It goes where wants and even compulsions to look away real fast or something like that happens so automatically it’s impossible to control at times, so maybe accept my gaze did what it did woopsie. And just keep you head up :) look at people wherever you happen or look ;)

@Anonymous You can tell them you think you have ocd and have this problem. You definitely aren’t alone. An OCD specialist doing ERP is THE recommended way to tackle this. So I’m glad you found the post. OCD encompasses a lot of embarrassing themes. It’s just how OCD is, and is totally expected at NOCD. The intake team here will help set you up an appointment with someone, if you can use them. OCD feels so bad. But starting therapy is the way to make it better. I was mortified at first. And my first therapist was not an ocd therapist and still knew exactly what this problem was right off the bat! She just didn’t know how to fix it. That’s why I’d recommend ERP with a specialist. Ocd is so weird and silly and makes you feel terrible for no good reason. ❤️ You can do it. Good luck!

@Jelica05 I have. I don’t think the therapists need to specialize in a theme as it’s all ocd! My therapist helped with it a lot and in starting therapy, I realized how many things I do are compulsions or straight up avoidance due to ocd. It’s really unburdening and helpful to get treatment here. I still have ocd but I manage a lot of it better and don’t avoid friends and loved ones anymore. Definitely just call Nocd and they will match you with someone. Good luck!