- Date posted
- 1y
College essay
What would a good start/hook be for a college essay about OCD. I mean I can’t just be like “when I was 10 I thought I was sexually attracted to my sister….” although that would definitely get their attention 😭
What would a good start/hook be for a college essay about OCD. I mean I can’t just be like “when I was 10 I thought I was sexually attracted to my sister….” although that would definitely get their attention 😭
The shadow war of my mind?
What kind of essay is it exactly? Does it have a particular theme to it?
@Wolfram that’s a really cool title! I like it
@Wolfram I have to write an essay about myself for college, we have to choose what to write about ourselves. I chose to write about ocd because it’s been there for most of my life even if I didn’t realize it was there. It’s changed me, for better or worse.
@shazey_k What would you like for the essay to achieve? Not for your education, but for you?
@Wolfram I guess I want to let people know what I’ve gone through and to let my emotions out because I’ve never really gotten to talk about it before. I haven’t told either my friends or family about my ocd so I’ve been keeping it bottled up since I was a kid.
@shazey_k I don’t know tbh 😭
@shazey_k As the other guy said, I think saying maybe something along the lines of. Hi, my name is shazey and I have ocd. Proceed to explain ocd in the most steriotypical way that's protayed incorrectly in media like the other guy said Then, how it actually is for those commonly portrayed themes. Finally saying, but this is not me. Ocd can also be.. And tell your story Maybe something like that?
@Wolfram nahh I think I want to show them that even though I’ve been through a bunch of shit, I’ve persevered and I’m overall a strong person that they would want in their college or something like that 😭
@Wolfram I'm willing to help in any I can. You've helped me more than enough times.
@Wolfram yeah I think I might go with that. Thank you and FJustRightOCD for helping me 💕
Maybe share an anecdote of how it’s portrayed incorrectly in the media, and even in many medical communities, and then go on to share how the reality is very different and how you strive to persevere through the adversity of it by advocating for the reality of it, to de stigmatize it so future generations can know they’re not alone etc
@FJustRightOCD that’s a good idea! I might do that, thank youuu
@shazey_k Good luck, and remember, ocd may bring doubt into your writing process but keep going. Maybe set an intention to purposefully write a long but messy first draft. :)
@FJustRightOCD I will, thank you!
I was super recently diagnosed with OCD and nervous to share my diagnosis with my family. I’m a somewhat messy person and don’t have germophobic tendencies, so since I don’t have the stereotypical OCD presentation I was terrified that nobody would believe me. I ended up talking to my mom and making a silly TikTok post about it, which my grandma saw. Not only did they believe and support me–I learned that my grandma has it too! Funny to look back on, but really cool to see that the worst outcome doesn’t always happen. (:
I wrote these two poems for an open mike poetry night at my college a few years ago. Freshman year of college my anxiety ate me alive. I chickened out last minute and never performed, but I recently found the notebook I wrote these in and thought I’d share. i’m sO sCareD You say, "Oh my god, I’m so OCD about my notes," while I am drowning in the undertow of thoughts that refuse to let me go. You say, "I just like things neat, you know?" while I check the lock again and again, wondering if this time will be the time my brain believes me— but it never does. It's the monster under the bed except it lives in my head, whispers masquerading as instincts, warnings dressed as logic, fear that wears me like a second skin. And oh, how easy it is to laugh it off, call it a quirk, a habit, a punchline, while I stand at the brink of a thought so loud I can feel it crack my ribs. You say, "I’m so OCD about my computer icons." I say, I can’t hold my mother’s hand without tracing the veins, make sure she’s alive, still beating and bleeding, rewinding, replaying, repeating, repeating, until I become the pattern itself. I say, I live on a hill. And if the picture frames aren’t straight, the ground will shift, the walls will give way, my home will collapse beneath me. And I can’t let it go? I say, I step in threes, three, three, three, reset, three, three— reset. Because if I do it wrong, something worse will happen, though I don’t know what, only that the terror knows it for me. I am not particular. I am prisoner. So when you say OCD, I hope you mean the way it steals— the way it clings, the way it suffocates, because it is not about preference. It is about survival. hallway girl. Why can’t I have the helpful OCD? The organized one, the productive one, the one people praise instead of whisper about? Why can’t my compulsions make me a genius instead of a joke? Why do they make me the hallway girl— “she’s still walking the hallway” as if it’s a comedy show. As if it’s funny to be trapped in my own head. You see it in sitcoms— the guy who can’t handle an uneven stack of papers, the woman who scrubs the counters too much, laugh track ringing loud— but no one laughs at the panic that coils in my lungs no one sees the terror when the stairs don’t add up and suddenly the earth is shaking and I can’t move No one shows the moments I cry over a step miscounted, staring at the hallway, knowing I have to start over, but already too exhausted to move. No one shows the shame, the whispered apologies, the effort of convincing myself this time, maybe, I’ll be strong enough to resist— but I never am. And no one shows the shoes. How I would run, sprint, chase time through our fifteen-minute break, Back to my room, because if they moved— if they weren’t exactly right— my dad would have a heart attack. And it would be my fault. So I checked. And checked. And checked again. Until I was breathless, But still had to sprint back to class and pretend I didn’t leave my mind behind with my shoes. So when they call me hallway girl, I bite my tongue so they don’t see how hard it takes Because if OCD is a joke, why am I the only one who isn’t laughing?
Hello everyone! This is my first post since downloading the NOCD app and wanted to share a little about my life with OCD. I was first diagnosed when I was 17 but truly started noticing there was something going on with me as early as 10. To summarize: I have the repetitive ritualistic type of OCD. Basically, I have a fear of becoming other people. I believe that if I perform an action, like turning off the sink or closing a door, or even breathing in and out while thinking about somebody, especially someone that I dislike, that eventually I will become just like that person or experience something they've been through that is negative; like health issues, personality issues, or social status decline. Simple example: I know this one dude named Richard, I worked with him in retail, and he told me about how his brother died at a young age. Now, it’s nighttime, and with that new information known about Richard, I believe, that If I take my contact out while thinking of Richard, or an image of him appears in my head while I’m taking out my contact, I believe that MY brother is going to eventually die too. What’s the solution?: I worked with another kid in retail. His name is Mikey, he was decently put together, and his brother didn’t die. So that means: Now with my contact still on my finger, I put it to my eyeball, and keep tapping at my eyeball with my contact while trying to get an image of Mikey perfectly timed, so that I can cancel out the image of Richard and save my brothers life. This is a challenge because the image of Richard, or I should say, the fear that my brother could die from this thought, is strong, and often times I have to think of other people (from other life experiences) along with Mikey just to feel confident that I got the image cancelled enough to move forward. Every day, I complete many actions and with every action comes a thought or image of some person I’ve encountered in my life that I’m either afraid of becoming or obtaining the same negative life experiences, which therefore means I also have all the othet people in my mind, at the ready, that cancel them out too. Every day I cancel people out and repeat actions disguised to the public. Sometimes it’s noticeable, but knowing how to cover your ugly side while making sure you don’t mess up your future with the wrong thought is just what I call life. I’m a man with a thousand people in his head and its been an EXHAUSTING journey. But through therapy and acceptance of myself, I have found a way to love with it. Like anything else, there are horrible days and okay days, but this is apart of me forever and im lucky to share it all with you! Can anyone relate?? Feel free to comment or reach out! - Matt
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