- Date posted
- 42w ago
How do you see ocd?
How do you all see ocd? I see a lot of demonised perspectives on it. Just curious as to how you view it.
How do you all see ocd? I see a lot of demonised perspectives on it. Just curious as to how you view it.
I look at it from a different way. I’ve seen people make analogies between OCD and a crying baby and how you have to pay no attention to the intrusive thoughts just like you wouldn’t to a child who wouldn’t stop crying for it to stop crying eventually. Some people call it a “bully” in their head. I completely understand that people choose to look at their ocd in this way but I have a different perspective. I like to think that ocd is just my brain trying to protect me from what it considers as “danger” and that’s why it sends me so many false alarms. Ofc, my brain is trying to protect me but I have to understand that it’s doing the wrong job. It’s trying to save me from things I don’t need to be saved from because the threat isn’t actually real even if it feels to be that way. It’s very frustrating, debilitating and depressing to have ocd and I totally get that people demonise it and I have too at times when it becomes very unbearable but this is my overall understanding and I think it comes from a place of compassion for my mind. It makes me feel more human. This understanding has helped me be kinder towards myself and less angry at my brain for being this way
I like this. I saw it as a demon in my teen years and then apart of me with other themes. Now, years later I see it as an innocent reaction by a brain designed to protect us.
@Wolfram Yes exactly
It’s a malfunction of the brain that I do not take seriously.
I made a decision not to view ocd in scary monster terms, as it just made it worse, like I was believing in its storyline. When I started erp here it was suggested to give ocd a character I could talk back to. At first this was the bunny from Donnie Darko, but that was again, scary. So I changed it to the actor John candy, like an over worried anxious neurotic uncle who’s just trying to look out for me, then put him in a bunny suit to add to the character being not really scary. So to me now ocd is John candy in a bunny suit I thank him for his worries, he’s just trying to look out for me, I say “I’m busy right now, nothing to stress about, I’m drawing and don’t have time for something so trivial” or “yea yea whatever, it might happen, it might not, I don’t care, you always go on about stuff” the picture him sulking off into the other room
This made me laugh. Glad this works for you 😊
Perfectly normal.
In what sense?
@Wolfram I mean it's not even particularly rare but anything that occurs in people is technically normal.
So I've had OCD since I was a child. Like really young. The first intrusive thought I can remember was when I was 5. It just keeps getting worse and lately they've been making me physically ill or throwing me into extreme panic attacks again ( ones where I can't move my body ) the other night I thought God was trying to kill me because I was thinking about ending myself from OCD+ life issues but in reality I was just having a panic attack😭😭it affects me daily. It gets a little better with therapy but I don't see therapy coming into my life any time soon and I'm not even sure if I would want to go (for multiple reasons). To wrap this up if you have severe ocd can you tell me what it's like?? I don't want to label anything without proper research and hearing others perspectives. Thank you!! <3 (My profile says all of my subtypes if that helps any)
I’ve been thinking a lot about how OCD changes the way we see ourselves, but I recently realized that I am not my thoughts. Just because a thought pops up doesn’t mean it’s true or that it defines me. I’ve started learning how to see OCD for what it is—just a disorder trying to trick me—and I’ve become stronger in dealing with it. Has anyone else here had a similar realization? How do you handle these thoughts when they show up?
Has anyone experienced their reputation affected or misunderstood because of a societally taboo OCD theme? Others catching wind of your obsessions and misinterpreting it, assuming the worst? I’m intentionally keeping it vague because I don’t want my specific situation to get reassured, but it’s been a real tough pill to swallow knowing that people close to me (and anyone else they might talk to) think of me differently. I’m unwilling to share about my OCD because I feel pretty confident it will be taken as an excuse or denial, and feels compulsive and reassurance seeking. Let me know if anyone here has experienced anything like it, how they handled it, exposures you did.
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