WHY is it so hard to explain ocd to someone without it? it’s like they see it as a joke/exaggeration and it’s just exhausting. people act like ocd is just organization or cleaning or whatever. while ocd can affect that it’s SO much more than that. idk
People that don't have it, have no idea how hard it is to live with
Something that's made it easy for me to explain it to others is by sending them informational videos about it to them. Plus then it can explain the severity of it without stressing you out
I know! It’s so hard. I feel like people don’t take it seriously; and don’t realize nearly the extent of how hard it can be; and how much it can affect their life (someone with OCD). I say: we just gotta tell ourselves “just because someone doesn’t think it’s real doesn’t mean it’s not real.” What we are experiencing is real and difficult, and at times it can be painful. They may not have the full information on it; and don’t see what it’s like (i.e. don’t experience the pain we do), and have no exposure to it, so they find it hard to believe that it can be that bad. They can choose to seek to understand more, or be nice about it even if they don’t understand, but some people are unempathetic. I guess we can make ourselves feel better by telling ourselves “they are being mean.”
@Fellow OCD peer YES and the thing is (which happened to me), since so many people spread misinformation about it, people who actually have it may get confused and not know that they actually have it if that makes sense
But the good thing is we know now that we are allowed to feel the way we do; and we know that it’s hard; and we validate each other. Now the thing is to just keep reminding each other (here in the community) that our feelings are valid, any time someone tries to knock what we say/how we feel.
Thanks so much for saying that. It’s so validating for someone to say that. Because I find that it’s true. Other people will minimize what we are feeling. And if I were to guess why they are saying that, I would venture to say that they haven’t seen the symptoms the way we do, haven’t experienced it; the real roughness and hard parts about it. They are being un empathetic. We can tell ourselves to make ourselves feel better “they are being not nice.” They can choose to seek to understand more or give a nice response, even if they don’t understand. Our feelings are real, though. Just because they are choosing not validate our feelings and trying to minimize them, it doesn’t make our experience less real. What we are going through is real; and it’s valid; and it’s very hard. They are choosing to be un empathetic. Because they are choosing to be un empathic, that means our experience is not real? No. Our experience is 100% real; as real as it was before they said what they said. It is hard when people are un empathetic. They are being not nice. It doesn’t make our pain any less real, though. They are being un empathetic. They can choose to be nice. They are choosing to be not nice.
So glad we can both agree on it, know what each other is talking about and agree that OCD is so hard. 😊 That definitely makes sense. Oh wow! That can make things that are hard even harder.
As someone who doesn't have OCD, my wake-up call came when I witnessed one of my son's anxiety episodes and saw how much he suffered. For someone without OCD, it's difficult to understand how a thought, just a thought can cause a person to tremble and shake physically—something that might seem trivial or silly to us. I genuinely empathize with those who experience this.
OCD is so strange because I feel so mentally exhausted 24/7 but i’m so good at masking it that like it’s like i can think double. I’m not sure that makes sense. But i am so used to the OCD thoughts racing through my head that i can respond to my environment whilst completely existing in my head. I can have conversations when intrusive thoughts are taking over my inner dialect. I feel like i am even doubting whether i have OCD and whether it’s all just an excuse. I feel like my rumination hasn’t stopped for the past 3 years. Everything i used to enjoy or look forward to, is now dread and tainted by the thoughts telling me i never knew. I don’t even know what i like or who i am anymore. The thought of getting help and talking through it all scares me because what if i’m invalidated or if i speak about it too much then what if i don’t stop thinking. I’m so exhausted
I have been with my partner for about a year and 4 months. My ocd symptoms started in February. Recently, my ocd is making me seem annoyed by everything my partner does… I have a bad problem with forming my opinion off of other random people instead of making my own, possibly fear of perception/upsetting people with an opinion so I have to follow like a sheep. This frustrates my partner. My ocd might latch onto a random dark humour joke he made or an opinion for example about social issues that is different to me where we have to agree to disagree and I end up going searching on mainly TikTok. If I see a comment where some people are against what my bf said I have to go and tell him and it’s almost every day my ocd manages to nitpick something. A lot of the time it’s me setting it off by asking his opinion or something where I can feel my ocd being like “let’s scan for things in this conversation to latch on to 😈” and starting a convo where something could trigger my ocd. He might be playing a video game and says things, for example if he’s shot in the game and gets a little bit annoyed. My ocd will instantly latch onto something. I try to hold it back but I ocd tells me I NEED to tell him off for it. If I bring something up while communicating and my boyfriend asks why I think something is bad, it usually always starts with “well I saw a tiktok/instagram comment-…” and my boyfriend stops me to tell me I’m going off a small group of people’s opinion and I need to be able To form my own opinion and it’s okay for me To have my own opinion. A lot of the time I can’t form an opinion because I’m scared what people think so I resort to looking at random peoples comments on posts. 😞 My ocd convinces me he’s a bad person because he has dark humour. Is all the need to confess my thoughts and tell him off ocd? Is the best thing to do sit with the uncomfortableness? Does anyone relate
im gonna start an ocd support group in the fall (like actually in person) and is it bad that im kinda veiwing it as my dating pool? like a bunch of people that get it and might also have false and real memories ocd like? sounds nice. literally never dated before because i never have time in between these blow out episodes to form a connection or make a date but like i feel like it would be easier with someone who also has ocd because theyd get it.
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