Can ocd cause you to completely question what you thought you knew about yourself? Like make you analyse everything and then convince yourself it wasnt real? And can it make desires go away if you think about them too much? Spiralling all day today
Yes, OCD can lead to significant self-doubt and can cause you to question your thoughts, feelings, and beliefs about yourself. OCD often leads to over-analyzing your thoughts and feelings. You may find yourself questioning everything you know about yourself, including your values, beliefs, and desires. This can cause confusion and distress, leading to a cycle of worry. Thought action fusion, this is a cognitive distortion commonly seen in OCD where you might believe that having a certain thought is the same as acting on it. This can create intense guilt or fear about your thoughts, convincing you that they reflect your true intentions or character. OCD can make you doubt your desires or feelings. You may find that when you think about certain desires too much, they can feel less authentic or even disappear altogether, leading to further anxiety about whether you truly want something or not. The intrusive nature of OCD can lead to spirals of negative thinking, where you become trapped in a loop of worry and self-analysis. This can amplify feelings of distress and lead to a heightened sense of confusion. It’s important to remind yourself that thoughts do not define you. Just because you are questioning your thoughts or desires doesn’t mean they are true. Practicing self-compassion and mindfulness and reminding yourself that these are products of OCD can help reduce the impact of these spirals.Remember, experiencing these feelings can be really tough, but they are part of the OCD cycle.
@Anonymous - Wow thank you so much! This really helped, especially the part about thinking of things too much. I find that ill think about a certain question too much like "do I actually want to date girls" knowing that i have felt that i want to, but i think about it so much i feel like i dont want to. And then it makes me think im a fake and really straight or something. Its really scary.
You're welcome. What you’re experiencing is something that many people with OCD go through, especially when it comes to feelings and identity. It’s common for OCD to create excessive doubt about things that you have previously felt sure about, including your sexual orientation or desires. Acknowledge that the thoughts you’re having are influenced by anxiety, rather than being definitive truths about who you are. It can be helpful to practice mindfulness techniques that allow you to observe your thoughts without judgment, recognizing them as just thoughts that don’t necessarily reflect reality. Understand that feelings can be fluid and aren’t fixed. Many people have complex feelings about identity, attraction, and desires that can shift over time. Just because you’re questioning your feelings doesn’t invalidate your past experiences or attractions. Try to set boundaries for how much time you spend analyzing these questions. Giving yourself specific times to think about them, then redirecting your focus can help reduce the urge to obsess over them. Engage in activities that you enjoy or that allow for social interactions without overthinking the implications. Sometimes, experiencing life more actively can help bring clarity without the burden of excessive analysis.
Often times I find myself spiraling out in the morning about all sorts of things. When I try and catch myself and figure out what I am obsessing over it’s like it goes away. I haven’t moved. I have been sitting frozen on the floor because I can’t go to work because I am behind on work and I hate being late and I hate being messy but I am frequently late and my room is cluttered and full of stuff. I want to be good and move and go to work but I don’t know what is coming today and I hate my job so I know I will get bored and when I have nothing to keep me busy and engaged I like start thinking and taking an inventory of what is going on and then I will feel a sensation and what is the sensation? How did it happen? And I know that I will pick up the bad emotions in the office and get contaminated, I was really worried about things like this as a kid too I cried because I had to touch dirt in kindergarten. I know I am this way and I have been this way for a while but at the same time I think I might just be normal and like I don’t know why I get stuck in thinking like this. Then I begin to doubt that OCD is real because everyone has a brain with wiring and everyone gets stuck in thought sometimes. I feel disabled from whatever this is because I am stuck. I literally cannot move because I don’t know what’s wrong and I know I have to go to work even though I feel like every moment I spend there is making everything worse because other people are so stressed and I get it from them. And I don’t feel ready because I just feel off and something is wrong and I just don’t know what to do because if it’s OCD or not OCD everything anyone knows about me is coming from me and I worry that I am often masking all the thinking I’m doing because thinking all the time is rude and inconsiderate and inconvenient for those around me, but I can’t stop. I just don’t feel right, right now - and I want to know WHY?? Why is everything off all the time? How do I even know that I am not making up the experience of OCD in my head to cover up something really wrong with me and now I am taking on the symptoms of OCD like an actress, because this could be something that I can latch onto as a final hope for explaining why I am stuck. So stuck so deeply and terribly stuck sitting on my floor next to my bed just scrolling to avoid thinking because any time I start thinking I am left with no answers or help or anything just this swirly feeling. I know I am trying, maybe not my best, but as much as I possibly can. I want to be a Special Education Teacher but I have so much so so so much doubt and uncertainty about every decision I make and everything I know that I can’t get there right now. I can’t do anything right now until it feels ok and then I will. It never feels ok. I know I have to be ok not feeling ok about it. I can be unsure and still be ok. I know it’s just my thinking and my body but I just can’t get past this feeling. And then I know that because I can calm myself and be ok even though I spent 2 hours of my life today already feeling stuck and spinning around and around and around in my head - I don’t feel sure about my OCD and I think it’s a bit of a scam made up by people to cultivate pathology around deep human thought because one day I might figure it out and we all think a lot.
i have been diagnosed with OCD & generalized anxiety disorder. for some reason, i’ve been very hyper aware of everything. like the way i talk, the way i see the world, how certain things sound/look/feel, and it’s very distressing. i feel like the hyper awareness makes me afraid of things? like for some reason, my mind attached to cartoons, and i was hyperfocusing on it, and got extremely scared, like scared of the cartoon for no reason? i’ve done this a lot, and i get scared i have psychosis or schizophrenia, or something that makes you afraid of things for no unknown reason. i feel so scared that this is my new normal…. im heartbroken. so many what if’s. did i just ruin my own life?? 💔
I’m struggling with something I’m afraid to even admit out loud. I’ve been in a long-term relationship with someone I love deeply. He’s kind, safe, and emotionally close to me — and we’ve built a life together. But I keep obsessing over the fact that I don’t feel much sexual attraction anymore. Or maybe… I never truly did? At the beginning, I felt butterflies, excitement, connection — and I assumed that meant I was also attracted to him physically. But now, after reading so much and reflecting more deeply, I’m starting to wonder if I ever truly felt sexual desire in the way I was “supposed to.” Maybe my feelings were more about emotional longing, comfort, and romantic closeness — but not sexual chemistry. And now I don’t know what that means. OCD makes it so much worse. It constantly tells me: – “If you really loved him, you’d want him.” – “You’re leading him on.” – “What if you’re lying to yourself?” – “If you try to fix this and fail, you’ll have to leave.” I feel stuck between wanting to fight for this relationship — and being terrified that trying will just prove it’s hopeless. Has anyone experienced something like this? Can OCD really make you question something so deeply personal? And how do you move forward when even trying feels terrifying? Any thoughts or support would mean the world right now.
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