Decisions

Simple, see a specialist to do a test and get to the bottom of it.

There are some online tests that may help, or may not help. I recommend NOCD if you want to get a specialist. Some people out there really don’t know what they are doing. You could get misdiagnosed. However, people at NOCD understand very well the “ins and outs” of OCD. They are excellent. Here’s the bottom line: I think OCD is essentially characterized by whether or not you have INTRUSIVE thoughts. These are not just “worry” thoughts that keep coming back. They are uncontrollable in a different sense. If you don’t have them, they are hard to explain. Everyone in the world will cycle around their worries in their head. OCD is different. The thoughts are LOUD. It feels like they are being pumped into your brain from the OUTSIDE. You couldn’t stop them if you tried. For example, I used to have bad sentences toward God running around my head EVERY WAKING MOMENT. It was my voice inside my brain, but it felt the someone had hijacked my voice and was forcing those sentences to repeat over and over and over. I don’t know how I could ever concentrate with the sentences literally repeating every waking moment. There was no way to stop them. This is exquisite torture, but what made it a hundred times worse is that I felt like if I didn’t fix those thoughts (by putting the word “not” next to each sentence), then I was going to go to hell. I lived with the constant sentences and the constant “fixing “ of the sentences—and constant fear and responsibility looming over me. Praise God that I don’t have these thoughts any more!!! I think if you have intrusive thoughts, then you 100 percent have OCD. Intrusive thoughts can look different than mine, of course. There is a WEIRD element to intrusive thoughts. There’s a lot of traps in them and also “if….then….” statements. They often tell you that if you mess up in the slightest way, that something SUPER bad is going to happen (like your family is going to die, you will go to hell, etc). If you just have the normal worries of every human being (even if you tend to worry a lot more), then it’s probably not OCD. If you can’t tell, then a good therapist (like those at NOCD) can help. It’s really nice to get outside opinions on this sort of question. Just make sure they know what they are doing. :):):):)