I've become so obsessed with knowing whether my devices are hacked or not that I have been getting little sleep. I switch my phone off at night but I can't stop checking it intermittently to see if it's switched on by itself when I'm not looking. Nothing has happened, but I'm wired. Ugh
I’m sorry you are going through that. Do your best not to engage with OCD as it stoked your fears! I have similar OCD themes of surveillance. Two days ago I had my first ever nearly-getting-phishing-scammed event. It was terrifying, like my worst fear was coming true. But two days later…things are fine! I considered myself pretty tech savvy, but doing my best to remember there is no amount of cyber-security that could give me absolute certainty that my devices are safe and secure has helped. Sometimes, I’ll joke in the opposite direction to help me realize how silly it all is: “Ok, so if I did get hacked. What are they going to find? A very average person leading a very average life with nothing to hide?“ Seriously, whoever hacks me is probably going to become very bored very quickly. Make sure to keep working on this theme in therapy! I’ll be doing it myself. We’ve got this 💜
thank you, this was very comforting to read 🥹 sorry that you had to go through that though, I can imagine it must have been really scary. sometimes, OCD can be so isolating that i start to think my obsessions are too wild for it to be OCD, even though you can have obsessions about literally anything you can think of😭 sometimes I try to tell myself that i am super boring as well (i only ever use my phone for social media and my laptop for streaming netflix or whatever) but then my brain goes "well what if you downloaded this or that etc. etc. or they plant stuff etc." it's never-ending so im trying to work on being present and not create these outlandish worst case scenarios. it's been pretty tough, but trying to hold on and sit with it and let it pass. i am in therapy rn but not for OCD yet as seeing a specialist is inaccessible for me rn. but i hope i can get there soon. im really glad that you were able to make progress though. i will use that as motivation to get through this. i really appreciate this 🫂🤍
@moon027097 it can feel sooo isolating! Glad you are going to therapy. Keep it up. Here’s two things that have helped me with my NOCD therapist, hopefully they can help you too: 1. You are not your thoughts. Intrusive thoughts just happen. You can choose to engage with them or let them go, without assigning meaning to them. 2. Use the “may or may not” framing to help accept uncertainty. “I may or may not be hacked. There’s no way to know for sure.” “I may or may not have something planted in my devices. There’s no way to be absolutely sure it hasn’t happened.” It sounds really scary, but we live with uncertainty as humans all day every day. For some reason, OCD cannot stand this and wants certainty NOW. It wants you to think endlessly about something that scares you so that you find certainty to soothe yourself…but it is a dead-end. Worse, OCD will only crave MORE certainty afterwards. Once you start breaking the cycle of compulsions (ruminating, worrying, etc.) it can honestly feel kind of magic. I’ve tackled just a few things but feel so much less stressed. Good luck to you. Sorry you are having a bad symptom spike, it’s been a tough week for OCD for me too 🫂
thank you so much these tips! i will definitely be keeping these in mind from this point forward. resisting compulsions is hard, but i've also realised that it's what keeps me feeling helpless and anxious and drained all the time. sorry that you've been struggling as well. hope that it gets better with some time ❤️🩹
Thank you. And no worries! There may always be ups and downs with OCD. Flare-ups and symptom spikes happen! During the downs, it’s nice to have a bit of support 💜
What type of phone do you have?
I’m so stressed, my mind is always telling me to recheck my messages that I sent because what if I said something racist, inappropriate or mean to the person I was messaging. Or what if I post something inappropriate or rude, the only way I can somewhat cope is by logging out of my socials every night. But even that is a long progress. Like I have to make sure to read every message I sent and that it’s safe for me to leave it for the night. And if it doesn’t feel right I have to log back in over and over until it looks and feels good to me. I’m so exhausted lol:,)
Hi all, I’m brand new to this app. I’ve never had any mental disorders. I’ve never been diagnosed or even suspected that I had some kind of issue going on. But recently my partner gently pointed out to me that I’ve developed some weird tendencies that are progressively getting worse. I’m getting overly anxious about the smallest of things. Every time he leaves for work, I stare at the tracker on my phone until he gets through his 25 minute commute because I’m convinced there will be a wreck. I’m terrified that someone is constantly taking pictures of me through my windows and even feel like people can see through my (solid) blinds at night. Every time I hear someone in the hallway of my apartment complex I stare out the peephole because I’m convinced they’re going to break in, even if it’s a neighbor that I recognize. I check myself for lumps in my body every morning and every night, and my partner too, even though neither of us have any scary medical history. I unplug everything with a cord every night before I go to bed because I’m terrified that something is faulty and my apartment will catch on fire. I am constantly afraid of being sued by people I don’t know even though the worst thing I’ve ever done is gotten a speeding ticket. I have dreams that people are sending me threatening mail and it stops me from opening my actual mail. There are so many more, I could go on forever. Writing it all down, I know it’s stupid. I just don’t know if feeling this way is normal. There are people out there that have actual stressors and here I am working myself up a million times a day over nothing. Do normal people feel like this? I thought it was normal.
me convincing myself that all my devices must simultaneously be hacked and that im being watched though none of them show any signs of them being used by anyone else other than myself 🙃 fun (but also having to sit with uncertainty and not try to interrogate it any further)
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