- Date posted
- 5y
- Date posted
- 5y
I was just explaining to my friend today how scary mental obsessions can be. She was telling me her other friend with ocd has to touch the light switch a certain amount of times before she can successfully turn off a light. For myself, I get swallowed whole by my own brain and harmful thoughts, thoughts that I’m evil or a horrible person, I don’t deserve my life etc. This last spike I’ve been dealing with real event ocd, it’s the first time I’ve ever experienced this theme, and it’s horrible. Having an obsession based off of a past mistake you DID make plays into so many of the toxic traits of this mental illness, because you can no longer deny that you are your intrusive thoughts. It was horrible for me at the lowest point in this spike, I was confessing my entire life and everything I’d ever done so that someone can tell me I’m not evil. That led to delusions because then I felt like the people who knew my secrets were now teaming up and plotting to kill me behind my back. I was terrified to go to my family thanksgiving because I thought my mom was going to kill me. I was struggling with false memories because the obsession with the memory of my mistake was so strong, and I couldn’t remember every detail so then I started imagining I did worse than I think I did. Then of course the physiological affects from that was nausea, fatigue, fast heart rate. I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t eat and I was constantly using the washroom (anxiety poops). I dropped a ton of weight in a couple of weeks and felt so physically ill. I had to be put on antipsychotics to get some sleep at night.
- Date posted
- 5y
I work in the food industry and have always had a strong passion for it. I’m a baker and my OCD attacked food for me. I am struggling with contamination OCD and have a fear that all food is contaminated or covered in harmful bacteria. I dropped 10 lbs in 2 weeks and still can’t eat. Water isn’t good either cause I’m afraid there are parasites in it. On the outside everyone sees a skilled baker who is truly passionate about food. And while this is still true, I’m finding it really hard to even explain my struggles to anyone because in everyone’s eyes I’m fine... how can you be afraid of food and make it everyday?
- Date posted
- 5y
I was so depressed and all I wanted was to find a support group because people just don’t understand it, and when I googled my area and OCD support group, the only pop up was “OCD Cleaning Company”, it made me so annoyed.
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 5y
Doctor not diagnosing me with ocd and instead with ocpd because I have no rituals that could be seen and they were all in my head
- Date posted
- 5y
I have combined type ADHD and pure O. It’s wild. I’m a complete germaphobe, but I leave trash and clothes on the ground and I am extremely unorganized most of the time. I have to bleach my dishes to get them clean, and then rise them 7 times to get the bleach off so it doesn’t poison me. I have over 20 alarms set in the morning and they are all even numbers, but I also believe I have a better chance of waking up if the numbers aren’t a :30 or a :00.
- Date posted
- 5y
I realize this doesn’t sound “pure O” but I really am a mainly obsessive person. It’s hard to keep many compulsions with the adhd. Lol
- Date posted
- 5y
Brynquin, I also have an alarm thing! I have to set alarms every 5 minutes starting 3-4 hours before I have to wake up. It’s super annoying cause I am waking up at 6 am for a 10 am shift at work. Or worse, waking up at 1 am for a 4 am shift when I can’t fall asleep until 12 am cause of my intrusive thoughts.
- Date posted
- 5y
I was told I had depression rather than OCD because of self-harm obsessions. My OCD was so bad it got to the point where I was running out of most of my classes. Another story/comment. My OCD was really bad in 3/4. I was vomiting everyday and I’d gone to the doctor and they couldn’t find anything wrong with me. It wasn’t until this year that I was diagnosed with OCD and started getting help (4-5 years later). Now I’m behind in simpler areas of maths (times tables) because I missed most of 3/4.
- Date posted
- 5y
Here’s another one too: I got into a car accident when I was 16. A car making a left turn across a highway hit me while I was driving exactly the speed limit (50mph) and paying perfect attention to the road. OCD reminds me of that event every time I drive. Hold your hands a certain way on the wheel or you’ll drive off the road and hurt someone. Don’t drive 50 mph or you’ll get into a car accident. drive from point A to point B as fast as you can so there is less time for your car to explode. And many more... but each of these thoughts connect back to that car accident and I’m stuck doing compulsions every time I drive.
- Date posted
- 5y
Also, my biggest theme is sexual exploitation/abuse and I’m a pan sexual, polyamorous person who is very sexually active. It’s not great when the obsessions start while I’m having sex :/ but I try to live!
- Date posted
- 5y
Thank you guys so much for sharing your stories! It means a lot to me!
- Date posted
- 5y
Also because of the writing rule of three I need at least one more story from someone, so keep sending ‘em in!
Related posts
- Date posted
- 17w
I'm sry if this may make people worry or feel uncomfortable in advance! Hello everyone as u can see I struggle with ocd and I HATE IT WITH MY LIFE , it started in 2020 covid obv contamination ocd started here , I used to carry alcohol everywhere and used to wash my hands so much that it bled ( had to wear gloves to cover it so friends or family won't see it ) and everything else started since then , harm ocd with myself or friends I couldn't hold a knife..it was really hard..and I have unwanted sexual thoughts ocd , I have panic attacks bc of this..I sometimes cannot look people into their eyes and its so random and so scary..thoughts about.. 🍇..whether it's me or I'm gonna harm someone else uk..I sometimes cannot function properly.. unfortunately friends don't understand it rather think it's about " perfectionism "..I wrote those thoughts and stuff in a journal in more details ofc and doodle ( I'm scared someone will find it ) I hate myself tbh and I don't think someone will read this... I suspect I have ADHD with all this but ocd is " ur faking it " even though lots of people have hinted about it , I thought I actually killed someone for 2 years a girl..until I realized what HOCD is , I thought I faked my ocd too in fact , I have perfectionism ocd too it's bad and I HATE PURE O it's so DRAINING uk.. also idk if this has caused a problem for anyone but if y'all know the Truman show ( basically if u don't know the main character is being filmed and his life is fake and he doesn't know it ) THAT MOVIE HAS HARMED ME SO BADLY FOR YEARS that until today I have to check in the bathroom if there are cameras cuz like ocd makes me think I'm living in a fake world , I used to think people around me , everyone was like a Ai model or smth.. everytime until today I have to clean the toilet seat bc it may be dirty..I have been taking up to 5 showers a day cuz maybe I'm dirty..that's it for today tysm if u read this till the end I'd like to know ur thoughts if u got tips or have similar experiences ! 🤗 U get a chocolate bar 🍫 bc u earned it bc ik how ocd is so frustrating ( I also noticed everyone who has ocd is so nice right 😆! )
- Date posted
- 14w
If you are anything like me (and most of you are, because let’s face it, we are all on this chat), you have OCD. Real OCD, not the organisation, matching colours everyone thinks it is. Real OCD. I’ve always known I was different, known that my brain does some waking things and deep down, I’ve always known I’ve had OCD. But there is just something that changes when you finally get the diagnosis. It makes more sense, you have an explanation for your behaviours. So naturally I told my friends. When they ask why I had to stop and step four times on a tile I said ‘oh, I have OCD’. I finally had a word, a tangible concept that I could explain to people. But nobody warned me about the massive misconceptions about OCD. Instead of support or acceptance, my friends seemed to question the diagnosis saying ‘that’s not ocd, don’t you just like things organised?’. And no matter how much I explain it they don’t seem to get it. And that’s the part that feels so cruel. I go through hell in my head and it can all be reduced to a phrase of ‘oh, aren’t you organised’. So please be careful out there you guys, and if someone try’s to downplay your experience, know that you are valid and that what you are going through is probably something that they could never handle. It’s a lesson that took me time to learn, but it’s important because our experience matters. Our real experience.
- Date posted
- 10w
I wrote these two poems for an open mike poetry night at my college a few years ago. Freshman year of college my anxiety ate me alive. I chickened out last minute and never performed, but I recently found the notebook I wrote these in and thought I’d share. i’m sO sCareD You say, "Oh my god, I’m so OCD about my notes," while I am drowning in the undertow of thoughts that refuse to let me go. You say, "I just like things neat, you know?" while I check the lock again and again, wondering if this time will be the time my brain believes me— but it never does. It's the monster under the bed except it lives in my head, whispers masquerading as instincts, warnings dressed as logic, fear that wears me like a second skin. And oh, how easy it is to laugh it off, call it a quirk, a habit, a punchline, while I stand at the brink of a thought so loud I can feel it crack my ribs. You say, "I’m so OCD about my computer icons." I say, I can’t hold my mother’s hand without tracing the veins, make sure she’s alive, still beating and bleeding, rewinding, replaying, repeating, repeating, until I become the pattern itself. I say, I live on a hill. And if the picture frames aren’t straight, the ground will shift, the walls will give way, my home will collapse beneath me. And I can’t let it go? I say, I step in threes, three, three, three, reset, three, three— reset. Because if I do it wrong, something worse will happen, though I don’t know what, only that the terror knows it for me. I am not particular. I am prisoner. So when you say OCD, I hope you mean the way it steals— the way it clings, the way it suffocates, because it is not about preference. It is about survival. hallway girl. Why can’t I have the helpful OCD? The organized one, the productive one, the one people praise instead of whisper about? Why can’t my compulsions make me a genius instead of a joke? Why do they make me the hallway girl— “she’s still walking the hallway” as if it’s a comedy show. As if it’s funny to be trapped in my own head. You see it in sitcoms— the guy who can’t handle an uneven stack of papers, the woman who scrubs the counters too much, laugh track ringing loud— but no one laughs at the panic that coils in my lungs no one sees the terror when the stairs don’t add up and suddenly the earth is shaking and I can’t move No one shows the moments I cry over a step miscounted, staring at the hallway, knowing I have to start over, but already too exhausted to move. No one shows the shame, the whispered apologies, the effort of convincing myself this time, maybe, I’ll be strong enough to resist— but I never am. And no one shows the shoes. How I would run, sprint, chase time through our fifteen-minute break, Back to my room, because if they moved— if they weren’t exactly right— my dad would have a heart attack. And it would be my fault. So I checked. And checked. And checked again. Until I was breathless, But still had to sprint back to class and pretend I didn’t leave my mind behind with my shoes. So when they call me hallway girl, I bite my tongue so they don’t see how hard it takes Because if OCD is a joke, why am I the only one who isn’t laughing?
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