New here!

I feel like I’ve had a lot of different categories of ocd. Some categories stick with me more and are repetitive. I’ve been doing well with mental health - not having anxiety stick around. When the physical feeling of anxiety sticks around, every thought is horrible, but when the feeling of anxiety is gone the obsessions don’t really impact me. If I can keep anxiety at bay, my life is good. I’ve been doing well lately, although this week I was scrolling through tictok and watched a video about someone in a coma and wondered if I was in a coma right now and didn’t know it. I had a panic attack for about 15 minutes. Anxiety, sweating, etc. It didn’t take ahold of me and it quickly lost its impact on me. It still shook me and I was just like “wow” where did that come from. Now I am staying away from social media. Is that avoidance? Should I make myself keep watching social media? Many ocd problems have come from social media or watching a movie or show that triggers something and then spirals. I am limiting what I watch, which I believe is good because I shouldn’t be watching that stuff anyway. What do you think?

Anonymous💌

Date posted: 15w

I agree limits on social media and tv can be good for us with ocd however it can be a avoidance compulsion, I would say maybe put a timer/time limit on how long you want to be on social media for, maybe try and change your algorithm to things you like and won’t feel as triggered by, I think with movies and tv shows it only becomes an avoidance compulsion when it has something directly to do with the theme you’re struggling with like if your theme is harm ocd obviously you’d avoid like horror movies or true crime because that’s going to cause a spiral, sometimes I do just avoid social media on bad days and that does make me feel better I think whatever fits best for you and recognising when you think you’re doing it as a compulsion.

Zeedle-D

Date posted: 15w

@Anonymous;):(:|:) Yeah I definitely avoid what triggers me, but there will be random things that I haven’t really had a problem that will trigger new obsessions. So to me it’s like I’ll just avoid it all together. I’ve noticed that if I am particular about what I watch on tv or what movies I watch it keeps me from those triggers. I’m just gonna keep doing that. It’s just annoying that random stuff will trigger something new.

Anonymous💌

Date posted: 15w

@Zeedle-D That’s ok but avoiding will just make your ocd worse in the long run as it will just latch onto to everything and anything and create a trigger where there wasn’t one before, I completely understand as this happens to me all the time too, new triggers pop up everywhere and you feel the need to get away from it but ocd is imagined threats.

Zeedle-D

Date posted: 15w

@Anonymous;):(:|:) So I should just do what I would do normally and then when something is triggered just work through it?

Anonymous💌

Date posted: 15w

@Zeedle-D Yes that’s exactly what you should, you should sit with the discomfort and let the thoughts pass and you’ll start to see that what you’ve been avoiding doesn’t bother you anymore or it doesn’t have the same intensity it starts to break down over time.

Zeedle-D

Date posted: 15w

@Anonymous;):(:|:) Yeah and that has helped me with my pocd, and harm ocd. The anxiety just diminishes. So I’m thinking because I had that panic attack and it didn’t take over me and didn’t become a obsession, then I believe I can live my life and when things pop up, and they will, I can work through them. Do you get the same thoughts you’ve had in the past creep up randomly?

Anonymous💌

Date posted: 15w

@Zeedle-D Yes I do still get some old thoughts that I used to have and also I do get old obsessions come back again it’s just how ocd works when you stop worrying about one ocd needs a new one.

Zeedle-D

Date posted: 15w

Yeah I feel that.

galina

Date posted: 16w

New here and want to connect

I’m new to treatment and only realized I have OCD a few months ago. I went through a tough and abusive marriage and ended up getting divorced. I had my first panic attack several years ago and ended up needing to go on Lexapro. This helped me significantly and allowed me to leave my partner. Several years later and I decided to stop Lexapro because I thought I was good to go. I’m in a very healthy relationship, have a great job, friends/family, go to the gym and have a wonderful life. It’s been about a year off the meds and I’ve had some panic, but I’ve been able to manage it. For some reason, the last three weeks has been really difficult for me. I have different spirals and different thought processes: what if I’m schizophrenic? What if I have a deeper mental disorder? What if I hurt someone? What if I need to leave my partner? What if I end up becoming so depressed that I end up hurting myself? My brain just goes from one what if to the next and once I conquer one, the next one pops up with even more intensity. I started taking NAC and inositol and I’m taking saffron during the day because I really don’t wanna go on back on medication but sometimes my thoughts scare me and I’m convinced that I’m not gonna get better and I know that’s just the OCD loop, but I’m wondering if this resonates with anyone else!

L0ng16aelak

Date posted: 10w

Unsure if I even have OCD

Hello, I’m new to this app. I’ve always had an anxious brain, and I’ve had coping mechanisms for as long as I can remember. When I was a kid, from as early as I could spell, until I was probably early teens, I would constantly write words in my head along to the beat of music. It’s such a vivid memory because I never stopped doing it. The word had to perfectly match up to the lyric and I loved that it kept my brain busy. I grew out of that, but felt like good context. My anxiety increased drastically around ages 17-19, and I began therapy. I was diagnosed with generalized anxiety and panic disorder, due to having a panic attack nearly every day at that time. I overcame that as well, and now the panic attacks are every now and then, but the anxiety is constant, and some recent symptoms have led me to believe I might have some form of OCD. Maybe not. I’m trying to understand myself and get better so I joined this app to make sense of things. Lately I’ve been having really intense intrusive thoughts. I’m really embarassed and they make me feel like a bad person. Thoughts pop in my head seemingly out of nowhere. It will be an image of me harming myself or someone else in a really bad way. (Trigger warning) for example the other day I couldn’t shake the image of me putting a knife through my own forehead, although it’s not something I want to do. Or I’ll imagine someone killing me. I imagine my loved ones dying often. The thoughts feel so out of my control it’s insane. I hate them. Another persistent issue that isn’t as new is replaying social scenarios. I’m a hairstylist so this one is difficult since I meet a bunch of new people every day. I obsess over how I act and if people like me. I will impulsively say things all the time and they will haunt me for weeks. I question even my closest friends and family who show their love. I find myself so angry and numb and like I have so much built up emotion and a busy mind always. While doing my job I spiral really badly if any little thing goes wrong and it’s embarassing. I know there’s more but I can’t think of it now. I just want to feel better and like I’m not constantly battling my mind.

cait1299

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 9w

Really struggling!

Hi guys! I had really bad harm ocd about 2 years ago and I went through therapy and eventually got really good at handling it when it would pop up. The other day, I was scrolling on TikTok and came across a girl talking about a guy who was presenting a lot of schizophrenic symptoms but no one paid attention and got him help, he was having a lot of delusions, hallucinating, thinking everyone was out to get him, thought he was Jesus and his dad was the president and ended up doing horrific things. The day after that, I was dealing with some work drama and had the thought of “what if all my coworkers are against me and trying to get me fired”. That really stressed me out, cause I don’t normally think about them like that and I went down a rabbit hole of thinking that was the beginning of me developing schizophrenia, ended up googling stuff all night, taking tests, crying and seeking reassurance. I had a thought the other day “your dad is the president”, this one didn’t stress me out as bad as I knew it was just the video I had seen and it was an intrusive thought about it, and I also didn’t believe it. Today I was with some friends and I got a prize at a place we went and it said “lonely” on it. I do have my moments of feeling lonely and this week has been specifically trying so I had a thought like “oh someone’s out to get me cause I got this”. I know this isn’t logical and it wouldn’t make sense to just randomly get it if someone was truly after me and it was just a stupid prize at a random place, anyone could’ve gotten it. Im just struggling a lot with schizophrenic OCD and thinking I’m in the pre stages of it. In my good moments, I don’t think I am at all and it was all just sparked from the video I watched but in my bad moments, these thoughts feel real!! They really stress me out and make me feel like I’m going to lose my mind causing me to lose my job/ end up in a psych hospital/ never live a normal life/ end up alone, never see me my loved ones/ hurt my loved ones. I just want to feel normal and not like I’m about to lose my mind and everything I care about. Please help!!! Anyone else going through something similar and can help me get through this!

Be a part of the largest OCD Community

Share your thoughts so the Community can respond

New here!

Related posts

Be a part of the largest OCD Community

Be a part of the largest OCD Community