Does a core fear HAVE to be emotional suffering?

@djflorio Oh, well uh, I guess my concern is that if core fears can only be emotional suffering, and not other things/events, and my core fear doesn’t really seem like an emotional suffering, does that mean that like, I probably don’t have OCD? Not asking you for a diagnosis but yeah, so can core fears be other things..?

@serenity_1 - My follow-up question would then be, what does it matter whether or not you have OCD? My suspicion is that there's a concern that if what you're experiencing isn't OCD, then something you're afraid of is either real, and/or something about you is "true" or "false," and that is scary to you. It's very common for people to be concerned with whether or not they have OCD, and I believe this comes from a misunderstanding of what OCD actually is. OCD refers to an extreme difficulty with letting certain thoughts go, resulting in ritualistic habits and behaviors (compulsions) that are done in an attempt to get rid of the thoughts and the anxiety they produce. These compulsions keep the wheel of intrusive thoughts and anxiety spinning, to the point that life is significantly impacted. Many people seem to think that the intrusive thoughts or fears themselves are a direct result of OCD. Or in other words, OCD is something in the brain that is pumping out thoughts or fears that they wouldn't have otherwise. But countless studies have proven that everyone experiences intrusive thoughts that make them uncomfortable, whether they have OCD or not. Everyone has the potential to experience thoughts that go completely against their morals, don't align with their true desires, or are just overall frightening to them. The difference is in the reaction to those thoughts. The overblown reaction of those with OCD is what causes the thoughts to appear more often and feel more scary. The reason I say this is because at the end of the day, whether someone has OCD or not doesn't matter in the way many people think it does. Having or not having it doesn't dictate whether or not the thoughts/concerns are real, fake, valid, false, etc. It just dictates the likelihood of getting trapped in the cycle. Disclaimer: I don't mean to assume; I'm not sure if this is why you're concerned about this or not. Just making a general observation in case it helps!

@djflorio Well, about that (if something isn’t OCD afraid is real) I guess maybe that was my concern before, but now I think it’s more like I want to be sure I have OCD because I don’t want to use it as an excuse. I think this is may be more I guess unique to what my theme/fear is(the first point I’ll make under this, well I guess other themes can still experience that but somewhat different I guess) , but my fear stops me from doing some things I want to do, and makes me do things I don’t really want to do (like researching to make sure _ is false or that I’m safe I guess) and I think if I want to recover from OCD, I’ll also have to do the things I want to do because I have to show my brain that these thoughts/this fear means nothing to me, since not doing these things will be like avoiding things that could potentially lead to my fear, which is also a compulsion right? So I don’t want to use OCD as an excuse to live my life the way I want to live it, since going on the recovery journey will probably bring me closer to the life I want to live. I’ll give a small explanation of what my fear is but it’s basically ‘what if x religion is true and I go to hell’ so what I mentioned earlier about not doing things I want to do is I guess certain things that are considered sins in x religion (I won’t mention what religion for now). Thanks for the information, but can OCD still like over exaggerate the thoughts it gives us? Like sometimes I guess I doubt things that people usually wouldn’t doubt.

@serenity_1 - I understand that type of fear all too well! And I see where you're coming from. Here's the thing, though: you don't have to use OCD as an excuse in the first place. Exposure therapy is also not unique to OCD. Whether or not you have OCD, it's still a good idea to do things you want to do despite thoughts or fears that are holding you back. ERP therapy, the current gold standard for OCD treatment, is a useful tool to have regardless of the reason you're afraid to do something. It's just a form of exposure therapy that is specifically tailored to OCD in terms of the terminology it uses. But the underlying technique is useful regardless of where the fear is coming from. You have it exactly right: what you want to do is actively "show your brain" that the thoughts and the anxiety are not things you need to "get rid of" in order to live a normal life. What you're describing, which is essentially the fear of damnation due to following the "wrong" religion, is extremely common. After all, there are thousands of religions out there, many of which have their own concept of "hell" and ways to end up there. It's perfectly understandable to feel uncomfortable about that. But whether you have OCD or not, the only way to not allow this fear to take over your life is to prove to yourself that ruminating about it, or avoiding doing things you want to do, is not making you any "safer." In fact, it's only making the fear worse. Every time you do something (research, ruminate, avoid, etc) in hopes to get rid of this fear, the thoughts about it becoming increasingly distressing. Again, this is true whether you have OCD or not. It's just how the human brain works. In terms of OCD exaggerating things and causing excessive doubt, I would say that's pretty accurate. It's nicknamed the "doubting disorder" for a reason. It's been shown that people with OCD have overactive circuits in the brain that are responsible for "error detection." In other words, the brains of people with OCD are literally wired in a way to perceive even the tiniest bit of doubt or uncertainty as a legitimate threat. Since being 100% certain about anything is basically impossible, this is what leads to bizarre rituals and compulsions that make very little sense; people with OCD develop all sorts of strange and unproductive habits just to feel any ounce of control and certainty that they can. Regardless, my advice still stands: you don't have to use OCD as an "excuse." When you practice something like ERP, you aren't doing it "because you have OCD," you're doing it because you no longer want the thoughts or fear to completely control your life. After all, even if you sit in a room and do nothing your entire life, you're still going to be breaking the rules of some religion somewhere. Please refer to any of the links that Nica left for more info on things like ERP. And remember that it's all useful info regardless of whether or not you qualify for the disorder. Hope this helps!