Does anybody else suffer from OCD due to finances? I always can’t help but feel if I buy a certain item it’ll be my downfall or spiraling of bad habits that’ll leave me broke. Even if it comes to wanting to plan a vacation I always feel like I can’t I need to save that money because something will happen. I’m unsure if I’m conflating these feelings with just life
Yes, I deal with intrusive thoughts over my finances too, just in a slightly different way. I just moved into my apartment, and I’m now budgeting more. When I was living at home for free, I had much more disposable income, and could put a lot into my savings but still spend a lot. Now that I have a stricter budget, I’m saving less, and I feel out of control. I worry I’ll go broke or lose everything I’ve saved. I want to go on vacations but I’m scared to use my savings. With OCD, there’s a balance of worrying over realistic things, vs not realistic. And I think it gets murkier when it feels like your worries are super valid. Because of course, no one wants to go broke or have a financial downfall. I think having a reasonable safety net of savings for cases of emergency can happen, and you can still purchase things or go on vacation. You can try asking yourself what the purpose of not buying something, or not going on vacation, would be. Do you have an actual expense coming up you need to save money for (bills, anything costly like car maintenance etc), or do you feel like you’re giving in to avoidance? Trying to understand the purpose of doing or not doing something can help you see if it’s more OCD related, or more needs based.
@MichelleV For me personally I feel like I’m giving in to avoidance. I get feelings that this one transaction will be the one to mess me up so I avoid it
Always on my mind. It’s because every other news article is about whether you have enough money for retirement
I know when I’ve been in the mode of not having a budget and just buying things as cheap as I possibly can always makes me feel guilty. I feel so much better now that I have set aside like “$30 a month for fun” and then use for a movie ticket or museum ticket or something. It doesn’t have to be absolutely strict. If I go to $32 one month, I don’t freak out, but having a general allowance for things can lower the guilt because you know “I can spend this money on a museum ticket and know I still have enough for groceries”
@24ozpersephonenoice That is a very smart idea! Thank you for sharing
Yes yes yes…this is me. I have so much anxiety when I’m having to spend money. It’s horrible. I’ve never been good at managing money anyway and I put off paying for stuff and worry about it for so long but I eventually end up paying in the last moment because I have too and then I think why didn’t I just do that in the first place. I struggle to spend any money on myself at all. I constantly ruminate that I’m not going to have enough money when I’m elderly and I’ll be living in one room with no heating and I won’t be able to afford to eat and so on and so on and so on predicting my future. I hadn’t really thought of this as part of my OCD but now I realise it is. I’m constantly ruminating about what my future holds and finances is no exception. I’m going to work on this with my Therapist now.
@LA one That is literally me too 🥹 the ruminating is so real I always feel like I’m gonna have to ask people for money and I’ll be ridiculed by everyone for just being so stupid reckless irresponsible :’) Please know I am rooting for you!!!!
It started when I became an adult, and started receiving my mental health diagnosis. I hyper fixated on each and every action I did and how it could be related to my diagnosis’s. It then lead to fixation to my physical health — making appointments and seeing every specialist I can to rule out every possibility. I currently have been suffering with obstructive sleep. I woke up the past few days with severe pain from the lack of sleep whilst believing I was oversleeping. Luckily my fit watch tracks my sleep cycle and it turns out I am not receiving any sleep. I had an extreme panic attack — bursting into tears on the phone with my mom wondering what this case might be. She told me it could be sleep apnea and that a simple sleep study could figure this out. However, knowing my family history I made appointments to every specialist I can to make sure it is nothing serious. The unknown of health can be scary to me. Watching my mother suffer with her physical health chronically since I was a child lead me to be very conscious and aware of how my body is functioning. This morning was one of the worst moments of physical pain. I should just take one step at a time with the sleep doctor instead of taking measures to see every specialist that could pertain with this issue. However, that is very hard to me. I don’t want to ever wake up in the pain I was this morning. Does anyone else suffer with health-related OCD? And if so, how do you find a sense of ease during moments like I expressed?
I started dealing with OCD when I became fixated on health issues, particularly the fear of contracting a life-threatening disease. If I experienced any kind of medical symptom, no matter how small, that even remotely hinted at something potentially fatal, it would drive me crazy, and I couldn’t stop obsessing over it. Then one day, I started having intrusive thoughts about accidentally hitting someone with my car, and I would end up driving in circles to check if I had. Eventually, I found myself overwhelmed by a flood of new obsessive thoughts and compulsions. One day, while I was at the park, a squirrel came near me, and for some reason, I felt like it attacked me. I Googled it and learned that squirrels could carry rabies, which spiraled me into a deep fear of rabies. I became consumed with the thought I received a bite from a squirrel, raccoon, or bat any time I’m in areas that trigger me. It started off only being inside then transferred to even being in my own home. This made me obsess over every physical sensation in my body, compulsively checking to make sure nothing was wrong. One compulsion that I hated the most would to be putting rubbing alcohol on me to make sure that I had no open wounds. Every day feels like I’m walking around in a fog of anxiety, constantly worrying that I won’t even make it to old age. Sometimes, it gets so overwhelming that I just want it all to end. It stresses me so bad at times to where my brain feels like I’ve been studying all day.
Sometimes i think everyone on the right is evil. I ask myself “how can i love people with values different than mine?” I struggle accepting the fact my parents political beliefs are different than mine. I love them so much but it baffles me. We have talked and they say its fine to have different opinions but i can’t help but wonder if i’m doing something wrong by having my beliefs. And then with all the economic chaos today in the US, I can’t help but think that I was right about everything and I just feel like it is my fault that the world is in turmoil. Idk. I think i wish i could stop thinking about it but ever since the election cycle began around a year ago it has been dominating my life. I question myself, i question others, i appear very extremist and rigid and i don’t like it. I want my OCD to go away. Its apparently OCD but it feels so real right now. Can anyone relate? What are yalls thoughts on this subtype?
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