Can false memories just feel so real that you actually start to believe it? Mine started as an image just popping into my head of doing something bad. I can’t remember where I was or what I was wearing while doing it, it’s just this image, but my brain lately has been trying to figure out what I’m wearing or where I was and it’s making it feel more real and I just don’t know what to do right now to deal with it.
If you have low insight ocd/overvalued ideas then yes, the memories can start to feel real. But literally believing them to be real is a dangerous thing. If it goes against who you are fundamentally as a person, and you have no proof of it being real then it’s a false memory. And yes it can get better with medication and therapy
@anabanana1 Yes. The false memory came after I was having intrusive thoughts (I still didn’t know the intrusive thoughts were a part of OCD until around a year later) I wish I can just stop the mental compulsions but it’s so difficult, I find myself self reassuring without releasing
@lucyjade1998 Breaking the rumination habit is how you’re gonna beat ocd. The more you ruminate the more you reinforce those neuronpathways (I think that’s what they’re called 😭) and it teaches your brain that these false memories are important. As hard as this sounds: observe the false memories and label them as “thoughts” “illusions” and use a grounding object to focus on. That’s what helps me. Journaling helps too but it can become a compulsion for some people. So I’d recommend you be careful with that. Try to set a goal to do it only once a day. And when you read everything back you might see how silly or untrue the thought is. When I did this I cringed so hard it made me not wanna think of the thoughts again!
I don’t know if it feels so strong because I had this false memory in the past, and I didn’t know what OCD was, so I just thought it was an actual memory even though it was just an image and goes completely against who I am as a person.
Share your thoughts so the Community can respond
