How did OCD Start for You?

Does anyone have a before/after story? How to OCD start for you? I haven't always had OCD. I would say that before OCD I was an over-analyzer and liked to debate things. Also hyper concerned about "integrity." So maybe those are traits that make people susceptible to OCD. Mine started as a slow but steady addiction to confessing things to my g/f. You can say it was initiated by a mistake I made in the relationship. I felt bad about it, so I went on this mission to confess every little minuscule detail or potential thing e.g. "OMG I glanced at a girl once!" etc. Stupid stuff like that. I specifically remember the period of time where this "switch" happened. This was organically created OCD. This issue caused it. It switched from rumination and "problem solving" into an overwhelming NEED / "you must confess" every little thing ELSE anxiety, guilt, shame. OCD attacks things we care about. I cared / care about my integrity to g/f to build trust. "Not confessing" went directly against that. So you're left in purgatory. But the point is Idk if everyone has that same "origin story." I think this gives insight on what OCD actually is. At the end of the day, it's a mental addiction that needs to be broken somehow.

Kevin V

Date posted: 17h

I've had some degree of OCD for around a decade. It didn't really start to get bad until last year though, and in February this year it got so bad that I finally decided to see a therapist about it, since if it ever got worse then I wouldn't be able to handle it anymore. Right now, I wonder if it'll ever go back into remission again. It would be nice if it did.

izzyshaw17

Date posted: 3h

I'm so glad you're getting the help you need! It would be amazing if OCD could go into remission. I'm hoping mine does too. However, I don't remember the last time it was. It's scary to think about, but I have to believe that it will work out. Best of luck to you. 🫶🏻

HOY

Date posted: 16h

Ive experienced OCD since my late teens. it didnt escalate till a year ago, when it shifted into POCD. it happened because of checking compulsuons/what if thoughts, and I was never the same since. I began having more frequent mental breakdowns, and I could not do anything I enjoyed. I over monitored myself, ruminated alot. and I wore pants with a belt to sleep. before this it wasnt anything like that, it would usually be me acting on intrusive thoughts like looking up distressing things people say or do, usually mean stuff. POCD was 50 times worse, especially when I first experience. only recently Ive been learning to control it, and I feel better even though my themes shift.

izzyshaw17

Date posted: 3h

Thinking about you putting on a belt to sleep because you were afraid of your thoughts is so painful to me. I'm so sorry you had to deal with that. OCD is so controlling and mean. I've had that same theme, but it's gotten much better. I hope you are feeling better and seeing progress. 🫡

AllisonRojas

Date posted: 15h

It all started for me around 7 years old. One day I was a normal, happy kid and the next day I had a full-blown panic attack over an intrusive image related to the telling of the Noah’s Ark flood story. I was never the same after that. The way it presents for me has changed over the years. Images and panic attacks turned to disordered eating, skin picking, and self-harm urges. Those things faded and rumination, checking, and perfectionism took over. For almost two decades rumination has been my predominant issue, themes vary. I also get words/phrases stuck playing in my head like a broken record. I also have instances of needing to arrange things just right and a lot of disgust/contamination issues around raw meat and kitchen hygiene. The severity and intensity of my symptoms ebbs and flows with my overall stress level, but there’s always something I’m fixated on. I lived an exhausting, but relatively high-functioning life for 20 years before OCD ever came on my radar. In the process of getting a formal diagnosis now! (Great example of perfectionism; I just re-read this comment for errors about 8 times before I realized I was doing it.)

izzyshaw17

Date posted: 18h

I believe my OCD started a long time ago. However, my first ever proper spiral/obsession happened a few years ago. TW emetaphobia!! I went to the store with my dad and suddenly had the thought that I was going to throw up (we had just eaten and I already wasn't feeling 100% that day) and so I went to the bathroom. I was unable to throw up, but the rest of the night I was scared that I was going to. This evolved into thinking that I would get sick every single day after that. I was bedridden for months to a year because of it. An OCD thought that I hadn't known was OCD was "What if the sickness is still there and I need to throw up to get rid of it?" I didn't want to throw up, but I would make myself nauseous and sick from thinking about it on loop. I got better, but it was awful and I don't wish it on my worst enemy.

krista hammack

Date posted: 7h

When I was 7 my ocd started with me taking off the arm covers on the couch and now I’m 16 and it’s so much worse! It’s hard living in a house when you feel like everything isnt where it should be… and I look like a crazy person when my mom moves the couch a way I don’t like it and I freak out!

Anonymous

Date posted: 1h

Oh yea wow, I can relate I guess, this is my first time being in this community. But anyways it started when i was young, I had these obsessions about making everything symmetrical, it was the asymmetrical that makes me ick, it was so annoying and bugging, especially when i try to go sleep and keep worrying about whether my slippers under my bed is symmetrical or not, also i had time when i was germaphobic, I think i still am but its less intense. Its to a point where its not bad and not interfering with life in facts it might be protecting me and making me staying healthy and away from germs induced diseases, but when i grew older at the age of 17 i think rumination started to appear, and i think it got worse overtime until now, 23 person, low intensity obsession about germs, lost my OCD for symmetrical things, but now obsessed with thoughts, or hoarding stuff whether thoughts or items. And yea I need help, I need to try ERP thats why im here.

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