legal ocd?

does anybody else experience legal ocd, especially when it comes to real/false events? especially when it comes to your online footprint and somehow being “found out”, or your information getting leaked and people finding out about potentially illegal things that you’ve done or that ocd convinces you that you’ve done? how do you deal with this fear when the motivation behind it feels so real? how do i avoid constantly checking laws/memories to make sure i haven’t secretly done anything illegal and that my information is safe?

ocduser03

Date posted: 4d

Yes! This is genuinely me. It is the worst theme I ever experienced because there’s no “deadline” for it. Go look at my posts, I talked about a false memory to AI and once that lost its grip it’s come screaming at me saying the AI is gonna report me to the police or whatever.

worryywart

Date posted: 4d

@ocduser03 it’s good to know i’m not alone! the ai thing is especially worrying for me because im sure all of us have had our moments of confessing to ai :// im just trying to let the thoughts be but it’s very hard

mjr-rust

Date posted: 4d

I am experiencing an extremely bad bout of this right now. I don't (unfortunately :( ) have any good advice other than when it happens, it happens. Maybe you did break a law or maybe you didn't but you aren't in trouble now so there isn't much you can do by worrying in the present. Try drafting a statement to how you would respond if you did get "found out" (whether your worry happened or not). I'm guilty of doing the same myself but checking laws and memories are unfortunately compulsions. I hope we can both get through this.

worryywart

Date posted: 4d

@mjr-rust i hope you can get through this as well, i know how devastating it feels. i’ll definitely try writing it out. we can both get through this for sure, i know most of it is just ocd catastrophizing it :))

BigGyro09

Date posted: 4d

I'm having this problem all the time when it comes to that kind of content. I never went out of my way to see the illegal side of that stuff but it shows itself in related results of normal searches and I hate it a lot. I then feel like it's my fault even I'm not even searching along those lenses in the first place. I constantly worry it will get me in trouble one day

worryywart

Date posted: 4d

@BigGyro09 i know exactly what you mean and i’m sorry you’re dealing with this too :/ the only thing i can think of doing is just letting the anxiety go and trying to control what i can in the moment, rather than worrying about the past or the future. it’s hard but i know consistently worrying about things out of our control will only keep us in the ocd loop.

BigGyro09

Date posted: Yesterday

@worryywart Another thing that really gets to me sometimes is when I was 19 and tried to help someone with their OCD when they were 17. I didn't want to do it and it eventually made me so uncomfortable that I cut contact but I guess I had trouble saying no. I know I didn't do anything inappropriate with them but just the fact that I talked with them at all bothers me. It's hard to let the anxiety go but it does work because I do forget about it in the long run. You are right about that.

worryywart

Date posted: Yesterday

@BigGyro09 you already know you haven’t done anything wrong, it sounds like it’s just ocd twisting things as it always does! i hope you’re able to continue to let the anxiety go and “forget” as best as you can and not let it consume you. that’s all we can really do in these situations :)

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