- Username
- Anonymous
- Date posted
- 7y ago
A way that helped me was talking about fight or flight responses. When you're in a dangerous situation, you get filled with adrenaline and have an intense feeling of panic/anxiety. Picture this feeling of a loss of control and total and utter fear, except it's over something others may find very small, or even pointless. What we then try to do it escape that, wether it be through washing hands or counting or rearranging or whatever. We will not stop being on edge until we've done it properly, that is our way of getting "in control" of our heads, even if we recognise that this behaviour is unhealthy.
There are some really good personal accounts of OCD if you search for them (short / personal experiences on OCD) and you could always have her try to read some of those to see what it's like for you if you find some you resonate with
I know that was a huge generalisability but it may help her understand a little, best of luck ❤️
I agree with whoever suggested the videos. They're an incredibly powerful tool, so much so that they're often used nowadays for legit teaching purposes. I showed one to my mom (who joked about occasionally having "OCD brain") and I think it really put things in perspective for her. She hasn't used OCD as an adjective ever since.
Ya I have some advice, especially since my family was the exact same. 1) There are some really good videos that show what suffering from OCD feels like. You can show here those. 2) I often like to use analogies that my family can understand. For instance, if you told your mom "imagine a woman who was terrified that she may accidentally drop and hurt her newborn baby, so she avoided it completely".
Do you all have any links to videos that helped?
I told my close friends about my OCD a few months ago and they were really supportive at first however there is this one girl who is really horrible about it. She tells me regularly that I should ‘just stop’ and that if she had OCD, she would just find a way to turn it off which makes it seem as though I am making my problems up! As well as this, she will often laugh at me for doing my compulsions even though I have explained to her on numerous occasions what they are and why I need to do them. Does anyone have any ideas about how to explain to her why I am like this? I feel like I have tried everything! Any advice would be greatly appreciated ☺️
My mom walked in and saw me ruminating and she said what are you doing I said I just have unwanted thoughts and she said everyone have unwanted thoughts and i said I know but when you can’t make it go it becomes exhausting she walks out and say just get rid of them you are wasting your time and your future.that really hit hard as I can’t get rid of them and the way she said make it like I want the thoughts,she loves me so much and so do I.sometimes I get headaches because how much I thought and like my head vibrate.sorry I’m writing here but i needed to say that to someone.as I don’t have anyone to speak with.what a pathetic person I’m.
How do I get my family to understand some of what I am going through and how the actions that they do could make it worse? I wish they weren’t so judgmental of the things I do. I truly feel like I can’t help it.
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