- 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?
Does anybody else feel like their mom just doesnt understand the extent to which u are suffering with ocd and it makes u so upset. Like i told my mom i was cleaning bc nobody else in the house does. She got so upset and said she always cleans. She meant like vacumming and dishes and stuff, but i meant disinfecting bc i have contamination ocd. But she didnt underatmd me and started saying how she always cleans but im just sleeping in too late to see. She was really upset w me. Then i said that she is thinking the worst of me the while time. Then she said that im the one being so judgy.. what?? Like does she even understand this occupies my life. I literally have dreams about it, my whole life revolves around it. Its the only thing i think about.
So my mom finally listen to me about the whole having-OCD-thing. I tried insinuating I have it by telling her my symptoms in the simplest way possible until she realized it was probably OCD. I lied to her about the kind of thoughts I had because I was so ashamed of them and was on the verge of crying. Then she told me I shouldn't try getting medication for this because she said she didn't "want this to go on my record" and she doesn't want me to go back to the mental hospital even though it could probably really help me, and I enjoyed the stay I had last time. This just kinda frustrates me to be honest, I just want to get help.
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.
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