- Username
- Chipmunk90
- Date posted
- 4y ago
You will start the road to recovery when you resist looking up information online to reassure yourself. Just wanted to give you a heads up that asking if others on here have had the same experience can also be a form of reassurance-seeking. I say this not to dissuade you from getting support but to avoid seeking reassurance in the future. This is the only way you will no longer feel at war with yourself.
Thank you. Never thought of it this way. I will most defiantly be mindful
@Chipmunk90 I know how difficult it can be to go against the urge to look up items to get reassurance. I did it for a long time not realizing it was OCD driving it. We’re here for you if you want to share how you’re doing as you work toward being okay with uncertainty
Google is honestly one of my biggest problems. It has stolen full days and nights sleeps from me. Is there any way you can restrict your internet use? I find that keeping my phone outside of my bedroom helps with this, or turning your phone on airplane mode at night time. I also found that restricting my "google time" to a set period and slowly decreasing from there helped me a lot.I would only do it at a set time each day for 1 hour and accepted that I was doing it for that period of time, but no longer. It was easier for me to start by delaying the OCD monster from getting what it wanted, instead of depriving it completely, and i accepted it as a baby step!
I wouldn’t necessarily use a restriction app because then you’re avoiding what makes you anxious, similar to someone with harm OCD hiding all their knives. It would be a better practice to use positive self talk and reminding yourself that you’re working toward recovery and try not to open the search browser.
I think if googling is your compulsion that's a great plan to reduce it.
@JessieJoy You're not afraid of Google and need to face it, you're doing it probably as a form of checking so you would want to reduce doing it. Baby steps is good.
@JessieJoy Yes that's what I was thinking! Completely cutting out the compulsion I found was too difficult for me, but it all depends on what you are up for. I think it eliminated the guilt a little more too when I set the time aside for myself, and made my goal of not googling seem more achievable! Let me know how you do and best of luck. I know it isn't easy but you are strong and never forget it :)
@EMMaaaa Thanks!
Sounds familiar
I think that I need to probably limit how much I use google and also recognize when I want to google something I’m obsessed about.
Hi everyone, I think I’ve struggled with OCD since I was a child but it’s seriously effecting my life now. I think I have what you would call Philosophical/ Existential OCD. I can’t stop questioning my reality, the truth of reality and the universe, enlightenment, Christianity, solipsism, god, myself, my own existence. It never ends. I don’t really know what to do anymore. I think I have Pure O, but I also compulsively google my questions and search through the answers for hours until I feel calm. The peace lasts all of 5 minutes and then I’m googling another question. It’s so stupid because I know the meaning of life isn’t found on the internet but I can’t handle it all on my own in my head.
I used to have Harm OCD but ever since I watched that Black Mirror episode called “Shut Up and Dance” my obsession has been on POCD. For a long time I was petrified of typing “child porn” into google so I did a lot of avoiding. But then I started trying to get reassurance that nothing bad would pop up if you googled it anyway. I got so fed up with the thought that I ended up typing it in myself. I felt disgusted and guilty, and was naive enough to think I would at least no longer have to worry about typing that anymore. But then all these what ifs pooped up like “you didn’t check Bing, Twitter, Yahoo, etc”. So I ended up checking again to ensure myself that nothing would pop up. Then it got worse where I typed in some really disgusting things into google again because I just couldn’t handle the anxiety and uncertainty. I felt stupid every time and powerless. I managed to go about a week without checking but today an intrusive memory came back about a youtube link that had a questionable title in it when I google searched. So ended up going back and checked the video only to of course see that it was nothing horrible. I feel scared and paranoid. Like I have no control of myself. I hate this compulsion and I can’t love myself for doing all this. I’ve suffered from groinal responses and other sexual intrusive thoughts involving this theme but I just want someone to tell me I’m being paranoid. My mind won’t shut up about all this. It just wants me to keep checking and checking to make sure google is safe. How can I possibly love myself after all this? I don’t want this but the anxiety is unbearable and I can barely breathe. I didn’t think it would ever get this bad and it feels like even when I resist OCD wins anyway... or at least I hope it’s OCD.
Can someone tell me how to stop constantly googling every single thing that feels wrong. In the last three days I’ve convinced myself I had MS, I could be having a stroke (multiple times), I have a autoimmune disease and overall something’s wrong with my health. I made a appt to go see my doctor next week to get bloodwork done, which I know is almost like a compulsion because I need assurance that I’m okay, or if I’m not to figure out what’s wrong. My anxiety has made me have so many physical symptoms that I don’t know what’s a problem and what is my anxious brain. Every time something feels wrong I go to dr. Google and then I automatically have some life ending disease. My brain is so tired, I just can’t keep living like this where my mind races and greats new issues everyday. One week it’s health, the next it’s something else, the themes keep changing to keep it interesting and I fear that the mental/physical toll and stress of this is actually going to inevitably harm me. Can someone please give me some advice as to not lose my mind
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