I wonder how culturally dependent OCD themes are? Like 50+ years ago I doubt as many people obsessed over whether they were trans or gay. Or what about before commonplace hand washing? Perhaps the themes are specific to a context. But the thought process behind all OCD themes is the same.

Francis

Date posted: 6y ago

That’s a good question. I feel like it must have been absolute hell on earth to have OCD before people knew what it was. I can’t imagine the pain of having a mental disorder before they were widely understood in society. I’m sure that also influenced how people experienced OCD. It’s a great comfort to know that many other people experience the disease and that you are not alone...

0823

Date posted: 6y ago

I read that when there was the big aids outbreak people with OCD had themes about catching it. I think it definitely has to do with the context and what is happening around us. LGBTQ+ is huge right now so it’s a common OCD theme. The media is showing a lot of harm and pedophilia/sex trafficking news and that’s a common theme too. There are always so many articles about how this and that is bad for you, and contamination is super common too. I do believe that it has to do with the world around us.

Anonymous

Date posted: 6y ago

Have you read The Man Who Couldn’t Stop by David Adam? He developed obsessions around AIDS around the time of the epidemic I think. My themes primarily center around perfectionism. I never felt truly accepted by my dad and never felt I could please him so this makes sense for me. And I did well in school and had pressure put on me to achieve great things and what not.

Anonymous

Date posted: 6y ago

Thank you! My dad doesn’t talk to me right now, unfortunately. And I told him about my OCD in the past but he wasn’t too understanding (even though I think he might have OCD himself). When I told him he later sent me a bunch of “I’m so OCD” memes and criticized me for not laughing with him and would tell me to snap out of it when he caught me obsessing. :( He does care but just doesn’t handle it rightly. The last time he spoke with me he just kind of wrote me off.

0823

Date posted: 6y ago

No I haven’t, but I’ll look it up! That definitely makes sense. I was in an abusive relationship and was forced to act a certain way and I was pretty much taught that it was just the right way to act or something so I still like aim for that I think. My main obsessions are contamination, breathing type obsessions, and POCD. The POCD has gotten a ton better though, and I’m grateful for that because it is the hardest for me to handle! I hope you’re telling OCD to back off because you are amazing the way you are! I’m sorry about the way things are with your dad, have you tried bringing it up with him or do you think it’s purely OCD?

Wessers19

Date posted: 13w ago

Could being exposed to content as a kid affected me in this way?

Trying not to seek reassurance, but rather connect the dots on my OCD and possible reasons as to why I am the way I am. I have severe OCD (or at least I hope I do) mainly surrounding POCD. I've had symptoms of OCD the majority of my life but this theme has come up more recently. When I was a kid, and i'm talking 6-7, I was first exposed to some really gross adult content online. It was introduced to me by a friend of mine around the same age of me. I saw some really disgusting things that a 6-7 year old should definitely not see. This was not a one time occurrence, as I had been exposed to taboo topics online years to come after that, such as the same friend introducing me to Omegle... And i'm sure you can imagine how that went, theres a lot of genuinely disgusting human beings on there. Coming back to the reason for making this post; is it possible to early exposure to this content could be one of the reasons I struggle with POCD? It genuinely scares me to death because you hear that real p*dos dealt with simular situations when they were kids, so thats kind of making me feel that this could be more than OCD, and I could be a genuinely bad person. My POCD feels so real, that at times i'm fully convinced its not OCD. Sometimes I can't even distinguish the feelings of attraction between a younger person and an older person, except for the feeling of anxiety and fear. Its really hard to explain without going into detail, but it just feels so real. Some feedback on this would be great, thank you all.

Pushingpissed

Date posted: 8w ago

Feeling “normal” again

Anyone else feel that when they aren’t experiencing a theme that their ocd is almost non existent. It almost makes me feel like I’ve been faking it, and also makes me feel ridiculous for obsessing over things. I feel sorry for myself :/ I know that my themes are valid and felt very real in the moment, but after I “get over” them I just can’t believe that I was obsessing over something that either wasn’t true or didn’t apply to me. I would also like to know how to prevent themes from reoccurring. Health, religion and existential OCD themes tend to take turns throughout my life, I just didn’t know that was it ocd. Trying to break the cycle.

Elliesmith

Date posted: 7w ago

Question

So with my theme of ocd, ( hocd ) I get persistent intrusive images, and thoughts. It’s not like one or two a day. Like if I’m out for the whole day they’re constant. I feel I can’t even look at a girl now without her intrusive thoughts about her or about me fancying her and even sexual intrusive thoughts.. It’s awful. It’s everywhere I look. Is this common with ocd with any themes? Like is it constant for you guys too?

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I wonder how culturally dependent OCD themes are? Like 50+ years ago I doubt as many people obsessed over whether they were trans or gay. Or what about before commonplace hand washing? Perhaps the themes are specific to a context. But the thought process behind all OCD themes is the same.

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