how do i tell the difference if i have ocd or not ?

Fathomable

Date posted: 5y

If you really want to know, then you need to disconnect the OCD from whatever your themes are. If you are trying to be sure that a particular worry is in fact OCD, then I understand your distress and anxiety, but analysis can't give you that guarantee. Seeking treatment needs to be a leap of faith. However, if you're genuinely unsure whether a mental illness you're experiencing is OCD or something else, look for the symptoms: mental or physical habits when confronted with the anxiety of something unknown or unclear, where those habits themselves cause you distress, seem to make your problems worse, and feel necessary. Low tolerance for discomfort and high general anxiety. Repetitive thoughts and/or behaviours about some topics, and losing a lot of time in your day to these. Negative impact on your social life, relationships or work life. Other indicators can be depression and low self esteem, a preoccupation with potential threats, feeling misunderstood and isolated, paranoia and guilt or shame. You don't have to experience all of these in order to have OCD.

Fathomable

Date posted: 5y

You can also develop OCDs which are about the past, which are called real event OCD. They could be around something which happened to you or where you did or fear you might have done wrong/failed in some way/harmed someone etc, which can be anywhere on a scale from rationally completely imaginary to crystal clear fact.

kimtaeee

Date posted: 5y

well i’ve been going through this weird cycle of feeling like i’m losing interest in the things i live for example music. i’m just scared that everything i’m doing to gain my interest again is forced and then in the end when i’m checking my emotions i feel nothing at all. it’s driving insane. it’s weird i have been going through a cycle of not being as interested but then when i want to start listening to the music i love again i start to obsess and worry that i’m losing interest. it makes no sense but it’s causing me a lot of anxiety . it’s just really hard to tell if it’s me losing interest in the music and artists i love or it’s ocd

Fathomable

Date posted: 5y

It sounds like both trying to make yourself interested in something and checking your emotions and then analysing them could be compulsions, particularly given the anxiety you're experiencing. My suspicion is that whether or not you're losing interest in something you usually enjoy (which I'm sure you know is normal and these things ebb and flow), you're experiencing OCD about it. It doesn't matter whether your loss of interest has actually happened or is an anxiety-generated idea becoming a self fulfilling prophecy, you're still doing OCD compulsions in response to your fear of losing interest permanently, rather than properly processing the anxiety of not being able to predict that for sure.

kimtaeee

Date posted: 5y

@Scoggy wow i didn’t think of it that way. but still the thought of me actually losing interest scares me to death and i don’t know how to cope with that

kimtaeee

Date posted: 5y

@Scoggy i’ve just feel like i’ve been forcing myself to listen to the artists i love to bring back the feelings of happiness i used to get but all i feel now is numbness, exhaustion, or anxiety

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