It bothers me how my mom, who is a doctor, will spend time researching illnesses and other issues our other family members deal with (she told me today how one of my aunts is now depressed and dealing with panic attacks due to hard situations she’s been in recently), but as far as I’ve know hasn’t bothered educating herself on OCD or talks to me at all about it. I guess she doesn’t need to really since I’m working on it but I’d like for her to care more in that regard. It’s like if I don’t talk about it she thinks nothing is up

Ocd_istheworst

Date posted: 5y

What I noticed is, when parents act this way , it is most of the time because they are scared. My mom told me the reason my dad doesn’t really talk to me about this stuff or goes quiet when I open up about my mental illnesses, is because he’s scared bc he doesn’t understand and it’s happening to his daughter . I know a lot of people do tend to do this. Things they don’t understand that very are complex such Ocd or any other invisible illnesses, it’s not tangible and they tend to get uncomfortable and scared to talk about to people. Even if your mom is looking it up for other family members, there might be a bigger fear of her *daughter* having it, and not understanding Or doesn’t know how to respond so she gets short and quiet. My dad also brings up other people having a mental illness, like someone on tv for example, but if it’s me opening up about mine, he goes quiet. Uncomfortable. He’s Worried In his own way. This might be the case with ur mom too

Evelyn4416

Date posted: 5y

I think you have point, could definitely be the case! Thank you for the insight

vanitas

Date posted: 5y

maybe you could talk to her about it more and explain how much your ocd affects you if you feel like you can ?? tbh i’m like that with my dad, i wish he knew a bit more about ocd

Evelyn4416

Date posted: 5y

I try to but it’s like she sweeps it off. Awhile ago I sent her an article from the perspective of someone who has a loved one from OCD and it described a lot of what I feel dealing with this and she never mentioned it until today when I asked her if she ever read it and she just said “yup” and that was it so I told her sometimes I would like to send them information about it or she could look into it since she likes researching if she cared about doing that (it’s hard for me to talk about in person to my family because I get emotional/cry) and all she said was “ok” and went to watch tv

vanitas

Date posted: 5y

@Evelyn4416 awh damn :(( it’s super hard when you kinda feel that your mental health is being pushed to the side. what i did w my mum was sit her down and have a long 2 hour convo w her about how i was feeling but ik that can be hard when emotions get in the way. but i think for me that helped if that makes sense?? like bc i was getting emotional my mum knew how much i was affected by it and i try to keep her up to date w what’s happening. i’m kinda in the same position w telling my dad atm

Evelyn4416

Date posted: 5y

@cole I’ve done that as well! Like I was sobbing talking to her a few months ago how horrible it was and she kinda seemed like she got it but at the same time no since she doesn’t deal with any anxiety issues or whatnot so to her it’s like just get up and do something tell yourself your good and be distracted! And I’m like....you don’t get it at all lol

Be a part of the largest OCD Community

Share your thoughts so the Community can respond