- Username
- DJTall
- Date posted
- 4y ago
Speaking as someone for whom sexual assault stories make both my OCD and PTSD worse, it's your job to remove yourself from whatever triggers you if that's your choice. Wishing that sexual assault victims would realise that talking about their experience triggers you, is kinda... Idk what word to use. But basically there has been enough pressure in the past not to speak about it, which was harmful. Being empowered to talk about it publicly is a big deal. It's helped me with my long-standing feelings that I never should've spoken about sexual abuse from an ex, and the invalidation and cruelty I got from certain people when I did. I recommend that if you find it too triggering, you unfollow.
Please never paint us as a small population Carl. That is labelling and damaging to people with my kind of OCD. That is the only thing I ask.
Mathematically, it just is a small part of the population. That doesn’t mean that the pain and struggle of people with OCD isn’t very real. I do advocacy precisely to reach those people and give support.
I'm not sure it's painting or labelling if it's accurate. It triggers my own OCD so we are in the same camp, but I see no offense in being clear that because sexual assault impacts so many more people, their speaking up is ultimately just a priority over us not being triggered. I genuinely don't understand why you think it's damaging or find it offensive to mention the fact that there aren't very many of us. I certainly don't feel labelled, painted or damaged by it.
@Scoggy Just because you do not does not mean that other people don't feel differently.
@DJTall I agree with you- others feel differently. So it's better to say that you find it labelling and damaging to yourself rather than to people in general.
@Scoggy I said what I said. I am sorry you feel that way but I am not going to worry about every little thing that I said. It is not good for me nor my OCD
It’s one of the tough things about these sorts of experiences. For some people sharing their story is how they process or cope with the experience, and for others hearing about those stories can be comforting (similar to how NOCD allows us to realize we aren’t alone in our struggles). Unfortunately, there are those like yourself who find such posts distressing. I think it’s sometimes best to close out or unfollow certain people or pages on social media, at least for a time, especially if it is particularly triggering. For example, I struggled with contamination OCD for several months after the initial outbreak of coronavirus. Seeing people share news stories about infection rates and morality was very distressing to me, but I know perhaps it’s how those others processed that information themselves. I had to delete certain apps and mute other pages until I could get my anxiety a little more under control
I will have to try harder but it is my right to share that it is triggering just as you have a right to share your story.
Yeah of course you have a right to share that it triggers you? I never said you don't? It's just the wishing people knew that it was triggering thing. Most people are fully aware that their stories are triggering to all sorts of people for all sorts of reason. You phrased it as if you feel victims are being insensitive to talk about their experiences.
I am just saying I wish people knew it was harmful for some people to hear about. I am not telling people to stop sharing their experiences. And I feel like that is absolutely fair. Have a good day
Oh dear. I never said it wasn't fair. I was just saying that people already know that it's triggering. Not harmful btw. Triggering. So they wouldn't act differently 'if they knew' :/
As a survivor of sexual abuse and someone with OCD, there’s so much shame and stigma around sexual assault that it’s far more important to share it than it is to not do so out of the concern that there’s some subset of the population that might take issue with it. At most 3% of the population has OCD, and an even smaller subset would be triggered by a story about sexual assault. Ultimately, too, the goal of the recovery is to be able to experience the unpleasant thoughts, feelings, sensations, urges, and emotions the thoughts give you and learning that you don’t have to organize your life around avoiding those experiences. The world is triggering, and we can’t alter that.
But thank you to everyone who has also shared their story/viewpoint with assault. This stuff is hard to talk about on both the OCD and survivor end so I hope that everyone in this thread and app can appreciate the courage and strength it takes to talk about it on both sides.
I just want to add that I have been sexually assaulted multiple times
I have to set my boundaries so I am done reading and replying but thanks for everyone who wanted to share, encourage and express their viewpoints.
Having ocd can either make life difficult or painful or both depending on the theme(s). For me it’s painful. My ocd latches onto my children. I have very upsetting harm and pocd intrusive thoughts. Sometimes it’s easy to shrug them off but other times the ocd makes it seem likes it’s me thinking these things and it feels so real and it has me so depressed. I never used to see any parents posting about this but recently there have been a few. I know it’s really hard to talk about but sharing can help us all feel less alone and more supported. I’m grateful to anyone that offers support because I feel so defeated lately. 😞
I'm so afraid of thinking something inappropriate around family and friends that I overthink everything I think. I've been dealing with this for months and I thought I had learned how to deal with it, but I feel so suffocated. Right now I really can't breathe. I don't know what to do, I talk to people in this community but I still feel so alone.
Hi all, my ocd has been flaring up lately and I’m not sure why. I think it may be due to stress and anxiety involving school and the hurricanes (I live in Florida) anyways I keep having random intrusive thoughts involving my real event and a lot of false memories are popping up, they feel so real it’s like I can feel everything in them even though I haven’t actually felt them. It’s so weird, like sometimes I will watch a movie and be able to feel the texture of snow or a piece of clothing even though I’ve never felt it before. I have noticed when I get those “phantom” ? touch feelings that they cause a lot of false memory intrusive thoughts. I’ve also been having intrusive thoughts that because no one interacts with my posts on here that everyone hates me and knows about me and thinks I’m horrible and disgusting or that someone is talking about me behind my back and telling people to stay away from me and then I’m a horrible person. I hate OCD so much, I hate that I ruminate constantly on little things and mistakes I’ve made and things I can’t let go. I just hate it so much. Does anyone else struggle with these thoughts or even the “phantom feelings/touches” I’m not sure what to call them sometimes I also get them with certain foods or smells even if I hadn’t had them before or smelt them before. It’s so weird
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