I am so sick of hearing about sexual assault stories on social media. It makes my OCD a lot worse. I wish that people realized that they are actually harming a group of people when they post stuff like this.

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.

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.

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.