I feel like the real event that lead to my anxiety and intrusive thoughts is too horrible of a mistake to classed as real event ocd. I only remembered the event about 4 months ago, it happened when I was 13 and I have no idea why it hasn’t bothered me for the last seven years. For the most part I genuinely think that I have ocd because I started experiencing unwanted thoughts since I remembered the event and have been put on medication for depression. Even though I can see that my behaviour lines up with ocd, I don’t feel like the guilt is excessive given the situation. Whenever I see anyone talk about their real event it always seems so tame compared to mine and it makes me feel like a horrible person.

It was a real event, and you have OCD about it. The event happened, and you're experiencing OCD symptoms about it. Therefore, you have real event OCD. You could be literally Hitler and still have real event OCD and your real event OCD would be legitimately OCD. Even if you feel the guilt and rumination are appropriate to the mistake (which I'd argue is prob down to a lack of self compassion and black and white thinking), symptoms like not being able to stop, wanting to confess, the fact that it's only started bothering you now, it interfering with your ability to live your life, comparing your event to others' and seeking reassurance that it's not as bad as it feels, and any other behaviours you've noticed, are OCD symptoms.

I think everyone with real event ocd thinks their real event is so much worse than everyone else’s. That’s a part of the ocd as well. It’s really sucky but you have to do erp with that thought as well until you habituate to the discomfort- for example “you’re maybe right ocd, maybe my real event was a lot worse than everyone else’s.” It’s so much easier said than done, but erp really helps! It doesn’t make it go away in my experience, but it helps lower the intensity.

I have OCD about a real event as well and I am here for you! You are not alone! It’s possible your actions as well as my own make you an immoral person or maybe they don’t! We all must accept uncertainty and refocus. We are all in this together and we will get joy back in our lives!

I hear you. For what it's worth, I've heard many, many people say the same thing. I don't know whether the guilt is reasonable or not-and confessing what you did won't change that. You say that you see behaviors that fit the OCD cycle. How willing are you to respond as if it's ocd, despite not being sure?

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