For the sake of honesty: My therapist said I don’t actually have OCD. He says basically I have perfection/control issues, and am so afraid of making a mistakes that I ritualize to keep from doing something wrong. I thought that if I *didn’t* strictly meet DSM criteria, it meant there was nothing wrong with me, and that I had to do/avoid all the things my mind told me to. To make it more confusing, my sister who was diagnosed with OCD thinks I have it, and a different therapist who has OCD herself thinks I have it. That said, I’ve come to view it more like a spectrum, and a maladaptive coping mechanism. But, I wanted to throw this out there, because I felt a little dishonest, and wondered if maybe y’all would rather I not be in this community. That said, I know what it’s like to check locks, stoves, ovens, faucets, lights, garages multiple times, to ruminate to make sure I haven’t made a mistake, to worry if I don’t wash my hands enough I will make other people dirty or defiled or dead, etc. I use the principles of ERP (well, try to) and find them helpful. Thanks for reading.

Honestly I agree with you about the spectrum thing, ultimately our classification of disorders is pretty arbitrary, not only do professionals often disagree about a diagnosis (and they've done studies about things which can influence their perceptions of somebody's issues) but the diagnoses themselves aren't all that evidence-based. We get updates to the DSM with new research, and disorders are names we give to patchwork presentations of various issues with the brain, genetics, etc. In psychiatry we end up going by behaviour but these supposedly neat boxes are just iffy abstractions. Perfectionism, control issues and fear of making a mistake or being to blame are common across people diagnosed with OCD but also people with trauma, personality disorders and even brain injuries etc. OCD is, literally, a maladaptive coping mechanism, just as you described. Confession like this is one symptom of it. I think the bottom line realistically is that if you find that being here is beneficial to you, you relate to others' experiences, and you find ERP useful, then it is what it is. It's usually beneficial to focus on the treatments needed to get to the point of feeling and functioning better, rather than on a diagnosis, as a diagnosis isn't particularly useful other than in terms of the treatments and understandings it can point you towards. I'm of the belief personally that ERP can help anyone who for any reason finds that their worrying is making them miserable or negatively impacting on their life. I have OCD and PTSD and I've actually found EMDR so far to be very similar to ERP, it triggers negative feelings in a controlled environments and encourages feeling them deeply while focusing on a moving light. Rather than doing this alone until you habituate to the anxiety, you go back and forth mentally between the triggering memory & beliefs and a more compassionate replacement (one where the memory went differently or you receive comfort) in order to associate the two together in memory reconsolidation (as the light distracts your brain from overthinking). It's actually a very similar thing to not checking the stove and allowing the experience of everything turning out alright even though you didn't check, to reprogram your brain to associate not doing compulsions with all being well. I think the cross-effectiveness comes from the fact that the major symptoms of trauma are rumination and suppressed unpleasant emotions, which are usually core symptoms of OCD. I have no doubt that I could use ERP alone for my PTSD in conjunction with counselling after habituation to triggers to help absorb changes in beliefs about the situation, the world and yourself- which is also required in OCD when you do work on underlying beliefs about yourself or the world (I'm bad/something bad is going to happen/I'm going to make things go wrong). It's all down to flexibility, being willing to change what we do and how we think, even though it's painful. If you're able to source the courage to do that, you're going to be fine.

If this app is beneficial for you, there is no reason you shouldn’t be able to continue using it! Mental health overlaps, that is nothing to feel bad or dishonest about!! You are welcome on this community always!

Hey, therapists can be wrong! Their understanding of what ocd is is always evolving and changing and some haven’t kept up with the literature surrounding it, so can sometimes misidentify what’s going on. I say this from personal experience, and I’ve also heard this anecdotally from others. If you feel your experience fits it might help you to visit a therapist that specialises in ocd so you can get a second opinion?

I feel like feeling like you’re a constant liar when you think you have something is part of OCD

And I know what it’s like to post something and worry I lied in it, which I’m doing *right now*

Thanks for kind comments and taking the time to write them!

Is the therapist who thinks you don’t have ocd an NOCD Therpist ? Or a Therpist outside of this app?