OCD related to yelling something inappropriate in public? Lately I’ve been having intense OCD and subsequent anxiety that I’m going to say something extremely inappropriate to a stranger when I’m in public, either when I walk past them or drive past them. A lot of times it’s related to horribly intrusive thoughts that make me extremely uncomfortable and anxious. For example I’m afraid I’ll yell something racist, or homophobic, or shame someone based on their looks, or something misogynistic etc. I am none of these things, I’m actively against all of them. But I keep having these intrusive thoughts pop into my head and then I obsess that I will, or already have blurted them out to a stranger or group of strangers. Then I obsess about “well, if I would never say that, but if I had of I would definitely know, I wouldn’t just forget. but what if I did say it and what if I did actually just forget that I said it. Or what if I have Tourette’s syndrome but I just don’t know it and I actually have been blurting these things out?” Gosh it’s exhausting, 15 years of ocd and it seems like there’s no end in sight.

There’s so many different forms and shapes OCD can take. I’ve had this issue a few times, but it doesn’t seem i stick. Usually, it’s when I’m in a place like a work meeting or somewhere where the consequences of acting out would be significant. It’s never if I’m just sitting at home. Imaginal exposures can help in this situation. Writing out a script that relives or imagines the type of scenario you’re talking about, only in the script you do act out on the thoughts or lose control.

Omg the what if I did something inappropriate and now I'm just blocking it out thing hits home, I get that fear all the time. I can relate it back to being an obnoxious drunk once at a party and one time as a kid where I absentmindedly told really loud annoying people to be quiet in the theatre once and got in shit for it and couldn't even remember having done it. Best thing you can do is cut it off at the obsessing bit. Resisting the urge to work out whether it's true even though you're HIGHLY anxious will help your brain stop treating it as if the thoughts are genuine threats which need to be brought to your attention. So you'll get them less. It's like when people say "you are now breathing manually". Thinking about it can lead to panic, pushing your mind away and towards something else makes you forget, and makes it less scary the next time.

I have this!