- Username
- pj101
- Date posted
- 5y ago
Omg I get intrusive thoughts like that too. I’m 13 rn but I’m too scared to tell my parents because my ocd didn’t get a lot worse until December. My parents won’t understand it. Did you do therapy?
How did you overcome that? Would you please like to guide or explain?
I am not suffering from OCD but the person I loved the most is suffering since last 13 years and he told me now and I just want to know how I can help him to overcome this
@shanza Ali Yes, with much pleasure ?. As long a journey from age 12 to 21 with this disorder, something that helped me (which what my therapist told me) was to think of intrusive thoughts as “tics”. The point of this is that, tics are just things that are there but they have no meaning. So every time a “weird” thought came in (for example, let’s say an insane intrusive thought of the devil slapping you in the butt; I know it’s weird but that’s the crazy reality of our intrusive thoughts), you have to know that it’s meaningless. It doesn’t mean anything even though it’s there....like a tic. So I applied that concept and I felt much better. Also, KNOWING that you didn’t put the thought of “God is stupid” in your own head on purpose really helps you believe that intrusive thoughts is not your own doing but rather the doing of something wrong with your brain. Not your soul, but rather the fault of your brain. It takes practice day by day to distract yourself into normal thinking.
@cgislander Hey there! I did get therapy BUT it wasn’t until I was 18, unfortunately. And wow, you are very young! Yes, very likely, parents will not understand it at first. But I personally believe it’s very important to open up to them at some point! My parents were able to understand my disorder more after a long journey. They were sad and in denial about it because they didn’t want their children to have such an illness (as I don’t either!) But they were supportive! What meant a lot was that they understand mental disorders are just as real as cancer. People like you need all the support you can get! I went to my first therapy session with my mom?
hey yall!! i’m new to this app and it’s so comforting to see many others share similar experiences that i’ve went through to start this off, my ocd rooted from religion when i was around 9 years old. i have a huge family, mostly catholic, so growing up i believed in god due to my surroundings (they were never forceful w religion). it began with intrusive thoughts like “do ___ or you’ll go to hell” or intrusive thoughts that would make me do things or else i’d be disrespecting god which, as a child, terrified me. then it went on to my extreme fear of germs. i would wash my hands constantly and use hand sanitizer every second to a point where my hands were cracked and bleeding. i had to see a dermatologist in order for the skin on my hands to go back to normal. growing up my intrusive thoughts became extremely overwhelming (especially as a teenager), having to do with sexuality, not knowing if what i remembered was real or if my mind was making it up, relationship ocd, thoughts ab me/ a loved one being harmed, ocd about sexual things, etc etc. i always felt so gross bc of these things as i had thought that i was the only one who experienced this. i’m so glad i’ve found a community where so many of us can relate to these things, as i feel so comfortable and not alone. i’m currently still a teenager and have managed to handle my intrusive thoughts a little better, but i do have an extreme amount of anxiety as well, a lot of it surrounding those intrusive thoughts. i can’t really get therapy due to personal reasons but i’m grateful i can vent in a safe space:) i feel so welcomed on this app, i hope all of you are well <3
So, this may not be everyone’s cup of tea. But eight years ago after getting out of the military. I was very ill, my walking around weight now is 219-225 I love food. At that time I was 159 I thought I had cancer I couldn’t keep food down. I spent more time going to that bathroom than living. The VA thought it would be good to put me on muscle relaxers, it did the opposite affect. It made me worse almost to the point where I almost lost control and took my own life. Fast forward eight years later and the fear of losing control is what is consistently on my mind. I do rituals to make sure the door is locked, I have to watch my groceries at all times because I feel like someone might poison me. I have to put my clothes on a certain way or else I feel like I might lose control. So, this is my life right now I had my first appointment today and I can feel some light at the end of the tunnel. I know erp therapy is going to be rough. But I just want my life back. To all suffering from this terrible thing called ocd keep fighting and turn to God, it really does help me when the anxiety kicks up. Love you all and remember the valley is only temporary and the sun shines brightest at the peak. Don’t give up.
Hey everyone! I’m new here and thought that it might help to get my OCD story off my chest. My intrusive thoughts are so bad that I never want to talk about them to anyone so maybe that’s why I’m here. When I was 13 my grandma was in the hospital. She was my best friend in the whole world. I imagined so much life with her. I remember pulling into the hospital one day with my Dad and immediately knocking on “wood” (the car door) to help put me at ease about my grandmas health before going in. I knocked on wood because everyone knows that’s what you do when you don’t want something to happen. I didn’t want anything bad to happen to her so bad that all I could think about in that moment was something bad happening. So I knocked on wood. It made me feel better so I kept doing it whenever I had bad thoughts. But then it going confusing. If this was helping ease these thoughts, why was I starting to have these thoughts more frequently? 13 year old me didn’t understand what I was doing or why these bad thoughts started. It had got so bad that I was knocking on wood every second of the day, every surface I came across that felt right, and if I didn’t I would force myself to turn around and touch that surface. I would have to knock on wood 8 times every single time but the 7 would have two knocks because the word 7 have two syllables. But then the 8 times wouldn’t be enough, I still wouldn’t feel satisfied so I would do it again and again and again until my entire day was overpowered by intrusive thoughts or knocking on wood. My family and friends started to notice, asking why I do it. I would always avoid the question or make a joke out of it because I couldn’t tell them these terrible thoughts I was having. I was so deeply afraid of something bad happening to the people I love the most or myself that it was debilitating. A couple years later I noticed how bad it had gotten and wanted a change. So I forced myself to stop knocking. I would tell myself angrily that nothing bad would happen if I don’t knock. It took me a lot of convincing and small steps to realize this, but it worked. I got better. I went to the doctors office at about 15 and told them everything. How I did this but how I solved this. They told me it takes great mental strength to be able to fight something in your brain like that. I have always been so mentally strong but hearing them say that made me feel so much better. And I was better. For years. Yea I went through times when it was bad again but it was so much better. The past couple years it has gotten worse again. I noticed that it gets worse when my anxiety about things is higher. New changes, new people, new things. Now, at 21 I won’t let myself get back to the point I was when I was 13, but recently I can’t seem to keep the intrusive thoughts out. I am so terrified of myself or someone else getting hurt of getting older that I put the whole toll on myself. I am so so so happy with my life right now that I don’t want anything to change. That is why it’s been so bad recently. Life is amazing which is why I only want it to get better and I’m so scared something might get in the way of that. I realized after talking to my friends that I never want to say my intrusive thoughts out-loud because I believe strongly in speaking things into existence so I only speak good things out loud. That’s how I’ve always been. But when I talked with my friend she said she’s the opposite, she says the bad things out loud because then you jinx them and they won’t happen. Her saying that gave me a little peace because it made me realize that it’s okay to get these things off my chest and that saying these things out loud isn’t so serious, it’s not life or death like I thought it was. Honestly, the weight of getting my story off my chest has already helped me feel a little lighter of a load on myself.
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