- Username
- Strawberree
- Date posted
- 3y ago
I completely agree! I’ve had OCD and intrusive thoughts my entire life and some just don’t understand. I have my episodes every six months and I’m having a hard time right now. I don’t ask for advice unless it’s a therapist or someone I know that has anxiety. The problem for me is that I have the most severe case of it, out of my entire family and even when I ask they seem to not understand. Also I’m the only one in the household with anxiety/ OCD and it takes a toll on me. I hope this comforts and helps you because I truly understand what you’re going through since I’ve had every type of OCD about everything such as contamination, intrusive bad thoughts, and constant checking to make sure I locked the door and etc. Have a great day and know that we will get through this together!!
Don’t listen to them. It takes a lot of strength to live with this. It’s like being tortured by your own subconscious. If they were able to feel what you felt for even a few moments I guarantee that their whole perspective would change ❤️
Thank you for your comment :) I have intrusive thoughts, and in the past they have ruined me as a person, and I'm still so heartbroken about it, because it's so hard to break through this discomfort sometimes. And I had to rebuild myself from the bottom up. And to hear that crap from people like my coworker who is free from that anguish makes me feel kinda terrible. Hes lucky he doesnt have to go through it..
Thanks Isabella, I think you're right about that. My other therapist (I'm seeing 2) told me I show extreme resilience, which I believe people like us must have in order to keep going
Hey there - thank you so much for your vulnerability in sharing. Your strength is definitely seen - especially in being willingly to share your struggles with a coworker, even though they didn’t respond as we would have liked. It always makes me so sad the lack of knowledge that there is around OCD which is why we are working so hard to bring more advocacy to it! Keep staying strong my friend!
Thanks for your comment Becca, I've tried to allow myself (within reason) to be vulnerable, because being honest about everything is the only way I can get help and also hopefully encourages others to do the same. To allow myself to face all sorts of feelings including the negative ones helps a lot. The same type of concept goes for recovering from ocd I'd say, dont you think? :)
Absolutely - wonderful insight!
Hello dear friends. I hadn't been on this app for a while, I've been getting by. Today I just need to vent and to feel validated and understood. I have OCD, I consider myself in permanent recovery. It is an everyday job. I am ina relationship with a wonderful guy. I deeply love and care about him, but he doesn't understand anything about OCD. I've explained it to him a million times. I've directed him to online resources. I've talked him through what to do to help me get out of a loop without giving me reassurance. And yet, he never knows what to say or do when an episode appears. It is tiring to pull myself out of the loop and then having yo explain to him what just happened to me, over and over again. I think, in general, he lacks empathy for other people's feelings, but, when it comes to me, I can see that he tries but achieves nothing. I think I don't have ROCD, I have diverse thoughts. But the last few weeks this thought got into my mind: what if he has met someone else and they are texting each other and flirting and he's gonna leave me? (He left his girl to start a new relationship with me). And he are apart due to the covid-19 epidemic, so we didn't see each other almost at all during last year. Of course, I had been able to keep this particular thought to myself, buy yesterday, it just came out of my mind after him not picking up the phone. He was in shock. He reacted defensively (which I completely understand), replied that he had nothing to explain to me as to why he couldn't answer the phone when I called him and that we was surprised that I asked him such a thing (if the reason why he didn't answer me was that he was talking to someone else). I knew it was just an OCD thought of mine, but I just couldn't keep it to myself any longer. Of course, I apologized to him and had to explain it had been an OCD thought. He was supporting and understanding and told me everything was ok and to forget about it. This morning I feel sad that he couldn't recognize this for what it was despite all the explaining I have done. I have dealt with my ocd on my own, despite being in a relationship. I just needed to vent and would like to read your thoughts about this whole thing. Thank you in advance for reading and replying.
How do you decide with whom/when/how much you share about your OCD? I haven't shared with one of my friends, as she has had less-than-supportive responses when I've shared other medical/mental health things with her. She recently made some comments about OCD (you know the ones - "I love to plan and organize. I'm so OCD."). When reading her texts I was seething, as those sorts of comments are so diminishing and hurtful. I know that she doesn't mean harm by these things, so part of me wants to tell her how I've been battling OCD (the real kind, not the kind that likes to color coordinate socks) for the past year. I want to explain why "I'm so OCD" makes me so freaking angry. But if I do this, I take the risk of her not supporting me in the way I would expect. I take the risk of her thinking "What's the big deal. We're all a little OCD." Is it worth it, or do I just go on and try to ignore those comments? What experiences (positive and negative) have you all had when sharing about your OCD with others?
I’m fairly new to treating my OCD and have felt crazy for most of my life. It didn’t help that no one in my life truly understood OCD and always said I was being dramatic. I very recently (within the past few months) finally got diagnosed with OCD and my whole life started to make sense. However, I recently opened up to someone I really believed I trusted about the intrusive thoughts I have and now feel worse than I ever have before. They essentially called me a psychopath and said they are worried for the people around me. Even though I would and could never hurt anyone. I’ve never felt more alone and broken in my life. I already try very hard to hide my OCD and everything associated with it because no one in my life understands so it’s been easier to deal with it myself than listen to everyone say whatever they have to say about my situation. After what happened today I’m even more inclined to just keep it to myself. I don’t know what I’m expecting from writing this but I figure this is the best place to write what I’m feeling. Going through OCD is hard enough on it’s own. But when people are telling you they think you’re a danger to society and are crazy because of your intrusive thoughts it really hurts. I’m just tired.
Share your thoughts so the Community can respond