- Date posted
- 4y
- Date posted
- 4y
For me personally I’ve noticed the internal dialogue about being a bad person is another form of rumination. I think it’s good to bring these things up when you’re able to your therapist. It could be helpful to try and write a story about the memory and read it over and over for 40 minutes a day. Watch how and when the anxiety peaks and when it drops. Eventually you will habituate to the memory and your response to it will change. I’ve learned that it isn’t the actual memory or action that is the problem, but my response to it that is the problem. My anxiety around the grey areas of life. OCD wants black and white thinking, but in reality everyone makes mistakes and there are no completely good or completely bad people.
- Date posted
- 4y
I'll try that out. I never really thought of it that way. thanks for the insight.
- Date posted
- 4y
@struggling but still here No problem! Also, I’m not a therapist so I wouldn’t try doing the writing exposure until you talk with your therapist about it. I don’t want to make your OCD worse!
- Date posted
- 4y
@ohseedee for sure yeah
- Date posted
- 4y
This is a common issue in my OCD. Sometimes I have random memories come up about things I’ve said or done and they are accompanied by severe anxiety. My ocd tells me terrible things about myself and then I feel the need to confess these “bad actions” to everyone in my life to gauge how terrible I am. If you’re not careful the confession will lead to severe compulsions where you cannot do anything without confession and reassurance. It’s “real event OCD” and “moral Scrupulosity “.
- Date posted
- 4y
thanks for taking the time to comment. it's comforting to know I'm not alone
- Date posted
- 4y
You aren’t alone. My experiences may differ, but I know what it’s like to get STUCK, and I know how consuming and soul-wrenching it is to even have the OCD voice say, “you’re a terrible person.” Maybe this answer will help quiet that a little, maybe it won’t, but terrible people don’t usually beat themselves up worrying that they are terrible. Strength and comfort your way. 💪🏼💜
- Date posted
- 4y
thank you :) means a lot
Related posts
- Date posted
- 23w
Hi. I am going through something really hard right now, and I could use some insight, especially from others who deal with OCD and morality-based spirals. There was a time during a really emotional conversation with my boyfriend when he said something incredibly painful. He said something like he only felt lust for me but did not feel love anymore. I was completely crushed. It felt like everything I believed about our relationship was ripped out from under me. In that moment, I told him that what he said felt like rape. I want to be really clear. I knew even then that it was not a good or accurate comparison. It was not assault. I was trying to express how emotionally violated and broken I felt, and that word came out. I even labeled it directly, not just compared it, and that is what has been haunting me. I feel like I kept going along with it, not because I wanted to lie or manipulate, but because I felt like if I backed down from it, he would not understand the depth of how hurt I was. He didn’t seem to understand any other way. Later, when we tried to be intimate again, I told him not to touch me. And even though a part of me did want closeness, I still felt like I had to react that way, like I had to follow through with what I had said earlier. I wanted so bad for him to understand the impact of his words. That part is killing me. It makes me feel like I was not being authentic, that I was performing a reaction instead of living it. I feel like I acted like a survivor when I was not one, and I hate myself for that. Now, OCD is eating me alive over it. It keeps telling me I am a liar, a manipulator, and someone who cannot be trusted. And it feels so real. But I also know I was hurting. I was not trying to deceive anyone. I was just overwhelmed, desperate to be understood, and probably influenced by years of invalidation from my family over almost everything. I have talked to my boyfriend about it and apologized. He told me he understands and forgives me. But I cannot forgive myself, and I do not know if what I did is forgivable. Has anyone ever been in a similar place? I feel so so awful this was 3 years ago. Now I feel like I can’t trust any of my emotions. I’m analyzing every reaction, past and present, trying to decide if it was “real enough” or if I was somehow dishonest. It feels like OCD has completely hijacked my sense of self. Please help :(
- Harm OCD
- Mid-life adults with OCD
- Relationship OCD
- Religion & Spirituality OCD
- OCD newbies
- Young adults with OCD
- Older adults with OCD
- Real Events OCD
- Date posted
- 22w
17f I have a lot of events, but my main and my worst one which is absolutely fucking diabolical was done when I was 14 and repeated when I was 16. Everytime I post something about real event ocd here people are like you are probably didn't do anything that bad, and when they hear what I did they are like yeah that's bad. Someone even asked me if I'm autistic cause "it's crazy how you didn't realize that the thing ypu were doing was wrong at this age." And I kinda agree, like it's fucked up It's just that my event is bad. Doesn't mean I don't have real event ocd. You can have a reocd over the event that was bad, it doesn't mean the event wasn't that bad or you don't have recod. It's just people always expect it to be something innocent and it's not Even a healthy person would feel guilty over it, it's just that I had ocd my whole life and it's making the guilt absolutely destructive, like to the point when I sometimes have a hard time breathing when I think about it, I lost more than a year of life to it, almost checked myself out couple of times if I wasn't so scared of pain/failure, the event haunts me in my dreams, it's in my head 24/7 and I will never able to forgive myself. That ocd. But the event itself was bad. So maybe i deserve it.
- Date posted
- 19w
Hey guys, for the past three months I’ve been obsessing over a mistake I made about 6 months ago, I constantly have panic attacks and wake up in fight or flight mode I have convinced myself that someone is gonna find me somehow and punish me. I have endlessly looked up reassurance that what I did wouldn’t get me in trouble or something, I have filled up 5 different ChatGPT chats and it tells me it’s 100% certain nothing will happen. But then I convince myself well everyone says not to trust it and then I just spiral again. The point is I’m just scared, I’ve convinced myself this isn’t OCD because it’s something I actually did wrong. I can’t stop looking for reassurance because that’s the only thing that makes me feel safe anymore. Everyone tells me, just say maybe, maybe not, but my brain has convinced me the stakes are too high. I’m too scared and I don’t know what to do.
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