This is half a vent session, half me asking for advice but: My OCD symptoms started on april 2020, one month after the pandemic. that has led me to constantly question whether it’s OCD or anxiety and of course i can’t really diagnose myself but it behaves very differently from anxiety. i’ve also been doing research and reading about OCD for over a year and i honestly honestly think i have OCD because i fit basically all the symptoms? anyways, I finally brought it up to my therapist a few appointments ago and i felt like they kind of dismissed me? not sure if that’s normal. they told me it’s could be because of heightened anxiety and to practice “thought stopping”. that has made me feel sooo bad about myself because i start spiraling and believing my intrusive thoughts MUST be true because of what they said, and because it makes me feel like I’m just using the OCD label for “attention”. i’m not sure if i should bring it up again in a future appointment? or maybe find a new therapist? or maybe I don’t have OCD at all? I don’t know what to do

if you’re suspecting you have ocd i recommended getting diagnosed by an ocd specialist rather than just your regular therapist

If you think you have OCD (which is fine that you are not diagnosed many people in this app aren’t that’s okay), your best bet is seeing an OCD specialist. They are really the only mental health professionals trained well enough to recognize, diagnose, and treat OCD. Many people with OCD that see general therapists have therapy horror stories because general therapists don’t understand OCD and can say things that make it worse. I really really suggest you see an OCD specialist. But I understand. Before I could get diagnosed I felt like a fake. Like I was being over dramatic and making up my label for attention because I have some attention issues from poor self esteem. I get it 100%. It’s all cool.

I've been dealing with OCD and GAD since I was in 6th grade and I'm 19 now, and what I've learned from all of these years of heavy intrusive thoughts and constant worry is that your bad thoughts most likely aren't actually YOU. if the thought of these intrusive thoughts actually being you scares you to the point of you having horrible anxiety over it and doing excessive research just to prove something to yourself 24/7, you're most likely feeding into the OCD. [TW: harm ocd] That's how I was with my harm ocd for such a long time. My OCD would constantly try to convince me that I was some psychopath serial killer all the time, because when I saw knives or scissors or anything I could consider a weapon, I got urges to hurt myself and others, and I still do now, just not to the same degree. What I didn't realize at the time was how much it scared me. I never actually wanted to hurt people, and I still don't, but it's the fact that I could and the thought of "what of you do it and don't feel guilty?" that took over my brain. What you have to do for yourself is separate the OCD from your normal thoughts. Once you realize the difference between the two and do more research on what you may experience with certain types of OCD, it will really calm your nerves about yourself and who you are. I know it worked for me. Just know that your feelings towards all of this are 100% valid and I hope you only make progress to getting back to having a healthy and happy brain~