- Date posted
- 4y
- Date posted
- 4y
Please, please listen to this - I can imagine how isolated you feel. OCD singles out humiliating moments in our lives and puts them on a pedestal and makes them so much more big and powerful than they would EVER need to be. I see that you glaze over the fact that you were a child, but that’s really, really important context. Children do all sorts of embarrassing things that most of us just block out or pretend never happened. I baby sit a lot of children, and you would be surprised at the sorts of things I see regularly, so please don’t think that this is a perverse or abhorrent thing because it’s just childhood behaviour. Children navigate the world and understand themselves in ways that, when you grow up, you look back and think, ‘oh my god, what was I thinking?’. You were a child. I promise you, this is normal behaviour as bizarre as it may seem looking back now you’re older. You don’t need to let this define you, dear god! There’s so much more to your history than that moment. If we all defined ourselves by the actions of our childhood self, we’d all be mortified and ashamed. Just look forward and try and focus on what’s most important, whether that’s school work, friends, family! It doesn’t matter whether intrusive thoughts interrupt, you can live your life with these intrusive thoughts. Try some ERP, and avoid compulsions at all cost - whether that’s trying to find things from your childhood that make you ‘normal’, or coming on here! I’m sending my love, I hope you can grow from this❤️
- Date posted
- 4y
@annonymous I’m so glad I could help, even if it was just a bit. I understand, that’s still curiousity I promise you. Trust me, I’ve seen weirder! I understand this was probably reassurance, but it’s important you knew this because I’m sure it was driving you up the wall. Just remember that from now on, letting this memory exist without the need to interfere with it is what’s gonna be most valuable for you! You’re gonna be okay, give yourself time ❤️
- Date posted
- 4y
@annonymous Yes, this is normal. That's why reassurance doesn't work. Try out what i suggested earlier air telling yourself "yup I'm actually a bad person and i knew what i was doing etc" best of luck. Erp really helps
- Date posted
- 4y
you need to just accept the past and move on as hard as it is, there’s no point in living in the past as it’s stopping you from living right now. You need to accept what you done and move on from it, everyone has done stuff they regret from when they were younger.
- Date posted
- 4y
@annonymous I know it’s hard but no one is going to figure out anything unless you were to tell them. You should just forget it and try not think too deeply about it as you said you were young! It would be different if you still felt that way or done it, and if that was the case I’d suggest talking to a therapist but like you said you were a child! You’re not a shitty person
- Date posted
- 4y
Also, i don't think you're bad, we all do stuff as kids that we look back on and are horrified about.
- Date posted
- 4y
You could also try when these thoughts/ memories pop up telling yourself "yup, I'm a terrible person, I'm the worst and should be canceled" and then just trying to let go and not try to ruminate. When it comes back just say it again. That way you're not trying to figure out if you're bad, etc you're letting your brain know that yup you're done with this thought. It's weird but with ocd if you do the opposite of what you think you should do, that's what helps.
- Date posted
- 4y
We’ve all done stupid, horrible things as children. There is freedom in the Lord. Read Romans in the Bible
Related posts
- Date posted
- 22w
I’m a 23 y/o female who has recently entered a phase of obsessive thoughts of mistakes I’ve made, ranging from events that happened over a decade ago when and I was a kid up to things that happened recently. I feel so much debilitating guilt I can’t do anything or function. I especially feel bad for this one instance. I have always had extremely low self esteem, and I often seek attention and validation especially from men. I like being liked. I find myself trying to act or look cute, or even act somewhat like a pick-me, so that I feel liked. I feel like I may even do this with girls too, but especially guys. I just really like attention, and I’ve been in a stagnant 6 year relationship where I don’t really feel desirable, and I’m very lonely. A few months ago I started playing a game where I met a large group of people and we would all play together everyday. One of the people in particular was a 15/16 year old guy who flirted with me a lot, and I kept my distance because he was so young, and I felt kinda weird talking to someone younger than me, but we would still talk sometimes because we were apart of the same discord group, and I have a problem being stern and confrontational so I didn’t want to be mean or make things awkward in the friend group. Although it made me uncomfortable that he was so young and that I’m nearly a whole decade older than him, and I did make it clear that I was dating someone and I was way too old for him and I would tell him to stop, I wasn’t very stern and I was very lighthearted about it and I even found myself liking the attention I got from him. I was flattered. I liked that he liked me so much even though I knew he was a teenager and I feel like I was maybe even seeking attention from him like I did with the other guys in the group. And when I say seeking attention, I mean that I was acting cute so that I was liked and got attention. Is that considered flirting? Was I flirting with him? Does this make me disgusting? That I liked the attention I got even though he was teenager? That I acted cute around him as well as all the other guys so that he would like me? I feel disgusted with myself. Does this make me a predator? Doesn’t this make me disgusting that I liked attention I got from a teenager? To be fair, I like the attention I get from any guy. I just like feeling liked. But I feel like it makes me disgusting that even though I knew he was a teenager I still liked and was flattered by the attention and was possibly even seeking it out from him. My head is all messed up. I really feel like I’m having an identity crisis. I feel disgusted with myself to the point that I’m nauseous. I’m so ashamed. I’ve been crying nonstop for days on end and I feel truly hopeless. I don’t know how I’m supposed to live my life with this shame and that I’m convinced that makes me a predator or a sick person. I don’t know if I’m overthinking things or not. I just really need some relief because I feel like I’m losing my mind, but I want someone to be honest with me about my actions.
- Date posted
- 21w
I think I know what honestly is what caused my OCD. I’ve never told anyone this but I have to if I want help. When I was either 10 or 11, I think 10 I was at my family’s thanksgiving dinner. Around this time I discovered porn and got addicted. I would watch porn and read erotica. Because of this I guess I wanted to experiment. I feel absolutely horrible just thinking about this but I was playing around with my little cousin, he was around 7 I think and I remember we were playing chase or hide and seek, and I grabbed him and hugged him (something I never done before), and got a boner. I did this for pleasure. That’s all I did that was sexual but I feel so horrible. I try to give myself grace as I was only 10 and didn’t know the consequences of something so disgusting. I keep thinking “what if I went farther and hurt him?”. I talk to him sometimes and he seems comfortable with me and I think he doesn’t even remember this ever happened and just thought I hugged him for some reason all those years ago. I am NOT attracted to him at all but I think this incident and remembering it when I was 14 has caused my OCD such as POCD for all these years. I am 18 now but I feel absolutely horrible. And now it’s even worse because I have been invited to his 15th birthday party in Mexico. I’m traveling all the way to another country just to be near him! Obviously I know I won’t touch him or be innopropriate with him. But what if he has felt uncomfortable with me all this time? He seems fine with me and not uncomfortable around me but still. If I feel as if I go to this trip, I am a horrible person. I don’t know what to do. Am I a horrible person for what I did and continuing to be around him? I remember reading Reddit and Quora stories of similar people who felt horrible and people told them to not feel bad as they were only children and they learned and now know that was wrong and that to not tell anyone as it could only make things extremely awkward.Please help. I know COCSA is a very serious topic that harms people and I feel like a horrible perpetrator now.
- Date posted
- 19w
When I was a child 7-10, I had this wonderful dog. I loved him so much. However sometimes, I would hit him out of either anger or because I liked the way he would lick my hand to say 'sorry'. At age 13, my OCD sparked up badly. I had no idea what it was, but I would bully him. Badly. He was never hurt, but he was agitated. Then I found some kittens and saved them just after turning 14. I let them stay in my room with me for a few weeks to help them. One very early morning, however, they raged me so bad that I began hitting them nonstop. They didn't cry, nor do run away. Hell, all of my pets were never ever scared of me. They loved me for some reason. For so long I've been doing my best to help animals and adore my pets, and I've sworn to never EVER hurt an animal again. I love them so much. I remember though I would never hit them so hard to make them cry out, because I've been inflicting the way I hit them onto my arms and thighs to see how bad it hurt, and gladly, it didn't really hurt. Stung a bit, at most, but doesn't make what I did anymore okay. Do I deserve my babies anymore? Do I deserve to even live? I feel so ashamed and I don't want to use my OCD as an excuse, nor say that maybe I was traumatised because of it because people have been through worse than me, so I don't want to compare. Any small comment will do, thank you for reading
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