- Date posted
- 3y ago
- Date posted
- 3y ago
I was exactly the same. OCD was never even on my radar. I knew very little about the disorder. I was thought people with OCD involved washing your hands all the time and being super neat and organized. I never had either of those. I listened to a podcast where a woman named Meghan shared about living with OCD. The podcast did sometimes delve into mental illness, but it was not the main focus. I didn't want to believe I could really have OCD. So I started doing research to prove to myself I didn't have it. It did the opposite. The more I learned about OCD, the more things started to come together for me. I realized that I had been having intrusive thoughts and doing compulsion since I was 8. I am now 45. I do have a couple behavioral compulsions like checking and counting. But for the most part, my compulsions are mental. Rumination is a huge one for me. I always go right to the worst possible scenario and my mind spirals down into endless what ifs. The intrusive thoughts come as phrases and images. I constantly worry that I have offended someone by something I said or did. I overly apologize for things that usually aren't even a issue. Avoidance is a huge one for me. I have never had a driver's license because I am constantly afraid I will have a panic attack behind the wheel or that I will be involved in an accident or that I will injure or kill someone. This has made me rely on other people and simple tasks take way longer than they wood if I could drive. I really like watching true crime. I have had intrusive thoughts as a result, so I stopped watching it. My mind constantly spins. There are many examples I can give. But here is a very recent one from a few weeks ago. I used my Echo and had Alexa, set a timer for 4:00. But I forgot to say 4pm. So I accidentally set it for 4 in the morning. It woke me up. At first, I thought it was my ceiling fan, but I realized it was something else, so I better check it out. It only went off 3 or 4 times. Less than 5 minutes. I had a thought. What if I woke up the single mom and her 6 to old daughter who live above me? What if she complains to the landlord and I get evicted from my apartment? I laid awake for the next two hours worrying that was going to happen. I also have an obsession that centers around throwing up both myself and others. I would find myself quoting a Bible verse out loud to calm myself. That is a compulsion. When I would have a nightmare, I would have to say "Good dreams only" exactly 8 times. That is a compulsion. Anything that you use to relieve your anxiety is a compulsion.
- Date posted
- 3y ago
Asking for reassurance and mentally reviewing things is symptoms of OCD. OCD isn’t just some cleaning disease, it’s tormenting obsessions and intrusive thoughts or just constant rumination. I hope that helps. Also do some research, it would help you understand your symptoms. I didn’t think I had OCD before due to the stereotypes and was kind of surprised when I put two and two together.
- Date posted
- 3y ago
Thank you for replying.. just researching now and noting down the things I feel or experiences ive had so I can start to understand!
- Date posted
- 3y ago
Thank you for replying and sharing your example. Rumination is a big one for me I also think about the worse case scenario and then seek reassurance. Similar to your situation my car alarm went off one night I went out to check and there was nothing it went off again so this time I left the car unlocked... and lay awake then thinking that I'd woken the neighbours and their new baby and that they would complain about me to the council.. even though I know that wouldnt happen.
Related posts
- Date posted
- 13w ago
So, I know my capacity to get fixated on things. And it's normally something that's relatively remote but, my latest issue is really getting to me and I was wondering if people have any advice. I'm avoiding getting too into specifics, as I don't want this to get reassurance-y but, in essence.. I came to the realisation recently that people who I'd been "friends" (feels like the wrong term now) when I was younger were not very nice people, and normalized a lot of very unpleasant behaviour towards other members of the group. They really normalized it, sold themselves as figures of authority, as older and more responsible and grown-up than others, and looking back, they acted horribly. And coming to this realisation, that I'd been manipulated into just accepting their behaviour has just... broken me. My OCD has latched onto it and I can't stop feeling irreversibly tainted by it. I've talked to others about it, and they've reassured me, told me it's not a big deal and that I hold myself to too high a standard, but none of that sticks. I feel better for a bit, then think 'Maybe when you told them you were skewing it to make yourself look better' or 'Did you leave out a crucial detail'. I keep ruminating over and over, trying to remember exactly how everything played out, trying to figure out if I fed into the behaviour, if I did something bad myself (because y'know, I feel like I was accepting of it at the time, so what does it say about my own values?). I know I need to stop doing all this if I want to improve, but then some part of me keeps saying 'So, you're just going to let yourself off the hook then?' Normally, I can rationalize my own fears to some degree, assure myself something won't happen, but the realness of the situation, and the fact I only came to understand the reality of it because the thought had been bothering me means it feels so much more all-encompassing. I know confessing in itself is a compulsion, but I keep feeling that if I'm not I'm somehow concealing what I 'really am' from others around me, and any positive interactions are me deceiving them in some way. I feel like I can't enjoy anything in life right now, and a good part of me feels I should not enjoy it ever again. If anybody has any advice on it, I'm all ears. Or even hearing if you relate to these feelings, I might appreciate the solidarity at least.
- Date posted
- 12w ago
so i was on instagram and it came up with other signs of ocd then someone commented this doesn’t mean you have ocd now im stressed that its not ocd background - i had so-ocd for a few years then got treatment for it but am now on the waiting list for further treatment for other stuff but i dont have another theme which makes me feel like its not ocd my day to day life consists of touching the door handle every time you go past it or someone will die, and inability to send emails without re reading loads of times and getting other people to check because im scared i wrote something bad but the what if it’s not ocd thought is triggering me now and i don’t know what do
- Date posted
- 10w ago
This list by ai gives a good summary of my symptoms. Does it resemble OCD or is it something else? 1. Compulsions (OCD-specific behaviors): • Feeling the need to flex or contract muscles an even number of times, equally on both sides of your body. • Needing to reverse actions (for example, if you roll your eyes or trace a line with your finger, you feel compelled to do it again in the exact opposite way). 2. Intrusive Thoughts (OCD-specific ruminations): • Daydreaming about people you care about getting hurt (e.g., school shooting, injury, or kidnapping). • Sometimes feeling like you might want something bad to happen to someone you find attractive—possibly because of a desire to help or save them, though it’s confusing. • These thoughts can sometimes provide a twisted sense of relief while remaining distressing and confusing. 3. Sexual Orientation OCD: • Experiencing confusion or doubt about your sexual orientation. 4. Contamination Thoughts: • Feeling like things are contaminated, especially after touching something gross. 5. Sensory Compulsions: • Feeling the need to smell your hand after touching areas like your ear or hair. 6. ADHD-like Symptoms / Additional Observations: • Fidgeting or moving your legs when standing or sitting.
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