- Date posted
- 3y ago
- Date posted
- 3y ago
I totally understand what you mean. For me it's difficult to sometimes emotionally understand the ups and downs of OCD. Some days I feel so calm (I will still have intrusive thoughts) and I question whether I have OCD or not, but I'm not necessarily having an anxiety/panic attack and other days might be more difficult to manage. I asked this question on a Youtube NOCD live session one time and the therapist that was talking on the live session said there is no right or wrong time to seek therapy. If you have questions, worries or doubts you won't lose anything by talking to a professional to gain more perspective on the next step you could take. It ultimately goes back to your decision. For me even when I feel calm I still remind myself of the important skills that I need to learn in order to manage my intrusive thoughts because at the end of the day I still struggle to manage them in general. Even if I feel calm, I can still learn how to manage my intrusive thoughts in throughout my life in general. I hope this helps. Wishing you the best.
- Date posted
- 3y ago
Itās great that you donāt have that much anxiety. Iāve heard that itās hard for some people to adjust to the lack of anxiety and feel a void. Is that you? I donāt think thatās me but Iāve been really good about controlling my ocd and think about this to though. But when I do have phases anxiety I wish I had a therapist who already understood me, or think that maybe I wouldnāt have had that phase if I did have one. I decided even if itās weird at first Iām going to get one. Iām looking right now
- Date posted
- 3y ago
My anxiety waxes and wanes. Ok, so currently I have a lot of obsessions and compulsions surrounding the fear of my mother dying, but these fears do not feel as terrifying and torturous as my Pure O obsessions
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 3y ago
My anxiety has also tended to wax and wane and that kept me from seeking therapy for years. When it was really bad, I'd tell myself I would start as soon as the anxiety felt manageable enough to engage. But of course when that happened, I would feel like maybe I did not need therapy or was close to recovering on my own. I'm a few weeks into therapy now and, fwiw, I wish I would have started years ago.
- Date posted
- 3y ago
Lately, my OCD has been telling me "You don't deserve to be in treatment because your OCD is moderate. You should quit and let someone whose symptoms are more severe take your place.
Related posts
- Date posted
- 24w ago
Hey, Iāve been doing some research on OCD and think I may have it. Iām not 100% sure, but I have a lot of the symptoms. I want to get myself diagnosed, but my parents wonāt let me. They agree that itās very likely that I have OCD, but they think that if I try hard enough, I can get over it. I donāt know what to do anymore or if what I have even is OCD, and I want to be somewhat sure before a I do anything. Right now, Iām a junior in high school, but freshman year was when my āOCDā was the most severe. I think I had (and still do) the symmetry/order subtype and ājust rightā subtype. I was obsessed with writing things neatly to a point in which I kept forcing myself to erase and rewrite things until all the letters were straight and all the graphs were neatly drawn (typing wasnāt safe either because I use Notability and felt the need to align every text box and make them all the same length). Handwriting was especially a problem in calculus A, and it got to a point in which I couldnāt keep up with the notes, and the homework was taking hours a night because I was obsessed with making my work perfect. Needless to say, I didnāt get a good grade in calculus A and didnāt build a good foundation for future math classes. This makes me really sad because I was previously really good at math and had a bright future in the subject. Eventually, I just stopped trying in calculus A, but by then, I felt burnt out, couldnāt concentrate on anything, kept putting things off, and lost the ability to properly manage my time. I think it may have escalated to executive dysfunction at that point, and it carried over to all my other classes. As someone who was previously pretty productive and good at planning, this was a huge hit on my self-esteem. I was also obsessed with symmetry. If I touched one side of my body, I had to touch the other side in the exact same place. If I was coding something, I would have to evenly distribute touch across each key on the keyboard. It felt like everything was a heatmap, and the colors had to be kept in balance at all times. I also avoided odd numbers because they were considered āasymmetricalā. I was obsessed with routine and had to complete tasks in a certain way, a certain order, and a certain amount of time. Even something as small as combing my hair for five minutes instead of six caused me extreme distress. Writing one word that āsounded offā on an English paper left me unable to keep writing until I fixed it. I had to keep the sound of my phone at a certain volume (6 normally, 10 when exercising, and 12 when cleaning, divide everything by 2 when using a computer) and had to walk a round number (any number that ends in 0) of steps a day. I kid you not when I say that some days I woke up and didnāt want to live anymore. Sophomore year, my mental health improved and I probably seemed overly perfectionistic but not to a point of concern. However, this year, the handwriting issue relapsed in all its glory during physics, and Iām not able to keep up with notes or homework. I feel the same way that I did in calculus A, and I donāt want history to repeat itself. I want to ask my teacher to let me do my homework on paper rather than the iPad (itās easier for me to write on paper due to increased friction), but Iām scared to ask because I donāt have a formal diagnosis. I donāt know what causes my behavior. I feel like if I canāt do things perfectly, no one will like me. Iāll lose all my friends, and no boy will ever want to go out with me. I know itās irrational. Literally no one cares what my notes look like or how long I spend on each step of my morning routine or whatever, but I constantly feel like people are judging me and will hate me the second I mess up. There are two more times in my life that I can think of when I displayed symptoms of OCD, contamination OCD when I was 9 and pure/religious/magical thinking/health concern OCD (they all just kind morphed together) when I was 11. I can go into more detail if you wish. As of now, I just want to know my behavior sounds like OCD, and if so, how to more forward. If not, I would love to know what I do have and how to treat it. Thank you so much.
- Date posted
- 13w ago
Iām positive I have OCD I donāt think get too many compulsions but the obsessions are what mess with me. Iāve recently started medication for depression that is as a side effects supposed to treat ocd but Iām not noticing anything with the symptoms. Also who do I go to to try to get an actual diagnosis?
- Date posted
- 10w ago
I've never seen a therapist or been diagnosed, so I went surfing through to find this community. I've seen a lot of OCD symptoms written online. Here is what I experience that I feel may be OCD. If any of you guys agrees, please let me know. I have only ever been able to call my mom by her first name. I have never been able to not do that. She tried to make me call her mom once as a kid but it felt so wrong that I started crying. Everytime I see a wet floor sign, I say "piso mojado" out loud. I have plenty of harsh intrusive thoughts, such as committing acts of violence when I see people not using their turn signals, interrupting performers at a concert. I make myself re-press on my phone alarms 10-12 times each day in the same rythym until it feels fully set to go off. Light switches get flicked off and on, I can't stand not doing it. I have to double-check everything and make myself re-look through the same drawers at work for hours. I love to write, but I never get far because I need approval from others. My head is also always filled to the brim with thoughts which has made writing and things like memory a lot harder. I can't use spoons. I can only use forks for almost everything. I can't stand them. That's all I can think of for right now. Please let me know what you guys think. Thanks!
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