Happy Sunday y’all! My therapist suggested that I “name” my ocd to help further separate it from my identity. I was thinking Karen? Lol. Seems appropriate as an overbearing “friend” who thinks they know everything. Does anyone else do this? And if so, what are the names you have chosen?

Yep. One for each subtype. No offense to anyone who has these names, of course - I'm sure you're a lovely human, and any connection is coincidence. I figured out some time ago that I have about five little voices - James frets that we're contaminated, Laura demands unattainable moral correctness, Sydney insists that we want to do a lot of things that we don't actually want to do, Roxanne constantly thinks we’re going to suffer from some kind of illness, and every so often, Rob panics over existential unknowns. I found that changing the name in accordance with the theme was helpful because different obsessions affect my anxiety in slightly different ways - they don't all feel quite the same. Anyone notice the same thing?

this is a very common way to combat OCD. i think it helps separate us from our OCD. this way when the thoughts start happening, we can identify that our brain is playing silly tricks again. karen definitely is a funny choice :) i hope it helps!

I have done this because it feels like a second person in my head who is really mean. I named her shela

I named my OCD when I was around 6 or 7 and I named him "Chilly Pilly." 😂

Also no offense to anyone actually named Karen of course!! ♥️

I named mine Martha because of the OverSimplified Civil War videos with the constant yelling at Martha lmao

Mine is Stan. Satan’s half brother lol

Mines queenie as she try’s to rule my head but I’m afraid she’s not going to win 🤷‍♀️

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Good idea! I like using Karen 😀

Mine is Gertrude