- Date posted
- 3y ago
- Date posted
- 3y ago
Hello! I am so sorry you are going through this. False memories is one of my biggest themes so I definitely know how hard it can be. The only way to deal with them is to accept the uncertainty. I can probably imagine that you are trying to put all the pieces together and trying your best to remember everything. The truth is, you will never know. The more you try to go back to the memory, the more real it will feel and you will start to add all these false details to the point where you’re confused. I know it makes it harder when you think you did something horrific, but if I can offer any peace to your healing it would be that 2 months ago I had the worst time in my life relating to false memory. I was so disgusted and so totured by my mind. Today, I don’t even think about it. It doesn’t affect me like it did 2 months ago and that’s because I had to accept that maybe I did do the thing I’m so worried about. There was no way that I would remember it perfectly and that in itself help me understand that I needed to move on. I hope one day you can find peace and serenity. This too shall pass and I’m rooting for you. 🤍🤍
- Date posted
- 3y ago
Thank you so much for this advice, you have no idea how much it helped. Sometimes I feel terrible because it comes to my mind that I can't go on living if I have done this bad thing, I have been for three days now with a lot of anxiety and it's like there is no way out. I hate so much having to deal with POCD.
- Date posted
- 3y ago
@mar3 I’m glad I could help! I literally had a false memory last night 🙈 These thoughts are so common!! I know the feeling of thinking, “How can I move on” and “How can I live normally not knowing if I did something just horrific and immoral.” That is what I thought two months ago when I was in a dark place. Now, the thought doesn’t hold as much pain so I hope that can be an example of letting you know there IS a way out. Trust me! Just keep fighting the thoughts and staying strong. Much love 🤍🤍
- Date posted
- 3y ago
@LUNA ✨ I'll keep trying! Thank you very much!!
- Date posted
- 3y ago
Omg I can relate to this chat so much. To speak plainly, I get so afraid that what if I’ve molested a child when I was a teenager. The thought occurred to me when I was 20 and made me spiral because why would I have that thought if it wasn’t true. And I’ve done ERP for it and I was in recovery but this winter it’s flaring up again and I’ve been trying to resist compulsions and trying to figure out the memory but it feels real. Today I had the thought “only you know the truth” and it was so freaking scary because I don’t know the truth but it’s like I have to figure it out, and yet I know that I can’t because it’s been five years since I had that awful thought and started obsessing over it. And similarly, I think I may have had an intrusive thought at the time “like oh yeah that’s what P’s do to kids” or something but I don’t remember wanting to harm a child at all.
- Date posted
- 3y ago
What happened to me is very similar to your situation, the difference is that it is more recent. I was with my cousin and my aunt and just out of the blue a bad and disgusting thought came to my mind and since then I keep asking myself "What if I did something bad to this child?" it is just too suffocating. I understand the feeling of "only you know the truth"
- Date posted
- 3y ago
@mar3 I understand, my incident would have happened 10ish years ago so my brain says it’s even harder to remember and that I did it and just “forgot about it” It’s very suffocating but I’m working on ERP again, just did a script and yesterday reading it felt awful like it was making it real. Reading it today for the 2nd time is easier. We can live without knowing I promise
- Date posted
- 3y ago
@halespineapple18 How do you make this script? I want to try to do ERP but I don't know exactly how
- Date posted
- 3y ago
@mar3 I have a therapist! She helped me write it two years ago and this month I just rewrote it under her direction to get more exposure. I would recommend getting a therapist because doing ERP the first time is very overwhelming
- Date posted
- 3y ago
@mar3 You basically just write out the scene exactly how ocd says it happened and then you have to sit with the anxiety of accepting it and not trying to figure it out or analyze it
- Date posted
- 3y ago
@halespineapple18 Got it! Well, I'll try to see a therapist then. Thank you very much for the conversation and the tips, I feel that the anxiety is decreasing little by little
- Date posted
- 3y ago
@mar3 Of course! My ocd always presents in the “past” with false memories it feels harder but it’s still just ocd
- Date posted
- 3y ago
I struggle with this too, and it’s really, really hard. I did something really gross when I believe I was 15, and I’ve done a lot of gross things before and after, but the thing that bothers me the most is that if I did what my brain told me to do, then I would absolutely k*ll myself. I think I may have had a thought that day and may have thought, “Ew that’s gross, I would never forgive myself” but I’m scared I may have wanted to do it, idk, but I hate myself so much
- Date posted
- 3y ago
I feel the same way :/ The need for a way to know if I did something bad is so suffocating, it's like my life depends on it
Related posts
- Date posted
- 11w ago
I went to bed one night in November, and I can't quite say what happened, but I believed that I had a "memory" from childhood. I won't discuss what, but I had "remembered" doing something sickeningly awful. This thing came to me almost as clear as a real memory. I remember thinking something along the lines of 'How could I forget doing something like that?' followed by a feeling of complete horror and terror. I have moments of "clarity" where I can't believe that I'm questioning doing this thing, and it appears obvious that it's false. But now, I'm more than often believing that I did. I am spending 24/7 fighting my head, and it's taking me to dark places. I know this is the worst thing to do, but you don't understand, if this is real then I am a monster and I can't just adopt the 'maybe I did, maybe I didn't approach'. I just can't. I have to know. I'm so scared. My entire life is on the line. I don't have anyone to talk to about this. Literally no one. I feel like I'm insane, like I'm a monster, like I'm hiding my true identity from everyone I love. Does this sound like False Memory? Or am I in denial, trying to convince myself this didn't happen? Why does it feel so real? And why do I have moments of clarity? I also had my first nightmare about it last night. Please someone help me.
- Date posted
- 4w ago
Any advice? I just got triggered by false memory OCD. There is no indicator or memory of me doing anything bad, only the what if. So how can I deal with uncertainty because if I did do the false memory it would go against my morals?? Not something extremely unforgivable just like not ideal and against my morals… I don’t know if it happened. I have no memory of my false memory happen only the “what if” which is enough to scare me FOR CONTEXT: I was in the mental hospital when I was 16, and made a few friends. Some just a grade below me, so 14-15. I remember bringing up in convo someone I met previously at the mental hospital earlier in that year a different time I was hospitalized , to which a boy responded he knew her, and they did (seggsual) stuff at their school. The girl I was talking about at that time was 14. So im assuming the boy was 14 as well. 13 and up is together in the hospital, so he couldn’t be younger than 13. I have no memories of him flirting with me or me flirting with him. Or anything bad happening. Literally just “what if”.. or what if he wasn’t 14 but 13 and u said something inappropriate or flirted with him. I will never be able to know what happened and I’m sick thinking about this. 13 and 16 is NOT WITHIN MY MORALS. I am worried because the only inappropriate I guess convo had is when he was telling me what happened between him and that girl I knew. I also remember him having a bulge down there and it freaked me out and made me feel weird at the time because I noticed it. (At this time I was already diagnosed with OCD and experienced POCD) I try to tell myself maybe maybe not. But the what if it did happen makes me feel like a p33do, and me thinking it didn’t happen doesn’t satisfy me because I don’t have 100 percent certainty
- Date posted
- 28d ago
im going to be vague here, but basically i did something in the past that i regret and it became a huge point of my OCD but i have talked to my therapist and i have mostly moved past it. i watched a video by an OCD youtuber that really put it into perspective. anyway, i have been with minimal worry for a few days, but now im having worries related to i think false memory? basically it’s like “oh but what if i said/ did this and just forgot that means i harmed this person im a bad person”. to me it sounds like textbook OCD but im just wondering if anyone else has experienced false memory / real event at the same time. i have a really horrible memory which is making it even more stressful. any responses are appreciated!
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