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working to conquer OCD
My images are weird, they feel “close” and it’s strange that they are blurry with a background yet I’m still sort of aware of my actual surroundings whilst my intrusive image can be taking place anywhere. What about you?
If you’re like me, you use alcohol to cope and it kinda pushes the OCD thoughts way down - temporarily. My question is, does quitting help in the long term?
My brain keeps saying what if it’s not OCD and you are in denial and you are just using OCD to cover it all up…
i feel like having this ocd is making me transgender. i constantly imagine myself as transgender like starting to use t, coming out to my family and my boyfriend. i would really prefer to not be a boy but i don’t even know what i want anymore. and now my voice is triggering me because i sound feminine. what’s going on 😭 im freaking out
Can’t do this anymore. Been suffering from this for two years straight and it just keeps getting worse 😔
Ever since I caught my... now-ex, I guess... having cheated, and I worked the nerve to talk to him and break it off in a surprisingly strong and boundary-concious way for myself, I have been looking at housing areas around me. I can't move out soon even if I wanted to since I want to apply for disability and that can take a year or so, I have no job and no saved up money because we used it all when he had no job/refused to get one and was hoping it would be quick and easy for him to find one (took him 4 months). I have no car so I was/am checking mover services over and over. I keep looking at the bus routes in the city to make sure the apartments that are available NOW are around them, which I know makes no sense because there is job guarantee they will be available later. Which... leads me to checking again the next day. Or later that day. All stemming from discomfort that he is just still lying even "just as roommates" and it is a trigger for my ROCD even without being in a relationship anymore. I am so frustrated. This would be my first time moving out on my own. The uncertainty and fear and distrust here is eating at me but I have no friends or family to go to so, I'm just... stuck.
This is probably the worst part of my ocd. When I have a flashing image I have to start adding details, thinking of scenery and making a little story up. Now I find that my stories actually have some truth, there’s details that are in favour of my false memory ‘evidence’ almost. I find myself doubting all day everyday due to these details.
Please only read this if you are 18+ (contains mention of s**cide) I have had severe body dysmorphia since beginning college. I’ve been skinny my whole life and have an entirely flat chest. I was doing really good for a while, but I made the mistake of looking at social media today… There is an influencer who is built exactly like me and I always go to her page to find positivity…I looked at some of her recent posts and the things men and women were saying about her were horrific. Among some of the many hate comments were things like “nightmare body”, “genetically inferior to other women”, and just brutal things each of which would take a person years to recover from hearing. There were countless gifs of dancing skeletons, and a lot of surprisingly attractive people brutally bashing her. I haven’t felt suicidal in years and all at once I see very little point in going on. The world has finally defeated me and I just can’t see what the point is in seeking happiness if I could only ever possibly be lying to myself when i feel good about myself.
I've been writing borderline obsessively the last week or two. My story has come along way and has a few ocd themes within the story with some characters. The main characters have moral scrupolosity and harm ocd and I'm very happy with how the story is fleshing out. If I were to turn this into a trilogy, I've imagined this as a movie as well. I want people even without ocd to relate to the struggles and cry their eyes out on one scene in particular, and I'd be surprised if they don't. If you could write a scene to describe your internal struggle, what would it look like, how would it play out? I'm not looking to steal ideas as I'm strictly against it (why I haven't read any of the many books I've bought recently until my story is finished). I'm just looking for inspiration, the feeling that I want my scenes to invoke in the readers or viewers.
When you wake up and start actively thinking and worrying about it all, you're bringing it all into your head. Like they aren't intrusive anymore. You just think about them and worry, with me just thinking "oh my god, I'm g..." like I've convinced myself. But I don't want to have convinced myself. Worrying all this thinking is gonna be in my head all day. I feel anxious. Does anyone recognise this?
So I just did the DOCS assessment my therapist assigned me after my first appointment and I got a low score on on it (14) which means I don't have OCD. Did this happen to anyone else? I finally thought I knew what was wrong with me and that ERP therapy would work, but now I'm worried that my therapist won't be able to work with me or that my thoughts actually mean I'm a terrible person because I don't have it.
I’ve posted on here about recently losing my cat. When I get really upset and cry about her not being here anymore, I have thoughts that I’m not actually upset and it’s just an act. I know it’s not, she was my baby and I miss her and love her more than anything. These thoughts are so horrible, how do I make them stop😞
do you guys have sometimes moral/ethical rumination about why something that is obviously bad is bad? I'm afraid of it because sometimes I feel like I don't have an immediate or sufficient answer, and that I believe something is wrong just because of collective morals, and not because i genuinely believe it is bad and that makes me sick. I'm afraid of faking it. I had a very triggering disturbing question about why something is bad and i didn't have a sufficient answer for me to make me believe that it was a genuine belief of mine. It bothers me that I'm not so firm about a certain belief, and yet it's the very thing that made me want to end my life a while ago. I'm afraid that im faking my repulsion to evil and horrible things and I just think that way for convenience. I can't tolerate it, not because of what others would think but because i can't tolerate living myself like a sick monster that has sick thoughts.
Please help I'm so scared. So I've been focusing on seeing pixels for 2-3 days now and today I woke up tired and I can't seem to make my eyes stay focused. I can unfocus them on command and I've been doing that the entire day. I can't seem to make them stay focused. Unless Imm distracted and focusing on something else. I'm so anxious that this is another symptom of something serious. Has anyone experienced this? I have extreme health ocd and I can't stop thinking about this
I keep thinking about every little thing my bf does or says, I keep thinking he sounds and talks weirdly, and I keep thinking he does weird things or that he’s not tough or masculine enough and whenever I see an attractive man I stay playing scenarios in my head where the attractive man has the same “flaws” my bf does to see how I would feel if another man did it, like I’m trying to make the “flaws” feel normal and ok. And whenever I’m on the phone with my bf he’ll say something in a way that seems “weird” to me and I can’t stop thinking about it and playing it over trying to recreate the inflection and tone in my head so I can see if his inflections and tones sound normal enough or manly enough or if his idiosyncrasies are odd or abnormal or unattractive. But what’s worse is now I’m not feeling the overwhelming waves of panic that I used to have when I had these thoughts. Now they’re just thoughts, but I still feel bothered by them because they focus on “flaws” that bug me. I don’t know what to do. I worry that it’s not OCD anymore. I’m not currently diagnosed either which doesn’t help. I feel like a liar, like I’m busting using ROCD as an excuse to avoid the truth.
Lately my intrusive thoughts are centered on my kids. Why is ocd coming for what is most precious to me?? This is so painful and the hardest i’ve ever had to deal with. The more I tell the ocd it isn’t true the more it tries to make me feel that it is. I can’t live like this😢
I feel so clouded. I wish I could just stop thinking. I don’t even feel present around my daughter. I am acting the part, but my mind is so lost in my obsessions. Lately I am obsessing that my head pain is something more than it probably is. It’s all I think about. Constant fear of dying 24/7. Is this it? Is this the moment I keel over? What if my daughter isn’t safe? How do I keep her in a safe environment so if I do die, she’s okay until my husband gets home? 3 weeks of this, triggered by the stomach flu. Since THEN I’ve had the following obsessions: tobacco poisoning, stroke, csf leak, tumor, ms, colon cancer, and aneurysm. It’s hard to find joy. I’m just waiting until it’s over. But 3 weeks and I’m still in the trenches. How do I get out?
I’m all alone
OCD is excruciatingly painful. I don’t think any other forms of torment on earth can rival it, except maybe schizophrenia-type disorders or physical torture. I have come a long way from where I started. I don’t believe I have OCD, as it is clinically defined, anymore (though some experts might disagree). I no longer have any intrusive thoughts. I have the silence and freedom in my mind that I always wanted—but never could attain before. But I remember the days when the thoughts ran like wildfire through my brain, each thought scarier than the last—the never-ending, repeating sentences that were like frightening music 🎶 that never shuts off. Only people who have experienced these thoughts can understand the mental pain and anguish. Even on the other side of the disorder, where I am now, the OCD still haunts me every day. It’s mostly in the background, but I can always feel its shadow. The roots of perfectionism and fear still run very deep. Every day, as I work on further recovery, I find that I am peeling back more and more layers that I didn’t even know were there. I understand everyone who says they despise their OCD. I find it hard to convey to other people the amount of pain this disorder causes. But every day now I have an opportunity for joy if I choose it. And I love that. Some days are mostly normal. I can almost forget about the OCD for hours at a time. I always sleep in peace, even my naps. And even though every day has significant OCD-related struggles, I also know that every day I am getting better.
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OCD doesn't have to
rule your life
