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working to conquer OCD
If you keep your struggles to yourself, things are not going to get better. The situation won't get fixed. It will just get worse. You need to talk to someone who understands. And when they offer you a way out, take it. š
can someone pls help me understand this? ive been in therapy for a couple of months, I have really bad OCD. since 2024 I worry about having cheated on my gf with a friend of mine ( who I don't talk to anymore because of this situation). at first I was like nah it never happened, then I grew more confused and then more certain. now most of the time I feel like I really cheated and that there's no other explanation. the only thing that confuses me is that I met this friend in 2022 and until 2024 I don't really remember thinking I had cheated, but I also feel like it can be explained by me not really realising the seriousness of the situation or something like that. this whole thing is kind of complicated so I won't delve too much into the details. my gf knows about everything and she doesn't believe I cheated, she thinks I have really bad OCD and that's that. she decided to stay with me and asked me to not bring it up again ( we talked about it MANY times) and to talk about it in therapy. and like, I am, but I'm really confused cus my therapist calls this whole situation "the cheating doubt" or "possible cheating" even when I said many times that I'm certain something happened. I don't really know what to do. does this mean my therapist thinks it's all a big what if, and that either things could have happened ( cheating or not cheating) and that my certainty is caused by OCD or what??? I don't get it I feel really alone
Iād love to hear some stories of ocd wins or look backs :) Was thinking about how years ago Iād have panic attacks at work when I thought people were looking at me or judging me - one time at work my stomach growled really really loud and I ran to the bathroom to cry cause it felt like THE end. In hindsight kinda funny but poor me lol. Perhaps give yourself some grace for your ocd moments if it feels like the end of the world - you were probably scared and hurting. Show some compassion to your scared self ā¤ļø
iām struggling. how do I go about my days with these thoughts like iām not having themā¦ I feel like I canāt do anything. I wake up in panic because I feel so guilty. being diagnosed isnāt making it easier for me to get better iām still convinced im a bad personšlike what if my therapist is wrong. what if im convincing myself itās just ocd when itās not. What if my preference is kids and it didnāt show up until the day I had the first thought. I feel helpless. I feel like I donāt deserve my relationship, my friends and family I deserve to be alone. Iāve also been doing too much research about pocd and people say their experience is accidentally hurting a kid when mine is actual images of me doing it. I canāt look at a kid anymore without thinking it. especially cute ones? it triggers me so much what if itās actually truešothers can say they know itās ocd but I canāt anymore. how do I know if it actually scares me or iām just scared of being labeled bad. wtf. I feel bad even labeling it ocd because what if itās not.. how will I ever know. then I think of afterlife and not seeing anyone I love because iām bad. I know I have ocd, but what if I donāt have pocdā¦this plays throughout my head all day and i canāt quiet it. Iām scared of medication because what if iām masking the bad and it wonāt take away the thoughts.. always what ifs what ifs and it all leads back to me being bad I canāt think good of myself. I am struggling so much I just wanna cry.. I do have a therapist, it probably doesnāt sound like it because I literally canāt stop spiraling.
I find myself grieving a lot. Grieving the loss of what I could have had if I wasnāt trapped in my head. Grieving over my physical heath, my mental health, my life choices. There are many things I wish I could go back and change. I feel bad for the past me who struggled with no help, I wish I could have changed things for her before.
Hi guys just curious if anyone else goes through this. Idk if this is ocd or what it is. I feel like I donāt know or how to do or have friendships ācorrectlyā. I find that I tend to need all of my relationships to be very close and I canāt have like different friends in friendship levels that arenāt just close friends. But not only that I tend to want to get close to someone immediately. I feel like most of the people I know tend not to think they arenāt close to someone until theyāve been friends for a few years. Whereas I feel like someone is my best friend after like five minutes. Yet I never feel connected because I feel like no one perceives me or likes me the amount that I like them. And then I tend to think that after a few months people are supposed to be amazing to one another (me and a friend) yet when those expectations arenāt met Iām like okay so we arenāt close and they donāt like me. I thought it was normal to be like besties after a few weeks of knowing someone but now Iām thinking that itās not š. I just feel like I donāt know how to make friends, especially slowly and casually. I want to know everything about someone immediately and want them to know everything about me. I donāt know how to slowly learn about someone and build that relationship overtime. I could say so much more but this is already a lot so to be continued š
For about 6 months now maybe longer Iāve been dealing with the extreme fear of God in general. What is he really like, if I donāt do enough or if I stop praying stuff like that will I go to hell?, heaven sounds scary being FOREVER, what if I die today or soon. Itās so tiring and Iām so easily triggered that I feel weak. Iām always researching how to finally be better but that fear in the back of my head that I havenāt repented and that God is mad at me is always there and it hurts so bad. Iām constantly checking myself if Iām going a bad thing which is exhausting. I want to enjoy my life and when I have fun events that fear will still be there and genuinely makes me want to cry knowing I canāt do anything! And honestly I donāt even want to pray and do all those things all the time it makes me feel I HAVE to force myself to have a relationship with him. I love God, but I feel this is too much. I donāt know if Iāll ever be able to be the same person that I used to be. Iāve always been an anxious person but this randomly came up and dude Iām just so scared to die. I always feel Iām not all the way there physically. I donāt know how Iāll be okay to be alright without knowing Gods intentions on me and where Iām going in the afterlife, like itās such a huge topic! Seeing others not struggle with this makes me feel Iām missing out on so much. I need help so badly.
Spiraling all the time and at work I try my best to be nice to customers and I know I canāt do it in my own strength of course I want to be kind and show the Love of Christ but sometimes itās really hard or Iām just in a bad mood I have to talk to them. And I never want to be mean so sometimes I feel like Iām just faking being nice cuz I donāt want to be a bad example but is that evil if I donāt actually feel it in my heart like sometimes I do or like a little longer into the shift Iām happy and wanna chat and only God can help us. But am I a fake Christian If my instead heart doesnāt feel that way all the time? And trying not to be judgmental. Does anyone relate to this?
I've had the feeling before of like maybe this isn't ocd and im just lying etc bc ofc everyone with ocd questions their ocd but genuinely when I say the severity of my questioning and how much I think im not ocd and want this and am a vile monster is genuinely getting so intense like im absolute petrified and I feel so disgusting and evil. I dont know how much more real it can 'get' before I just am a monster bc i already feel like one.
So I've been recommended by my therapist to seek out an iop program cos she can only do so much and leave been chasing my own tail for months. I'm slamming on the breaks. I cant do it. I won't do it. I'm really considering just quitting therapy and ghosting everyone. I'm beating myself up cos if only I agreed to doing the groups and trying to go and working with a dietitian I would be in this position. Im scared my head is gonna explode. Im ashamed and low cos I've been avoiding this for a straight year and its caught up. Idm what to do. My only answer is to quit.
So for example I have this thing where if Iām walking in public and look away from ahead of me Iāll get this intrusive urge or āwantā to accidentally bump into someone and so my head staying to the side keeps that urge but sometimes Iāll also like not pretend i want it but Iāll like get cocky and start letting the urge win idk why I do this itās not even like intrusive itās just like āhey Iām gonna pretend I want this to happenā or something like that and then afterwards if I do accidentally bump into someone bc yk Iām literally not looking straight Iāll use that against meā¦. Anyone relate or can explain to me why this happens?
Pls give advice on how to sit with this . Iām basically wondering if I ever did something. To my younger siblings . Iāve had this before but it seems a lot stronger . Also itās taking real memories where I was holding one of them as a baby and adding on or trying to add on images /memories to the memory to make it worse . I feel like itās false but what if ā¦ what if Iāve blocked out these thoughts or memories. I also keep scanning to see if I can remember . Out of all these years of pocd I never had a memory about me doing something to them . Even before ocd. Iām 10 years older than my younger siblings . Iām 24 now . Trying to remember if I ever did something when they were babies or little kids A little background : Iāve always remembered this memory even before ocd . My mom used to have me and my older brother (1 year older )bathe in a bathtub together as kids and I remember I had touched/ poked his dick I feel like asked before doing it I think I was just curious either way it was a bad thing . I was like under 10 years old I believe . I had asked him if he remembers that he said no and I asked what if its his memory suppressed he was like no . Now this makes me think what if I was capable to do that to my younger siblings that are 10 years younger than me . Apparently I didnāt do what I thought I did to my older brother in the bathtub even tho Iāve always remembered it
I saw an Instagram reel saying lying about your politics to hookup with someone is a form of rape The comments were very split. I think this is not legally or objectively rape at all. I remember in first year I was a bit more conservative, but wouldn't tell girls that, like I just wouldn't talk about politics on dates I'm no longer a conservative but I sometimes will exaggerate how much I care about social issues to get girls and my ocd says that this is rape. Or if someone has very different views than me, I pretend I don't really have an issue with their views. My ocd is saying this is rape.
Does anyone deal with false memories relating to past relationships? Before my wife, Iāve never gone ātoo farā if you will. But my ocd convinces me that the things I have done with others were harmful even though I donāt have any evidence of this and most of my exes seem to still appreciate their time spent with me (some have even told me so after breaking up). This sparked from a normal guilt from realizing any type of intimacy before marriage is a sin, then this turned into āwhat if I get falsely accused of somethingā, and now itās full on believing I did bad things with false memories too! It is such a struggle and makes it really hard to live with and be happy. Because if my fears are even remotely true I would forever hate myself! What are some good ERP techniques to handle this?
Hi š I am a Christian dealing many subtypes of OCD. I wanted to know if anyone has Christian resources or encouraging words/scriptures for people dealing with OCD. I am mentally exhausted. It feels so dark sometimes and feels so lonely and hopeless. I want to travel and enjoy life but canāt overcome my intrusive thoughts. I am terrified of flying by plane. I am trying to be a good mom and wife but this seems so Overwhelming. I am coming to terms with the fact that Jesus may never heal Me from this and Iām trying to find medication thatās a good fit But havenāt yet š just need prayer.
I recently started developing a sexual harm theme of ocd, Iām constantly worried if I want to hurt someone sexually, or that I will but my anxieties are stopping me. I feel disgusted and it also feels like I AM going to do it too even though I have no desire to, itās worrying. Iām just coming here to ask if anyone has a similar experience if you have a form of harm ocd? Thanks.
tldr: my mom is pretty much the source of most of my obsessions and compulsions, and these past two weeks have been a test of my sanity. (hi, this is my first time posting! itās a long one, so strap in. tips and encouragement are highly appreciated.) for clarity, my health concern ocd is not only for myself, but my parents. iām a 21 year old online college student living with them (both 66), and my mom has kind of a triple-whammy of things wrong with her; sheās chronically ill with kidney disease, chronic utis, and neuropathy, is extremely mentally ill, and is verbally and mentally abusive. like, iām pretty sheās got severe untreated borderline personality disorder, among other things. in other words, she is not well. now, iām not necessarily afraid of non-contagious illnesses. her having chronic utis is, in itself, not a problem for me. the problem is, however, that the first noticeable symptoms of her many utis tend to be subdued behavior, a reduced appetite, and chills, which then progress, over the course of a day or so, into nausea and vomiting, because i am terrified of contagious illnessesāand this onset of symptoms sounds, on paper, similar to many of them. she doesnāt even experience urinary or back pain until days after these initial symptoms begin, which, as you can probably imagine, makes me want to rip my hair out! i am also terrified of environmental instability in an emotional sense. my checking ocd extends to checking that my parents arenāt arguing. complex and lifelong trauma makes me afraid of conflict, which is probably pretty relatable to a lot of you. anyway, with that in mind, let me begin my long and godawful tale by setting the stage: itās the beginning of the month, and iām trying to find ways to stop checking on my mom because itās ruining my life, and my past several attempts have failed. the night i begin my next attempt, she says she feels nauseous. i accurately predict that sheās getting sick again, and tell my dad out of earshot of her. he, unfortunately, is in denial (itās happened more times than any of us could count on five peopleās hands over the course of six years; he hates it), and i feel immensely invalidated by his angry overreaction to me telling him my observation. in any case, as per usual when this happens, i hide in my room, keeping my ears attuned to the sounds of the house, absolutely terrified, dreading the moment iāll hear her get sick, and, of course, it happens. after a day or so of her feeling pretty miserable, she finally, yet stubbornly, agrees to go to the emergency room, and, to my immense relief, they find that she has another uti. iām still shaken, of course; iāve spent the last several days afraid to walk through the hallway in case what she had wasnāt a uti, and i dread beginning the cycle anew when she finishes her antibiotics, but iām still relieved for now. then, one of the bright spots of these past few weeks happens; for a week straight after that, i donāt check! i realize how awful the feeling of checking is and how dreadful the uncertainty it brings me feels, and i simplyā¦ donāt. i discover that itās helpful not to, despite the terrible stress i feel (for reasons iām about to elaborate on). so, the week passes slowly by. stress ramps up again asāoh yeah, i didnāt mention thisāmy dadās rotator cuff repair surgery looms on calendar (it was yesterday as of the time of me posting this, and heās recovering well), but i maintain my streak, even making up a reward system: if i can go thirty days without checking, i can buy myself a new 3ds xl. surely, at this point, the stress is behind me for now, right? well, thatās when my mom has a sudden, dramatic, and highly volatile borderline split over a message my sister (now estranged from her, for her benefit) sent her regarding boundaries she wants her to follow at her wedding in november. thatās a loaded statement, i know, sorry, but to make a long story short, she plans on inviting my dadās children from a prior marriage that my mom has alienated, villainized, and is wholly delusional about, and she told my mom as much in her (very politely worded) message, and asked her to please not make a scene if she sees them. what a mistake. this triggered perhaps her worst mental break and borderline split in several years (though certainly not the first or most recent of them by even a couple months). over the course of two days, she threatens my dad with divorce and financial ruin (iāll get back to that soon), and tries multiple times to physically attack him, break or toss their wedding rings and his necklace, and stops taking her medication and eating. all night, thereās awful screaming and sobbing and animalistic wailing. she literally loses her mind. iām crying constantly, even though iām in my room, and everything feels like itās made of glass. even though sheās oscillating wildly between suicidal behavior and verbal threats and accusations, my dad and i canāt do much but hide or face it head-on, because the sheriff does jack around hereāi know this because iāve called them on her beforeāand even if the police were competent, she keeps saying that if he or i call them, sheāll lie to get out of custody or the mental hospital and make things hell for us, so the police and even the mental health crisis line are not much of an option (but if iām wrong and they can, in fact, take her involuntarily at this level of violence, and she canāt actually outsmart mental health professionals, PLEASE correct me) unless things get genuinely dire and they have a reason to involuntarily put her on hold. at this point in the story, my dadās surgery is in less than two days. the next day, she sleeps. then, our new kitten, who got neutered the week prior, begins having swelling and seepage around the surgical site, and the vet only opens on mondayāthe day of dadās surgery. great, right? and when mom wakes up, she has another meltdown, fake dry heaves, and plays sick to get attentionāwhich absolutely terrifies me. sheās also lying and threatening to leave, and, all in all, i feel like i canāt live or breathe. i frantically make plans with my aunts to help my dad and i out, as i still canāt drive (because the pandemic hit when i was 15-18, and because of my momās chokehold over my dadās availability and my mental health). i call the local mental health crisis line late at night for advice on what to do about my mom, and they basically tell me to get her to the mental hospital (despite her having no such inclination) and to tell my dad that this is domestic abuse and that he can take action (again, iāll get to that). anyway, the day before my dadās surgery arrives, and suddenly, she wants to play niceā¦? she takes her medication and begins eating again. her conversations gradually lose their edge, but never fully. not even as of me writing this, but i suppose they never do. anyway, my dad mentions our plans with my aunts to her, citing her aforementioned (fake) sickness, and suddenly, sheās capable of driving, and, oh,!how dare my dad contact her sister, whoāi forgot to mention thisāshe hates? ugh. so, we contact one of the few people she hasnāt alienated, which is our next door neighbor. a lifesaver, really; she offers to go with them to and from the hospital the next day, and even to go with me to bring our kitten to the vet, so that becomes the new plan. later in the day, as mom calms down, i tell dad what i was told by the hotline. this is abuse, this is divorce and restraining-order-worthy behavior, and another bright spot over these past two weeks happens: he listens in earnest for the first time in my life, and though such a major change scares me, we both know itās for the absolute best. we have a talk about it, and though he waffles a bit for a day or so after she continues to calm down and begin love-bombing him, he actually maintains his position (even now): once heās recovered, he will begin to gather evidence, legal counsel, and allies as well as witnesses in the family behind her back to eventually take action against her and get out of their marriage. itāsā¦ scary. but iām happy. iād happily live with my dad! anyway, surgery day comes, and thankfully, momās agreeable enough to take him to and from the hospital alone, even staying in his recovery room all day in wait. my neighbor takes our kitten to the vet for me, bless her soulāheās on antibiotics now and acting completely healthy, by the way! momās love-bombing my dad like crazy all day, of course, hence the temporary reconsideration i mentioned he experienced for about a day, but even after surgery, he talks to me and says that he sees her abuse for what it is for perhaps the first time, thanks me for being his support, and says that it will be hardāthat heāll have to act to avoid rousing suspicionābut that things have gone too far now to turn back, and he canāt cope with her being in his life anymore. (as an aside, i just want to mention that iām proud of him!) even so, after they get home and he begins recovering, the past two weeks of constant stress hits me, and over the course of the evening, i begin constantly crying, my mind sounds like static and i canāt think, and iām pacing tirelessly like a shark, because it feels like something fundamental has changed and that my security will never be truly guaranteed again because of my mom. i break my no checking streak, much to my shame, and enter their room in search of either comfort or just company, iām not sure. even though at this time my dad is fine and my mom is jovial, i cry in terror that he or my mom will get sick from going out today, or that theyāll begin fighting again. i try to verbalize a simple āstress is getting to me,ā but my mom gets extremely, debilitatingly hyper-verbal while on pain medication to manage her neuropathy, so i can only make frantic noises while i try to form words before she cuts me off to ramble nonsensically again. at this point, i feel utterly insane and completely unsafe. i stay in their room for a long time, against my better judgment, doubly shattering my no-checking streak. now onto today. last night was restless, and i woke up shaking. before i took a nap today, i was bordering on a panic attack. nothing major happens afterwards, thank christ, but my dad continues to recover, and heās getting the hang of managing his post-surgical pain. iām anxious because of it, because iām also severely emetophobic, and i worry that heāll be sick from the pain, so i check on him when i notice that heās hurting. when my mom wakes up, she freaks me out by existing (as usual) because sheās loopy from having taken more pain medication in the late morning, and so she continues to ramble, oscillating between passive aggressive comments passed off as jokes and love-bombing my dad. then, this evening, she uses the bathroom and has to lay down afterwards (which is something unique to her, i guess, where she feels sick after she goes number two), and i begin obsessively asking if sheās okay again and crying some more (to which she insults me and tells me not to ask again, or else) before leaving and trying to distract myself, feeling terrible that i checked. i erase my streak progress off of my little thirty day whiteboard calendar, hoping to begin again tomorrow (which i still do, obsessions be damned) and i try to relax, but it simply isnāt happening; i worry that mom will get sick from going out yesterday, and that me talking to her has just put me at risk. i also worry that sheāll get sick again once she finishes her antibiotics on friday, because her uti symptoms havenāt gone completely away. it isnāt fun. iām still really worried. then, just a little bit ago, i noticed that my dad was having some pretty intense pain again, so i offered to get him some herbal pain medicine (itās legal here), and i went into my parentsā room to get it, and had to see her and speak to her a little bit. since leaving, iāve been in my room, writing this out and planning out what iāll do tomorrow, which is this: - greet my dad in the morning and see how heās recovering (and what my momās mental and physical status is, to be honest) - make dinner in the slow cooker - bake brownies (for my dad) - attend my weekly telehealth therapy appointment, possibly reading this post out to her to make recapping my week easier - only leave my room when necessary to eat, use the bathroom, or assist my dad if he texts me and requests help with something - distract myself with music, youtube videos, my friends, and video games, no matter how obsessed and anxious i feel with the intense compulsion to check and i hope, orānoāi WILL do it! ā¦and that brings us to now! i donāt really know what the goal of this post is, but for anyone who read this long, winding vent, thank you. also, for anyone wondering why i donāt just leave, thatās why iām a studentāiām getting a degree in business administration to have easy access to employment so i can work from home (i canāt drive, as i said) and save money to rent an apartment in a walkable area (or just uber around) until i can either get myself into driverās ed, or my dad can help me out once he and my mom split in a while. by the way, i graduate this fall! anyway, thatās been my past two weeks. if anyone has any advice to help me cope, or tips to help me avoid checking, or encouragement, or just, like, SOMETHING to help me make sense of the times iāve been living in and get back on track to recovery, iād appreciate it ENDLESSLY. thank you so much!
Iāve recently started therapy and Iāve began reflecting at lot on my faith and spirituality. I was born and raised Muslim, but as Iāve grown and changed, my perception of the community is quite complex. I think Islam is a framework for people to make sense of themselves and the world around them, just as any other organized religion, but in practice it makes me feel like a hypocrite. I donāt read or pray enough, I donāt look or act the part, but the one thing that pulls me back is my belief in God - some divine being, a deity of creation, beyond this universe and the infinitely many other universes. I do too little to stay but still too much to walk away. Iād never renounce my faith, never leave Islam, because being Muslim has shaped how I am socialized - my identity, my culture, and my interactions. I am Muslim but it doesnāt feel genuine enough to claim such a title. Iām like in this intermittent phase where Iām caught in between, I am so stuck, I am so lost. I donāt judge someone for being religious just as I donāt judge someone for not being religious - because itās their life, not mine. Agnostic, atheist, polytheistic, monotheistic, whatever it may be, itās not for me to decide. I think the thing that has driven me away is how hateful religion can be - it turns people into the worst versions of themselves because they see morality as being black and white. In my heart, I cannot truly hate anything or anyone, it hurts too bad. I believe there is a God because how else do you explain these miracles, these masses of people who call themselves believers, there just has to be something bigger than all of them, bigger than ourselves. I know life is a test and that life is suffering but my question is: who is it a test for? a test to see if you can maintain your faith in God despite all this pain and suffering? why bad people live such lavish lives while the innocent suffer? is it because the bad are rewarded here so they will be punished after? or that the innocent are punished her so they will be rewarded after? itās all so hard to make sense of. They say not to question things but that seems counterintuitive, why would God want us to be clueless? I see my purpose as to protect my soul and to help myself and others become the best version of themselves, reach your fullest potential, while acting out of goodness. I believe in something after this all - because there has to be, people donāt disappear after death, how can they? then how do we explain the supernatural? ghosts and everything else that exists between the physical and metaphysical world. I stay away from the things thatāll taint my mind and body, at least try my best to, I donāt take part in any activities that risk my body becoming impure - no sex, no alcohol, no drugs, nothing that will intoxicate me. I want to be vegan so that I can help the earth rather than hurt it, because animals are Godās creatures too. I donāt know what comes after this all, if the concepts of heaven and hell are real, or at least what we have thought of them to be, but I do believe there must be some reward or punishment for our actions, because how else do we explain this natural inclination to behave the way we do? Iām no perfect person but I think that acting for the wellness of all of Godās creations is the only way to truly worship and fulfill Godās wishes in creating us all. So I guess what Iām saying is that, I believe there is an afterlife and a purpose in existence and that there must be a higher being that watches over all of this, or maybe thatās just the only way I can make sense of things. I donāt think I can claim religion any longer as much as it hurts, but I do believe in God. Even when Iām hurt and confused, Iām sad or angry, I still believe in God. But I have grown up in a hyper religious environment that wouldnāt be accepting or open to hearing such beliefs. I simply want to act out of love, to support all of Godās creations in becoming good, Iām tired of this hateful speech that fundamentally not even religion in its most orthodox form pushes but people do. We are all equal, why not help each other? Why are we so quick to hurt one another? I just donāt know where I stand, how can I have faith in God yet no faith in religion, can the two both be true?
Most the time when you hear someone out and about say āI have OCD hahahā they mean āoh I like things clean Iām a clean freakā āIām so ocd omggg haahaā which in turn when someone who truly has ocd goes āI have ocdā itās taken as āoh your a clean freak ur super organized I assume!ā When all in reality it is a very debilitating condition. Now yes of course there are cleaning types of ocd, but itās not in the same way people talk about it. And these stigmas around it have caused so many people to not know what ocd truly is, especially those who have it and therefore people just assume the thoughts they have are abnormal and their a monster, because ocd is not properly taught. this has led sooo many people waiting so long to get therapy or help for it because they donāt know whatās āwrongā with them, that and the fear of trying to get help and being misunderstood because of the stigmas around it. Not to be that person but I 10000% hate when people make jokes about ocd as they donāt know how truly awful and debilitating it is to live with it. OCD at certain degrees is considered a disability and you can file for that if it prevents you from work long enough. If that doesnāt show how bad ocd can be. As a story from me growing up with severe ocd, I did not receive help, I wasnāt sure for a long time it was ocd. My mom focused more on getting help for my brother, which he was diagnosed with ocd quote on quote āgrownā out of it now, he used to excessively wash his hands, which is valid and still a trait of ocd but she prioritized that over the issues I had, I did say some of of my issues , not the extreme but I did mention some like the constantly checking the lock , having to do this or that or this will happen, and was just laughed at. I never grew out of it infact it got even more and more severe. I struggle now to even work, to function, and no one understands they say ājust donāt think about itā or ājust breathe or take some medicineā as if that will just work. Iām currently at risk of loosing my job and probly will. OCD is a CHRONIC illness, and doesnāt have a ācureā but can be managed and go into a sort of remission. ā Approximately 50% of people with OCD experience suicidal ideation, and about 13% attempt suicide in their lifetime ā ā people with ocd are 10 x higher risk of suicide ā OCD is debilitating, itās consuming, itās absolutely horrible to live with. It needs to be talked about more, it needs to be understood more. We are not monsters, we are not crazy, and we arenāt just āclean freaksā ocd can stem from biological, genetic, environmental, trauma, and in some cases can come from certain sicknesses. āpeople with OCD often have differences in the frontal cortex and subcortical structures. This includes inefficient communication between brain systems that detect errors and those that stop actions, leading to a "loop of wrongness". OCD should be taught more. Thank you for listening to my Ted talk - Sami <3 ā¤ļø we got this.
A lot of my intrusive thoughts are images as opposed to words. I am bombarded with images of the most awful and upsetting things. Things Iām too embarrassed about and ashamed of to tell people. Does anyone else have images in addition to thoughts/compulsions?
If you are in crisis, please use these emergency resources to find immediate help.
OCD doesn't have to
rule your life
