OCD suffering tropers, assemble!

Hi. I have OCD. Mostly the pure O kind, with obsessions and intrusive thoughts. I used to have obsessive hand washing tendencies too. But this thread is open to anyone who suffers from any kind of OCD.

So this is a thread for us folks to discuss it, the problems that come up, and maybe other stuff.

Anyway i'll start this off by asking a few questions: How do you deal with your OCD? And what is your opinion on media portrayals of OCD?

Assuming i'm not the only one here anyway.

edited 9th May '14 3:32:31 AM by ElectricNova

Well, according to several (non-professional) tests I've taken, I have mild OCD.

I am a perfectionist, but I've started to work against it.

It helps to have an incredibly messy family to cause me not to take messes so seriously.

Oh yes. And it is certainly no fun. And to the user above, OCD is definitely easy to notice when you look at the symptoms. Perfectionism, cleansiness, etc, actually have little to nothing to do with the illness.

Oddly enough, Super OCD goes very well into detail on what its like in contrast to how it is portrayed.

edited 18th Jul '14 3:38:32 PM by JordanM

Pretty sure I have OCD. I bite my nails and the skin around them, I ONLY like multiples of 5, I get annoyed if something is not orderly, my books have to be in perfect shape, I have to finish what is started... That's not even all of the things I do.

OCD is determined by mental processes and thought processes, not so much by actions or little routines you pick up. Someone with OCD suffers from what are called Intrusive Thoughts, that is, thoughts that are unpleasant or outright against your nature. Adding on to this is the inability to think away from these thoughts, that is the Obsessive part of OCD. These thoughts become very distressing as you begin to worry that there may be truth to them (when there isn't). Most commonly, people seem to have their sexuality, sanity, and/or morality "put into question" by said illness.

Pure O, as the OP describes his as, and I believe mine is, means that the person is fully aware of how absurd these thoughts are, yet is still easily distressed by them. Too, they also understand the compulsions they face are also absurd, but still go through with them.

Now, what you are getting confused with in the OCD thing is what the media often portrays, that is, that OCD is just a group of small, odd actions or habits that have to do with order or certain little twitches. What the media is trying to describe is called Compulsions, the "C" in "OCD". Compulsions lead to ritualistic behavior to "control", or take the anxiety away from, said intrusive thoughts. These seldom have anything to do with orderliness, cleanliness, or anything commonly depicted in media. There aren't really any set of common rituals, as they could be anything at any given moment.

I also want to note what "Triggers" are. You have probably seen many internet posts stating "Trigger Warning" A trigger is anything that can cause an abundance of intrusive thoughts at a given moment. Triggers also apply to PTSD as well a few other things. Triggers with OCD can, again, be anything. Most commonly, though, they are violence related, sex related, or assault related.

edited 19th Jul '14 2:12:01 AM by JordanM

Yeah, I do get those things.

Hmm yeah, I can't all out say you have it, because I don't know. But yeah, its awful-

Does it count if somebody says "it's okay" and I go straight to thinking the worst things possible and I get really scared, or can't stop focusing on one thing?

That's more of anxiety. Granted, OCD is an anxiety disorder. It depends on context.

Oh wow. People were actually posting in this topic while I was away?

Anyway, BUMP

Crazy, right?

So what do we exactly discuss in this thread?

Are we just all OCD people talking about anything, or just about our OCD? I'm more obsessive than compulsive, but both are most definitely there.

I suppose anything. Its kind of hard to discuss OCD. Maybe every small little issue OCD brings up could be fine.

OCD is difficult to discuss...

Well, for me my OCD is, as I said in the OP, pure-o, which means it's more about the obsessions than the compulsions, though I do still have mental compulsions.

but my situation has improved since first making this topic, thanks to meds.

What's a trigger and what isn't? Even the word "trigger" is triggering.

The word alone triggers me.

Let's see... Even numbers (I can't stand them, unless I'm eating M&M's. Then, I have to have two of every color in my hand.), crooked picture frames, uneven hoodie strings, letters that are all different sizes, unequal slices of food, missing grammar, pant legs that are twisted and/or not even, bags that are opened from the bottom, food that isn't eaten correctly (Say, somebody bites into a Kit-Kat), inwards-facing toilet paper, things that are removed out of sequence, uneven hair, and many more things.

Sometimes, I think that there's something I didn't complete, and the thoughts stay there until I check multiple times, so there's that...

That's a big list, there. Its tough to talk about triggers.

Oh, that's not even all of them. That's just the worst of them. o_o;

I can relate, honestly. I can't even talk about OCD half the time either due to triggers or compulsions.

If somebody is talking about something that relates to symptoms of OCD, I have to leave before I start crying.

Whoa that's harsh. And how does this thread make you feel?

My worst ever OCD trigger was reading Nineteen Eighty Four back in Feb. worst month of my life IMO.

It may SOUND silly to people but its really not.

I'm okay here, for some reason. This is different, because it's not actual conversation in real life, and threads move more slowly than real conversations. So I'm all good.

This post, in itself, will probably be triggering.

Momento freaked me out when it said "you're lying to yourself", which led me to think that true of a good portion of triggers. However, I made sure to distinguish lying to one's self or denial as "You know its true, you just refuse to believe it" rather than "The truth you know is wrong"