How do you know the difference between OCD thoughts and Intellectual conflicts that anybody could go through? especially if you're someone who loves philosophy and morality delimmas? and also as a young adult who experience a quarter life crisis and/or identity crisis and struggle with changing and growing up, How do you know if what hitting you OCD or something of those?
My therapist did a cool thing for me. He said āif you feel like you want to go down a rabbit hole on a religious topic, you can! Thatās probably good for your growth. But letās not make it compulsive, letās, instead, schedule a time once a week when you are allowed to research stuff. Write down the question and then just set an alarm for a block of time once a week to really dive in. If it isnāt interesting by the time that research session comes around, it isnāt important. If it is, dig in but you have to stop at the end of your decided time blockā This forced me out of my main religious compulsion - research! So maybe the answer is āyou will never know if itās a normal thought or notā but you can dive in as long as it isnāt compulsive!
For me, if i can -think- logically through it, vs if i have other issues getting in the way (emotional, physical reactions).
yes, that's helpful! Thank you!
Thoughts are thoughts, they become OCD when they are repetitive and disruptive and in many cases pushing the person to do compulsions. The reason for the thought to be disruptive is a mechanism in the brain trying to clean up the space in memory by testing you if you will develop feelings towards those thoughts. So, if a thought crossed your mind, and you entertained it without being emotionally reacting to it, then this is normal I guess. If you react still normal... If it becomes reparative and disruptive then maybe it is from OCD.
especially that those things are painful and makes you anxious and uncomfortable too.
Does anyone had or have the existential fear of our brain functions. I have so much hyperawareness in my thoughts, I focus all the time in my feelings and my intentions in order to check if I am strange or not and if I have control of my actions. I do psychotherapy 4 years and I thought I was fine. But this June I had a derealization episode(or ocd) , after that a depersonalization episode (or ocd) and after that I have obsessions about our existence and that every aspect in our lives has to do with our brain and for some reason these thoughts scary me. I know that at some point is ocd but I am very confused why this thoughts scary me so much. I observe others and I am curious how it's possible not to think about that and this make it worse . I am so anxious because obviously we are our brain ,I know that and brain has to do with everything,but I don't know why it make me anxious and if it's possible to live without these thoughts. I do many compulsion but my biggest is to figure out if I have compulsion in order to figure out if my thoughts is ocd or delusions. It's so real and these thoughts really bother me. Any other with same experience?
How can I tell the difference between suicidal ocd and suicidal thoughts?
Iām an OCD newbie & Iām having a lot of difficulty being able to distinguish what are OCD symptoms that may be atypical or if itās due to another diagnosis/not something to be worried about. For context, I also have PTSD & suspected Autism- so excuse any excessively literal interpretations. All of my knowledge of OCD is watching Monk when I was child, so give me some grace. 1. āHarm OCDā- I have for as long as I can remember summed up my life purpose as āleast amount of harm, most amount of goodā. I am constantly thinking about how my actions & inaction may be impacting others. My career is in psych & public health because of that. I noticed I personalized things bc I assumed people thought about this just as much as me- only to find out they donāt. But I only hear examples of harm OCD as being thoughts of like personal persecution or images of hurting others. This is more of a mental analysis of the potential impacts. 2. āContamination OCDā- Does this need to be literal with germs? I have what I call āemotional contaminationā, where if something bad/negative happens, I worry that itās āruinedā. Like if my partner & I have an argument in bed, I feel like I need to replace the sheets because our argument is āonā the sheets. Iām aware that that is illogical, but Iāll still do it. Every time Iāve had a major trauma, Iāve redecorated my home because I felt like all the negative is āstuckā on my old stuff & it needs to be replaced or I wonāt feel better. Iāve ended relationships bc āthereās no getting this offā. 3. āMagical thinking OCDā I like to say that I think a lot of things I donāt believe. I have lots of random thoughts about needing to do something or something bad will happen. The things I need to do are usually really silly- like moving a large rock thatās by itself to a spot with another large rock so it isnāt alone & doesnāt feel lonely. I donāt have the thought that something specifically bad will happen or think I have magical powers. I know itās nonsense, but I usually do it to stop thinking about it unless itāll cause harm. Sometimes I also will come up with ātestsā, like telling myself if I say XYZ to my partner & they respond in ABC way, then that means they love me. But the thing Iām asking them about could be literally anything. I am frequently *afraid* to ask because they might respond wrong and āruinā it. 4. āOrder & Symmetry OCDā & āPerfection OCDā & āJust Right OCDā- these terms seem to be used kind of interchangeably? I am VERY specific about my stuff. My home is color-coded by room & I wonāt buy things that donāt match. I am intensely uncomfortable & canāt stop thinking about it if something doesnāt match. I am STILL thinking about the pink version of my laptop that I didnāt buy 7 years ago & it bothers me that I bought the silver one. I hate when people buy me stuff bc my style is very specific & hard to understand the nuance. Thereās a ācorrectā image in my head & itās really upsetting when itās wrong. I flipped out a lot as a child when my stuff was moved and when my parents made design choices for me. I group things in weird ways- thereās an order, but it might be ordered based on how much I like them, how much they remind me of someone, or even more abstract like āif these objects were to run for president, this is the order I think they would be in from liberal to conservative on their view of defunding the policeā. I have weird things with numbers, and will buy things based on how ācuteā the price is. I would rather pay $440 for something than $399 because itās a ābetterā number. I couldnāt tell you anything beyond āvibeā. Iām not sure if these are actually symptoms or just tangentially related & Iām conflating. I may have mis-grouped something. Itās hard to know where to start when nothing seems to have the direct examples of what I experience. Thanks in advance!
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