Iāve never used this site before, in fact, up til now, Iāve always felt like my OCD is something I donāt even have. Iām diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder and I always assumed that was the only thing that caused my persistent thought patterns. Lately, my therapist has been noticing more intense patterns that resemble OCD. My older brother and grandmother are diagnosed with OCD and it runs in my more distant family as well. (This is sort of a long rant and I donāt expect anyone to see it. I just need to get it out of my head.)
Since I was around 12, Iāve had these little habits and fears that didnāt make much sense. I have face tics that happen in specific patterns. Example: first I raise my eyebrows and close my eyes, then I relax those and scrunch up my nose, then I relax my nose and pucker my lips. Always in that order and I do it until the urge to do it goes away. Throughout high school it went away, but Iām under a lot of stress right now (19) and itās coming back persistently.
Some of the things Iām experiencing now are:
Having to physically move away from a railing out of fear Iāll lose control of my body and throw myself over.
I have panic attacks when thereās an itch in my throat because I fear it will make me cough, which would make me gag, which would make me throw up, and Iām terrified of throwing up. I havenāt done it since I was 7 years old, since my mother (now dead) convinced me I can āthink it awayā.
I watch the same episodes of the same tv shows over and over. But that could just be a comfort thing.
I pop menthol cough drops every second of the day. Without them, I feel like Iāll be stuck without them and nowhere to run to. I always keep at least 10 on me everywhere I go.
Sometimes, Iāll do an action that makes me feel unlucky so I undo it, hoping that the universe didnāt notice and nothing will happen as a consequence.
If I see something really unsettling or disturbing on accident, I canāt get it out of my mind ever. I remember things vividly from years ago and I have to intensely distract myself or consciously make myself think of anything else to make the thought disappear.
Sometimes, I look at people as Iām out and about and I think about how at any moment, I could lose control of myself and spout some horrible absolutely disgusting things about them and then everyone around me would know what a horrible person I am. Of course, Iād never think the things that pop into my mind, so I always feel almost paranoid that someone actually heard what I just thought.
I experience this sort of, mental paralysis if something in my life is suddenly different. If my room is messier than usual, if I miss an assignment, if I have to make a sudden phone call. It feels like I canāt force myself to go anywhere or do anything because something is different. I changed my major during my first semester and for the rest of the semester I didnāt go to a single class, or do a single assignments. I stayed at my boyfriends place and just did laundry and dishes because it was all I could will myself to do. That may just me being weird and have nothing to do with OCD.
Of course the harmless habits: having to have both feet on the ground when getting out of the car before the driver closes there door. Holding my breath while walking past open doors. Closing my eyes when passing a window or mirror. Really canāt explain those, Iāve been doing that forever and I donāt know why that even started.
Iāve been going through a break/break up recently. I didnāt realize it, but my need for certainty and my persistent thoughts about my boyfriend that weāre never true were damaging us as a whole. No matter how much he proved his loyalty, those thoughts of him definitely cheating on me would interfere with how I treated him. I always needed to know where he was because if I didnāt know, suddenly he was out betraying me (in my mind of course) to him it was because I was just immature and didnāt have a life of my own. (Which is partially true) However, no matter how many times Iāve tried to control that behavior, no matter how many medications I was on, the thoughts persisted. The only thing that changed with medication was how badly I was affected by them.
He basically said that we can take a break and come back when weāve bettered ourselves. He refuses to tell me when because he thinks that will give me an easy way out and not have to actually better myself since I know heās coming back. So, because I have no idea when heās coming back, if at all, itās been driving me absolutely insane. All my behavior patterns have been worsened and even some new ones have formed. I constantly check his account to see if heās followed new people. If the numbers stay the same, I can feel calm. If they change, my day is ruined and I spiral. I keep asking the universe/god/whatever to give me signs to ensure that things are going the way theyāre supposed to go. It was recently my birthday and I got to blow out two sets of birthday candles so I felt extra lucky when I used my wishes. (Of course I canāt say what the wish was but we can all assume) It was the anniversary of the day we met yesterday and it snowed (I live in south Texas) so I took that as another sign. I sat outside last night in the snow and saw deer appear out of nowhere and I took that as another sign. I sleep with his shirt and some plushies he gave me and one of our cats toys. I kiss each of them and say goodnight to them every night because if I donāt, I feel the universe will take that as a sign that I donāt love them and theyāll never come back to me.
Iāve written thousands of reassuring words about our relationship and about him in my journals and notes app. No matter how many times I reread and rewrite them, those horrible gut wrenching thoughts of him already forgetting about me come to my mind and I do everything I can to get them out.
As I was diagnosed BPD I was on a few medications that did keep thoughts like this (which I didnāt consider could be OCD at the time) at bay. I was on 200 mg of Seroquel, 200mg of Trileptal, and 200mg of Gabapentin. They did a nice job at keeping those thoughts out, although they would slip through and make me spiral every few weeks. However, I ran out of medication over two months ago, and I have no insurance right now. So Iām really started to feel those inescapable thoughts torture me every second of the day.
(Iām aware that a lot of these things could be explained by my BPD and Thereās a very good chance I donāt have OCD at all, I just found a lot of symptoms that resonated with me here as well. They could be co-morbidities for me, I could have one or the other, or I could just have BPD and am just imagining the OCD⦠not really sure)
I know this was a total word dump and I doubt anyone will see this.
(If anyone does see it, however, please avoid any relationship advice. I know what I want and the choices I make are never influenced by others and most of the time, relationship advice just worsens my thoughts. I really am just looking for any advice on these sort of thought and behavior patterns rather than their subject matter.)
(Iām also 19 and know very little about life so pls be kind <3)