O.C.D what is it like? Please comment if you have experienced it!

I've had a few specific symptoms and they really don't affect me in my day to day life only when I do specific things which I now avoid so I was wondering if I could have it or I just have random problems. The thing is I feel like if I did have it, it would affect me more than it does. The only thing I've heard about O.C.D is from ignorant teachers and pupils saying things like "is anyone else O.C.D because this door won't close fully," or "oh my god one time I touched gum under a desk and used hand sanitizer I think I'm O.C.D," which is not ok. I've searched online and the symptoms are quite vague so I want to hear about specific symptoms that you can face and how hard it is, be completely honest. Post anonymously if you want.

It is the doorway to creativity. But at the same time (esepcially when anxious or overly stressedit can be very embarressing to lvie with. Constantly checking windows I know are shut, lights I know are fine, touching specific objects in a chronological order and jsut doing straight up stuff I know isn't what everyone does. I think it is safe to say my higher intelligence and anxiety disorders (clairsentince) all paly hand in hand with one another. I am no OCD expert but I would lean to people like myself absolutely being well above their pier group, highly talented, creative, artistic, alert, better survival instincts, intuitive, fast and witty, everyone can ignore their quirks they find making friends easy because of thier honest, direct more primitive nature. I used to look upon mental health as a disgust, a thing in my way when I was a slight bit younger. Now I have grown to relaise if I didn't suffer with said differences would I still be able to do the amazing gifted and talented things I can today? The short easy answer was no i'd just be this boring, under educated flop, with no charisma, no third eye to the world around me. I see OCD as a unique structure (the only true burden was the obssessive and intrusive thoughts- yes they used to make me fear for my own safety some were and still can be truly disturbing to the point the only escapes alcohol and very loud earphones) But I am learning to realsie that even the intrusive thoughts might just be the constructs and impulses of a very alert and actively healthy brain function with doorways that shouldn't be open to most (since my severe bout of Anxiety and OCD that rampaged between October 2017 and randomly subsided in early Feb I have actively begun a two part novel for 2019 and have deisgned some rather exceptional art peices on a weekly basis never mind fallen in love with someone. Was I sick or going through a deeper level of inner vibration? A change. It depends how you decide to look at and treat OCD. Try this approach, let the racing thoughts, obssession and compulsions be the doorway to creativity and brilliance yes write them down amke a book a world out of it. Try and listen to what the symptoms are saying and use them as a positive stride. Sounds controversal but bit of time, age and patience I know what i'm talking about

It varies a lot from person to person which is why a lot of the info online is so veigue.
Essentially it boils down to some urge or need to do something that realistically does not need doing. That could mean repeating things a lot, waking your hands more often than needed, straightening every photo frame you see, touching rocks and any number of other things. There tends to be a focus on "order" or "cleanses" with how people see OCD, but it can be literally anything and doesn't need to have any reason behind it even.
One feature a lot of people will have with OCD is an "or else" type of thought where of they don't do the thing something bad will happen. That doesn't always happen or can sometimes be a less conscious thought and more general feeling of something not being right.

For me, I had a lot of little things that didn't have any hugely dramatic motivation. but could combine to be quite disruptive. Things like flicking light switches way more times than needed, counting steps, doing things "the right way" which usually meant touching it from the right angle or something. My hands would also often feel wrong. That would lead to me washing my hands or using hand sanitizer/ moisturiser, but not because of a fear of germs- it just helped get rid of the feeling.
My motivator was almost always just the sense I needed to do it. It would start just as a kinda "hey, do that" from my brain and if I didn't it would get more and more persistent and take all my focus. Sometimes I wouldn't even know what the thing was- I just knew something wasn't right or that I needed to do something with that thing.
The worst thing for me was when my own thoughts didn't listen to me. So like I could be trying to imagine a block moving to the left and it would just keep on bouncing back to the right against my will. It's a really odd thing to describe, but it was really awful cos it was like I had no control even in my own body.

That's a bit of a summary of my experiences. Others will have very different experiences. Just because they don't match up it didn't mean either are not legitimate.

If you think you may have OCD I suggest you go have a talk with your GP. They are the best people to get you set up with the right support.

The thing with all these "omg my OCD" things is they actually do pick on some real OCD behaviours, but they just don't understand the extent (and tend to focus on just one thing). So yeah somebody with OCD might use hand sanitizer after touching used gum, but it's not the action that makes it OCD-it's the thoughts and feelings behind it. "Normal" people could do the same thing, but that's for a different motivator so it's not OCD.

I hope that makes sense and please feel free to ask me any questions. There's so much to it that is hard to cover it all our know what to cover so I'm sure I've missed stuff.

For me, OCD has been a terrible experience and the determining factor to ruining my reputation at work. It's like a constant, nagging, obsessive self-dialogue that doesn't approve of anything you do. This leads to me verifying my work at least literally 50 times over before I submit anything to my supervisor (and that really ticks everyone off).

Everyone at the company has complained about my being slow and I told them I'm going to start doing my best. You see, it's very easy for someone without OCD; he just speedily writes his work down and hands it in without even hesitating a second. Now, for someone with OCD such as myself, I drive myself insane when I do work: I write something down, and I re-read again, and again, and again, and again, and again, then I don't believe that what I wrote is correct, then again, and again,.. a vicious circle. As you may probably imagine, this wastes tons of time and it is the number one efficiency killer.

I hate OCD and I want to better myself.
Best of luck.

It's a feeling you have where everything just feels wrong. And personally, I sometimes even lose track of what it is that feels wrong. I just try to make everything right all the time. I can never just sit down for once and enjoy where I am. My mind is always stuck on something that bothers me the more I think about it. I spend hours every day to get perfect grades and full marks on all of my assignments, a teacher has even told me that my OCD might be helping me in school. But she has no idea. I would be so much better off without it, I sometimes spend hours on small details like the layout of my notes and how everything has to look perfect instead of doing some actual work. My symptoms are a bit different from other people suffering with OCD because I keep the thoughts inside and I try not to act, although it doesn't always work. Sometimes, it gets so bad that I get close to giving up. Because no matter what I try, the obsessive thoughts always come back at some point.

For me there are lots of checks and routines I do, I cannot leave home or sleep until I do certain checks, and I have to do them in a specific order and I have to do the checks a certain number of times before I can leave/sleep. I also have really bad intrusive/obsessive thoughts that are particularly crippling to me, that they borderline on delusional at times. I got on a bus yesterday and became convinced that the person sat opposite wanted to kill me. I noticed he rang 3 different buttons to get off, and ran his hands along the poles near where I was sat, and I thought he'd done something to do them, so when I wanted to get off I had to try not to touch the poles, and find a different button. This is just a small example, some last days, weeks or months.

This really explains the more unheard-about side of OCD which I didn't fully understand because of course it's in the persons head and you can't exactly see it happening. It really shows that the people who don't know about it and call themselves OCD think that it's some sort of logical thing and that having OCD is just like being a germaphobe and a neat-freak when sometimes it's obviously much more than that and something you can't control. What's your experience with medication? If you've ever tried it.

I haven't tried medication for OCD. My OCD was heavily linked to my depression which I did take medication for along with therapy. Thankfully when my depression improved so did my OCD and I didn't actually have to focus too much on the OCD. Now with things being better I do still get some little OCD things, but I now have the ability to control it. I reckon in my case my OCD thoughts/ urges are linked into my learning difficulties and that depression put extra stress on me and threw it out of control and into OCD (looking back I've always been "a bit OCD", but it was never an issue until the depression joined in). Now that the extra stress is gone it's back to just little discomforts and oddities that, although they are the same sorts of things as my OCD, I wouldn't consider OCD.

Hmm I kinda went off on a tangent there. So yeah I have benefited from medication, but it was more of a knock on effect from it helping with the depression.

For me, OCD has been a terrible experience and the determining factor to ruining my reputation at work. It's like a constant, nagging, obsessive self-dialogue that doesn't approve of anything you do. This leads to me verifying my work at least literally 50 times over before I submit anything to my supervisor (and that really ticks everyone off).

Everyone at the company has complained about my being slow and I told them I'm going to start doing my best. You see, it's very easy for someone without OCD; he just speedily writes his work down and hands it in without even hesitating a second. Now, for someone with OCD such as myself, I drive myself insane when I do work: I write something down, and I re-read again, and again, and again, and again, and again, then I don't believe that what I wrote is correct, then again, and again,.. a vicious circle. As you may probably imagine, this wastes tons of time and it is the number one efficiency killer.

I hate OCD and I want to better myself.
Best of luck.

I've never experienced anything like this but it sounds really hard to deal with I couldn't imagine dealing with it.

This is a really good explanation of how I feel a lot of the time with my checks and routines.



I think it's possible it's more than just OCD I'm experiencing or maybe it's just very bad. I haven't had help with it for a long time and it's definitely bad now. I am actually going to the doctors next week so hopefully they can shed some light on it.

I get repetitive intrusive thoughts. I think I have a more 'secret' form of OCD, which is very different from the OCD that's commonly known in the media.

I wake up in the morning and have thoughts that I am something and then I perform mental checks in my head to make sure that I am not that something that I fear. I continuously do this about many different things

A common thought process for me goes like this: I scroll through social media or randomly think something, I get triggered by that thing, I get increasingly anxious that I could be that thing or I am that thing, I then mentally check if I am that thing or I am not that thing and repeat it during the day. By 'thing' could mean anything from me thinking I'm a murderer, a paedophile, transgender (nothing against transgender - just for me it's an irrational fear), being straight (I'm gay) or being anorexic, or a psychopath. As I've attached so much meaning to these things, whenever I question myself remotely about these things or have a random thought in my head, I automatically get anxious and think I am these things. As you can imagine, many of these things are common in conversation, so it is difficult for me not to get triggered and become anxious every day.

However, receiving help has made me feel better, less anxious and experience less frequent OCD moments. I am able to shrug off intrusive thoughts much more easily than I could have before, minimising my anxiety. It's taught me that when I'm upset, stressed or more tired, I am far more susceptible to having an OCD anxiety moment, so I know that a sudden rise in OCD moments is normal and I am not going mad. It's hard and I know it will never go away completely and I will most likely experience OCD moments throughout the rest of my life, but it is treatable so that it will most likely become white noise. I'm 17 and I haven't quite got to that stage yet, but I can already feel myself improve so I am excited for now and the future whereby OCD will have less of a grip on my life.

I used to feel so scared and anxious, but now I am leading a better life with far less OCD terror, so I'm pretty content. I've made my peace with it (I say that but I haven't quite)!

I've had a few specific symptoms and they really don't affect me in my day to day life only when I do specific things which I now avoid so I was wondering if I could have it or I just have random problems. The thing is I feel like if I did have it, it would affect me more than it does. The only thing I've heard about O.C.D is from ignorant teachers and pupils saying things like "is anyone else O.C.D because this door won't close fully," or "oh my god one time I touched gum under a desk and used hand sanitizer I think I'm O.C.D," which is not ok. I've searched online and the symptoms are quite vague so I want to hear about specific symptoms that you can face and how hard it is, be completely honest. Post anonymously if you want.

It honestly upsets me, the fact that people feel weird and not normal just because media wrongly portrays OCD as something that's trivial and has no meaning. Anyways, I think it's good that you understand what you're going through and the thoughts that you get because it will help you improve your life. Hopefully, one day you'll be able to say that it doesn't affect you anymore.

It is the doorway to creativity. But at the same time (esepcially when anxious or overly stressedit can be very embarressing to lvie with. Constantly checking windows I know are shut, lights I know are fine, touching specific objects in a chronological order and jsut doing straight up stuff I know isn't what everyone does. I think it is safe to say my higher intelligence and anxiety disorders (clairsentince) all paly hand in hand with one another. I am no OCD expert but I would lean to people like myself absolutely being well above their pier group, highly talented, creative, artistic, alert, better survival instincts, intuitive, fast and witty, everyone can ignore their quirks they find making friends easy because of thier honest, direct more primitive nature. I used to look upon mental health as a disgust, a thing in my way when I was a slight bit younger. Now I have grown to relaise if I didn't suffer with said differences would I still be able to do the amazing gifted and talented things I can today? The short easy answer was no i'd just be this boring, under educated flop, with no charisma, no third eye to the world around me. I see OCD as a unique structure (the only true burden was the obssessive and intrusive thoughts- yes they used to make me fear for my own safety some were and still can be truly disturbing to the point the only escapes alcohol and very loud earphones) But I am learning to realsie that even the intrusive thoughts might just be the constructs and impulses of a very alert and actively healthy brain function with doorways that shouldn't be open to most (since my severe bout of Anxiety and OCD that rampaged between October 2017 and randomly subsided in early Feb I have actively begun a two part novel for 2019 and have deisgned some rather exceptional art peices on a weekly basis never mind fallen in love with someone. Was I sick or going through a deeper level of inner vibration? A change. It depends how you decide to look at and treat OCD. Try this approach, let the racing thoughts, obssession and compulsions be the doorway to creativity and brilliance yes write them down amke a book a world out of it. Try and listen to what the symptoms are saying and use them as a positive stride. Sounds controversal but bit of time, age and patience I know what i'm talking about

It depends. Everyone likes to think they have "OCD" because they like straight picture frames and wash their hands a couple of times a day. My syptoms depend on what kind of day I'm having- they get worse when I'm stressed, tired or in unfamiliar surroundings. The most common things (and the most noticable) are using hand sanitiser quite often, whenever my hands feel dirty (even though they're probably fine), not touching certain surfaces (door handles, railings, light switches), and my eyes will flit to and from certain spots, like, say a wall or a window, or sometimes (embarassingly) just next to or behind someone. I'll make funny hand gestures, like crossing fingers or knocking on certain surfaces a certain number of times in order to prevent some unknown bad from happening (usually throwing up). If I'm really tired or stressed, I'll repeat certain syllables under my breath over and over again because they sound wrong. It's not fun, but ultimately it's how my stresses output themselves- some people have panic attacks or whatever (I used to have anxiety attacks every now and again, now not so much) but these symptoms are my way of defecting that. Is it ideal? No. Could it be worse? Of course...

Personally, it's hell. I have always had OCD but I think when it was diagnosed I actually had to accept it whereas, my family don't they're just like for god's sake if you want to stop, stop. I have a fear of contamination so I take about twenty hand santizers to school, pull my sleeves over my hands to open doors and won't touch any of the school textbooks.
I wash my hands about 30 times a day and I won't allow anybody to touch my stuff- for example, I never willingly hand my folder, notes or sample pages into my teachers without putting them in a polywallet and I think this really bothers my teachers.
My friends just think I'm 'crazy' which isn't the worst thing I've been called. In my honest opinion, I think everyone's a little bit OCD but it's when somebody else or even yourself notices it may have become an obsession that you need to speak to somebody or even if you yourself try to control it rather than let the obsessions control you.

Yeah that sounds really hard, some people have a type of OCD where it doesn't show when other people are around or the symptoms just aren't noticeable but in your case it sounds really frustrating to have to do all that and also have people annoy you about it. Good luck with it I hope you find a solution.