Ocd

anybody else have it? I don't really know where to begin on this but health seemed like a good idea. it's strange and strange for people to understand that it's so much more than having to shut your car door 5,000 times or being afraid of germs. It determines how you act to people and how you say things. Well, me anyway. 'my ocd' started off quite mildly, such as having to skip steps for some inexplicable reason, and spending hours re arranging my pencil case. But then it got a little bit nastier, and started to ruin my relationships with people. And how I talked to people. And freaking out, all the time. but internally..
a rant that has been immediately curtailed.

Reply 1

wackysparkle

14

well - i would say that Ocd occurs most often when the individual has too much time on their hands -- i used to have an extremo mild form of it -- but got rid of it quick once i was constantly busy doing something all the time - and gradually forgot about it

Is your Ocd very extreme?

Reply 2

lamenter

12

I got a mild form of it. Back in Africa when i was kid i was playing with rocks. I had a bunch and i was putting them all in an area one by one. I accidentalyl rubbed one of them. That meant that i had to collect every single rock and rub them the same way. Everytime i did some thing to a rock i would have to do it again to the others.

There was an embarrassing phase when i had to spin around for no reason all the time. My teacher thought i was into ballet. I still do that :frown:

. Now days i can't watch Tv or go on the computer if the door isn't closed and the lights turned off. If it isn't I feel unnatural and unable to concentrate.

I wish i had the cool OCD. The one where you have to keep reading the same page all the time.

Reply 3

wackysparkle

14

umm - that one actually sucks! i used to do that!!!

Reply 4

mc_hamster

1

I had OCD very badly for many years, it got to the point where it completly consumed me. I didn't mention it to anyone for ages then I started talking to a friend who had exactly the same problem as me. After this conversation I decided to book a doctors appointment, this basicly saved me from going mad. He put me on prozac (which had no massive effect) and got me to see a psychologist.

This helped me very much and I really reccomend that you try getting an appointment with a doctor. She gave me a lot of tips for trying to avoid getting into the OCD spiral.

I do have odd times when I have felt the need to touch something several times etc. But it's much better then it was 3 years ago.

Some good tips I got from the psychologist were:

- Make a diary and write down when you got an OCD thought, what the OCD told you to do, what you thought might happen if you didn't do it and the outcome. Then look at the pattern eg is it a particular time/ thought etc.

- Continue with the diary but start not giving into the OCD, then see if something happens. Even if you can break the spiral once a day and see that nothing happens it's progress.

- Distract yourself when you feel like slipping into the OCD. It normally happens when you're on your own so maybe meet a friend or something.

- The most important bit of advice I was given was remind yourself that you're not the only person who has OCD. Millions have it, and it's a very good starting point to helping yourself.

I hope that helps you in some way. If you need to talk about it just give me a PM.

Reply 5

Sadhbh

OP

I don't feel like I can ever pinpoint it.. its just who I am. But its hard to ever explain to people that it is part of me.. they look for obvious manic things, but most of it is in my head. My current thing is having to constantly recheck the amount of money in my wallet. every couple of minutes. and calculating how much water I will need to drink exactly for the rest of the day. sort of time consuming.
thats why I'm looking forward to uni. I have nothing to do here but my homework.. and that's why it gets agitated.
people always make it worse actually.. I get veeeeeery uncomfortable around them.
The biggest thing I can't do is hug people. At all.
haha

Reply 6

Krysia

8

I was a handwasher as a child; constantly afraid that everything was contaminated/poisoned/infected, so I couldn't touch anything without having to wash my hands repeatedly (which did the eczema no good at all), and there was a point when I couldn't eat at all. Also had the horrible compulsion to stab myself with knives (I didn't want to, it was just a compulsion. But you can see how this could unbalance a 9-year-old)
So yeah. Loads of fun. :frown:

Think I got over it (well, the worst of it; I'm still something of a perfectionist and still obsess over silly things like symmetry) in the end when I was about 12 or so and realised I could actually ignore the compulsions and break the cycle, without anythinging terrible happening.

Reply 7

wackysparkle

14

why don't you take up some hobby or something? - something that involves you getting to a place and doing something? like a sport - that will get you distracted! -- read or watch TV or something at home -- make sure you are always doing something.............

Reply 8

Sijia

10

I must brush my teeth after every time I've eaten something that might possibly stain or cause cavities - I'm paranoid as I hate going to the dentist, so I must. As that includes most foods in life, I guess I'm a bit OCD there. They really should make better, cheaper toothpaste.

Reply 9

monkeymayhem

I dunno if its an ocd but I hate seeing certain pattens which are too close together (like loads of dots), make me itchy (weird I know), if I do, I have immediately cover them or try and move them apart somehow.

Reply 10

Captain Haddock

18

I think I would have if I wern't so damn lazy

Reply 11

RK

TSR Community Staff

22

Would these be some sort of OCD?

(1) When walking down the street having to try and get both your feet to step on the same amount of surfaces the same number of times, so you meander across the pavements, put in extra steps, smaller steps, larger steps etc just so you step on one colour tarmac the same number of times with each foot, or can step on the curb at one side of the road with one foot and on the curb at the other side with the other foot for example.

(2) Counting things in a room like
(a) the number of opening (an opening being a door, drawer, window, cupboard draw, CD drive on a computer, Floppy drive on a computer, CD or tape opening on a CD player etc....)
(b) counting the number of walls, pieces of skirting board, floor, ceilings and unremovable fittings like plug sockets, light switches, windows and radiators
(c) counting the number of pieces of furniture in a room and if the total number isn't a 'nice' number (what ever a 'nice' number is - it can vary, but is usually even, often also divisible by 4 or 10 as well) having to start again by including new things in the list (like the collection of things on top of a surface could be classed as 'one' in the count, maybe 'two' if there is a lot of stuff there and an extra number or two is needed.

(3) having to do or say things a given number of times, normally in sets of two or 4 and sometimes having to do things multiple time a number of times. Like maybe counting the 4 squares on a board 4 times, then repeating that process 4 times in total before you can move on.

Reply 12

mc_hamster

1

First it starts of with a thought 'if I don't do this something bad is going to happen'. So it makes you believe that moving something/ counting something/ touching something could counteract that bad thing. Normally the 'bad thing' is more specific, for example my dog was quite ill for a while so the OCD was basicly saying 'if you don't do this your dog will die.

Reply 13

RK

TSR Community Staff

22

mc_hamster

First it starts of with a thought 'if I don't do this something bad is going to happen'. So it makes you believe that moving something/ counting something/ touching something could counteract that bad thing. Normally the 'bad thing' is more specific, for example my dog was quite ill for a while so the OCD was basicly saying 'if you don't do this your dog will die.

Well, normally with those things above there is nothing to say anything specifically bad will happen, just that those things needs to be done. Normally it will be bad luck if those things are not done (with the walking) or left incomplete (with any of the counting - you have to finish the counting before you can do something elese - often with a time limit before something happens - like I could be lying in bed counting the number of openings in my room when I'll suddenly find myself counting them - not always realising I've started and I'll hear someone coming to my room (say my Dad) and I'm in the middle of a count and I'll have to finish before he gets to my room. And if I get the wrong number at the end (ie miss counted somewhere) I'll have to start over again. Sometimes I'll make myself have to count the same things in a different number of ways, maybe counting one way around and then in reverse, or in other patterns. All would have to be completed before my Dad got to my room etc...

Reply 14

mc_hamster

1

From what I've been told OCD is actually a reaction to a bad thought and the thinking that it may happen. But what you mention above is a form of OCD, infact I would say it is the most common.
In a way everyone does have a form of OCD but it depends if you act on that thought or not.

Here is a couple of sites you may find useful:
OCD UK
Wiki

Reply 15

RK

TSR Community Staff

22

mc_hamster

From what I've been told OCD is actually a reaction to a bad thought and the thinking that it may happen. But what you mention above is a form of OCD, infact I would say it is the most common.
In a way everyone does have a form of OCD but it depends if you act on that thought or not.

Here is a couple of sites you may find useful:
OCD UK
Wiki

I've been doing those things most days - when laying in bed at night or in the morning, when walking down the street. Whether in my own room(s) or a strange room. Sometimes the counting can just happen at any time, normally when alone or in a strange place.

They've been going on over 10, maybe 15.

Thanks for the links - I think they've also told me I'm a hoarder - I seem to fit the description for a lot of that too.

Reply 16

mc_hamster

1

No problem.
It's a very complicated thing to explain, sorry if my descriptions were poo.

Reply 17

abc101

17

I think everyone has some mild form of OCD, just some people have it in a much more extreme way. I've got it pretty bad - I have a think about 'equalling' stuff out...once my mum flicked the light on one side of the car on, then turned it off, and I had to beg her to put the light on the other side on because it was freaking me out so much I was fidgeting and getting all stressy! That's just weird :tongue:

Or if I scratch my right hand I have to scratch my left :s-smilie:

Mostly mine is cleanliness - still quite weird though, if somebody I don't like has touched something of mine, like they've borrowed my I-Pod or a pen or something, I won't use it again until I've 'cleaned' it with baby wipes, until then I'll have to wash my hands after using it!

It's quite scary when you start to think about it...sometimes you don't notice it as it's an everyday thing, but then you realise it's actually a pretty big deal! Keeping a diary like someone suggested above sounds a good idea.

Reply 18

Sadhbh

OP

Of course everyone does have some sort of 'particular' thing. But its like i said, more than that. It becomes a part of you.
like I have to sit by a wall. or in a corner. I hate open spaces because I feel they are too distracting and airy.. and if I have to sit in an open space I cannot concentrate, and it generally affects everything after that. I won't use a knife a lot because I have a terrible fear of cutting my finger and losing the feeling in my finger. As you can imagine that hinders a lot... I go around picking up pieces of paper sometimes in school because I think- oh what if I have written something that could be seen as strange even though I have not written anything strange and what if someone picks it up then my life is over, oh my god where is the piece of paper-

Its a battle between the illogical and logical..example let's say you know in a way that angry murderers will not come into your home at night, if the window is a little bit open,, but yet.. you can't sleep because you know its going to happen.

if I run to a certain place in 30 seconds, it gives relief of sorts. however, because I know that people around me.. would find that rather amusing/weird.. I hold the running in. sort of annoying when you have to.. control yourself. but then I find I have lots of control. I regret reacting on impulse because I know that in my little mind, I would later analyse it, analyse what other people thought and regret it.

Ocd

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