My OCD is starting to get real bad. I can't even type on the computer anymore. I've spent several minutes just typing this post out. I erase and rewrite several times. It's starting to become seriously unfeasible. Does anyone else have this issue?
My OCD is starting to get real bad. I can't even type on the computer anymore.
Try NAC
Does t really help? For example, look at the "t" typo here, I meant to write "it" but I can not edit it or I trigger my OCD and would get stuck in a loop for maybe like 3 minutes
Thisi s getting fricking insane I cant take it anymore......
See a doctor moron
t. severe OCDoid who at one point couldn't leave the house and now barely has symptoms on proper medication
Do meds really help? what are the side effects?
Yeah they really, really help. You want a combination of serotogenic OCD meds and Exposure and Response Prevention therapy.
Side effects vary by individual and are unpredictable so you kinda just have to try the ones that show efficacy for OCD until you find one that works and doesn't have shit side effects. There's a couple SSRIs that are good for OCD so they'll try each of those and if that doesn't work they'll usually try clomipramine which is SUPER effective but tends to have worse side effects.
The only side effect I have from my OCD meds is that I sweat more than I used to. I'm on one of the SSRIs.
Lots of people take meds and do the therapy and then after they finish the therapy they don't need the meds anymore. My OCD is really severe, so I'll need meds forever, but a lot of people don't. Seriously, see a doctor. OCD is fricking hell.
Wow, I might book an appointment. But I don't see how meds would work for me because I'm very conscentious. I don't even drink alcohol because I don't like the effecti t has on my mind. If I lose control of my mind, I have panic attacks. I think partly that's why I get the OCD because when I suddenly become self-aware, I panic, which happens if my flow of writing for example stops because of a typo and I have to go back (and suddenly I become aware of myself and begin to panic). My mind needs to be in a constant flow state and if it stops, I have panic attacks. How could meds treat OCD but not affect my state of mind?
Well they will affect your state of mind because your state of mind is what's causing you to hyperfocus on these things and panic. If what you're worried about is that you won't be "yourself" or you won't have control over your thoughts, the right meds will make you MORE yourself and MORE in control, not less. I was really afraid of meds changing who I was on a fundamental level when I first started them, but it's not like that at all. I'm the same person, I can just think clearly now and my personality isn't drowning under 15 metric fricktons of neurotic mess.
Also, if you start taking a med and don't like how it makes you feel or think, you can stop taking it. That counts as a shit side effect. Yeet that b***h and try a different one.
This makes me really hopeful but I'm scared. I will start considering it (from not considering it whatsoever prior to making this thread). I might book an appointment with a doctor in the next week. It is becoming impossible for me to live. Putting objects down, getting out of bed, putting on my socks, putting on my pants, puttong on my shoes, and now even typing when all my work is done on the computer. Yesterday I spent 3 hours modifying a text that shouldn't have taken more than 30 minutes (spent a whole 3h long train ride doing so). More and more things just keep adding on that trigger the OCD and it's starting to get debilitating.
For the meds, how big was the difference when you began taking them? Do you feel physiological differences? How does it relieve OCD exactly? Do you just stop caring? Because caring to do things right is part of who I am right now, so maybe OCD is a part of that for better or for worse.....
>Putting objects down, getting out of bed, putting on my socks, putting on my pants, puttong on my shoes, and now even typing when all my work is done on the computer. Yesterday I spent 3 hours modifying a text that shouldn't have taken more than 30 minutes (spent a whole 3h long train ride doing so). More and more things just keep adding on that trigger the OCD and it's starting to get debilitating.
Yep, that all sounds really familiar. I used to get caught in loops for hours doing things over and over while screaming at myself inside my head to stop.
>For the meds, how big was the difference when you began taking them?
For me it was huge. The therapy also helped, but I was too unwell to even do the therapy until I started taking the meds. SSRIs take a few weeks to start working, but I still vividly remember the first day when they hit and I was suddenly free in ways I hadn't been in forever. I could just DO things without doing them over and over, I could make decisions without agonizing about them. I could drive in whichever lane I wanted on the freeway. I could walk down the street without counting the cracks in the sidewalks. It doesn't take it away completely, but the severity of the symptoms goes way, way down and gets way more manageable especially with the therapy.
>Do you feel physiological differences?
Not really? Aside from the side effects of stress relief, like the ability to relax and stuff. You do get some weird startup effects sometimes, like the first few days I was on meds I had a weird dizzy feeling, but that went away.
>How does it relieve OCD exactly? Do you just stop caring?
No I still care and I'm still super conscientious, just to a much more reasonable and rational degree. It's more "Oh let me double-check the stove is off" once and then not worrying about it anymore as opposed to "if I don't check that the stove is off exactly seven times before I go to sleep my house will burn down."
cont
The way I described it when I first got on meds was that I had the ability to "think in straight lines" in a way I didn't have before. Like if thinking was driving a car, the OCD used to grab the wheel and spin me in circles and I would get stuck going in that same circle over and over again. I couldn't stop thinking about whatever the obsession was, and I couldn't stop doing the compulsion. It was just
>I have to check this
>I have to check this
>I have to check this
>I have to check this
>I have to check this
On and on and on and on and I would just be trapped in the loop with no real control. On meds it's like I can feel a little nudge on the wheel suggesting I might turn, but I can decide whether I want to check it once and carry on, or if I want to ignore it entirely.
My reactions to things are thus much more proportional and rational, so the actual work I put out is better and more tailored to what I really want it to be rather than by what intense fear is driving me, if that makes sense.
>"think in straight lines" in a way I didn't have before
Bruh, we speak a language I don't think anyone can understand. You just articulated something I've been struggling to do because of the OCD for the past 4 years. I am constantly, 24/7, struggling to think in straight lines. The OCD appears when this thinking deviates and it is the attempt at getting back into my previous state of mind that's got me into these loops. If I hyper focus on the mindset of that straight thinking, and I get through the OCD while retaining my state of mind, I come out stronger on the end, essentially making that straight line of thinking stronger - but if I ever have OCD that jeopardize it the stakes become even greater because I risk losing all that progress, so effectively it becomes even worse, even if it becomes better on the times when you feel well
You've made me optimistic about booking an appointment with a psychiatrist. I can't express enough how happy I am that this post happened. Might've quite literally changed my life. Psychiatry (and meds particularly) were a literal "no way" for me before now
Also will add that you should see a *psychiatrist* and NOT a general practitioner. Figuring out psych meds is for a specialist and I don't think any GP should be prescribing any of them.
I have the same type of OCD. I just have to find a way to live life while still satisfying the OCD. It will only get worse with age if we don't find a way to stop it. Our minds will get so ingrained with it, it'll solidify itself with no hope of change.
Yep. Mine really started 4 years ago and I'm currently in my early 30s and it's gotten so bad, as of this week, I've been unable to type. All I do is type, if I'm going to start to have to cope with typing, or find alternate ways to type on the laptop, I won't even be able to use IST like I used to. This is getting real bad for me now.
Find out why you are doing it, where the anxiety is coming from and what happens if you didn't obey it. How much worse would life be if you ignore your OCD?
>How much worse would life be if you ignore your OCD?
kek. Much worse. I can't explain without writing a long post, but imagine if you are scared out of your mind and on adrenaline. Now imagine going into a meeting in this state, talking to friends, "hanging out" or just generally progressing through life in this state. You would be unproductive, make mistakes, look stupid and scared, your entire life would be different.
That's fine if that's how you are. But imagine if you aren't like that. People trust you, you're strong, happy, smile, people know you as a great and strong guy, and then suddenly they call you and you can't even string words together, you're scared and like your life is on the line. They would wonder WTF is the matter with you. This anxiety and panic can last for months. It changes the entire trajectory of your life. All because you turned off the lights the wrong way and now you feel a sense of loss of control
Former OCDgay here
This is the line of thinking used in therapy, but it's not something he'll be able to accomplish himself. An OCD brain will kind of trick you into continuing it
e.g
>What happens if you don't check the oven before you go to bed?
>Well nothing I guess...but it might still be on
>I mean, is it worth taking the chance that it's still on? Shouldn't you just spend a few seconds to make sure?
>and as you're doing it, better make REALLY sure just in case
>okay now do it again
You just end up back where you started. Therapy is the only way out imo
I have sexual ocd
I won't allow myself to cum. If it happens, I'll feel dirty and have no self control. I go through a cleaning binge routine and scrub everything I own. Oddly enough, I don't care if I cum during sex or a dream. As long as someone else makes me cum, I'm happy.
>fitness
>Noo mental fitness and health is not fitness, fitness means gym only!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ocd is not real
it's much more real than adhd
both are real. my ADHD was so bad I questioned whether I actually had free will
Also had very bad OCD for years, couldn't go to bed until I checked everything in the fricking house 20 times for like an hour. Told my parents as a teen and wasn't taken seriously.
Eventually my gf bullied me into seeing a therapist and it was the best thing I ever did. You can't break it on your own, you need a neutral third party with experience breaking this kind of disorder. She allowed me to break the checking behaviour, but then the real shit that they're papering over starts coming out
Seriously, get help
is music ocd a real thing or do I just get earworms easily
i'll latch onto a song I like and listen to just that one song for weeks whenever I do a specific thing like rooning or maxing out on a lift
seriously I was lifting to this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djjV14KLwIM for most of May through July this year
That’s OC without the D. I have that too. Everyone gets hooked to stuff. You develop obsessive compulsions and do the same stuff, maybe for years. The difference with the disorder is when you’re unable to abstain, even though you want to (badly probably). If you HAVE to put the song or you begin cold sweating, even though you don’t want to listen to the song, well now you have cold sweats. Most are able to handle 1-2 obsessive compulsions and maybe they’ll just choose to avoid the things that produce them, like stop working out, but when it becomes impossible to manage you need help. People lose their minds because of it
I used to have really, really, really bad OCD, now I don't anymore. And I have no idea why. I hope it never comes back again.
Course, the thing about OCD and intrusive thoughts in general, is the more you try to fight them...