The O in OCD

Discussion in 'Braaaaiiiinnnns...' started by anthers, Jan 2, 2020.

  1. anthers

    anthers sleepy

    So I've been having an advancement in obsessive thinking (and to a minor degree, compulsions) over the past couple of years. The Big One is being convinced that if I throw something away it will somehow be erased from my memory and existence both. I get around this mostly by taking pictures of the thing and having a digital record of it, but slowly the picture-taking is becoming a compulsive ritual in and of itself.

    This is beginning to extend slowly into other things like not being able to shower if there's loose hair involved preventing me from maintaining a hygienic schedule with my hair and the concept that books on the ground may suddenly vanish.

    Does anyone have any advice for managing this for the interim before I can speak to my therapist? It sucks.
     
    • Witnessed x 1
  2. bushwah

    bushwah a known rule consequentialist

    tbh like if you have no memories of throwing anything away and you have never seen yourself shed hair (?) that's fucking impressive. if I were you I'd make a serious attempt to yeet an item into the void.

    also if you find yourself predicting that, empirically, a thing will not happen (which you can tell because you go "if I warned somebody else it was going to happen, I'd feel like an asshole when it didn't"), and your ocd keeps insisting it totally could happen, your ocd is full of shit. I find myself saying on a fairly regular basis, "has it happened before to another human in recorded history? no? fuck off." there are also things that are wildly unlikely but theoretically possible, and in that case I like to say, "oh, do go on. fucking do it. you won't get me to cringe and simper just by making vague threats and insinuations in my direction. are you gonna hurt me, right now, right here? or is it just a big bluff?"
     
  3. anthers

    anthers sleepy

    I might have phrased that wrong - it's the concept of coming into contact with loose hair that's giving me horrorpilations, not losing the hair itself? if that makes sense? i'm not sure if you're being snarky or not
     
  4. bushwah

    bushwah a known rule consequentialist

    I'm not being snarky, I thought you were scared that your shed hair was mysteriously disappearing
     
  5. anthers

    anthers sleepy

    oh no it was two different things. Sorry about that, my brain went confused psyduck about parsing out your post.
     
  6. aetherGeologist

    aetherGeologist Well-Known Member

    The one thing that really helped me was exposure therapy, but I wouldn’t suggest trying it on your own
     
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