ocd is underated

[Oli21]

Hello,

I'm 18 years old and I suffer pretty servely from OCD.

Recently after just over a year of not having "intrusive thoughts", it started again at its worst attack in my life.
People dont realise how bad OCD actually is when its serve.

First, let me tell you about my experience with OCD.

My OCD hits me in stages, I could be without OCD for 3 months, 6 months or for my longest period 12 months, which is very lucky.
My OCD during this time I can cope ordinarly without anybody having the slightest clue I have a "Mental Illness", and let me tell you people. SERVE OCD IS A SERIOUS ISSUE.

I dont agree with these attacks on people with a difference they call "mental". Theres never been any evidence to show its a chemical in the brain that develops these types of issues. Doctors, Professors use assumptions to say its this, much like people having faith in god.

My OCD started from I was small, about 6 years old which from the research I've done is at its early average.

I made this thread to tell my story and why I feel OCD is highly underated and most people dont realise what OCD actually is.

Firstly, we must understand that serve OCD is MENTAL TORTURE, its worse than any physical pain you can feel.

I'd rather be stabbed to death than feel I was a pedofile and have to spend the next hour contemplating if weather I'm the worst kind of person on the face of this earth.

My main issue with OCD which makes it so serve in my case is.
The "Intrusive Thoughts" that occur all the time during my "bad" time of every few months. These intrusive thoughts are thoughts that make me out to be immoral and wrong in the worst case possable.

A frequent example of one of my thoughts is.

"I saw a small child on television, then felt I liked it in a sexual way." I dont feel this at all, but my OCD trys to make me think I did and its horrible. I would then have to spend the next few hours contemplating weather I'm sick in the head or not, or if I did like it.

I dont like this fake steotype of OCD where its people just washing their hands a lot. I wash my hands a lot, but believe me thats very light to what OCD can actually be. I'd rather wash my hands every 5 minitues of every day for the rest of my life if these "Intrusive thoughts" would go away.

Ofcourse, when you contemplate weather your sick or not, it makes you feel depressed and lonely. Its not nice and this issue is an ever lasting issue. You can go on for ever while your defence mechanisms continue to break down.

I call my way to get rid of these thoughts or break them down, a "Defence Mechanism". Its some of the compulsions I use that are thoughts, to break down the obsessions and try to make them go a way.

OCD is on the scale with Skitofrenia and Bipolar when its at its worst point. OCD is self torture, it doesnt effect anybody else.

This is the first time I've posted or spoke to anybody online discussing "OCD", I hope many people with serve OCD are also here, I would like to talk with them very much about how they deal with it.

But yeah, the worst part of OCD I have experienced is Intrusive thoughts when their at a moral standpoint.

I said before, I havent had OCD for over 1 year, which is true. Not only did I not have OCD for 1 year but I also worked in Greece for 3 months and started a Performing Arts course at college. This is how far I developed from going from confident to inconfident. Everytime OCD Comes back is seriously effects my confience.

I love acting and socialising, but this time I just dont know weather I'm ever going to cope with it properly

Thanks for reading, I'll be waiting on your responces and weather you think OCD is underated.

 

[jbenckiser]

I agree, it is underrated for sure. My parents still think it is some kind of joke. They do not understand I don't behave the way I do for my own or anyone else's amusement.

There is a lack of understanding in general. On the rare occasion when i'm outside, people tend to laugh at you if they see you opening a door with a wad of paper, for instance. Or at least, you can sense what they are thinking. The same way you would do if you saw someone you thought looked or acted in an unusual way. That's just human nature and can't be changed.

But what else people don't understand is that OCD evolves gradually, from something very simple and mundane like taking a few minutes more to wash your hands, and ends up becoming every facet of your life, and you're unable to escape from it. Like cancer it doesn't have boundaries, it wants to take over and control you for it's own ends, whatever they might be (I have done NO research on this by the way, I am just writing from experience)

 

[Helyna]

In society, OCD is hugely underrated. Think of the way we use it in everyday conversation. It's used to describe someone who likes things neat, or is a perfectionist, or has some silly habits. That has bothered me ever since I learned what OCD really is. But in the medical world, I disagree. I think doctors understand very well how frustrating and frightening it is. There are studies on it. Scientists care about learning about it and how to fix it. SAD, on the other hand, is commonly treated as silliness, or overrated shyness, by doctors, and many don't even know what it is.

 

[Dudley]

21 years old, sufferer of OCD and Tourette's since I was about 6, just realized what it was about a year ago.

Both of these conditions get a reputation for how they are portrayed in the media. Tourette's is always random cursing or yelling, OCD is always somehow germaphobia or neatness.

I don't curse unless I drop a crate on my foot or something, and I'm pretty untidy when it comes to cleaning up after myself. Two more strikes against the media.

The underating/misunderstanding of these conditions is basically the reason why I feel I can't tell people about them. My friends would almost certainly think I was making it up or that it wasn't a big deal or something. Well, for those people, I would like them to try just one night trying to fall asleep the way I do. That is, repeating a phrase over and over and over in your head and clenching your leg muscles on every syllable until the phrase ends on your right leg. Or checking the same thing over and over until you're positive that it's the way you want it. Or stopping in the middle of something to go off and make a list of which books were published in which decade. All the while yelling to yourself "WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?!"

Even my own mother just straightened a Christmas decoration because it was very crooked. Afterward, she said "oh my ocd is kicking in" before having a good laugh. So much for trying to explain it to my parents.

The point is, mental illness for the sake of comedy (while sometimes quite clever and actually very funny) has set back progress quite a bit.

 

[2Crowded]

OCD effects way more than just the person who has it.....I know all to well....One of my friends has it bad...I just spent 7 hours waiting on them to get ready to go somewhere...it never happened after all that...I had all I could take this time & finally said thats it..I cant wait anymore...Im going with out you....& of course the response I got was... "well...I dont blame you" :x

 

[getbornagain]

You damn right it's underrated. I didn't know what it was until 5 months ago! I don't have severe OCD; but I have all sorts of symptoms of it. Major BDD, nervous tics, and intrusive thoughts. More specifically intrusive sexual thoughts which have just smothered the fire within my soul. I have not been diagnosed, but I do all sorts of checking and rituals which I need to make me relax. I was going to go today this very afternoon but every psych I called was on holidays........ I'm positive I have it though as my mind has been tortured over the past 4-5 months by unpleasant thoughts and fears. I'm paranoid as hell.

 

[Brittney]

Firstly, we must understand that serve OCD is MENTAL TORTURE, its worse than any physical pain you can feel.

I'd rather be stabbed to death than feel I was a pedofile and have to spend the next hour contemplating if weather I'm the worst kind of person on the face of this earth.

this is me I feel this way to it's torture all the time, constantly battling it

I cried reading these posts cried cause I'm relieved to not be alone cried cause I shouldn’t' be grateful there are other people suffering like me. this is so hard

I to hate that people think it’s just about washing hands…

 

[durda_dan]

I to hate that people think it’s just about washing hands…

me too, I wish i could have a washing hands phobia to what i have, thoughts of killing people, and thoughts of jumping infront of metro trains, I'm sick of it.
I eve had a thought to Kidnap a child one time, that was maybe the most scary one i ever had.

 

[Brittney]

I to hate that people think it’s just about washing hands…

me too, I wish i could have a washing hands phobia to what i have, thoughts of killing people, and thoughts of jumping infront of metro trains, I'm sick of it.
I eve had a thought to Kidnap a child one time, that was maybe the most scary one i ever had.

Do you think you treat rather punish yourself for these thoughts?
What I mean is I have some terrible thoughts to and I have bulimia, it’s only been the past year I have realised that I hurt myself because I feel like a bad person.
I probably do lots of things to like just feeling like I’m a bad person all the time. It’s really messes with my head.

 

[isnteasy]

OCD ONLINE - Video by Dr. Steven Phillipson

guys, watch this video.. AMAZING.. THis gave me SO much hope.. I actually talked to this Dr. a few weeks ago.. he's out of NY but he KNOWS what he's talking about to the fullest.. The video is long but worth it.. He talks about how he helps people rid themselves of mental rituals (and other OCD rituals). Lemme know what u think of it