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Question about avoidance


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I'm listening to a podcast about OCD and OCPD. It's making me feel anxious as I keep hearing things they say and worrying I don't have OCD. I wonder if it was right to listen to it, but I feel like stopping listening would be an avoidance compulsion?

But I'm slightly confused as I know googling stuff about OCD and OCPD is a compulsion. So is listening to the podcast a compulsion or is avoiding listening a compulsion?

Last time I went to the OCD support group I felt anxious because I kept worrying about what other people said and thinking I was a fraud for being there. I almost didn't go. I assume in that case not going would have been a compulsion?

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you worry abou whether you have OCD or not. you think you have compulsions around it.

it isn't a valid question to ask why does it matter whether you have OCD or not?

 

compulsions are relative to what you're feeling, and we can't know for sure what you're feeling.

Try to challenge this worry you have. Try some CBT and acceptance and commitment therapy. They help whether you have OCD or not. Stopping compulsions is important, but what's also important is to realise what are you afraid of, to work on the cognitive part of things, not only on the behaviours. Changing your perspective on your worries could really help you.

you worry you don't have OCD. so listening to the podcast is a compulsion if you listen to it to assure yourself wether you have OCD or not. but that's only my opinion. only you can know best.

Look, I try to read and I engage in compulsions. I grow tired and i stop reading. is it avoidance? maybe. but i did engage in lesser compulsions than last time when I read. next time I'll try to engage in even less compulsions. It's something that happens over time, change, and if you feel that the podcast caused you much anxiety, and you reached a point when you decided to stop, then it's okay. you don't have to push yourself over the limit. just do it in your own pace, one step/more steps at a time.

so in my subjective opinion, listening to the podcast is a compulsion. stopping listening to the podcast may be a compulsion or not. it's not a compulsion if you had enough anxiety and decided to stop. it can be a compulsion if you decided to stop in terms of "if i keep listening, it means that I have OCD, if i stop listening, then I don't have OCD". again, in these types of situations, it's extremely relative.

but not going to the OCD support group is definitely an avoidance compulsion, or whatever you wanna call it. you try to avoid the anxiety. that's just my opinion. you could go and talk about your worries about whether you have OCD or not. nobody would think you're a fraud. it's an OCD support group, but I'm sure that everybody is welcome to express their concerns and to learn new things, even people who are not sure whether they have OCD or not, like in your case :)

Edited by chaosed
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Thank you for your reply, I appreciate it.

I guess I just thought I've panicked enough about not having OCD and didn't want to clutter up the forums talking about it any more. I just wanted to know whether listening to the podcast was a compulsion or whether avoiding listening to it was.

Either way, I finished it. Thank you for your opinion, which makes sense to me.

I just don't see how my posts are any different to those of other people who go round and round saying the same thing and which get lots more replies. 

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