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Please refrain from using HOCD, ROCD and POCD acronyms.


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Forum regulars will know that a real bugbear of mine is the use of acronyms such as HOCD, ROCD and POCD, I even saw a rarely mentioned term, COCD used on here once too.

These acronyms are pointless for a number of reasons, firstly lets get this straight right off the bat, they do not exist, these terms are NOT medical terms. But if you want other reasons for my belief that these terms are unhelpful and harmful, in some cases they are used as a form of avoidance over using the real words, in other cases some people don't know what the acronyms stand for and have been used to describe different things leading to confusion. Other reasons why I despise the use of such terms is because I have seen some people delay getting treatment because they are mistakenly trying to find experts for the symptom, the 'flavour', the R, H or P part, not the illness itself. I know that using the term 'despise' is a strong word, but when the use of these acronyms leads to delays in treatment then it is not a positive, it really is a great big negative.

But the main reason for my post is to highlight another reason why it is really important not to think of OCD as anything but OCD. Please don't ever pigeon hole your OCD into one thing such as contamination, or any of the above acronyms, because OCD rarely does remain stagnant on one area, over time it will shift its focus onto different things... one day it might be fear of being gay (HOCD) but a year down the line when you are happy in a relationship and expecting a baby, the OCD will suddenly make you fear harming your new baby, perhaps even as a paedophile (POCD) - a good example of where the common denominator and real problem is the OCD part.

What this means is the real problem in the way we allow the OCD to interpret the everyday thoughts each and every one of us gets, the OCD mechanism is the problem, the way we allow obsessive thoughts cause anxiety leading to various compulsions. Other issues are problems also in most of us with OCD, regardless of type, sometimes it is the way our OCD converts the risks from a realistic 1% to make us believe the risk is more likely a 99% risk, and also often that heightened sense of responsibility can play a factor.

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However, as I point out earlier in this post, the real problem is not the 'flavour' of OCD, so asking if you have HOCD, ROCD, or POCD is the wrong question, instead the question you must ask is if you have OCD. I guarantee over time the 'flavour' will shift, so if you try and treat the 'flavour' you are taking yourself down the wrong road, the important thing is to recognise what you have is OCD, nothing but OCD.

Perhaps to illustrate this is a tale from my own OCD of recent weeks. For a long time my OCD has focussed on the obsessive fear of contamination, causing constant washing compulsions... contamination OCD, or as I rather ridiculously saw it used on here once, COCD. Over the years I have had minor traits of other 'flavours'. However, a couple of weeks ago the OCD got the better of me in a big and unexpected way, resulting in me spending 90 minutes driving a good 50 miles to 'check'.

Long story short, two months back some idiot reversed into my parked car outside my house. My car is parked on a dead-end country lane so no passing traffic. Anyway, had my car repaired, new bumper. On my way home from collecting the car back from the garage I passed a layby with a traffic cone sitting there doing nothing, discarded I thought, so I stopped, took it, and placed it proudly in front of my car to stop any other morons reversing into my car. (They are actually bigger than they look, only just got it in my car!). All good, until 24 hours later and the thought popped into my head... 'what if the cone was doing something to warn drivers'.... and you know OCD, one 'what if' question led to another. 'what if another driver hits the bollards because I moved the cone?', 'What if someone is hurt because I removed the cone?' and so on... I tried to ignore, but then I started feeling guilty, and like always, Google was my enemy (OCD wise) and I checked the 'street view' to check if the cone was there a couple of years ago when Street View was last updated, and if so, was it in the same place as a warning.... of course it was, it was sat there in front of the metal barrier that separates the dual carriageway to the layby.

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So despite trying to resist for a few hours, in the end the OCD got the better of me, so off I drove, a good 20 miles to be able to come back up that side of the dual carriageway to the layby. Parked up, quickly put the cone back in place, and off I drove... or so I thought, OCD had other ideas. I got back off the main A road, and then another 'what if?', 'What if I have not put the cone back in the right spot?'... so I did a U-turn and went back onto the Dual carriageway and drove another 10 miles to be able to come off, and drive past the layby again... expect as I drove slowly past, I did not get chance to check it correctly, so I had to do it all over again. In the end I did maybe 50 miles because of my OCD that night, and not a sign of contamination fears in this one.

So the morale of this story is firstly not to take something that is not yours, and secondly that regardless of the 'flavour of OCD', the problem is the way we allow our OCD to interpret the thoughts, in this case that heightened sense of responsibility was a significant factor, so my usual 'contamination' or in this case the 'checking' flavour that took over me that day was not the problem, it is the actual OCD itself and not being able to accept the uncertainty.

Don't get me wrong, I am not dismissing the genuine fears of all these types of OCD, be the fears are simply the Obsessive part of the OCD cycle and it is imperative that to help people make progress in tackling their OCD, it is diagnosed for what it is, OCD and treated for what it is, OCD. The 'flavour' is merely the target for your OCD that day, so we can resolve the 'flavour' problem by getting rid of the thing causing the 'flavour', the OCD!

I hope my waffle helps one or two people :)

Ashley.

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Could not agree more Ashley. I hate the acronyms too, only because I have personally realised the hard way that tackling each flavour individualy isn't helpful. You feel like one issue is resolved and another one just appears! I would say my main concern is health but I've also experienced other OCD issues.

In my eyes if we don't tackle the OCD roots and keep pulling out the weeds as and when they appear then the weeds will just keep on reappearing and we will forever be pulling out these OCD weeds!

Edited by Nik
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Could not agree more Ashley. I hate the acronyms too, only because I have personally realised the hard way that tackling each flavour individualy isn't helpful. You feel like one issue is resolved and another one just appears! I would say my main concern is health but I've also experienced other OCD issues. In my eyes if we don't tackle the OCD roots and keep pulling out the weeds as and when they appear then the weeds will just keep on reappearing and we will forever be pulling out these OCD weeds!

Thanks Nik, and you have summarised it in three lines much better than my load of old waffle :lol:

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Haha, that's okay, as long as we get the message across then that's what is important! Your 'waffle' just demonstrates your passion for the cause!

Keep up the good work mate :)

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Guest itsnotmeitsmyocd

Hiya Ashley,

Thank you for clearing that up, you have explained it all so well.

I have used the terms myself TBH, but will not anymore. :D

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Guest Elle Belle

I find acronyms confusing.

HOCD - hoarding, harm or homosexual?

POCD - pure or paedophile?

COCD - contamination or checking?

ROCD - religious or relationship?

Personally, I have or have had nearly all of them anyway.

E

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I find acronyms confusing.

HOCD - hoarding, harm or homosexual?

POCD - pure or paedophile?

COCD - contamination or checking?

ROCD - religious or relationship?

Personally, I have or have had nearly all of them anyway.

E

...and that's exactly why we shouldn't use them. It causes confusion!

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Guest honey

Hi Ashley

You are 100% correct, and express it so well. The biggest revelation I ever had about my OCD was just that - it's a pattern, it endlessly repeats itself and it is always trying to catch you out. The same pattern repeats itself again and again in so many different contexts. One you realise that, it robs the OCD of its power, because you can say 'ah, I recognise that, it's the pattern of OCD attaching itself to whatever is most worrying at the moment'.

And then you can tell it to WALK!

Genius Ashley :original:

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I already knew this and refrained from using them, but when I joined this forum I saw that many other people were still using them, and I simply used them just so others would understand what I was talking about. OCD is OCD no matter what thoughts/compulsions you have :)

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Guest yinyang

Me too and I also find the acronym's confusing. Although ocd is ocd it comes in different forms right? So when explaining to other people or posting is it still appropriate to state the "flavour" of your ocd without using the acronym's? For example I suffer from ocd but my thoughts revolve around harm. Or am I missing the point?

Edited by yinyang
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Guest Jamsmith

What about the terms Pure O, or rumination OCD? That's what I use to describe myself certainly on the forum with people who would understand them, to others I just say OCD and try to explain it as best I can?

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Guest dimmerswitch

Well said Ashley.

OCD is OCD. Mine shifts depending on what it can catch me out on, usually fuelled by anxieties.

Mind you Ashley, on a purely (non OCD term) positive note, you almost rid us all of one pesky traffic cone!!! :lol:

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Ashley,

A well worded post and got me thinking as a guilty party to the acronym club.

Perhaps, as opposed the use of acronym; possibly to reach 'same' sufferers, we could compile a factsheet of sorts as to how OCD may manifest itself; a sort of encyclopedia. This way, it will have a uniformed title of OCD, but will provide reference to common experiences - so instead of multiple parties enquiring about say, fear of erection with, dare I say it 'POCD'; it could be listed as an experienced symptom.

Danger with this is that I would end up going through it to either check my experience is the same as others, or worse, using it as a list to test if I do it ! We can rarely win these battles ! We are against our own logic - our illness is the perfect mole - we know who it is but can't remove them from the building !

You are spot on with the one OCD. Mine has had me obsess about all sorts in those short bursts while I maintain like a generator my best 'themes' for years, and I mean long enough to finish a couple of research degrees or the company of HRH for armed robbery.

Having recently felt ok to reduce my sertraline, I had a rude awakening as I dive bombed into worrying about other people's obsessions and then BANG - saw a trailer for a spooky film (one of the 'based on true events', half critics say BS and half buy it) - anyway, I got the fear and snowballed on Google and hey ho before you know it - a new obsession - to equal (nearly) all others of paranormal. The classic Google which you do to gain certainty but only find more fear and evidence of your impending doom.

Suddenly I am at deaths door, no interest in eating, drinking, speaking, seeing anyone, working, playing with my children - instead I am doing everything i have ever leanrt not to do, research, believe, follow theory A etc. Suddenly I feel sick, look ill, stare into the distance, sit in the toilet at work with my fingers in ears, ruminating, crying, banging head against wall.

Trying to gain perspective now, but when someone like us has OCD, and it is OCD - you are facing MULTIPLE illnesses so long as we all treat them differently. I will lie in bed tonight and think '....please, shadows, don't come like I read, please don't, my life will be over, no more kids, it's suicide for me, the demons are here...etc', but equally, last week I could be lying in bed thinking '......come on - think - what were you thinking when you saw that girl in the advert ?????? - What exactly...ah, yes that was it - phew, I was only thinking....hold on a minute, no, stop - argh !!!! I wasn't thinking that !!! Was I ??? Eh, Oh no !!! Work in 2 hours - how long have I been doing this !!!!!!!!!!!!!!'

Funny how when we are in the obsession and I mean really in the obsession ie exclusively - it has reached the pinnacle, all others seem less daunting. Then you may go full circle back to previous or new ones. We never are quite able to capitalise on OCD's inability to cloak some of it's pathetic tactics and see it for what it is. The level of danger has not faded - so why worry less when tending to another obsession ?!

I for one will try not to use acronyms from hereon in but I do think they have an application where sufferers may want to 'search' for related posts. Perhaps the way round that is sub-forums; but this is counter-productive as dilutes the point you make very well that it is the same illness.

A colleague once said to me '...sorry I don't do TLA's...' to which I replied '...sorry, what is TLA ?', the answer was '...three letter acronyms.'

PS - as ever I find all forum users to be insightful, intelligent, thoughtful and most of all (pat on the back for all of us now); the ability to still eek out humour. It is after all the best medicine...(oh, best go google that now...)

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We are against our own logic - our illness is the perfect mole - we know who it is but can't remove them from the building !

That's a very good way of thinking about it! I was actually talking to my friend about this earlier, there is no logic to this madness!

You are spot on with the one OCD. Mine has had me obsess about all sorts in those short bursts while I maintain like a generator my best 'themes' for years, and I mean long enough to finish a couple of research degrees or the company of HRH for armed robbery.

I can completely relate to this!! The short obsessions cause me greatest anxiety but the long term ones just seem to depress me, no winning!

Funny how when we are in the obsession and I mean really in the obsession ie exclusively - it has reached the pinnacle, all others seem less daunting. Then you may go full circle back to previous or new ones. We never are quite able to capitalise on OCD's inability to cloak some of it's pathetic tactics and see it for what it is. The level of danger has not faded - so why worry less when tending to another obsession ?!

It is absolutely crazy how this is the case. The frustrating part is that we know this to be true but whatever the obsession at the time you just cannot let it go, it has to be true, it isn't OCD. Previous obsessions, oh yer that was definitely OCD but back then you would never had said that! The thing is I realised thinking your way out of this is not going to help, thinking is what got us here in the first place! As Einstein says "We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them".

Thanks for sharing your thoughts njb, definitely resonated with me and I'm sure many others. Now I'm wondering if this actually me getting reassurance from what you have just said! :lol:

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Great thread! I picked up the acronyms from another forum a few years back (a forum I no longer use as I think it was unhealthy and fed the compulsions and obsessions). I will now not use them. Thanks Ashley for raising awareness

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Case in point, just seen on another forum someone looking to no avail despite searching for an HOCD therapist. The use of these acronyms is delaying people accessing treatment (OCD treatment, not HOCD treatment) and that is something I find unacceptable.


The irony is that there are so few OCD therapists out there, let alone 'flavour' therapists, so I think we need to really review this and start pushing all OCD communities to review their use of such terms. I think Phillipson once took credit for the use of these terms, perhaps credit is the wrong term!

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Guest Hyznbrg

When I first started researching OCD I saw these titles being used everywhere, and up until you posted this I thought I had a different kind of OCD to everyone else who has the sexual compulsions. But this makes so much more sense, that it is simply a flavor. Like Arachnophobia and Vertigo, heights or spiders doesn't really matter, the cause and solution are the same?

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When I first started researching OCD I saw these titles being used everywhere, and up until you posted this I thought I had a different kind of OCD to everyone else who has the sexual compulsions. But this makes so much more sense, that it is simply a flavor. Like Arachnophobia and Vertigo, heights or spiders doesn't really matter, the cause and solution are the same?

Sure you don't mean acrophobia? :haha:

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Guest faithless

Interesting point Ashley, but what about BDD? Isn't that also another flavour of OCD given it shares the obsession-anxiety-compulsion-relief cycle?

I think people like to pigeon-hole things because having a name to an illness acts as a kind of comfort blanket - "If it's got a name, I know what it is, can research it and the doctors will know a cure", etc. People like to be in control and know things. It's also probably got a lot to do with the lack of awareness about OCD and it frequently being connected with cleaning, etc. I can't imagine such a misunderstood blanket term being very reassuring for somebody terrified about being gay or a paedophile, whereas actual terms such as HOCD and POCD kind of puts a stamp on the situation and therefore a bit of relief.

By the way Ashley, my apologies but I had a bit of a chuckle reading about your traffic cone fiasco as it sounds like something I would do. I'm sure it was no fun at the time but from another person's perspective the irrational part of OCD seems so obvious and at times maybe even a little comical. Pity it's so hard to see it ourselves in the moment. Now I'm thinking about all the daft things I've done... and what I'll probably do again. :shy:

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Guest faithless

Hi Legend. I'm a bit confused. BDD seems to be a sub-category of OCD as it shares many traits (compulsions, rumination, reassurance-seeking, etc) but yeah, it's recognised as a separate issue. Not entirely sure why though if it's just another "flavour" of OCD (it's got its own section on this site) - hopefully Ashley or somebody else can shed some light on it. :wacko:

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