thistooshallpass1996

@PolarBear thank you.

@PolarBear I know but it’s just breaking the pattern that I’m stuck on. I’m doing things to help myself though like taking medication and starting to meet with a therapist again

@Caramoole The thoughts are bad enough but what really scares me is the false memories that seem so real. I have images of doing horrible things and I can’t convince myself otherwise. I have moments where I feel like I have absolutely no control over what I might do. I lie awake worrying about it constantly. Also I’ve started taking sertraline to try and regulate my moods but it doesn’t seem to be doing much

Yeah agreed, this has been a pretty counterproductive post on this occasion

Also no it didn’t come across as rude or anything, hair isn’t exactly specific to one gender (insert smiley face here) I think I need to sleep, not sure if you’re UK based or not but if you are then so should you

@howard I think if I’m worried, I could take a course of action and maybe go to the doctors or to a hairdresser that actually knows stuff about hair. That way I get get a second opinion from someone who isn’t going to just tell me what I want to hear. working on my confidence alongside that would also help but I’ve associated my confidence with my hair so I need to look at changing that.

I’m also at work tomorrow but instead of sleeping I’m panic posting at 12am woooo

@howard yeah there’s a lot going on at the moment. but yeah I appreciate men also care about their hair which is valid. I think because it’s my hair I notice it more but yeah I have a tendency to obsess. I feel like my posts are usually productive but now I’ve had a minute to read the post back, I think this post was pretty pointless as I’m mostly asking for reassurance that‘s impossible to get. I just don’t want to add this to the cocktail of chaos that’s already happening in my life at the moment

Adding to my post, I think I just want someone to tell me that showering on holiday wouldn’t make my hair fall out but maybe it can. I don’t know, I just know my confidence is really low at the moment

@Worto Didn’t know what it meant but thanks for clearing that up. I’ve dealt with every type of OCD in the book at this point. Could say I’m an overachiever in that way

@Nolightleft I’m sorry to hear this. I’m also offering to listen if you need to speak to someone

@Worto i know you mentioned on my post you were struggling with this at the minute. It can seem scary because it feels real but we just need to remind ourselves it’s not and learn to let go of the thoughts more

@ocdjonesy i literally have this exact issue at the moment. I’m constantly monitoring my hair and on top of that I’m a woman in my late 20’s with ocd. maybe not the Hannibal part though

@PolarBear I’m trying but some days are harder than others. Btw it’s funny because your profile photo looks like my dog

I’m a 27 year old female so naturally my hair is important to me. I used to have thick hair and then when I was a stupid teenager I burnt it all off with bleach. It took a while for it to recover and was never quite the same. it got to a point where I was happy with it again, I had reassurance off boyfriends that it was fine and I just stayed away from dyeing it. I wouldn’t go to the hairdressers either. Recently I went on holiday to Greece and I was reading up on their water and how it’s harsher. I showered every day before going out in the evening, this included getting my hair wet. Some days it would be a quick rinse and other days it would be a proper wash. I was on holiday for a week. when I got back, I could see my hairline looked different. My hair looked thinner and I couldn’t stop obsessing over it. All I could think is not This again. I’ve ruined my hair again. Now I can’t even look at photos of myself before the holiday because I’m terrified I’ll be able to see a difference. My confidence has dropped completely. I can’t work out if it’s in my head or if this is actually happening to me. Hoping someone can relate

@Worto Is HOCD short for harm ocd? I’m sorry that you’re also dealing with this. I imagine it’s 10x worse with your own kids let alone pets and stuff like that. I just don’t get why I get those sort of responses. I heard something about it being an anxiety induced response, but it just confuses your brain and makes you think it could be something sinister.

@Caramoole It’s awful isn’t it. I see myself as her mum so the ‘twinge’ is the worst bit. I’m glad that things improved for you! I love speaking to OCD survivors because it gives me hope that it won’t always be like this.

@Caramoole Sometimes I think maybe it’s not OCD and it’s something worse instead

Thanks to everyone who has responded to this post and offered their advice. I think I’m going to go back to therapy

I came off medication around 6 months ago. I’ve been having a lot of intrusive thoughts around my dog. I thought getting a dog would be good exposure but I’ve been having really horrible thoughts around her. there was an incident where she put her nose in my lap and I didn’t move her straight away because it ‘felt good’ but then I moved her away shortly after but now I’m just thinking I’m a weirdo for not reacting sooner. I’ve been pushing it to the back of my head but now it’s coming to the surface and I just can’t stop thinking about it. She always wants to come to me for a cuddle and lay with me but now I just feel so much anxiety because of ‘groinal’ responses. Every time I have one I’ve started digging my nails into myself to remind myself this isn’t a normal feeling to have. I don’t know what’s wrong with me

@Handy I get where you’re coming from but they’re right, I do have ocd. Diagnosed since 19 unfortunately

@PolarBear this made me feel better.

@NotRock yeah it’s the over washing that becomes the problem. I do recognise its ocd but then I think what if this isn’t ocd and is normal practice and I should be doing it? So sometimes all I need to hear is that someone else wouldn’t worry about it so neither should I

@howard Yeah talking does help. I didn’t think of that to be honest. I think washing up liquid is a good alternative but then there’s some tasks that just need heavier cleaners and that’s the way it is. The toilet, carpet stains, mould, etc This is just standard homeowner stuff for people but it does come with a lot of intrusive thoughts. But steam cleaning is a good idea. But my ocd would find a way to make it an issue

@howard Oh god that sounds like actual hell. i also struggle with when work men come round and make a mess. Then I dread the clean up after because I know I’ll be mentally drained so I feel your pain with that. I’ve spent the last couple of days trying to clean room by room. I was going to tackle another room today but the thought of having to handle cleaners is way too much. Because I know if I try and clean the bathroom I have to move everything out of the way and then use the cleaning stuff then rinse it off and dry off everywhere. it does like it’s spreading. Or at least that’s how it feels. It took me two hours to do one of the bathrooms yesterday. i managed to do one load of washing though. I need a break