Analogy to Describe What OCD Feels Like

[Ashley]

I am just working on a document for the charity, and I need to try and make the reader (non OCD) understand what OCD feels like, does anyone have a good analogy? I.e. the feeling it gives us.

[Guest Nobodys Fool]

pit in the stomach

[Guest Arcticbear]

Hi Ashley, not sure if this is much in terms of an analogy but I have tried explaining to my wife how things seem to start. Here goes, for me anyway this how I feel. Imagine your surfing the net one day everythings cool, no stress,no worries just surfin and relaxing, all of a sudden your virus scan or internet security program starts on its own. It starts reviewing all the files, you can never actually read which files are being scanned the program is just too fast to follow, anyway it is this feeling that seems to hit me, a thousand different files/thoughts being scanned by the second and then suddenly the program stops. No particular reason why it stops here, but it stops.Now it,s time to clean a phone for hours, straighten the tufts on a throw rug, adjust and level all the photos in the house,why the program starts or what triggers the start of that scan is the mystery for me. The obsessions and compulsions I can understand are a result of the ocd, but the triggers are baffling.

[Guest FlyingPenguin]

It's like being accompanied by your very own 'Health and Safety' advisor, pointing out every possible 'what if' to you as you go about your day.

[Guest f0fa]

A scary nightmare / horror film that is playing in your head 24/7 often distracting you from the task at hand and you can do absolutely nothing to make it go away! And just like in horror films the experience does get more intense at parts of the film, music gets louder, you have an image thrown into the picture like gore and blood.

Very similar to Bird's analogy, but for me it is more an imagery experience, though it is LOUD as well...A loud TV program?!.

I think a lot of non-OCD sufferer will be able to relate if you mention the "song stuck in their head and playing over and over" however I think non-OCD sufferers may find it hard to relate to the accompanying ANXIETY!

I hope it helps though :-)

[Guest selena_02]

Definately agree with the song stuck in your head analogy. As well as the movie. I feel like there is a little gremlin in my head who decides to press the play button showing all the worst possible things u can imagine, but there is nothing you can do about it, you just have to wait for the "attack" to run its course. BTW alcohol def makes it worse!

[sesa1979]

It fills you with constant fear just like waking up each day and knowing the unknown contstant worry and your stomach turns each time OCD pops in your head its like fighting an irrtating gremlin in your head.

[Guest selena_02]

Exactly..... OCD is a gremlin!!!!!

[Ashley]

Thank you for your feedback, every post is helpful. I do like the song analogy for how OCD works, but not sure that fully captures the feeling the anxiety gives us, so I think perhaps Articbear captures that a little more. I need to combine all your ideas I think

Keep them coming though.

[Guest Lumi]

It's like having an obnoxious brat in your head telling you awful things are going to happen, or that you WANT terrible things to happen. And even though you don't believe the brat, it lives in your head so you feel compelled to act on what it says.

Or... it feels like you have a full-time job trying to keep evil (or whatever bad images, etc) out of your life. It's a battle.

[Guest arctic_vixen80]

I think mine feels like what some people have already said here about a gremlin or parrot telling you scary things, which are the thoughts and it makes you feel like they are the truth.

[bleachqueen]

Its like being in a maze set in the middle of a beautiful garden. You can smell the flowers that are the other side of the hedge, hear people enjoying a picnic on the lawn and laughing together. That is the place you know you want to be.

If only you could find the door to get out of the dark maze with the high prickly hedges that keep you feeling so small and so lost as you run to be met only with lots of dead ends. You run faster and faster thinking that will help but all it does it make your feel more confused as surely you have been up this pathway before? They all start to look the same and you can't think straight any more. You can just hear the life you want to join in with and you just can't get there. You need to hurry or the picnic party will be over.

To make it worse, there is an irritating fidgety spiteful creature who follows you and takes delight in your frustration and panic.

It jumps up and down with glee and stays close on your heels as you run this way and that, constantly nattering in your ear about horrible things that will happen to you if you don't get out of the maze. You get angry with it but that just gives him more motivation to keep up his torment - he thrives on seeing you suffer.

Eventually you feel as if you can hardly smell the flowers, the laughter is a distant buzz and you begin to wonder if there is a picnic going on outside of the maze at all or if you just imagined it to have some escape from the irritating poisonous monster clinging tightly to your ankles making your journey even more difficult.

Edited August 2, 2010 by bleachqueen

[Guest Henos]

bleachqueen takes the biscuit here for me! Hell is repetition. OCD to me is like the film - Grounhog Day - without the comedy.

[Guest J86]

it's almost as impossible as it's for a non-schizophrenic person to understand what it's like to be schizophrenic.. People with OCD see things differently than those who don't have it.. we're meticulous and perfectionistic.

Edited August 3, 2010 by J86

[tigershark]

It is upsetting, unsettling, distressing, confusing and exhausting.

It can turn me into an uptight, hypersensitive wreck.

It is a really tough competitor- sometimes it wins, but if you learn how to play the game, you can beat it most times!

[Guest quantumleaper]

An itch inside your mind you can not get to, to scratch

[benjamin]

To me it is like a cancer of the mind which is incurable.

Other analogies is its a fly that keeps buzzing round you and even though you swat it, it still lingers around acting pesky.

[Guest jimmyfivetimes]

BALL AND CHAIN AROUND YOUR MIND.

[Guest Harri]

its the sense of impending doom, when there is no doom. or like a ghost in the room, even if you don't believe you still don't want to be in the room alone!!!!!!!!!!

[Guest Pink_Panther]

I would describe OCD as being like a baby which keeps crying for your attention.

I feel like I have to cater or tend to it and I'm obligated to never forget it.

[Guest Pink_Panther]

I would describe OCD as being like a baby which keeps crying for your attention.

I feel like I have to cater or tend to it and I'm obligated to never forget it.

[bdc1982]

OCD is like being trapped in a bubble of fear, you and all your worst imaginable thoughts are trapped inside while you watch the rest of the world passing by outside.

[Guest Sun]

Hi,

For me OCD sometimes felt like a cruel repetative 'Crystal Maze' type game. I knew when it would start (as soon as I was ready for work)i knew the route and order it would take, (upstaires first checking each room, downstaires then the kitchen and lastly the main doors) I knew I had to do it as quickly as possible each item following the next. And finally when I reached the front gate, the huge sense of relief.....I'd done it, all was good.

Sun xx

Edited August 5, 2010 by Sun

[Biccy]

like having the devil and angel on each shoulder

[Guest Gemini]

A hungry tiger cub that gets bigger and stronger the more we feed it.