Giving in

[Guest irritated]

It doesn't matter what i do the feelings over my clothes are just so overwhelming. This morning i ripped and cut up my jeans because they didn't fit around my waist like the work trousers i wear everyday. I haven't even paid for them and i'm unemployed. Yesterday it was my underpants that felt too baggy and big. I can't seem to focus on anything important at the moment and my parents we'll go mad when they find out. I have to get my mum to wash the same jumper and trousers cuz i' ve destroyed everything else or i can't bring myself to wearing something different. I dread having to get up in the mornings because i have to get dressed and all the feelings of anxiety and loss of control come back.

I try really hard to get on with my life and do positive things but my obsession with my clothes and feeling comfortable is so debilitating.

I've bin to see my gp this morning and he's prescribed some lorazepam to help me with my anxiety in the short term. I just get so fed up with wearing the same clothes all the time and comulsively having to adjust them every few minutes. It's driving me mad i'm so angry and depressed. I've seriously considered suicide as i feel that being dead can't be any worse than living another miserable day of this!

I just wish someone could put themselves in my shoes for one day and see how they deal with the :lol: that goes through my head day in day out. I am totally under the grip of this obsession with my clothes and it won't let go, ever!!!!!!

[Guest tangoblu]

Dear irritated

Our son has the same feeling about wearing clothes - and he now owns several pairs of track suit bottoms they seem to be the only thing he can wear comfortably.

Really glad you went back to the GP - try the medication and see if it helps - if not then please go back and let them know how much you are struggling.

Things WILL get better hang on in there.

Hugs

Pam

[whitebeam]

Hi irritated,

I'm so sorry that you are feeling so low at the moment.

I am totally under the grip of this obsession with my clothes and it won't let go, ever!!!!!!

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At the moment that may be the way is seems, but things really can and do get better. It's good you went to your GP - it may be a few days before your medication kicks in, but stick with it because they may really help you to feel just a little bit different and that may be the spur you need to fight your obsession.

I dread having to get up in the mornings because i have to get dressed and all the feelings of anxiety and loss of control come back. 

At the moment, I am a bit like this about having my shower...I put off getting up and then do anything to spare me from going in the shower....but if I want to do anything like go out, I have to do it - and usually the eventuality is nowhere near as bad as the anticipation.

I've seriously considered suicide as i feel that being dead can't be any worse than living another miserable day of this!

Things really can better than this. I was in the same place as you a couple of years back - I truly believed that I would never be any better and that suicide was my only way out.

However, things have got better - loads better. Although I'm having a bit of a blip about my shower, when I look back to how I was then and compare it with how I am now, there is a vast difference in the quality of my life.

So do give the meds a chance; if they don't work it may be you need to try a different type - not all meds work for all people, but hopefully these will be right for you and they will let a little chink of light come through to give you the strength to tackle the problem.

Take care

whitebeam

[Guest irritated]

I'm getting so :lol: off with my pants at the moment they don't fit me properly. They're too big and come too far up my back so when isit down they sag. Whoever designed these must think that everyone has huge rear-ends! I've already ripped several pairs up but they're the only ones i have. I like to wear underwear that gives me support but isn't skin tight and doesn't ride up my backside. I also like them to fit snug around the waist and not just on my hip bone. It seems to everything iwear at the moment feels uncomfortable!

I've had serious suicidal thoughts and this is frightening me. I'm so angry and upset i want to stop these evil compulsions i have over my physical discomfort but this obsession won't let me!!!!!! I am prisoner with a life sentence of misery and torture of obsessing over my clothes!

I want to be able to wear any item of clothing and not get so upset and destructive.I'm stuck in vicous dillema where i'm damned if do and damned if i don't! If i give into the compulsion i loose and if i don't i loose because i become one massive tangled ball of rage just waiting for some little thing to tip me over the edge and do something regrettable!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Does anyone know wat this is like?

[Caramoole]

Hi irritated :lol:

I think we've all been there at some time Perhaps not with clothes but with other issues that cause similar distress.

The problem is that it's not actually the clothes that don't fit it's the OCD that is convincing you, that you can't stand it.

As Tangoblu said about her son, would it be possible to buy another set of the clothes that you can tolerate but set aside some time, half an hour, one hour, perhaps in an evening, where you will wear the things that irritate you.

The tablets your GP has prescribed are a tranquilizer and are used short term to deal with extreme anxiety. Are you taking any other medication for your OCD?

I think you mentioned in another post that you were doing some work with a therapist, how's that going? Have you got any tasks that he's set you and how are you doing with them?

Things can seem as though they will never improve but they do. You can get past this, it won't be quick and it does require working at it. I know that's frustrating and we just want this 'Thing' to stop, it just seems unfair.

[Guest irritated]

i've tried to purchase clothes thta if eel comfortable in, but then i usually get fed up with them as well. I'm convinced thta i have some sort of phobia and the anxiety caused by this is too much to handle. When i'm wearing tjem i feel like a different person and the anxiety is bubbling inside me until i explode and loose my temper. I go into a rage where i hit people,myself and destroy the itemof clothing that is causing me discomfort. I'm frightened of commiting suicide, but at the moment it seems the only way out of this hell! I don't know how my therapist can tell me to relax when i'm feeling this stressed out, he doesn't have to wake up day after day with these thoughts and feelings rushing around my head!

All i ask for is a moments peace so i can gather my thoughts and attempt some therapy!!!

[Guest Beckett93]

Irritated, though not all of us have had obsessions about our clothes, we have all been in the position where we have been frustrated and felt hopeless. You can get better.

I try really hard to get on with my life and do positive things

You are trying and for what it's worth, I am very proud of you for that. As long as you try for as long as you can stand, put off the compulsion until you can't tolerate it anymore, it is okay that you gave in. You are starting to fight back and that is what is important. You want to get to feel better now and that is understandable, but this will take some time. You have to try and muster as much patience as you can give yourself.

the anxiety caused by this is too much to handle.

One thing I learned early on is that almost every OCD sufferer thinks this and that it is one of the misconceptions that keep us trapped in our suffering for so long. The anxiety is miserable, it is one of the worst feelings a human being can know, but we can handle it. You can handle it, but it will take patience on your part and time. When you wake in the morning, you know you are going to be anxious, so prepare yourself for it, tell yourself that it is only anxiety and even though it hurts like hell, you know what is causing it and that it is nothing serious in any way other than that it makes you feel so awful.

I don't know how my therapist can tell me to relax when i'm feeling this stressed out, he doesn't have to wake up day after day with these censored.gif thoughts and feelings rushing around my head!

Mental health professionals may not experience the same suffering as their patients, but they can appreciate it. Your therapist knows you are hurting, knows it is hard for you to relax, but knows that the way to recover from anxiety is to learn to tolerate that discomfort until it becomes less and less.

I am very sorry you are having such a hard time right now, but it will get better.

[Guest tangoblu]

Hi again irritated,

I really do think that if things are so bad that you really can't cope, that you need to let someone know - family, your therapist or your GP.

If they know how difficult things are for you they can do something to try and alleviate things for you.

One thing you could try is when things seem out of control (and our son often gets into a rage), is to take a slow deep breath- this stops you in your tracks even if it's for a moment so that you can take back control.

As camaroole says,

The problem is that it's not actually the clothes that don't fit it's the OCD that is convincing you, that you can't stand it.

Please make sure you let someone know and don't let the OCD win - you CAN take back control.

Hang on in there.

Pam