Can OCD be about anything?

[Guest mentallyill]

There are the classic types of OCD like washing your hands, and organizing, being afraid of germs, but can it manifest in just about anything? Music is the most important thing in my life and I think OCD is beginning to ruin it for me because it knows how much it means to me and how much I fear losing my musical ability. Lately I've been noticing myself singing out of tune, and sometimes I think I can't remember melodies as well as I used to. I have mild-moderate hearing damage.. And theres some documentation on the accompaniment of pitch distortion with hearing loss. 

Any comments will be very appreciated

Edited June 26, 2016 by mentallyill

[Em24]

Hi, yes OCD can latch onto anything, especially something that makes u happy x

[Guest Surfrider69]

Yep... it evolves. The good news is it will evolve to something else (not music) at some point.

Do ERP.

[PolarBear]

The answer is yes and no. OCD never latches onto fluffy, white bunnies or thoughts of a lovely cake. It's always something bad. But yes, OCD can latch onto a fear of just about anything.

In your case it's not music that OCD has latched onto. It's stuck on your fear of being out of pitch and not appreciating music like you used to. You are, by the way, the second person in the past couple of weeks to bring this particular theme up.

No doubt you are doing compulsions along with this. You need to identify the compulsions you are doing and work hard to stop them.

[BristolChris]

I don't entirely know. I mean if you obsessively worry about the way you look and perform rituals it may then become BDD. And there may be other examples. But I'm not to sure Ashley would be the expert on that. I think some people on here worry to much about whether the  anxiety they have is OCD or not(which is ironically OCD) The fact is a lot of the problems people experience on here are anxiety of some sort.

 

[Guest mentallyill]

3 hours ago, BristolChris said:

I don't entirely know. I mean if you obsessively worry about the way you look and perform rituals it may then become BDD. And there may be other examples. But I'm not to sure Ashley would be the expert on that. I think some people on here worry to much about whether the  anxiety they have is OCD or not(which is ironically OCD) The fact is a lot of the problems people experience on here are anxiety of some sort.

 

Hi Chris, I think some people actually have a type of OCD that involves excessive rumination on whether or not they have a problem. That might have been what you were saying. I definitely have episodes. But it's not confined to OCD; any sort of mental illness, like Depression or social anxiety is a huge area of concern. I think I've taken around 100 depression quizzes, just to reassure myself that I'm depressed and not something else. And I'll take the test even though I know nothing good will come of it..

Edited June 27, 2016 by mentallyill

[PolarBear]

Stop taking those tests! It will turn into a compulsion, if it hasn't already.

[Guest mentallyill]

25 minutes ago, PolarBear said:

Stop taking those tests! It will turn into a compulsion, if it hasn't already.

I wish there were some device to tell you whether or not you're crazy. but who knows maybe we'd go "this isn't working" 

[PolarBear]

No such device. I highly doubt you're crazy. But you can get better, mental health wise.

[Guest mentallyill]

no i hope i am! that would mean these are obsessions and compulsions and not something real that's just causing me anxiety. 

Edited June 27, 2016 by mentallyill

[PolarBear]

Don't hope that you're crazy. Crazy is a whole other thing than Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

It's not too hard to figure out if you have obsessions and compulsions and, if you do, chances are very high you are dealing with OCD.

[Guest mentallyill]

40 minutes ago, PolarBear said:

Don't hope that you're crazy. Crazy is a whole other thing than Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

It's not too hard to figure out if you have obsessions and compulsions and, if you do, chances are very high you are dealing with OCD.

You're right, by crazy I just mean in one's head. Don't mean to stigmatize or anything. But I should ask.. how do you figure out whether or not you're dealing with an (OCD) obsession and compulsion? 

[PolarBear]

Go by the definitions.

An obsession is an intrusive (unwanted, pops in your head) thought, image, impulse, fear, worry, urge (or combination thereof) that causes distress.

A compulsion is an act, behavior, ritual, mental ritual done to try and alleviate the distress caused by obsessions.

The list of obsessions and compulsions is long. There is no list available that lists every possible obsession, for sure. Generally you can Google YBOCS, which will take you to the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale, the most widely used scale for rating OCD. It contains a list of the more common obsessions and compulsions.

[BristolChris]

3 hours ago, mentallyill said:

Hi Chris, I think some people actually have a type of OCD that involves excessive rumination on whether or not they have a problem. That might have been what you were saying. I definitely have episodes. But it's not confined to OCD; any sort of mental illness, like Depression or social anxiety is a huge area of concern. I think I've taken around 100 depression quizzes, just to reassure myself that I'm depressed and not something else. And I'll take the test even though I know nothing good will come of it..

Hi

Yes that was what I meant. Some people have OCD about whether they have OCD. My point though is that whether the problems are OCD or another form of anxiety they are still anxiety and irrational.

[Guest mentallyill]

17 hours ago, BristolChris said:

Hi

Yes that was what I meant. Some people have OCD about whether they have OCD. My point though is that whether the problems are OCD or another form of anxiety they are still anxiety and irrational.

Yeah I think that's probably true for the most part.. but of course there's OCD types like POCD. If somebody were freaking out because they're realizing suppressed pedophilia, I don't know if I would consider their anxiety irrational

[PolarBear]

Except pedophile obsessions have NOTHING to do with suppressed pedophilia. That's the equivalent of calling someone with a thought of murder a murderer. It's simply not true. People with so-called POCD are not pedophiles.

[Guest mentallyill]

Individuals with POCD are definitely not pedophiles, for sure. But a "thought" is kind of vague, I was thinking along the lines of being attracted to children, not just a fleeting inappropriate image or something. Just think it's hard to draw the line sometimes because it's in people's best interest to find an alternative explanation for something like that, and the anxiety which the actual problem is causing them could probably look obsessive and compulsive if it's severe enough. I think I'm a good example of this.. There's a solid reason for me to believe my pitch-perception issues are not in my head, yet I'm engaging in reassurance-seeking behaviors (og post) and making myself figure out songs by ear to lessen my anxiety, I'm also filled with constant worry and sadness about it.. I'm getting my ears checked later this week

Edited June 28, 2016 by mentallyill

[Ashley]

On ‎26‎/‎06‎/‎2016 at 23:14, Surfrider69 said:

Do ERP.

No, this really is the wrong message to be giving out.   We need to encourage people to tackle OCD treatment using Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) which includes Exposure Response Prevention (ERP) treatment.

ER alone is simply the wrong approach in my opinion.

[Guest]

34 minutes ago, Ashley said:

 

ER alone is simply the wrong approach in my opinion.

It absolutely is the worst advice. Drove me into a 'psychotic depression' and that was the lowest point of my life. OCD with psychotic depression is like a journey into hell. Constant exposure definitely fuelled it. I 'didn't want to give up' and 'wanted to beat OCD' so did this stupid flooding. This is why I am totally against Steven Phillipson's methods of recovery.

[Guest Alice36]

Hi, if you don't have OCD, don't do ERP! First you should have made an ears checking as you wrote and than maybe you can go to a singing master to help you to decide (maybe you have older records). You might have a physical problem and not OCD. But in that case you can work on your singing! Nothing lost!

Good luck!

[PolarBear]

See, in a case like this, OCD has nothing to do with singing out of tune. That's either true or not. OCD comes into play when a person becomes fixated on a subject, constantly trying to figure out if he is in tune or not, in this case.

[Cub]

OCD can latch onto anything at any time and keep us locked on. If it's any consolation, I love to write and I've found that OCD and being on medication has put a dent in it. I felt so unhappy and couldn't settle to writing as much as I could; it used to be an escape and happy distraction, but the OCD has latched onto it and it's been hurting me and ruining my enjoyment of life. It's been like a barrier that I've had to fight through and has been really upsetting, as I feel I've lost my love and my concentration for it.

But it doesn't mean we've lost our ability; sometimes, the inspiration comes and goes. I try and do a little writing every day but I know that one way or another, I'll get back to it eventually. It's always there; it's part of us. It won't go away.

C x

[Guest]

You name it. I once met a guy who was totally crippled by anxiety about his hair - people touching it and himself touching it could mess it up cause it to fall out and spread contagion 

all ocd

[Handy]

Being deafened myself, I know what this is. I did not experience it as ocd, BUT as the mind trying to make sounds. Beethoven went through this. Also, I cant remember new music, weird.

 A lot of hearing people are going to say this is ocd, however, its just a natural thing the brain is doing & you think that you're becoming crazy, but you are not!

[Guest mentallyill]

2 hours ago, Cub said:

OCD can latch onto anything at any time and keep us locked on. If it's any consolation, I love to write and I've found that OCD and being on medication has put a dent in it. I felt so unhappy and couldn't settle to writing as much as I could; it used to be an escape and happy distraction, but the OCD has latched onto it and it's been hurting me and ruining my enjoyment of life. It's been like a barrier that I've had to fight through and has been really upsetting, as I feel I've lost my love and my concentration for it.

But it doesn't mean we've lost our ability; sometimes, the inspiration comes and goes. I try and do a little writing every day but I know that one way or another, I'll get back to it eventually. It's always there; it's part of us. It won't go away.

C x

Hey Cub, 

Thanks so much for your post it actually made me cry a bit. Probably because I can relate.. Can I ask what medication you're taking? I've been thinking about going back on Prozac..