canigetawitness Posted May 11, 2020 Share Posted May 11, 2020 (edited) Hi everyone, I'm having quite a difficult time watching my television. I notice that its titled about 2 degrees or a couple mm to the left/right (It's hard to tell which direction really, I think it could be the right). Anyway, it's making my anxiety really high. I guess my fear is that this tilt difference is going to affect my viewing/hearing of the TV to where I won't be able to focus on content I'd like to watch. I know it sounds silly, and its such a minor difference, but it's becoming really hard to sit and ride this out. I have this intense urge to want to unscrew the stand and screw it back in, but I've been resisting the compulsion to do so & trying to just ride the anxiety out. I was wondering if anyone had been through OCD symmetry/aligning things just so & if you had any tips/advice on how to ride this out while trying to watch television. Thank you. Edited May 11, 2020 by canigetawitness Link to comment
dksea Posted May 12, 2020 Share Posted May 12, 2020 Hi @canigetawitness, sorry you are having a tough time. You are doing the right thing by trying to ignore/avoid compulsions. The best thing you can do is to keep watching and not change anything. You may need to take breaks (which you should probably do anyway, not good to stare at the screen unendingly for hours at a time, guilty of that myself sometimes I admit) but the more you treat this problem as unimportant, the less hold OCD will have on it. Hang in there and keep doing your best. Link to comment
canigetawitness Posted May 12, 2020 Author Share Posted May 12, 2020 Thanks @dksea. I'm trying to do my best. The OCD is even making claims now that the flat, glass screen itself it bent more forward on one side than another, because the screws could be not perfectly/equally twisted in on the two leg stands. It found "evidence" once when I was looking at one side & how it might be tilted back a tiny bit more than another, but I think it was because I was at a weird angle, I don't know. The OCD is throwing a lot of technicalities at me right now, telling me the TV is set up plain wrong! I've been making myself watch one episode of a show a day. It's hard to stay attentive to be honest, which is disappointing, but I'm trying to just keep doing it despite what anxiety is screaming at me. Thanks for the advice. Link to comment
canigetawitness Posted May 22, 2020 Author Share Posted May 22, 2020 My mind is convinced that a "V" shaped reflection mark on one of my TV legs, means that there's a "V" shaped broken off piece of plastic up in the TV, meaning the stand is broken. The "V" shape reflection could be just a line/mark up in the TV, a stray hair, something just a little off there, maybe nothing is broken at all. Anyway, this thought keeps going round & round and shouting "Okay, TV leg is broken, TV is faulty, fix it now. Replace that leg" Have not been fixing it. Really want to, but haven't. Trying to ride through the flood of anxious thoughts. It's been about a week now and I'm not getting any relief. Any tips on how to ride this out? I desperately feel like something needs to be fixed. Link to comment
dksea Posted May 25, 2020 Share Posted May 25, 2020 On 23/05/2020 at 04:05, canigetawitness said: Have not been fixing it. Really want to, but haven't. Trying to ride through the flood of anxious thoughts. It's been about a week now and I'm not getting any relief. Any tips on how to ride this out? I desperately feel like something needs to be fixed. That sounds frustrating. Its likely that even though you haven't been taking any action (good!) you have been ruminating (not good) on the perceived problem. Ruminating is a common compulsion, and a difficult one to tackle because its mental, and often subtle, but its important to work on that one too. Try to catch yourself if you slip in to rumination "what if it's broken...". One way to respond is to simply agree with the worry. "Ok, maybe the TV leg is broken, so what? its not the end of the world. I'm just going to let it be..." etc. The goal is not to eliminate the possibility of having the negative thought, the goal is to treat that thought as if its not a big deal, that its not something you have to spend your energy on. Maybe the tv leg is faulty, but its probably not. If it is, no big deal. Life goes on. It can be hard to shift your thinking into this attitude, but you can do it if you work at it. Link to comment
canigetawitness Posted June 7, 2020 Author Share Posted June 7, 2020 Thank you @dksea. I have been watching the TV and trying not to care whether the leg is broken or not. I think I'm making some headway. I appreciate your help again. Link to comment
dksea Posted June 7, 2020 Share Posted June 7, 2020 You’re welcome. Recovery takes time and you don’t have to be perfect. Keep doing your best and hang in there! Link to comment
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