What If It’s Not OCD?

[Plaguedbyocd]

Hi,

I worry that some of my thoughts are not OCD. I know that I have OCD, but I worry that because I have OCD other none OCD thoughts/ feelings are being labelled as OCD when really they aren’t. And I know that worrying whether or not you have OCD is a common OCD theme…but what if I’m right and it’s not always OCD? What if I’m the exception and it’s being missed? 

[northpaul]

26 minutes ago, Plaguedbyocd said:

I worry that some of my thoughts are not OCD. I know that I have OCD, but I worry that because I have OCD other none OCD thoughts/ feelings are being labelled as OCD when really they aren’t. And I know that worrying whether or not you have OCD is a common OCD theme…but what if I’m right and it’s not always OCD? What if I’m the exception and it’s being missed? 

When you say that you know you have OCD - has this been clincally diagnosed?

[Plaguedbyocd]

Yes. I was diagnosed about 8 years ago and have been getting treatment on and off since. 

[northpaul]

46 minutes ago, Plaguedbyocd said:

but I worry that because I have OCD other none OCD thoughts/ feelings are being labelled as OCD when really they aren’t.

In my case, I have been diagnosed with OCD.  However my primary diagnosis is depression and OCD is a major symptom of the depression.  Some of my feelings are not OCD and it does take me some time to work out where the thoughts/feelings are coming from.  I have recently had CBT which has helped alot on the OCD side of things.  In the past I have had input from Community Mental Health Nurses for the wider issues.  Even  before my recent CBT I was checked out by 2 mental health clininians as part of the referral process.  This was to check that CBT for OCD was the most appropriate treatment at this point in time.

[Plaguedbyocd]

I don’t think I can cope if my thoughts aren’t ocd 

[Johnny V]

2 hours ago, Plaguedbyocd said:

Hi,

I worry that some of my thoughts are not OCD. I know that I have OCD, but I worry that because I have OCD other none OCD thoughts/ feelings are being labelled as OCD when really they aren’t. And I know that worrying whether or not you have OCD is a common OCD theme…but what if I’m right and it’s not always OCD? What if I’m the exception and it’s being missed? 

I have just joined to look at what young/old folk think about OCD. I have read a few of them and even I am curious about HOCD & Animal OCD etc... Can I just say this. I have lived with PURE OCD for most of my life (remember that word PURE). I am 49 years of age and I have embraced it. If anyone would like to discuss all of these branch off forms of OCD then I have joined to help not solve. I really do not know how others feel their OCD is this or that but I can offer an insight that may or may not help. My name is John. I have had this condition all of my life. Reading the few posts and the concerns you have can be summed up to a point to help you move forward. I work so will not be available when you expect it. I will always answer and offer my insight. I say this because the condition has become more relevant and accepted as a condition recently as in years. I have had thoughts and images that would make other's believe were evil. This is NOT the case. Anyway I am here and if I can help I will try. 

[Johnny V]

How old are you?

[determination987]

12 hours ago, Plaguedbyocd said:

Hi,

I worry that some of my thoughts are not OCD. I know that I have OCD, but I worry that because I have OCD other none OCD thoughts/ feelings are being labelled as OCD when really they aren’t. And I know that worrying whether or not you have OCD is a common OCD theme…but what if I’m right and it’s not always OCD? What if I’m the exception and it’s being missed? 

I think that it’s not about knowing for certain that it’s OCD. It’s about accepting that thoughts are just thoughts. Something isn’t true just because you thought it. Thoughts are not facts.

I’ve definitely doubted whether thoughts are OCD and whether this one time it will all be real and I’m neglecting dealing with it. The reality is that if something was urgent and needed sorting, you generally would have done that at the time or when it happens. For me, if something just pops into your head out of nowhere and suddenly becomes urgent, distressing and causes intense anxiety and I start getting stuck on a loop of checking and ruminating then it’s likely OCD at play. 
 

We can trust ourselves to handle ‘problems’ as and when they happen. We don’t need to analyse our thoughts over and over. We can take a leap of faith and continue with our lives. Real problems aren’t solved by endless compulsions. Thoughts aren’t fixed by then either. Living a healthy life helps us to handle what comes our way. 

It’s not about having certainty over every single thought but more just living in the moment and letting thoughts pass as they should. There’s a difference between contemplation and rumination and generally anxiety is the biggest indicator for me. 
 

 

[northpaul]

13 hours ago, Plaguedbyocd said:

Yes. I was diagnosed about 8 years ago and have been getting treatment on and off since. 

This is good to hear that you have been having some treatment.

11 hours ago, Plaguedbyocd said:

I don’t think I can cope if my thoughts aren’t ocd 

Do you think that it may be a good idea to speak to your Doctor and maybe get another referral for therapy?  By doing that you will be able to see if there is anything else going on as well as OCD.

In my own experience OCD is not a 'stand alone' condition.

Looking at the wider picture and not putting labels on my mental health concerns, any help that makes tomorrow better than today is worth taking on board.

[Ashley]

14 hours ago, Johnny V said:

How old are you?

Can I ask why you're asking this?  From an OCD perspective I am not sure where the age is relevant, beyond CAMHS/Adult Service access.

 

15 hours ago, Johnny V said:

I have just joined to look at what young/old folk think about OCD. I have read a few of them and even I am curious about HOCD & Animal OCD etc... Can I just say this. I have lived with PURE OCD for most of my life (remember that word PURE). I am 49 years of age and I have embraced it. If anyone would like to discuss all of these branch off forms of OCD then I have joined to help not solve. I really do not know how others feel their OCD is this or that but I can offer an insight that may or may not help. My name is John. I have had this condition all of my life. Reading the few posts and the concerns you have can be summed up to a point to help you move forward. I work so will not be available when you expect it. I will always answer and offer my insight. I say this because the condition has become more relevant and accepted as a condition recently as in years. I have had thoughts and images that would make other's believe were evil. This is NOT the case. Anyway I am here and if I can help I will try. 

Welcome, and it's great you have embraced OCD, but for many of us OCD is something to less embrace, more work towards recovering from.   The mistake many people make is thinking of OCD as different branch off forms like Pure O, but in all cases it's the 'OCD process' that is exactly the same and causing problems which is why understanding and treating the process is more important than treating the branches in my experience.

[Ashley]

16 hours ago, Plaguedbyocd said:

I don’t think I can cope if my thoughts aren’t ocd 

This is not unusual and try not to worry.   'Labels' are a little bit like OCD thoughts in some respects, that it's what we do with them that defines how relevant they are.   So for example I wonder if you knowing if certain thoughts are OCD and might have been mislabelled,s you want to know if it is OCD is reassurance? If so, then perhaps the label is not so helpful.  

So maybe, try and live with the uncertainty and assume it is OCD. I know that's hard.  Focus on what you know, that you have OCD, you mention the diagnosis, so assume this is OCD. The golden rule of thumb is that if you think something might be OCD, then it probably is. Professor Salkovskis often posts a picture of a duck to illustrate this... if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck,quacks like a duck then it's probably a duck.  Of course Paul is is much funnier when he says it!

So... what is it?

 

 

 

[Handy]

Age is important because our logic brain, our neocortex, is not formed till age 25. Before that our primitive fear based brain or amygdala rules our thoughts.

[Ashley]

6 hours ago, Handy said:

Age is important because our logic brain, our neocortex, is not formed till age 25. Before that our primitive fear based brain or amygdala rules our thoughts.

Handy, once again you are posting something that is, at best, unhelpful nonsense.   In terms of OCD, regardless if someone is 21 or 29 if OCD becomes locked in place, that brain lock we often talk about, then OCD is stuck, and the age is irrelevant.

 

[njb]

9 hours ago, Handy said:

Age is important because our logic brain, our neocortex, is not formed till age 25. Before that our primitive fear based brain or amygdala rules our thoughts.

The whole brain develops from gestation and matures about 25. The amygdala peaks about 11 years old then declines. Our thoughts are not ruled by amygdala ie primitive to that age of 25 ish but it is that the amygdala, which controls more than  simply fight or fright, competes with the more rational lobes whereas with brain maturity comes more ability to access reason ie the lobes. Bit misleading to say our thoughts are ruled by primitive brain, our reactions to that which we experience and process would perhaps be better.

Edited July 14, 2022 by njb

[njb]

3 hours ago, Ashley said:

Handy, once again you are posting something that is, at best, unhelpful nonsense.   In terms of OCD, regardless if someone is 21 or 29 if OCD becomes locked in place, that brain lock we often talk about, then OCD is stuck, and the age is irrelevant.

 

I agree. 

[Plaguedbyocd]

On 13/07/2022 at 10:19, determination987 said:

I think that it’s not about knowing for certain that it’s OCD. It’s about accepting that thoughts are just thoughts. Something isn’t true just because you thought it. Thoughts are not facts.

I’ve definitely doubted whether thoughts are OCD and whether this one time it will all be real and I’m neglecting dealing with it. The reality is that if something was urgent and needed sorting, you generally would have done that at the time or when it happens. For me, if something just pops into your head out of nowhere and suddenly becomes urgent, distressing and causes intense anxiety and I start getting stuck on a loop of checking and ruminating then it’s likely OCD at play. 
 

We can trust ourselves to handle ‘problems’ as and when they happen. We don’t need to analyse our thoughts over and over. We can take a leap of faith and continue with our lives. Real problems aren’t solved by endless compulsions. Thoughts aren’t fixed by then either. Living a healthy life helps us to handle what comes our way. 

It’s not about having certainty over every single thought but more just living in the moment and letting thoughts pass as they should. There’s a difference between contemplation and rumination and generally anxiety is the biggest indicator for me. 
 

 

I’ve definitely also experienced the fear that ‘this one will be different’. That’s kind of what I’m going through right now, and I’m finding all this evidence to support it. 

[determination987]

1 hour ago, Plaguedbyocd said:

I’ve definitely also experienced the fear that ‘this one will be different’. That’s kind of what I’m going through right now, and I’m finding all this evidence to support it. 

I’ve found that my brain is really ‘good’ at finding evidence. It wants to protect us but ultimately it keeps us stuck. 

I find that if I’m having to search for evidence to whether something is true or not, that it’s OCD at play. I know it feels incredibly hard to let go of a thought in case this ‘one time’ it’s true but we don’t have to examine every thought or feeling that we have, no matter how distressing it is.

How are you getting on today? 

[Plaguedbyocd]

1 hour ago, determination987 said:

I’ve found that my brain is really ‘good’ at finding evidence. It wants to protect us but ultimately it keeps us stuck. 

I find that if I’m having to search for evidence to whether something is true or not, that it’s OCD at play. I know it feels incredibly hard to let go of a thought in case this ‘one time’ it’s true but we don’t have to examine every thought or feeling that we have, no matter how distressing it is.

How are you getting on today? 

Thank you. I’m really not doing well, very anxious. Having really distressing thoughts about wanting people to die and it’s awful. I feel like my brain works so quickly and the thoughts come so fast I can’t deal. 

[determination987]

14 minutes ago, Plaguedbyocd said:

Thank you. I’m really not doing well, very anxious. Having really distressing thoughts about wanting people to die and it’s awful. I feel like my brain works so quickly and the thoughts come so fast I can’t deal. 

I think that once we go down the compulsions route, it all gets out of hand really quickly and the anxiety feels out of control and we feel like we can’t cope. 

You can cope and you can feel better. I know it doesn’t feel like it and it’s really distressing to think about but try and take a step back from the thoughts.

You’re having thoughts and I know they’re causing you a lot of pain to think about but ultimately they don’t mean or change anything. They’re sticking around because you’re giving them attention and applying meaning to them. This is causing your anxiety to skyrocket and fuelling the compulsions.

I think one of my biggest setbacks with OCD was being afraid of being anxious. I couldn’t sit with that feeling so needed to ‘fix’ it. That led me to compulsions which caused me immense distress and only make the thoughts more intense and distorted. I know that you feel really anxious but the compulsions aren’t helping you. It feels like going against our instincts but not trying to solve our thoughts is the key. 

If I got a thought that I was living in a big castle, I wouldn’t keep coming back to the thought to check if it was true. Thinking it didn’t make me more likely to be able to live in that big castle. My mind quickly moves onto other thoughts and continues with what I was doing.

I find it helpful to set some goals for my day - things that I want to do whether intrusive thoughts come or not. I then focus on doing the things I want to do, even if the thoughts pop in my head. I let them be there but continue living my life as if they hadn’t. Can you set some goals for yourself? Things that you would like to do instead of the compulsions.

The more you practice, the easier it becomes but once you start it will get easier. Try and observe the thoughts. You said that you’re having thoughts about wanting people to die. That’s the end of it. It’s thought, not fact. 

Try and be kind to yourself too. I know it is difficult when we’ve been listening to the narrative that OCD spins for so long but you deserve compassion and kindness. 

[Plaguedbyocd]

15 hours ago, determination987 said:

I think that once we go down the compulsions route, it all gets out of hand really quickly and the anxiety feels out of control and we feel like we can’t cope. 

You can cope and you can feel better. I know it doesn’t feel like it and it’s really distressing to think about but try and take a step back from the thoughts.

You’re having thoughts and I know they’re causing you a lot of pain to think about but ultimately they don’t mean or change anything. They’re sticking around because you’re giving them attention and applying meaning to them. This is causing your anxiety to skyrocket and fuelling the compulsions.

I think one of my biggest setbacks with OCD was being afraid of being anxious. I couldn’t sit with that feeling so needed to ‘fix’ it. That led me to compulsions which caused me immense distress and only make the thoughts more intense and distorted. I know that you feel really anxious but the compulsions aren’t helping you. It feels like going against our instincts but not trying to solve our thoughts is the key. 

If I got a thought that I was living in a big castle, I wouldn’t keep coming back to the thought to check if it was true. Thinking it didn’t make me more likely to be able to live in that big castle. My mind quickly moves onto other thoughts and continues with what I was doing.

I find it helpful to set some goals for my day - things that I want to do whether intrusive thoughts come or not. I then focus on doing the things I want to do, even if the thoughts pop in my head. I let them be there but continue living my life as if they hadn’t. Can you set some goals for yourself? Things that you would like to do instead of the compulsions.

The more you practice, the easier it becomes but once you start it will get easier. Try and observe the thoughts. You said that you’re having thoughts about wanting people to die. That’s the end of it. It’s thought, not fact. 

Try and be kind to yourself too. I know it is difficult when we’ve been listening to the narrative that OCD spins for so long but you deserve compassion and kindness. 

Thank you. It’s just so hard not to think what if they’re true? What if I do want that? Because it feels so real

[determination987]

24 minutes ago, Plaguedbyocd said:

to think what if they’re true?

That’s the compulsion that’s fuelling the OCD for you. The ‘what ifs’ keep your brain stuck on this thought. The more you ruminate on it, the more important and urgent it feels. 
 

Thoughts and feelings don’t mean that something is true. Our brains pops out lots of thoughts all day but because this feels horrendous to you, these ones stuck around. People without OCD get these thoughts too but they don’t get stuck on them like we do. They automatically pass by because they don’t give it a second thought. We sometimes manually need to do this as we’re so used to giving them our attention and dealing with perceived threats.

Taking a leap of faith is what’s needed. Trust that it’s OCD at play and do something else other than the compulsions. It will come back with a lot more intensity to get your attention but if you keep going and living your life how you want to, they will lessen and you will find it much easier.

 

[Plaguedbyocd]

10 minutes ago, determination987 said:

That’s the compulsion that’s fuelling the OCD for you. The ‘what ifs’ keep your brain stuck on this thought. The more you ruminate on it, the more important and urgent it feels. 
 

Thoughts and feelings don’t mean that something is true. Our brains pops out lots of thoughts all day but because this feels horrendous to you, these ones stuck around. People without OCD get these thoughts too but they don’t get stuck on them like we do. They automatically pass by because they don’t give it a second thought. We sometimes manually need to do this as we’re so used to giving them our attention and dealing with perceived threats.

Taking a leap of faith is what’s needed. Trust that it’s OCD at play and do something else other than the compulsions. It will come back with a lot more intensity to get your attention but if you keep going and living your life how you want to, they will lessen and you will find it much easier.

 

I know. I’m going to say something that is fuelling a lot of my worry that may be triggering for people with ocd so bear that in mind before you decide to read this:

I used to worry what if I’m not straight, I put that down to ocd. Now I have realised that I’m not 100% straight. So whenever I get that same anxious feeling of ‘what if this is true and I know deep down it is but I’m denying it’ I think we’ll I wrongly labelled something as ocd once before so how do I know this is ocd? 

[DRS1]

4 minutes ago, Plaguedbyocd said:

I know. I’m going to say something that is fuelling a lot of my worry that may be triggering for people with ocd so bear that in mind before you decide to read this:

I used to worry what if I’m not straight, I put that down to ocd. Now I have realised that I’m not 100% straight. So whenever I get that same anxious feeling of ‘what if this is true and I know deep down it is but I’m denying it’ I think we’ll I wrongly labelled something as ocd once before so how do I know this is ocd? 

You won't be able to figure that out or at least OCD won't let you figure that out. It's a classic OCD thing and is also another reassurance compulsion by asking if this is OCD. Why wouldn't we expect that if we mislabelled something in the past or got something wrong that OCD would take that opportunity to cast that same doubt on everything else we ever do. Also, I'm not sure about anyone else but I don't think you need to worry about whether or not any of us will be triggered by what you say in a post.

[Plaguedbyocd]

2 minutes ago, DRS1 said:

You won't be able to figure that out or at least OCD won't let you figure that out. It's a classic OCD thing and is also another reassurance compulsion by asking if this is OCD. Why wouldn't we expect that if we mislabelled something in the past or got something wrong that OCD would take that opportunity to cast that same doubt on everything else we ever do. Also, I'm not sure about anyone else but I don't think you need to worry about whether or not any of us will be triggered by what you say in a post.

Thank you for not telling me I’m a monster. It’s just so hard. I’m so scared and anxious and confused about how I feel. It makes me so depressed and feel like I can’t cope if it’s true. 

[determination987]

19 minutes ago, Plaguedbyocd said:

I know. I’m going to say something that is fuelling a lot of my worry that may be triggering for people with ocd so bear that in mind before you decide to read this:

I used to worry what if I’m not straight, I put that down to ocd. Now I have realised that I’m not 100% straight. So whenever I get that same anxious feeling of ‘what if this is true and I know deep down it is but I’m denying it’ I think we’ll I wrongly labelled something as ocd once before so how do I know this is ocd? 

Avoiding triggers fuels OCD. We can all be triggered by literally anything if it’s what our mind wants to fixate on. We don’t need to avoid thoughts or triggers and we don’t need to analyse what they mean . We don’t need to be afraid of anxiety. Sitting with it is hard but it will go down on its own. 
 

OCD can cast doubt on anything, even something you felt certain on. There will always be another what if or another but. It will always find ‘evidence’ and find ‘mistakes’ that make it feel much more real and important.
 

I find that if I’m anxious and I’m coming back to same thought over and over and I’m arguing with it, justifying it or seeking reassurance that it’s OCD at play. If there was a problem, then I would sort it. 

We don’t need to spend hours trying to eradicate thoughts with compulsions. We do need to live our lives.

We can have real worries and stress because that’s life. Life isn’t easy and part of life is accepting uncertainty and that things can go wrong. We don’t need to spend our lives preempting this though. We don’t need to examine everything our brain throws out at us. 

Worrying over and over about it doesn’t make it go away. It makes the thought stronger and ultimately changes nothing. Analysing and making yourself miserable is all that compulsions achieve.

Work on what you want to do now in the present. What do you want to be doing right now?