To ask if you know what OCD is?

[thatsnotwhatitsusedfor]

I always see references to OCD almost exclusively relating to issues of cleanliness/hygiene.

Second to this is reference to issues of checking switches/oven turned off etc.

This is a genuinely innocent question, but I just wondered how many people understood that these things are not the definition of OCD, and are just simply one TYPE of OCD? That OCD can take many many forms? That you don’t have to have an issue with hand-washing for example to ‘have’ OCD? But rather that the obsessions and compulsions can take any form?

Genuine question, not intending to upset or offend anyone (asking as someone who has OCD but who has no issue with the above examples)

I think these are the examples that are portrayed most often? Films or tv tend to show this type probably because it's more visually interesting maybe? My understanding of OCD is compulsions and/or thoughts that interrupt normal life in some way or another? I think the TV series pure portrayed a different side of OCD but I'm not sure if they did it well or not.

What I think... obsessive compulsive disorder: needing to perform repetitive rituals. For instance washing your hands so much they bleed, or turning the light switch on and off 50 times before bed (because if you don't your mum will die in her sleep).

No idea how accurate that is but that's what I've garnered from the media.

I would say it is used colloquially as well to mean "I'm particular about x"

What I think... obsessive compulsive disorder: needing to perform repetitive rituals.

Not everyone with OCD has that aspect of it, though it is the one the media chooses to focus on. I think probably because it's easier to show and use for dramatic effect.
Some people with OCD though don't have the ritualistic behaviour aspect of it, they have what's sometimes called "pure OCD" which means a person has obsessive thoughts but no actual rituals.

www.intrusivethoughts.org/ocd-symptoms/pure-ocd/

That’s interesting rogers - ritualising is one type of behaviour of OCD but people with OCD don’t necessarily have rituals. Everyone with OCD will have compulsions, but not everyone will have rituals. But I guess it’s like what smartcar mentioned about ‘visually interesting’ representations of OCD being used more in media etc. Thanks - really interesting to read responses xx

Ahhh cross posted Jan - yes, exactly that x

Intrusive, obsessive thoughts, often disturbing and possibly violent.

The belief that they've done harm and the constant need to check and re-check they have or haven't left the baby near harmful objects, run someone over or messed up at work.

Severe procrastination. So absorbed in rituals or thinking about how to go about something they can't move and sometimes have incontinence issues.

Hoarding can be an OCD thing - also points to procrastination.

Bizarre beliefs such as having to perform a ritual to prevent a loved one dying from something ludicrous (gas seeping from electrical sockets for example).

I know what it is, but HATE when it's used casually. "I'm so OCD about that!" Etc. How can you be Obsessive Compulsive Disorder about something?

Same with phobias. It's not just being scared of something, it's a debilitating fear that affects how you live you life.

Well it's clearly been feminised and romanticised by Monica Geller/Mrs Hinch etc. Fucking wish those were my symptoms.

For me, I have vision of my darling child falling down stairs, or being run over, lots of terrible terrifying things. I have learned to remind myself this fear is False Evidence Appearing Real.

Intrusive thoughts that impact on life and make day to day difficult. All the other stuff are just compulsions as a reaction to the OCD.

Hugs to you ASAS - I understand how you feel. It’s a really debilitating condition and I hope you have support

I agree breakfast - very hard to hear it belittled, although I think people just don’t truly understand what these things really mean and how they affect your, and your family’s, life x

Is it a spectrum? My DH does have a few, mild compulsions - but it’s not really severe in his case. Or is it only when it’s debilitating that it can be diagnosed as ocd?

I have OCD but I’m quite messy.

I consulted Dr Google when dgs was a toddler because he was very particular about everything matching and had meltdowns if his (plastic) cutlery wasn't the same colour as his bowl, plate and cup. The bowl, plate and cup had to be stacked a certain way as well. I remember being surprised at how broad the definition was and stopped my armchair diagnos. I do agree that if OCD is mentioned my first thought is still the type of behaviour portrayed in films and books

*diagnosis

I know what it is, but HATE when it's used casually. "I'm so OCD about that!" Etc. How can you be Obsessive Compulsive Disorder about something?

I really hate that as well, people seem to use ASD in a similar way and it drives me nuts. No matter how many times I point out to people no can "be OCD/ASD" it doesn't stop people from saying it.

If his compulsions don’t cause any distress, don’t impact his life or disorder his life in anyway then it’s doubtful he has OCD aliasname.

Little compulsions to do things does not equal OCD.

OCD can relate to anything.

I hate it when people say 'Ooh I'm so OCD, me' just because they are very organised and keep a tidy house. That's got sod all to do with OCD, which is about excessive, repetitive compulsions and it's quite offensive to those who have it.

I have OCD, I don't have a clean house nor a particularly messy one. I do have an overwhelming fear that if I do not repeat key phases every night a certain number of times my children will die.
I can not watch or read anything to do with children dying because it will trigger compulsive intrusive thoughts of my children dying in these horrible ways which often leads to a full blown anxiety attack.
I think it would probably be relieving to just have a stereotypical version of OCD and have a clean house.

Programs like OCD cleaners certainly didn't help people understand OCD more.

Another diagnosed sufferer here.

I predominantly have issues with contamination and germ phobia but that isn't the whole story.

I WISH it were just handwashing. That's a very very small part of it. I am currently very ill with it, to the point it has led to me being housebound for almost 18 months.

Every single thing I do is done in a particular way because of the ocd. From how I (try to) sleep, how I turn over in bed (making sure I don't touch any contaminants, duvet stays firmly on bed etc can only sleep with tv on can't sleep in silence or in the dark) to how I sit or stand, how I breathe, eat, drink, take meds, talk, where I look..:

That's just daily stuff.

Then there's the much harder stuff to deal with which currently I'm only managing 1-2 times a week. Or in some cases fortnightly.

Self care is through the floor, my hair is matted, teeth uncared for, skin in poor condition because of it.

Leaving my room to do anything is extremely anxiety inducing at the moment and takes me 3-4 hours to build up the courage, and that can be for something as simple as getting a drink.

I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy.

And yes it pisses me off greatly when it's belittled or dismissed like "oh I'm a big ocd with X" Which is bollocks misappropriation in my opinion.

But even among mh experts there's very little help.

Cbt & (hopefully desperately) taking the right meds is pretty much the only treatment option which myself and I've found many other ocd sufferers have not only found not helpful but actually can make it worse.

Why there isn't research into other therapies and better meds I don't know. Even possibly surgical options (controversial I know but honestly at this point I would seriously consider it) because there's a physiological component to the condition.

There's nowhere near enough research done and I suspect this is at least partly because many OCD sufferers don't like to make a fuss, they're generally not attention seekers if anything wishing to be invisible in many ways, and it's a very secretive condition too I hid it for many many years and still find myself doing so at times, certainly no one person knows everything I think and do.

I didn't seek help until I could no longer function as a mother. By that time I was in my 30's so while that was when I was first diagnosed, with hindsight (and my mother agrees - the post upthread about the toddler being insistent on matching cutlery etc - that was me) I've had it all my life.

It ramped up after various traumatic events or periods of stress, but it's always been there.

I've had some good, honest hcps and therapists who've acknowledged there is no cure for it, the best that can be achieved can be to manage it.

Not sure how the other sufferers feel of this accurately represents how it's been for them too.

The thoughts are always present, even when I'm asleep, even in my dreams I have OCD even if the dream has nothing to do with OCD. It permeates everything.

I wish I could just cut out or switch off that part of my brain. I've tried so many things, so many meds, therapies, cbt several times...nothing has helped. Not for any decent period of time anyway.

to all sufferers may you find the peace that has so far eluded me

Had it since i was 5, all about toilets, bodily fluids and germs.
Ritual compulsions have physically damaged my bladder and bowel making it worse.
Finally found a med that helps but the side effects are horrific.
Just had a 24 month period of being totally housebound which left me severely vit D defficient needing treatment.
The worst part thats making it a bitch to treat is my sister has it too, just as badly, about the same things.
One living parent supporting us both as carer.

I don't know WHY i'm so deathly affraid of wetting/soiling myself though, i'm not scared of the germs doing any harm, i trust my immune system and medicine. I'm not affraid of myself or anyone else being hurt by them, i just can't stand the thought of them existing. Whatever my 5 year old brain was scarted of i don't remember, but i have no life, family or friends because of it, never worked etc.

Graphista oddly enough, it's roughly 50-50 if i have OCD in my dreams despite having it from so young i have no memory of life without it.

I do so many things in my dreams i wouldn't dream of doing for real.
I often will dream im desperate for a wee though, and either can't find a toilet or i realise its the wrong one (only used my house toilet for past 10 years) realise im asleep, and try to wake myself, sometimes i "wake up" in my dream but then realise i'm still asleep, and this can happen several times til i wake for real. I've had times i then can't reassure myself im really awake and safe to wee as i'm scared i'll suddenly wake, find it was a dream and i've wet myself, its terrifying and the reason in patient treatment is a no go as i can't go out and sleep somewhere then wake up and believe im really awake to use the loo.
Dreams of others peeing/pooping on me is also not fun.

Hope you feel better graphista .

It's ever present but for me gets worse and better in cycles.

Currently in a good cycle. I feel overwhelmed daily but it's not all consuming like it has been before. It's hard to explain. There are things that disgust me daily and things take me longer as I need to build up to them, yet I'm still doing things.

If in a bad cycle I would not be doing anything, as these things would be too much and so I would not confront them at all.

Before my bathroom became too unlikeable and dirty (it was not) so I stopped washing, then only every few days as I couldn't face the bathroom and it would take me days to psych myself up to be able to use it.

Or when the pavement got too bad for me to step on so I stayed in and psyched myself up to step on it. Became virtually housebound. Then starting getting out 1 day per week, then out to cbt sessions and worked up from there.

Same with using the bus and a million other things.

Currently I can do these things (not bus) but in the back of my mind things disgust me and scare me and I'm awake right now frankly recovering from dealing with everything in the day.

It takes me hours to wind down to be relaxed enough to sleep and I fight sleep, I usually give in at 3 or 4am and try to shut everything off but often I'm too scared to do so. Light and laptop. I'm scared of the dark but force myself to sleep in it as can't sleep properly with light on (or with it off.)

I keep most of this hidden but every so often I say something and my dds say yes we know you hate it mum. They appreciate the stuff I do as we have discussed in the past how some things make me feel.

Everything is hard and I'm relatively okay at the moment. People keep asking if I will get a part time job now I can leave my older autistic daughter for a little while. But can I deal with a job??? The answer is no, my cycle is good because I put all my reserves into my children and keeping myself from falling off the ledge into a worsening cycle. It takes so much energy each day to not focus on things that can pull me down, to not obsess and count and check and clean and write lists to correct.

My ocd touches all these areas but my biggest fear is contamination.

I almost certainly had ocd as a child. I still look for patterns in numbers and count things like I did as a child. I like my order and correct for me things.

I'm scared of contamination, dirt, germs, insects. I think people are dirty on the whole. I think I am dirty.

I single handedly packed a 4 bed house and shed and cupboards as the thoughts of others touching my things made me sick. I'm now unpacking them and if I had had packers I would have had to wipe everything.

I scared of contamination but I do buy from ebay. Things arrive and get quarantined for a while. Then I wipe them and anti bac them and they go into a second quarantine. Then I don't know how long as it varies but then things will get used and put away.

I used to wipe all shoe bottoms for my whole family when we had been out but I no longer do so. We have always been a shoes off house, yet the unwiped shoes in the hallway were a massive threat. After cbt they are no longer.

Cbt worked for some things but not for others.

My daughter wants a dog. 22 breeds are hypo allergenic and do not shed. Yaay. 17 months later I've worked out that could never have a female as had never thought about periods. Has to be smaller than a cat. Would wipe paws after it had been out. It would have a baby bath and be bathed weekly. Would have its bum wiped by my daughter. Would never be allowed on sofas or beds. My daughters would pick up all poos. So I'm nearer to having one but what about drool? Anything it drooled on, i would have to bin and I'm poor enough as it is.

I also told myself for years that only dirty people had dogs, so now I would be joining the ranks of the dirty people. Yes I know this is wrong but try telling my brain that.

However I can walk on pavements now and use my bathroom. Maybe they will get the dog they want.

I wish my ocd made me clean lots

I have mild ocd co-morbid with ASD (this is the language my doctor uses). Most of my stuff centres on religion and a fear of hell. I have to pray at certain times, and have really bad intrusive thoughts, which are mainly dealt with by voicing them to sensible people in my life that help me to rationalise. I also listen to music near constantly if I'm not teaching. I really relate to the procrastination thing, and OCD is multi faceted in a big way.
I fucking hate it when people have decided that they're "so OCD" or "we're all a bit aspie".
I've managed to have a life, thankfully and luckily due to years or very expensive therapy many people cannot access (thank god for a mother set on making me "normal"). I've also attempted to kill myself three times. So yknow. Fun.