What Type of OCD Do You Have/My Issues

I have a couple that really bother me, mine comes in the form of Pure O, so I don't real visual compulsions.

Harm OCD - This is the one that landed me in the hospital for a couple of days. I've had thoughts of becoming a serial killer, hurting my family, or completely going berserk and mass murdering. I've also had them toward myself a lot of self mutilation or taking all my bottles of pills. The biggest fear for me is snapping and losing control and following through with them.

Health OCD - Any sort of odd symptom I get I'm convinced I have some sort of fatal illness. Also ones about my mom's health and worry that she has some sort of serious illness and is going to die.
I also have health worries I have more serious illness than I've been diagnosed with.

Sexual OCD - This is by far the one that I suffer with the least often. But they are fears of raping a woman, child molestation, or taking of my pants in public.

I think this is a nice form to talk about our obsessions.

kah80 wrote:
'Just right' OCD- if I touch something with one hand, foot etc I'll feel an urge to touch it with the other. Recently I chased a cat down the road as I stroked it with one hand and it ran off before I had a chance to stroke it with the other hand and it felt wrong. Sometimes if I'm choosing something I'll have trouble with that e.g. If I'm taking a yogurt from the fridge I take one, it feels wrong, I put it back and take another one and so on (and they're all the same yogurt). I also have a numbers related thing, if I see a number ending in 9 on a clock it won't feel right until I see the 1, e.g. If it's 8.19 when I look at the clock I have to look again and again until it gets to 8.21 then I can stop.



Lists- I can't live without lists. I make a to do list every day which even includes 'shower'. At the weekend if we're out I'll panic I won't get through my list and nag my financee to let us go home so I can start on it. I have things on the list like writing (I must do half an hour) and juggling (I must do 15 mins). These are things I should enjoy but I don't because I'm panicking about getting them done and ticked off the list. If I don't do them I feel guilty and once I have I feel relieved.

Wow kah80 I can relate to these!

I've had the "touch" ocd for decades. It's a little different with me in that instead of your touch with other foot/hand, my ocd is to touch it twice with the same part in the same way. This has been on and off for many many years. My ocd feels it needs to touch something again to sort of "complete the circuit". This can be anything from dropping something on the floor and when picking it up if I accidentally touch the floor I "must" touch it again. Can be anything even as simple as brushing walls as I walk by. I've done this with people. If I accidentally touch someone in normal human reaction my ocd compels me to touch them again.

I've also been list obsessed. Not every day but I've listed the obvious too and often felt very anxious until I could cross them off.

Thanks for sharing. You are not alone!

Stuck

Interesting!

I've been thinking lately about all this and my OCD is often related to completeness, like you say with yours. Another example is the arrow incident that there is a post about on the forum, let me know if you want me to relate it again!

Also I was thinking the other day about people who sign off emails with 'Best'. It's always annoyed me and I wonder if that's the OCD. Because it's short for 'Best wishes' and just seeing 'Best' seems incomplete and makes me uncomfortable.

kah80 wrote:Interesting!

Also I was thinking the other day about people who sign off emails with 'Best'. It's always annoyed me and I wonder if that's the OCD. Because it's short for 'Best wishes' and just seeing 'Best' seems incomplete and makes me uncomfortable.

That annoys me too.

I like to have things in a certain place at home and sometimes feel enraged when someone moves them or messes them up. I went to great lengths and expense to get my back room just right and then Mr Sharks brings home a black chair and puts it there. I feel compelled to get rid of stuff that I feel doesn't belong in the house, but it's caused arguments in the past. This black chair makes me feel enraged every time I look at it and if I had my way I'd chop it up with an axe and set fire to it! Not because I'm being snobby, but it just doesn't look right in that room and it gives me the heeby jeebies just looking at it.

There's been times when Mr Shark has left his man-clutter in a part of the house and it becomes so unbearable that I literally can't go in that room or stand to look at it. I probably spend 3 hours a day cleaning.

Then there are the other obsessions like worrying that everyone thinks I fancy them, being a sociopath, worrying that I have a mental health disorder that my psychiatrist has missed (he gets really annoyed with this one) and worrying that if I think the word 'pedophile' around a kid that I'm somehow molesting them and I'll go to jail. The weirdest thing about my POCD is that I don't even get intrusive thoughts about kids, it's just a case of "What if I'm a pedophile?" pops into my head and well, you can guess the rest.

CloudShark wrote:That annoys me too.

I like to have things in a certain place at home and sometimes feel enraged when someone moves them or messes them up. I went to great lengths and expense to get my back room just right and then Mr Sharks brings home a black chair and puts it there. I feel compelled to get rid of stuff that I feel doesn't belong in the house, but it's caused arguments in the past. This black chair makes me feel enraged every time I look at it and if I had my way I'd chop it up with an axe and set fire to it! Not because I'm being snobby, but it just doesn't look right in that room and it gives me the heeby jeebies just looking at it.

There's been times when Mr Shark has left his man-clutter in a part of the house and it becomes so unbearable that I literally can't go in that room or stand to look at it. I probably spend 3 hours a day cleaning.

Then there are the other obsessions like worrying that everyone thinks I fancy them, being a sociopath, worrying that I have a mental health disorder that my psychiatrist has missed (he gets really annoyed with this one) and worrying that if I think the word 'pedophile' around a kid that I'm somehow molesting them and I'll go to jail. The weirdest thing about my POCD is that I don't even get intrusive thoughts about kids, it's just a case of "What if I'm a pedophile?" pops into my head and well, you can guess the rest.

Again, I can identify with some of this. I spent months convinced I had a personality disorder. I got so obsessive over it that even my best friend told me to shut up about it. And there are certain people who I don't fancy but I think they are attractive so I become convinced they must think I fancy them. I had this problem with a friend of mine recently and everything I said to her I had to explain that I wasn't flirting with her. Mind you, now I've convinced myself that I do fancy her, which is more how my OCD seems to show itself.

I used to be business partners with a man (I'm straight), but after accidentally looking at his crotch my anxiety went into overdrive. It made things very awkward and I was so worried that my nervousness would be misinterpreted as sexual tension. I felt so guilty when I was questioning whether I really was attracted to him as he was married and so am I. I never meant to look at his crotch. I was just thinking about what to have for dinner later or something mundane like that and then realised that my eyes had rested there. It's happened before with people when I realise my eyes have settled on their crotch, boobs or butt, or I've noticed that area on their body.

It even happened with my psychologist. She's an attractive lady who always wears nice clothes. One day I was admiring her skirt and realised she was bending over and it could have looked as though I was checking her out. It's group therapy and I was sure that another lady had seen me. I also accidentally looked a blokes crotch a couple of times. I started to get convinced that they all thought I was a perv and would come onto them. I had to have a week off as it made me so anxious. I confessed all of this to Mr Shark who was like wtf woman??!

Sorry to go on!

No need to apologise! I've had this too, but to a much lesser degree than you. I had my hair and makeup trial today for my wedding and when the woman was bending down to put the makeup on I could see partly down her top, and I did get a bit paranoid thinking would she think I fancy her?

I don't think it was OCD in my case, just a thought and I didn't obsess over it. But I can see how OCD could make a big thing of it, like in your case.

The worse with me was a few years ago with a colleague who was obviously fit but totally not my type. But because she was fit I became convinced she must think I fancy her, and every time I was around her I got paranoid. The worst was when I had to train her on something for an hour and spent the whole time blushing.

Thanks kah80! The whole obsession about how everyone thinks I'm attracted to them and giving them the come on is silly, but I've been completely hamstrung by it. It's one of the reasons why I stopped business networking as I was so worried that they'd all think I fancied them and was only attending because I was trying to pick people up. Recently I've been worrying that I am or are going to give off sexual signals to male and female friend. So, I totally see where you're coming from. I don't even know if this is OCD.

Definitely sounds like OCD to me!

kah80 wrote:Definitely sounds like OCD to me!

Thanks for the reassurance! I think one of my main compusions is avoidance, but I'm not sure whether that's classed as a compulsion. I should ask the psychologist when I start the focused therapy for OCD.