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Do I have OCD?

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Do I have OCD?

Postby sonickel » Wed Feb 08, 2017 4:30 am

I've had problems with anxiety/depression for most of my life, and am now thinking that OCD may be a part of the puzzle.
I have had repeated obsessive crushes, mostly on inappropriate people (too old, too young, married, wrong sex, not interested) that last for years, usually. Alongside the usual fascination and sexual attraction, is absolute dread, disgust, fear of them finding out, hating myself for feeling this way, and thinking that I will go to Hell.
Because these crushes are on some level pleasurable, I'm not sure that it counts as OCD. But because I'm not a stalker/deluded that they are my true love, Romantic Obsession doesn't quite fit either. When I'm around them I freeze up, and notice that they aren't all that attractive. Sometimes I am actively repulsed by them when I'm in physical proximity. But then when I'm away, they suddenly become enticing. Yet I'm wracked with guilt the whole time. The thoughts dominate my day to the point where I get very little done. Lately I've taken to saying Hail Marys to banish the thoughts but it doesn't work for long.
Other things I do: compulsively declutter to the point of getting rid of most of my stuff. Occasionally I will make rules for myself, e.g. each room has to have less than 100 things in it or I start to panic.
Does this sound like OCD to you?
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Re: Do I have OCD?

Postby Introspectah » Wed Feb 08, 2017 1:33 pm

I have had repeated obsessive crushes, mostly on inappropriate people (too old, too young, married, wrong sex, not interested) that last for years, usually. Alongside the usual fascination and sexual attraction, is absolute dread, disgust, fear of them finding out, hating myself for feeling this way, and thinking that I will go to Hell.


Could this recurrent, apparantly irrepressible attraction of yours to a particular kind of people be typified as a kind of rebellious move against the type of people your parents had forbade you to interact, fall in love with, or relate your self to?

Does this sound like OCD to you?


While some patterns of your behaviour may fall in that category, i caution against jumping to conclusions too quickly, as it's much more important to try to understand what you're dealing with first, before forming any definitive diagnoses by your self.
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Re: Do I have OCD?

Postby Bert the Turtle » Thu Feb 09, 2017 6:16 pm

You'll often hear it said that OCD is defined only by uncomplicated negative feelings, and an awareness that these feelings are delusive; but neither of these statements is true for all cases. Many people with OCD report having (usually brief and mixed) feelings of attraction or fascination with their triggers. Some people have also been shown to lose 'insight', and no longer realize that their feelings are being caused by OCD. On the forum, I've personally heard both of the above things from people with sexual OCD in particular.

So could you have OCD? Sure. But do you have OCD? No idea. I'd say make an appointment with a CBT psychologist who advertises prior experience in OCD or anxiety disorders, and see what they have to say.
Mere "anxiety," as Heidegger says, is at the source of everything.
-Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus

"You're very clever, young man, very clever," said the old lady. "But it's turtles all the way down!"
-Stephen Hawking, A Brief History of Time
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