Pure-O? HOCD? READ ME.

Just thought I'd ask (no need to answer if you don't want to.)

Have you found that info helpful?
- What are you doing instead of the usual?

I was always interested in how come people don't know their sexual orientation... Can someone explain that to me please...

Is this in reference to HOCD? If so, it is not about orientation in my opinion, it's about fear and intrusive thoughts.

In general it is not uncommon for a young person to question their orientation as they sexual evolve. A heterosexual sexual person may have homoerotic fantasies our even one or two experiences in real life, but that doesn't make them homosexual or bisexual in orientation. I think it is a part of normal sexual life to have feeling beyond what someone's natural orientation might be. These array of feelings at an early age might be hard to interpret for some, or become scary to the individual who may have grown up thinking (or being taught) that some of these feelings are wrong.

Otter.

That is fine but how come some people claim that they don't know their sexual orientation, you must have some kind of an image about it...

Anyways this guy gaved me a strong bad image of oneself and what others are thinking, he said all this negative stuff, that still haunts me...

That he doesn't know if he is gay or straight, that I am afraid of my own feelings, and that he sees that part of himself (probably gay part if he has it) as a Quasimodo (google it up). I was like wtf you are youreself, sexual orientation or at least labeling it somehow is idiotic... But if you must do it, than decide, you can't not know...

My OCD has taken numerous forms over the years to do with my sexuality and my religion and what these things say about me and made me think that maybe these things were going to come true in the future and there would be nothing that I could do about it. It was horrible and I could not shake it and it seemed like these things were inevitable. But I talked to another person who had OCD and had learned to control it and spoke to a doctor about it and had OCD explained to me and how it works and what it does. I found this really helpful but still questioned it even though I could see that this was exactly how I was thinking, but that is OCD for you, that is what it does, makes you doubt it! What I was told was this, that OCD sufferers experience obsessions which take the form of persistent and uncontrollable thoughts, images, impulses, worries, fears or doubts. They are often intrusive, unwanted and disturbing. These fears are different for different people but are common in that they are not real. For me I got so hung up on things that got weirder and weirder and that if I was being sensible I would have seen they were not real. People with OCD often realise that their obsessional thoughts are irrational, but they believe the only way to relieve the anxiety caused by them is to perform compulsive behaviours. Even though these things are not real the persistence of the obsessions still cause the sufferer to question whether these things will become their reality in the future. Doubt is the emotion that feeds obsessive behaviour. People with OCD therefore want black and White answers for their OCD fears. It took me time to accept this but eventually I did and managed to move passed the point where I obsessed about the thoughts or let them influence what and how I thought. So guys Im telling you this is a manageable problem but you have to understand it and just accept that you will doubt it and move on. GOOD LUCK and I hope this helps!!

This thread is so helpful!!! It really is so true everything you posted. I think the best thing someone ever said to me was "thoughts are just thoughts, actions are what you control" I've been dealing with pure o for my entire life and never knew what I was going threw up until last yea. Irrational fears controlled my childhood and I'm so happy to finally find people who get it now, I'm not just the "over emotional insecure worrier ". Keep posting !!!!!

As a physician who suffers from OCD, I have to say that this is an amazing piece of writing, especially for someone who presumably (?) doesn't have a psych or medical background. It's always invaluable to have articulate patient perspectives, and you have done a masterful job of presenting this information, most of which is spot-on. Very nice work! Thanks for this important contribution.

This is my first post on Psych Forum. Thank you so much for posting this information. One of the reasons that I've joined this forum is because I have complex mental health diagnoses, which include a constellation of anxiety disorders - one of them being Purely Obsessional OCD (and also GAD, Panic Disorder and Agoraphobia) along with Major Depressive Disorder (which, combined with my severely entrenched anxiety disorder have triggered two psychotic episodes during the last 16 years) and AvPD (Avoidant Personality Disorder). I was incorrectly diagnosed for well over ten years, and it is only since 2011 and being under the care of a new Community Mental Health Team and psychiatrist that my entire mental health diagnoses were completely revised. Unfortunately the care I had received under my previous psychiatrist in the city I lived in before moving here I can now see in hindsight was substandard, and this lead to my mental health deteriorating.

As a result of my new psychiatrist thoroughly revising that I was diagnosed with Purely Obsessional OCD. A lot of the thoughts I had frightened me, and I found it hard to describe what was going on to my psychiatrist and psychologist. I thought if I told other people that I had these terrible fears of losing control (for example, feeling that I was going to throw a drink over someone, or push a stranger over in a queue) that these thoughts would be misconstrued and I would be viewed as a dangerous person. These symptoms form only part of my OCD, but I was relieved when it was explained that this was driven by the anxiety of my obsessions.

I am into my second year of psychoanalysis and this has been a great help to me. Also my medications have been changed completely and I now have at least a little quality of life now.

I hope I haven't replied in the wrong way, as it is my first post. A friend pointed me to this forum as I was looking for a place to share and read thoughts and opinions that would result in a positive experience.

Thanks again for that informative post. Best, Miffytherabbit ^_^.

Thank you for this post. I'm glad I learned to read in english with videogames and movies so I could read this thread.

I have been having a fit of hocd lately, like a week ago, problem is, i started feeling nubmness of thoughts. They are still there, but i started feeling numb out of a sudden. what could it be? i had like a week of bad sleeping and constant checking.