What is OCD like?

Question

I know it's not just being obsessed with cleaning, obviously. Since I was a kid, I've had little ...games?...in my mind. If I'm in a car, I blink/roll my eyes or pop my ears a consistent number of times between landmarks (telephone poles, street signs, guard rails, etc). I do think like this a lot but not necessarily daily. I've never considered talking to anyone about it because it has never hurt me, but it is weird if I were to explain it to someone or if someone catches me. What is OCD like for you or anyone you know?

Answer

We all have occasional instrusive thoughts/compulsions, usually when under stress (often though not consciously aware of it). The difference between "normal" intrusions/compulsions and actual OCD is the degree to which it affects your life. A person with OCD will have a very hard time relaxing before the compulsion is ecexuted. Also, untreated OCD tends to get worse over time, meaning the intrusions/compulsions become more in number and intensity. That usually results in a withdrawal of the person that can get as bad as total isolation.

Answer

OCD is horrible. It can take over your life in awful ways. I’m a hairdresser and if I folded a towel one centimeter off, I wouldn’t be able to relax or fall asleep until 3 or 4am. I would go right in and fix it when I started my shift. I’m also beyond terrified of being late. I set 10-15 alarms every day. They are all 15 minutes apart. I triple and quadruple check appliances and the stove before I leave the house. I have obsessions that make me do research deep into the early morning hours. I can’t stop when I want or need to because it’s compulsive. I have obsessive and intrusive thoughts that won’t go away. Sometimes they are of scary things or of my phobias. No matter how hard I try, my mind won’t stop them. I’ll get into cleaning moods where nothing is clean enough. I have germophobia and emetephobia and my OCD plays a major part in those. As I sit here and type this, I believe I’ve misspelled both of those phobias and I’m fighting the intense urge to look them up and make sure they are correct. I have panic attacks if some of my more in-grained rituals are messed up. There was a time in my life I couldn’t throw things away and was hoarding (Yes. This is a form of OCD. Look it up). All in all, it’s awful.

What is OCD like?

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