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What truly constitutes OCD?
- Thread starter angelsfire84
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It looks like you may have erased your original message. I'll try to answer based on the title though.
It can sometimes be hard to assess yourself and determine when you are being obsessive compulsive and when you are not. For someone from the outside who understands OCD, however, it's usually pretty easy to tell. If someone has racing thoughts that are greatly disturbing them, then OCD is present.
When you're in the midst of an obsession, you may think "Well, yeah, I'm worried, but that may be because this is something I should really be worried about!" But in my experience, that is usually an indicator that you are having an obsessive compulsive episode. At that point, you pretty much need to just work on managing your OCD. Whatever you are worried about can almost always wait until you can think clearly.
Hopefully that helps.
It can sometimes be hard to assess yourself and determine when you are being obsessive compulsive and when you are not. For someone from the outside who understands OCD, however, it's usually pretty easy to tell. If someone has racing thoughts that are greatly disturbing them, then OCD is present.
When you're in the midst of an obsession, you may think "Well, yeah, I'm worried, but that may be because this is something I should really be worried about!" But in my experience, that is usually an indicator that you are having an obsessive compulsive episode. At that point, you pretty much need to just work on managing your OCD. Whatever you are worried about can almost always wait until you can think clearly.
Hopefully that helps.
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Oops, seems like I accidentally killed my own message. How the heck? Lol. I can't really remember what i wrote. I guess some of what i thought were my symptoms. I believe I might have OCD but I don't want to be one of those people who just says it because I say it for little things. So I was curious as to what truly constitutes OCD.
Thanks for the insight.
Thanks for the insight.
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Ah, I see. Yeah, OCD is classified as an anxiety disorder. It is characterized by someone having an "obsession" (which, medically, means you have a strong fear of something) and attempting to counter it with a "compulsion" (which, medically, means a thought, ritual, or action meant to try and relieve the anxiety caused by the obsession.)
An example would be somebody who has an OCD symptom related to the fear of germs. Someone may be afraid that touching the bottom of their shoe might cause them to get a terrible sickness. This would be the obsession. To counter this intense fear (and it is intense to those who feel it, regardless of how silly the fear is), they do what they imagine will prevent the feared outcome. In this case, the person might wash their hands ten times or until they no longer feel afraid that their hand has been contaminated by the bottom of their shoe.
That's just one example of a possible manifestation of OCD. There are many, many different ways it can manifest itself in someone's life. They all share a similarity though. They all involve a very intense, usually irrational fear of something, and some sort of thought or action they feel they need to perform to prevent their fears from becoming reality.
An example would be somebody who has an OCD symptom related to the fear of germs. Someone may be afraid that touching the bottom of their shoe might cause them to get a terrible sickness. This would be the obsession. To counter this intense fear (and it is intense to those who feel it, regardless of how silly the fear is), they do what they imagine will prevent the feared outcome. In this case, the person might wash their hands ten times or until they no longer feel afraid that their hand has been contaminated by the bottom of their shoe.
That's just one example of a possible manifestation of OCD. There are many, many different ways it can manifest itself in someone's life. They all share a similarity though. They all involve a very intense, usually irrational fear of something, and some sort of thought or action they feel they need to perform to prevent their fears from becoming reality.
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It does sound something similar to how I act with certain things... =/ Any way for me to actually know if I have it other than going to a psychologist?
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I don't know if it's OCD or just me being a perfectionists. For starters, I must have things in a certain order. Edges of objects must be facing a certain way. Colors must be coordinated. I must keep an 'even' number of specific items in order for it to feel complete.
I do weird things sometimes that I don't even understand. Like I'll close a drawer and feel compelled to open it and close it again, either once or a few times. It feels like an itch I must scratch. Or if I get my hands dirty, I must wash them twice or more because sometimes I think there's still dirt/germs hiding in some area I didn't get. I crack my knuckles frequently and I find it impossible to stop. Weird things like that. There's tons more but I don't wanna spam.
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