After suffering from the symptons below for as long as I can remember I finally decided to tell my parents. I don't think it is as bad as people say it is but everyone's different and it also depends on how you take it. I really believe if I didn't have OCD my life would be very different than it is now as I wouldn't even be typing this or know what MyBB or a forum is. And OCD isn't something you obtain over night you are born with it and it's kinda rude to say you have it because you cleaning your room often doesn't even touch what I go through. But I'm currently not taking any medication or plan too.
After reading a post on Y! Answers I found these symptons:
People with OCD are constantly trying to get away from the anxiety. To do so, they perform compulsions. Compulsions are repetitive behaviours or thoughts done to make their obsessions go away, but it is only a temporary fix. The obsessions always return, but without a better way to cope, the compulsions are a temporary escape from the anxiety. Some compulsions may include:
- Frequent hand washing.
- Avoiding situations that may trigger the obsessions.
- Praying to prevent harm from coming to yourself or others.
- Telling, asking or confessing, to get reassurance.
- Hoarding (collecting items, causing a big clutter in your home).
- Rereading or rewriting.
I went to a therapist today to find out I do have OCD.
At least you've got yourself properly diagnosed and have acknowledged the fact you have the condition. There are a lot of people out there who go about with OCD without ever having it diagnosed. It also seems like you only have a mild form of it, which is good. I remember watching a documentary a few years back about people with a severe onset of the condition and they found it very difficult to cope with everyday life even with medication.
It's funny you mention this because I was diagnosed about 2 years ago with OCD. I'm one of the unlucky ones that have it bad. I was not only diagnosed with OCD but I was also classified with Tourettes Syndrome. With this I have many problems that make me unable to work most jobs.
My symptoms include:
- Vocal Tics (Stuttering)
- Motor Tics
- OCD
- Facial Tics
The motor tics have caused me permanent damage to some of my body over the years. A motor tic makes it so I keep moving one part of my body over and over again, which makes me unable to stop. A perfect example of this is when I hold a mouse I keep twisting my wrist to the point where my arm becomes stiff and hurts for days on end.
Over the years I've overcome most of these problems though. I'm now under the proper medication so I can control my motor and facial tics. The vocal tics won't go away that easy though, so I'm stuck with the fact that I won't ever be able to speak a clear sentence without repeating a word once or twice.
Just keep thinking positive as the OCD could become a good thing. My OCD keeps my house completely organized and clean because I can't stand even the smallest spec of dust.
I was recently researching this and I am 99% sure I have OCD too. I wasn't diagnosed by a doctor, nor have I even told anyone about it, but I have most if not all the symptoms. For one, I am extremely obsessed with keeping things clean and organized. This includes my room, my computer desk, the files in my computer, my desk at school, etc. I like to follow every single coding best practice and keep my code as clean and readable as possible. I put school books in my bag in order of size. Basically, in my world, everything must be perfectly aligned and symmetrical.
I stutter all the time (especially when I'm starting a sentence). I blink a lot. I'm super competitive. I never throw anything away. When listening to music alone, I move my eyeballs, eyebrows or mouth accordingly as if I was playing an instrument (
like this girl). I always follow the same pattern when brushing my teeth, showering or shaving. I bite the insides of my mouth until I reach a point when it starts to bleed - especially during tests. This is how I found out about OCD. I was tired of doing it and thought about running a search on Google to see how I could stop it (still working on that). I've had similar habits, such as chewing my fingers and nails.
The list goes on. To be honest, I would have never thought these things were associated with a disease. It all seemed perfectly normal to me, until I found out about OCD and read some of the symptoms. I started connecting things and it kinda makes sense now. I see no harm in any of these things, but still, should I tell anyone about this? Get a confirmation from a doctor or something?
@Fabio
I would tell some one. I don't see any point in actually going and getting a confirmation from a doctor unless it's really bad and you need meds.
Doctors tend to blow things out of proportion.
But then again I don't have OCD or anything so I could be way off base here.
(2012-06-04, 07:49 PM)Fábio Maia Wrote: [ -> ]I was recently researching this and I am 99% sure I have OCD too. I wasn't diagnosed by a doctor, nor have I even told anyone about it, but I have most if not all the symptoms. For one, I am extremely obsessed with keeping things clean and organized. This includes my room, my computer desk, the files in my computer, my desk at school, etc. I like to follow every single coding best practice and keep my code as clean and readable as possible. I put school books in my bag in order of size. Basically, in my world, everything must be perfectly aligned and symmetrical.
I stutter all the time (especially when I'm starting a sentence). I blink a lot. I'm super competitive. I never throw anything away. When listening to music alone, I move my eyeballs, eyebrows or mouth accordingly as if I was playing an instrument (like this girl). I always follow the same pattern when brushing my teeth, showering or shaving. I bite the insides of my mouth until I reach a point when it starts to bleed - especially during tests. This is how I found out about OCD. I was tired of doing it and thought about running a search on Google to see how I could stop it (still working on that). I've had similar habits, such as chewing my fingers and nails.
The list goes on. To be honest, I would have never thought these things were associated with a disease. It all seemed perfectly normal to me, until I found out about OCD and read some of the symptoms. I started connecting things and it kinda makes sense now. I see no harm in any of these things, but still, should I tell anyone about this? Get a confirmation from a doctor or something?
I don't think that's OCD but maybe perfectionism or paranoia. If you do have OCD it's below mild.
OCD is like depression; many people have it, but if it's bad enough it's life threatening.
A lot of people mistakenly believe they have OCD when they don't, they're just perfectionists. Serious OCD can lead to things like attempted suicide if you can not complete the task you're obsessing about. My sister used to take up to 3 hours to get home from college, if she stepped on a crack she'd walk back to college and start again (the walk home). She has also taken 40+ anti-psychotic pills of strong dosage at one time in an attempted overdose because the light she wanted to flick on and off an even amount of time wasn't working. Luckily she's been treated for her OCD and it's no where near as bad as it was.
I don't consider people obsessing about cleanliness OCD sufferers unless they really obsess to the point where it can become life threatening if things around them aren't clean. It's not until you meet real OCD sufferers that you realise how bad it can be. If any of you have watched the episode of scrubs where the doctor has OCD, imagine than 24/7, knowing you're obsessing about it but not being able to do anything about it and going crazy if you don't complete the task.
If any of you have read this and thought "I do that" or "I'm like that" then go to the doctor. It's not something you want to live with or can live with happily unless treated. I don't believe that OCD can be a good thing in any circumstance as someone posted above. Just keeping your house clean because it annoys you if it is not isn't OCD in my opinion.
(2012-06-04, 07:49 PM)Fábio Maia Wrote: [ -> ]I was recently researching this and I am 99% sure I have OCD too. I wasn't diagnosed by a doctor, nor have I even told anyone about it, but I have most if not all the symptoms. For one, I am extremely obsessed with keeping things clean and organized. This includes my room, my computer desk, the files in my computer, my desk at school, etc. I like to follow every single coding best practice and keep my code as clean and readable as possible. I put school books in my bag in order of size. Basically, in my world, everything must be perfectly aligned and symmetrical.
I stutter all the time (especially when I'm starting a sentence). I blink a lot. I'm super competitive. I never throw anything away. When listening to music alone, I move my eyeballs, eyebrows or mouth accordingly as if I was playing an instrument (like this girl). I always follow the same pattern when brushing my teeth, showering or shaving. I bite the insides of my mouth until I reach a point when it starts to bleed - especially during tests. This is how I found out about OCD. I was tired of doing it and thought about running a search on Google to see how I could stop it (still working on that). I've had similar habits, such as chewing my fingers and nails.
The list goes on. To be honest, I would have never thought these things were associated with a disease. It all seemed perfectly normal to me, until I found out about OCD and read some of the symptoms. I started connecting things and it kinda makes sense now. I see no harm in any of these things, but still, should I tell anyone about this? Get a confirmation from a doctor or something?
I bite the inside of my mouth until it starts to bleed too, but not on purpose. Only when I'm concentrating/confused.
(2012-06-04, 08:52 PM)Anxiety Wrote: [ -> ]OCD is like depression; many people have it, but if it's bad enough it's life threatening.
A lot of people mistakenly believe they have OCD when they don't, they're just perfectionists. Serious OCD can lead to things like attempted suicide if you can not complete the task you're obsessing about. My sister used to take up to 3 hours to get home from college, if she stepped on a crack she'd walk back to college and start again (the walk home). She has also taken 40+ anti-psychotic pills of strong dosage at one time in an attempted overdose because the light she wanted to flick on and off an even amount of time wasn't working. Luckily she's been treated for her OCD and it's no where near as bad as it was.
I don't consider people obsessing about cleanliness OCD sufferers unless they really obsess to the point where it can become life threatening if things around them aren't clean. It's not until you meet real OCD sufferers that you realise how bad it can be. If any of you have watched the episode of scrubs where the doctor has OCD, imagine than 24/7, knowing you're obsessing about it but not being able to do anything about it and going crazy if you don't complete the task.
If any of you have read this and thought "I do that" or "I'm like that" then go to the doctor. It's not something you want to live with or can live with happily unless treated. I don't believe that OCD can be a good thing in any circumstance as someone posted above. Just keeping your house clean because it annoys you if it is not isn't OCD in my opinion.
There are different types of OCD, perfectionist can be one of them. Not all people with OCD will want to commit suicide, but there are some that do obsess over cleaning, being clean, being away from dirt, dust and other things that are unclean. All I got from what you said is the fact that you compare the OCD of one person to the entire gallery. I'm sure she had it bad, but there are people who have different forms.
Mine isn't as serious as the woman you explained, but I have it bad. I wake up every morning and I have to repeat the same routine of checking behind my bed, under my bed, in my closet, in each draw, in every cabinet in my apartment, every small crack I can get to for a single bug, spec of dust, or anything that I can clean. I do this once I wake up and once before I go to sleep, it's just something I can't prevent and I go insane if I don't do it. This is why I take medication in order to calm myself. The medication makes it so I feel tired and relaxed most of the time so I don't have to do the routine, hell I still do it but not to the extreme.
I also have physically and mentally. Physically I'm always washing my hands, about 30 times a day sometimes more. It gets to the point where my hands dry out and I have to overload on hand lotion, then the feeling of the lotion bothers me. Mentally I can't stand the site of any sort of bug. If I see a bug I freak out and go overboard with killing it. I live in an area where spiders are very common and they freak me out the most. I go overboard to kill them sometimes by throwing a hot boiling pot of water at them.
Basically what I'm getting at is that not all people have OCD that causes depression. Hell mine sometimes makes me happy. I like coming home to a clean apartment that is absolutely spotless. I love the fact that I'm always organized even though it's due to my OCD. Then there are some angry moments when I can't stop doing my routine, or I'm being over organized. It all depends on the individual who has OCD.
I never once said that those who don't want to kill themselves afterwards don't have it, I'm just saying many many people think they have it because they're perfectionists or really clean. They are just traits in your personality - not a diagnosed disorder. From reading your post it's quite obvious to see you have bad OCD and I'm sure it's incredibly frustrating.
But yeah, all my point was is that I come across so many people online and in real life who claim they have OCD. Obviously there is mild forms of OCD, but where is the line between a disorder and just being a perfectionist/qwerky?