What People Don't Understand About OCD
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- Опубліковано 1 лип 2024
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▼ Timestamps ▼
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00:00 - Intro
00:28 - Reddit post #1
08:42 - Keys about compulsions
20:00 - Can people be obsessive over self-improvement?
27:32 - Treatments
36:34 - What else are you willing to do as a patient?
41:50 - The more rapid the benefit...
46:33 - How does ones life change if they get diagnosed with ADHD?
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All guests of Healthy Gamer are informed of the public, non-medical nature of the content and have expressly agreed to share their story.
I spent 8 years struggling alone with severe OCD. Finally broke down and went to a facility to check myself in. The intake person was so ignorant about OCD (kept saying that intrusive thoughts are "voices", which they aren't) that I ended up leaving without seeing anyone. Went to multiple therapists who had no clue how to help me. Ended up in the hospital multiple times for SI, was told by one ER doctor that I was "wasting his time" and threatened to have me strapped to the bed (I left against medical advice, hasn't said anything that could let them hold me). It took months in crisis before I found a therapist who specialized in OCD and could finally help me. Just goes to show you even most HEALTH PROFESSIONALS don't understand OCD. But good news is that you CAN get to a place that's good, it takes a lot of hard work through treatment but it's possible. Meditation and mindfulness saved my life.
nice hear. ERP is really though then you learn to do it your own
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My heart goes out to you. Yes, there are lots of harmful therapists. HOnestly very harmful. Ive even affected last 3 yrs from therapist that set me back so far back. It has impacted the way I’m able to handle a situation that I have currently in my life. Im trying again in hopes that I will find someone better this time. But it’s taken this length of time to muster up the courage to seek someone else out, and only bc of an immediate situation currently happening.
Some months ago I went to my doctor to ask for treatment for my OCD that has been getting worse lately, plus a pair of other unrelated things (stuff like my ankle hurts, but also worse stuff), and she agreed to send me to treat the OCD, but completely refused to check my other issues no matter what I said, because according to her "it's all due to my OCD". Because, apparently, OCD makes you see blood and stuff like that, you know... When I confronted her and asked what the f*** she was talking about, she wasn't able to give me an answer. My psychiatrist agreed with me that the GP was talking nonsense, but that the only thing I could do was to switch to another GP, which I did.
It was a pretty bad experience to be treated like that by somebody who should be there to help me and should know better (even if she isn't an expert on OCD), and I can't even start to imagine what it would be to have an experience like yours where you struggled to even get proper treatment for the OCD, it's just disheartening, I'm glad at least you eventually got the help you needed.
Same thing with autism. I'm happy that you finally got good help. 🙏
I never realised how validating It can feel to hear someone voice correctly what OCD actually is. And knowing that many people who won’t know will see this and now have better understanding.
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Just a note here: obsessions can be about anything. Many people talk about 'themes'. Which is fine. But under the hood it's all the same mechanism. The topics are just different. A good therapist will tell you to drop the topic and work with the underlying mechanism: extreme intolerance and sensitivity to uncertainty, which causes your limbic system to think there is danger and sound the alarm.
Your limbic system then communicates about this impending danger with you via: thoughts, feelings and physical sensations. It's just trying to get you to avoid something (thanks brain haha).
I was diagnosed with OCD years ago after I was in a really bad place. A stressful period of my life lead to terrifying obsessions about suicide ("what if I get a depression and kill myself?") and existentialism. I had panic attacks that lasted for days. Couldn't go to work and it felt real. I have never been so scared in my life.
Looking back I've had it all my life. But I thought it was normal.
What helped me was learning the game OCD plays, through therapy (ERP and ACT) and through the right resources:
- Your Are Not A Rock (By Mark Freeman)
- The Happiness Trap (Russ Harris)
- Man's Search For Meaning (Viktor Frankl)
- Help & Hope for your Nerves (Claire Weekes)
- Wherever your go, there your are (Jon Kabat Zinn)
Get therapy, or at least read these books if you're struggling.
I got way too hopeful that there's a therapeutic game called "OCD Plays" before my brain clicked & I correctly interpreted your syntax with those words as a clause-ender instead of a first-list-item lmao
Ty for this list of books & for the practical advice!
OCD gave me the worst years of my life. I'm so blessed that therapy helped and I no longer have to live like that.
Praise God!! Congratulations on your healing
@@bekkahboodles thank you so much!! Sending you love ❤️
I'm sorry it was so rough and glad treatment was effective. Between therapy and meds most of my symptoms are under control, intrusive thoughts are still the worst though.
if you don’t mind my asking, what was the best treatment for you and how difficult was it to go through? My new gf has been afraid to start treatment back up because the behavioral aspects of the therapy are basically confronting all the worst fears, which is definitely understandable. One example of her obsession is reading things thoroughly, which takes a long time, so she has a whole box of papers to read but doesn’t want to dedicate the time to going through it and she has horrible fears about them being lost in a fire or something.
The worst years of mine were created by school tbh. But my condition ended up worsening during that period too.
My gf has OCD. Videos like this help me understand her and hopefully let me be more empathetic.
I do and my girlfriend finds it annoying and inconvenient, tells me as such. Pretty mean about it sometimes.
Doesn’t even help me with being neat about some of my ticks.
That's very nice of you
@@crimecrimson9153 I'm super sorry to hear that. You definitely don't deserve to be treated like that. If she doesn't work on her empathy then she's not good for you. You deserve to be with someone who tries to understand you.
G’job mate, hope you both do well
@@crimecrimson9153 what do you mean with being neat about your tics?
Hey, shout out to Dr K's team for listening to the audience and doing away with the jerky jumpcuts. The smoother longform style is so much more enjoyable. You guys rule
Yeah, Dr K has a very natural charisma to his voice and rhythm!
Great to see that the hivemind did my job of reporting it for me
HA! I've got an idea! Dr. K should just go into sponsorblock and put that as the highlight. If you, for some reason just want the highlight right now, you can do it, and it's not annoying to us Granted, most people don't use sponsorblock, and the mobile people can't, but it's better than annoying the rest of us.
Dm👆👆🍄
Did someone also tell him to look at the camera? Because that shit is making me uncomfortable :D
My childhood was hell because of OCD. I suffered alone - I didn’t tell anyone
I'm sorry to hear that how are you rn
my entire life till i was 18 was hell because of ocd and also due to a large part of not knowing what the hell i was suffering from all this time... but i am grateful that i can now understand and grow
When you have OCD, even if a therapist says you have OCD, your mind puts doubt into your mind if it's truly OCD. That's the craziest thing. It's truly a terrible mental issue.
Then u convince urself that ur lying and that ur just a bad person
Exactly. I was just told that I have OCD by a psychiatrist and immediately started doubting it even though I was expecting this exact diagnosis. I was like "how can I be *sure* it's OCD and not something else" and then I was like "oh..."
The stereotype around OCD is so goddamn aggravating. I hate hearing or seeing people say they have OCD just because they enjoy being organized. You have absolutely NO IDEA what kind of hell OCD actually is.
The other day someone in YT comments said they would be happy if they had it because it would help them be more organized😒😑🙄
Can you help me understand your pov? I believe I have OCD, but a low-level compulsion type, I also enjoy being organised (e.g. all rubbish I don't immediately throw in the bin I will fold neatly, My watch and chain go in a neat organised pattern every night and I am rigorous in all my routines) I do not feel safe or right if I don't do these certain things, and I also I get unwanted weird thoughts. But I wouldn't say this is "hell" to any extent, for me it's very manageable, just a bit 'weird' from other people's perspective. I believe OCD isn't hell for everyone, unless this is a symptom of my anxiety and not OCD I have.
It seems like an irrational hate. I don’t think people have as much ire when others claim to be depressed in a colloquial sense. No, they’re not officially diagnosed, but we typically get the sentiment.
And I hate hearing or seeing people who are ignorant and don't understand OCD has levels of severity and for the non-severe cases does not turn life into hell.
I mean, gatekeeping a disorder? Seriously?
I agree. I wouldn’t wish what I went through on anyone.
I had OCD for fifteen years (don't have it anymore, had a breakthrough three years ago), and it was a really rare subtype of OCD called emotional contamination, which is apparently so uncommon that it's frequently misdiagnosed as psychosis. Basically I believed that my personality was going to be invaded and consumed by the emotions and psychological characteristics of people I didn't like (the people that triggered it were all my close family members, all of whom were abusive), and what I remember most about going to therapy for it as a teenager was how blindingly unhelpful every mental healthcare professional I spoke to was. First I was forced to take meds, which didn't work, then forced to do exposure-response therapy, which gave me massive anxiety attacks and made the OCD even worse. At no point did anyone bother to explain to me that subtypes of this illness even existed, or try to talk to me about what specifically I was so scared of in the first place.
My parents treated me terribly for it, and constantly shamed and guilted me for "being so mean to my grandma" who was the person that triggered me the most, like I was fucking choosing to feel terror and dread every time I stepped into her house or stood next to her, which was almost every damn day, for hours at a time. My dad triggered me pretty bad to, and the compulsions involved gave me some pretty serious hygiene problems (I won't get into what they were, just know they were gross, time-consuming, and humiliating) and they would all make me feel so terrible about it. Going to the dentist or orthodontist was actual torture and would cause panic attacks that would sometimes last two hours at a time, which I was always punished for. They constantly mentioned how bad I looked, how I was making their lives so hard (thanks guys, you wanna swap brains?), and how awful it was that I was "so fucked up". I was bullied so bad in middle school for it that I tried to off myself, everyone acted like I had chosen to be that way and blamed me for something that was totally beyond my control for a very long time. I felt so ashamed of having OCD I couldn't even admit to myself I had it for the longest time...
IN CONCLUSION to this stupid long comment, this illness does NOT fuck around, it can spiral out of control really fast, and people on the outside usually have no idea how it actually works, and tend to blame the people that suffer from for their own symptoms. I would have gotten over it a lot faster and suffered a lot less if my parents and teachers and hell even my therapist had been even a the tiniest bit understanding of how scared I was. Then I wouldn't have been so afraid to admit I was ill in the first place.
Did you finally get effective treatment, or did you just leave that environment?
@@Greenicegod Neither, actually. The environment itself changed. In the form of my grandma dying, my dad nearly dying and becoming a lot less of an asshole after he realized he was mortal, and my mom and I having knock-down drag-out screaming matches for so many years that she finally realized maybe something needed to change between us, and that I was not the problem (by some miracle, since I know its unusual for people with narcissistic tendencies to do this, I think several other people told her some things she didn't want to hear.) But what changed most was me. I started thinking about myself in a different way, and the shift in perspective made me realize the monster I had run away from for so long wasn't actually there. It was a fear based delusion. After that I just stopped avoiding my triggers. It scared me at first, and then after two months the anxiety was just gone.
Facing the triggers without the rituals for the first time is something else though. One of the scariest things I've ever done, even knowing I was being irrational. Doubt is one hell of a drug.
Thank you for writing this. Your life story and OCD symptoms are eerily similar to mine. Thankfully, my parents arent abusive, just ignorant. Most of the abuse that I got was from teachers or general bullying in middle school. Where I live, mental health is at best ignored and at worst stigmatized, so I got no professional help and my "diagnosis" was shy and weird kid. But as you said, preteen suicidality was the worst part of it. Fortunately, I did not have the balls to do it, except when I once asked my aunt for the knife, or when I just tried to run away as far away as I could because I was just fed up with everything.
Anyway, I knew for some time now that I had OCD, but I didnt know its a rare subtype. Everything now makes much more sense. All the people I grew to hate just because they didnt fit with my OCDs idea of myself. And that constant personality crisis that it brings is just unbearable.
Edit: Also as a politics nerd, war in Ukraine happening literally next door in my case, didnt help at all with my triggers. This + covid might have something to do with fact that I dropped out of college twice in last 3 years. I also might have ADHD, but thats hard to tell since OCD is much more obvious and intrusive
@@branislavcunta7763 Yeah, when I would get triggered and couldn't do the rituals right away, I would start to think that maybe what if some of my feelings weren't my own, and that I was psychologically becoming the other person. That I had been "infected" by someone else's emotions. It wasn't true, of course, but I was scared of what would happen if, by some impossible chance, it was. The thing that helped me most was learning that the OCD and my ego were essentially the same, and that even if I felt terrified it didn't mean anything was actually happening to me. The experience of the fear was real, but the cause of the fear was a lie.
And I feel ya on the lack of mental health care. I live in Texas, which somehow (I don't know how, but I'm not making this up) ranks 51st out of all 50 states for mental health care availability. Insurance never covers it, it's always insanely expensive, and there are almost no actual therapists even in the big cities like where I live. Not as bad as living next to a war though. I can't imagine what that would do to anyone with an anxiety based disorder. I don't talk about my OCD very often, so I'm glad I was able to help, even just a little.
@@justplainninja That is awesome, we're happy for you dude!
My ex gf has been diagnosed with OCPD, as well as a bunch of other disorders, i tried my best to try and help her, but ended up sacrificing myself for years. If you guys aren't happy, and feel like you're losing yourself, distanciating yourself from friends and people you like, don't be afraid to leave, it's not your responsibility to "fix" people.
I'd also say that even for the sake of the person with the disorder, it's better to deal with a broken heart and learn to cope with loneliness and other similar issues than it is to stay with people who will gradually resent you more and more but don't leave out of fear of being "the bad person"
My GF has OCD but this comment really implies on me sometimes as well. really hard sometimes
@@micheller3251 I was always very patient, and didn't really keep anger towards her, but ended up feeling like speding time with her instead of spending time alone was a chore, instead of pleasuring, and that's not very healthy, i'm sure you're aware lol
My ex also was suffering and I had my own anxiety control issues which just made things much worse. Arguments and more that just could not see a resolution because of her intrusive thoughts and my inability to let down my defensiveness during those times. I am much better now and hope she is too, but god damn that was tough
It wasn't your responsibility but you still chose to try so 🤷
having OCD is awful enough but one thing that I’ve struggled with is having almost everyone around me growing up not understand it and constantly belittle me and treat it like it’s not a real issue, all that stress and pressure only made my symptoms worse and the path to recovery is way harder now just because the people who were supposed to care for me chose to act like they already knew everything about me
I have OCD and the OPs post really resonated with my problems. It's a cycle of knowing my thoughts are irrational and then doing self-soothing techniques that actually makes my irrational thinking worse and I end up spiraling. I'm very anxious all the time but I try not to let it affect anyone but myself.
If you have someone you can talk with about it, I would highly recommend. My gf finds some relief in being able to talk with me about it. Not relief of the OCD itself but the stress related to it and having the outlet to talk with someone who can try to empathize.
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The part about ADHD and OCD made me cry...I struggle so bad. I was recently diagnosed with ADHD, but thought maybe I picked up OCD tendencies from being diagnosed for so long. I get so frustrated with myself, especially with planning and lists. Or just doing things in general.
I have real event OCD - it’s literally the most awful shit ever, wouldn’t wish it upon anyone
As someone who's been a long time watcher of this channel, I feel strangely excited and optimistic to see this video pop up on my feed. I was diagnosed with OCD at the age of 15 and now at the age of 30, I can confirm that my experiences of living with such a condition can and has been a living hell for me. I can't unstate how debilitating and anxiety inducing it can be while preforming what are seemingly mundane tasks for others when your mind tells you that you need to act in a certain way otherwise something truly terrible will happen. It's like living in a constant state of fear when the consistant pattern of thoughts arise continuously. I count myself fortunate that I'm now in a much better place mentality but it's very much still an ongoing battle within my mind as far as my compulsions are concerned.
I just wanted to take this time to say thank you to Dr K, the team and the rest of the community at Healthy Gamer for helping me better understand and relate to others over the past two years. Keep doing what you guys do! .
Yeah, it never goes away. You can manage it if you're being very deliberate but if you aren't careful and extremely self aware it will sneakily manifest itself in a different way. And you won't notice until it gets powerful again. For example my religious fixation slowly turned into me always thinking any pain I have means a serious medical problem. I thought I had beat it but didn't notice it manifested somewhere else
I was also happy to see this video but I wish there was more information about treatment. It switched over to adhd and its treatment and I hoped it was just a tangent, not the whole rest of the video
@@ayoo_wassup SSRIs made mine go away completely.
I wasn't diagnosed with OCD for so long because I didn't know that mental compulsions were a thing...and also devoting as much mental energy as I was to my obsessions/compulsions was not the way most people lead their lives. And yeah, I could definitely relate to not wanting to admit some of the things that would go through my head, mostly violent stuff. There's a real fear that people will think you're deeply disturbed and possibly a danger to others if you say what's going on in your head...I really feel for people who have pedophilia-themed OCD. I've spent much of my life just thinking I was just a bad person, that there was a monster within me that would one day just break loose and wreak havoc. I feel like a ticking time bomb. The loss of certainty and loss of control is petrifying.
I suffer from ocd and sometimes it feels like you don't have control over your brain and your body.
I can't just stop, it's like an infinite loop and the more you try to resist, the worst it gets
Thank you Dr K i was waiting for a video on this topic
From my experience it’s an intoxicating feeling where you find yourself in a trance-like state. In this trance I become a completely different and irrational individual and become obsessed with my mental pain, which makes it worse.
Yeah it fucking sucks , especially when intrusive thoughts start to chaining themselves up into a pile of vile cluster-fuck.
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I feel like OCD can present in all aspects of life. Many patients with eating disorders, body dysmorphia, scrupulosity... It seems to me that they likely share a neuropathway that presents in different phenotypical ways. DSM calls them different things but it is important to understand the internal workings of patient's presentations instead of just behaviors and visible signs.
I have OCD and I've said time and again that OCD and eating disorders share so many similarities it's insane. I'm subscribed to a few recovered people because their stories are very relatable to me, despite never having suffered an ED. They're some of the few people who I feel understand or somewhat share this mindset.
Yes I think that I probably have some sub clinical ocd traits, and I believe they were pathways that were created or reenforced by my upbringing. As a kid raised in fundamental religion, I was incredibly paranoid and compulsive with my religious habits. Having to pray specific ways at specific times because I was told that we are evil sinners and that we could be damned to hell at any moment. I would have rituals I would preform to assuage my paranoid thoughts. This sounds like stereotypical OCD, but it mellowed out significantly around puberty (the opposite of what typically happens to people diagnosed with OCD,) but the pathways in my brain were still there I begin to struggle immensely with disordered eating habits. The reason I know it’s not OCD is because they weren’t completely outside of my control, and today it’s not a significant detriment to my daily function. I believe I don’t have the “genetics” for OCD, but early religious experiences created the pathway for thought policing, superstition, deep seeded guilt and fear, devotion to rituals and other compulsive habits. Idk if anyone else had a similar experience?
@@haileys5224 it sounds a lot like scrupulosity. This is pretty common and I feel like under recognized.
Totally can see this in my life. I've been diagnosed with GAD, OCD, excoriation disorder (skin picking), and have struggled with disordered eating, body dysmorphia, and gender dysphoria. It's gotten easier with therapy and meds, but when my mental health is bad I notice my brain gets *so* fixed on my compulsions and intrusive thoughts that everything falls to the way side.
If you read the DSM you would see that we have a very good grasp of how such disorders are intertwined in both understood causes/pathways and Tx (BDD is even in the same section as OCD and listed as a related disorder).
I have OCD and ADHD and I've honestly never felt more validated hearing something. Where I live mental healthcare is very poor and even some doctors when asked for help will respond with, "Well, have you tried not doing it?"
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my ocd is so overwhelming that i will zone out for multiple times a day to think out a scenario or i will search feverously through google for answers to questions that are consuming me and lots of other things. I always told people that i cant stop thinking, i feel like i never get a break, and i always feel like im running at max stress, and no one could ever give me any sort of secret wisdom i was looking for when i would tell them these things that i was hoping they would have so that it could magically "fix" me. Ive gotten deseperate over the past 2 years trying to figure out what was wrong with me sitting in my room, rotting away, playing video games all day, smoking weed. Then i finally figured out that i have ocd and that it can actually be treated! This thing that has been plaguing my mind since i was a kid and could never get anyone to understand, youre telling me theres TREATMENT for that. I'm going to get diagnosed tomorrow and will begin treatment asap after that. wish me luck.
How are u now? Did u get medication? If so does it help relief from the ocd completely?
I relate to the obsessive thoughts part soooo hard. To the point I even have a formal diagnosis. My brain keeps going places I don't want to go, and it's really unpleasant.
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Same, i dont have an official diagnosis but i fit most of the symptoms. I hate it so much my intrusive thoughts got worse each day to an extent of mental exhaustion. My mind basically doesn't have a rest due to these persistent taboo thoughts that i have. I really wanted to get some help but mental health is very stigmatize in here which is why i cant seek help
@@argo8276 (edit: I now have been diagnosed with OCD) Yeah I don't have a diagnosis for OCD but I fit a lot of the symptoms too, so right now I can't say that I have it but when I was younger I used to have to touch things an even amount of times (from numbers 2 to 10) and I still do that but only with certain things now. I also have to wash my hands until they feel immaculately clean, so eating greasy things like pizza takes around an hour or more to feel like it's off my hands and the towel gets saturated with water and then I had unwanted thoughts that always feel like I was a psychopath or a really bad person and I knew something was wrong with me, and then there's also things I experience like walking in circles or certain paths, getting lost in thought, checking where I'm supposed to go/grab something because I deny that I heard it right and I think I'm forgetting something else but I don't have to really organize anything really
I haven't told my family because they joke about me being germophobic when I literally can't eat a piece of food that just feel on the floor
I don't know what to do at this point but I live in hell with these problems
Same, I hope you heal from it ❤️ it gets better
Thank you Dr. K! The part where you said that not all compulsions were physical behaviours was so validating. I used to have compulsive behaviours that got me made fun of a lot growing up so I turned the behaviours inward and they became thought rituals instead. People thought my OCD went away but I'm still tormented by unwanted and inappropriate thoughts, I just don't show it.
I developed a dissociative disorder (DPDR) due to recent trauma and panic attacks; now my OCD makes me ‘check in’ to see if I’m still disassociated or not. I’ll frequently ask people if I’m being ‘weird’ or if I’m okay, because I just need that reassurance.
Same story
Same. Probably a lot of us out there since pandemic. How does one even untangle it?
I have OCD and ADHD (as well as a myriad of other mental health disorders) and I've struggled for YEARS. I'm also autistic so that's just icing on the cake for me. I can't even leave my house or be around people without having massive anxiety from my compulsive thoughts. I have the type of OCD that you can't see outwardly but if people knew what happened inside of my head and what I thought 24/7 then they'd probably be mortified. It absolutely irks me when people joke about having OCD because they like their things organised because OCD is SO debilitating from my experience with the disorder. I really wish people understood more about the disorder and weren't so dismissive of it and stereotyped it so much. So thank you so much for holding this segment and making a genuine attempt to educate and inform others. I try my best to educate others about the disorders that I have and the things that I experience because I want people to UNDERSTAND. I JUST want understanding from people and I have no idea why that's so hard to get >//
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I hate how OCD is seen as being a clean freak because when you have OCD and ADHD your room is a mess all the freaking time and I don’t want to throw out anything because what if I need that empty water bottle 😭
This was so helpful for empathizing with those who are affected by OCD.
As someone with OCD, thank you for caring
This has helped me understand a lot about myself, OCD and ADHD. I have a lot to think about, and a lot more to research. Thank you for making mental health discussion so approachable
I’ve been waiting so long for an episode on OCD, the mental disorder I have. So excited to listen to this ❤
I'm diagnosed with OCD and I can relate. It has ruin my life in so many ways. I don't want to go into details because I don't want to trigger anyone, but it's real. I have not given up and I don't intend to. Finding help is extremely hard because not a lot of therapist that atleast I know specify on that, but I'm willing to calm this storm of OCD and manage it better. You guys got this!
You can totally do it, mine used to be a lot worse and it was a living nightmare. I still struggle but it's so much better, don't give up ❤️ God bless
I feel like this channel has incredible information, that is generally not talked about or understood by most people overall. Very interesting and helpful topics
This is honestly the best channel I've come across in a long long time. Thank you so much for this
I was waiting for a video on OCD made by you, Dr. K. Thank you! Contamination OCD has really ruined past years of my life but psychotherapy has helped a lot, and worked better for me than medication because I hated the side-effects since they also didn't let me function in the day!
It makes me extremely happy to see this topic being discussed more on UA-cam. Great video Dr. k, I was happy to hear you mention how intrusive thoughts can be of a taboo nature, I mostly see people focusing on contamination and symmetry OCD. Also, a lot of videos I see on OCD completely fail to mention that sometimes OCD can be experienced entirely in someone's thoughts through mental compulsions (known in the OCD community as Pure O). Pure O can be particularly damaging because there is no way for anybody to tell you are suffering from OCD unless you seek help for yourself. Which often doesn't happen if the sufferer is experiencing intrusive thoughts of a taboo nature because those topics can be extremely uncomfortable to talk about with ANYONE. ERP and CBT are by far the most effective ways to treat OCD, but should definitely be done with the help from a licensed OCD specialist or therapist with experience treating OCD. I loved your comparison of OCPD and OCD by the way, you are doing this generation a great service Dr. k!
If anyone reading this is having a really rough time with OCD, just know that you are not alone my friend! Do your best to avoid compulsions, experience the anxiety of the intrusive thought and let it persist until it dies down on it's own. This will help you retrain your brain to flag those intrusive thoughts as non-threatening, so you will slowly start to feel less and less anxiety when they pop up. Until eventually you've shrunken that OCD monster down to the size of a grain of sand, and the intrusive thoughts no longer have any power over you. YOU CAN DO IT! Never give up!
The part about stimulant dependance was incredibly reassuring, thank you for clarifying the actual implications of dependance
LSD and mushrooms completely changed my whole outlook on life. I became a better version of myself
This experience gave me a lot of confidence about my self and my body. A bunch of bad thought / behavior patterns were broken. One of these was pretty bad OCD that made me wash my hands a lot. It gave me a lot of hope that things will be fine, this is the one thing that I heard throughout the trip: Everything is alright. The main reason for the trip was my severe depression and it definitely helped me (although it's not gone). Before all I could do was lay in bed. Now I am trying to rebuild my life one step at a time which wasn't possible before."
Psychedelics are the reason why i didn’t take my life when i was at my end. I was stripped of my ego and saw the beauty of life and interconnectivity and even though i still battle anxiety and depression, I’m doing better everyday and will never think in such a self destructive way again.
Psychedelic’s definitely have potential to deal with mental health symptoms like anxiety and depression, I would like to try them again but it’s just so hard to source here
@@zoeywinston6826 [_James_tray]
Got psychs
@@sarahh321 Where to search?? Is it IG?
@Kyle Russell Loved this. I battle from depression, anxiety & C-PTSD, I’ve heard shrooms cured depression. Wish doctors were more open to natural medicines over big pharma but we know why
This has been very comforting to hear talk about. Having grown up with untreated OCD, it's been unbelievably hard to even have a life. I often would beat myself up, mentally and sometimes physically, over simple things. I know that these ticks and obsessions are ridiculous and nonsensical, but some part of me deep down just compels me or makes me unhappy until I fulfill them. It makes it so hard to explain to people in my life to the point that many just think of me as weak or stupid. That it's just something you need to "get over" and then you'll be alright. Trust me, while it might possibly make you a bit smarter or more organized, I would rather take a normal life over this.
Thankfully I've gotten over alot of the worst parts over the years but it's still a battle I struggle with. Hearing other people's stories and discussion on the matter really helps and reminds me that there are indeed people who understand and care. Thanks for all you do Dr K.
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If you have a family history of OCD and kids around 10 years old please check in with them. The thoughts and compulsions can be so disturbing that their first impulse is to keep them secret. My heart breaks for my child self suffering alone with it. I learned to manage it on my own and later just thought it was a phase until joining the Navy where they ultimately diagnosed me because it was causing problems again
I'm so happy that more mental health conditions are getting covered, am hoping for more to come! Maybe I'll get to finally see FASD covered
For anyone struggling with this I suggest the book "brain lock"
I have this book too! Highly recommend
Yes helped me too
I'm buying this! Thank you 😊
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Thanks so much for what you do Dr K, your content is so valuable, you teach so well and help so many people, and help them feel heard. I'm hoping you'll do a talk like this on hoarding disorder some time.
A talk on hoarding would be amazing!
ty for doing this...so many ppl just say they have it and I find it annoying and insensitive. I myself do not have it but know ppl that do and it is awful and certainly not fun. Very informative!
Thank you for this video! It's very validating to hear about OCD when it's correct info (especially the point about compulsions not being exclusive to actions).
It's very important to know about that kinda stuff to get help sooner. When I was a teen, I didn't even know that OCD was a thing, I thought that those thoughts were my problem specifically, and it was soo hard to explain them to other people (I remember watching some anime in which a girl showed symptoms of OCD similar to mine, and it shocked me, lol).
I like videos like this that go into detail with the definitions of these diagnoses!! Very informative, thanks for sharing this knowledge!! ❤
Damn, everything you’re saying rn, actually constantly happens to me in a day, I constantly have intruisive thoughts about everything around me that I first felt really guilty about for having or thought it was just anxiety, but for the past years I’ve been studying filosophy arguments my self, and debating my own thoughts, mostly now they don’t make me feel guilty anymore.
8:00 one type you didn't quite mention is OCD regarding having accidentally harmed other people (so not OCD about doing it in the future). This type is really debilitating ,at least for me, examples include accidentally spreading diseases that I am unaware of having or believing to have caused a traffic accidents without noticing, despite no concrete reason to believe anything actually happened
i believe this falls under the general fear or harming others category, i would imagine this applies to direct and indirect
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Thank you so fucking much for making this video. I was diagnosed with OCD over a decade ago now, with severe obsessions and mild compulsions. Most people misunderstand or misinterpret what that means for me because I'm not super clean or rigid or controlling towards other people. It's most debilitating because of the guilt, self-doubt, and violent and sexual intrusive thoughts and needing to control myself, not others. Seriously, thank you, I hope many people watch this.
As someone with OCD and ADHD your description of their constructive interference is my lived experience. It can be incredibly exhausting to overcome mentally, but externally you would probably never know.
I think I have this, I know you can't self diagnose, but I think i definitely have this !! As a young teen....Good lord did it MESS ME UP!!! I fell into terrorising anxiety at times.
I was diagnosed with OCD about three years ago. I will not go in depth but my OCD got so bad that I literally could not stand up wothout doing a compulsion. I am better now, I can move, shower, eat, and do everything that I could not do before because of my thoughts and compulsions. I know it sounds extreme but that was my reality. I am a lot better now and that is what I want to emphasize. It does get better, you will not live with this forever. If I got out of it believe me that you can too. Even though my OCD is not completely gone, I am able to live my life in a nice and fulfilling way and you will be able to too. I believe in all of you
I was diagnosed with OCD 17 years ago, but I was struggling long before I knew the name of what I was going through. Thank you so much for bringing attention to what OCD really is. It can feel really irritating when someone says "I'm so OCD" when they don't know how debilitating and excruciating actual OCD can be. I'd love to see an even more in-depth video on this or maybe more interviews with people with OCD, especially the kind that is typically invisible to others. Anyway, thanks again for giving OCD some attention! :)
I just got diagnosed with OCD a few weeks ago! I'm so glad you made a video on it :)
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I remember when my ex-girlfriend first got diagnosed with OCD. We always thought it was just anxiety. It's interesting listening to Dr. K talk about it, cuz it's shining a new light on the whole situation, giving me information that I wish I had known then. It wasn't until she was aware that she had OCD that the compulsions started to come about. At first, I thought she was being dramatic, but over time I started to realize that she was being serious. Knowing now that compulsions are a reaction to the intrusive thoughts, not just "something that OCD people do," I realized that her being officially diagnosed with OCD helped her figure out that the compulsions could help calm her fear. Really interesting stuff.
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I read an abstract from a study that determined in some cases, the only obvious diagnostic difference between generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and OCD is that OCD presents with metacognition, or “thinking about thinking”. It’s one thing if you’re worrying about the future or the past or what have you, but when you start to think about your worrying and analyze your thoughts because you simply feel you have to, aka compulsively? Now you’re making strides into the territory of OCD with mental compulsions, or “Pure O” OCD. I used to think my OCD was mild because my outward compulsions are just that: mild. But my mental compulsions are far more severe.
I'm so glad you made a video on this thank you.
Wow, I’m so glad you spoke on this. I have been diagnosed with Body Dysmorphia and Compulsive Skin Picking which are definitely very OCD-like. Both of those conditions have significantly impacted my life in negative ways. Constant thoughts, googling, checking, buying products, hours in front of the mirror, constant frustration…
I would like to pursue more information / a possible OCD diagnosis too, since there are some things I do that have never fit into BDD or CSP. I often have intrusive thoughts about someone breaking into my house. When I am alone, I must check every corner of the house that I cannot see to make sure someone isn’t there. When someone else is there with me it’s not AS bad. I have intrusive taboo thoughts about sexual scenarios I do not want. I must always touch my laptop in a certain way when it’s in my backpack just to “make sure” it’s in there even though I know I’ve already put it in. That’s a new one now. I hate it. I’ll have to take my whole backpack off just to open it up and touch my laptop. I used to make wishes (repeat mantras) every day at 11:11 or I was convinced I would never succeed in XYZ thing I wanted to do. I thought it was manifestation but maybe it was just OCD.
A lot of those behaviors are extremely similar to me. I should consider looking into it
I admire the work that you're doing by educating us all on mental health disorders. Thanks, Dr. K!
Thank you so much for focusing on OCD. It’s considered one of the most debilitating disorders out there by the WHO and it has such a huge stigma. It can latch onto anything and recovery is often not an easy road
i love this mans stuff sm i wanna be a psychiatrist so bad. thank u for being such an inspiring person.
as someone with OCD and OCRDs, I really thank you for making this video and spreading correct information
Reassurance seeking was my most common compulsion when I was struggling to get diagnosed, but not knowing it was a compulsion, I couldn't convince professionals. Even though I thought I had OCD then, it was another 4 years before I was officially diagnosed.
Thank you so much for this video! I found your channel because of the ADHD content as I have ADHD but I also have OCD. I was only recently diagnosed because I suffer from taboo/harm obsessions and I was too afraid to tell a doctor about them as I had no idea it was a part of OCD I actually felt like I was just a horrible person and I would get in trouble.
I have OCD, would think and start excessively picking my skin whenever anxious, and when I try to stop, it creates more anxiety and more thoughts, which makes me want to pick my skin more and more. It's a self feeding endless process that i've struggled with a lot. There are days where I cant event touch anything with how my hand hurts so much and itches a lot. It truly is the most misunderstood disorder...
Is it still severe?
ha i just followed you yesterday and got diagnosed with OCD a few months ago. good timing!
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this was such a helpful explanation of ocpd, thank you. i was diagnosed with ocd a while back and they call it "just right" ocd so i do stupid shit like move things around on my desk for 2 hours when i'm stressed. i heard about ocpd shortly after my diagnosis and it sounded similar so i was always worried that was more accurate to me. i never asked about it though because i was embarrassed (lol). but this was a very unambiguous description of ocpd and it clarified the difference really well for me
Damn... Hearing Dr. K talking about medicine and psychiatry actually makes me want to study them both. It sounds so hard and challenging, but also so interesting. I would love him to talk more about how it is to be a psychiatrist, so people like me can learn if it's something that we actually want, or if we just like to listen to someone capable about it.
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You are so accurate when you describe ocd. I had this since I was born but I never knew that I had it. In my forties I found the ocd disorder. You are a true professional 👍
This is so validating 🥺 thank you! My obsession right now is about food and being poisoned. 😭 Trying to figure out how to relieve it
10:56 Thank you so much for pointing this part out. I was only diagnosed recently, but for so many years I never even thought to go get treatment because my patterns weren't visible. I've had tics since I was a kid, but because I never did it in front of other people I even thought to myself that I can obviously control them and I'm just doing it for attention, even though they were completely hidden away. I just kept telling myself that I don't have Tourettes and ignored the signs for many years.
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The treatment segment was all about adhd medication....? I wanted to hear about ocd treatment and it was kinda just brushed over
I think it was an incorrect media file edit. That segment was from a completely different show.
@@Chazzmatazz yeah they uploaded that video before. Maybe they thought it applied here too. Really annoying. My ex said there was some exposure therapy style treatment that worked really well for her OCD though. I know of multiple very young (elementary school aged) girls with OCD symptoms who recently got diagnosed too so i think it's common to develop it very young. I wish he'd mentioned that possibility too.
I second this, I thought I had deja vu lol. This seems like mis-edit, it's from a different video.
Prozac and cognitive behavioral therapy helped me.
@@VioletEmerald I started having symptoms in 1st or 2nd grade. I was obsessed with thoughts of going to hell because I would say swear words in my head.
You probably won't see this comment but I really love how compassionate and caring your videos are ❤ This one does not apply to me but another one did. And the way you explain these things makes people feel heard and understood which is something hard to come by when you have a mental illness. And for videos that don't apply to the person it really inspires sympathy and puts them in the persons shoes. The way you talk about it is very captivating too. Love your content ❤️
I had post infectious ocd and ptsd. THANK YOU for talking about this. I had ocd prior
as someone with severe health anxiety (& somatic symptoms) I would love to see a video talking about the differences between OCD and health anxiety because they can look so similar. and also it would be nice to see some awareness raised about SSD in general
This!!!!!!!!
As a therapist, your content is very very VERY useful. Thanks!
you have no idea how much just being able to relate means to me... that example of the notebook thing of doing a certain number of things first before opening the notebook was soo me throughout school life
I was very happy to have some extra information on OCD, as my new gf has it, but I wish there was a little more information about treatment for OCD instead of so much about ADHD. DBT seems to be the best treatment from what I’ve read and I’d love to have a good explanation with examples of DBT. I’d also like some information on how to support someone with OCD, both in and out of treatment, including things to avoid, like giving in to comfort seeking (I think that’s what it’s called).
The best treatment for ocd is Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP). "A concrete example of ERP Therapy in action would involve someone with OCD who has issues with germs. They might be asked to touch a toilet seat and then refrain from washing their hands."
It's CBT, Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy. The basic principle is Exposure-Reponse Prevention: they just expose you to whatever thing triggers your obsessions and then you sit in the doctor's office and don't do the compulsion, lol. It's every bit as brutal as it sounds. It's like if someone has a clinical phobia of snakes, so they bring in a snake-handler and just drape pythons all over the poor bastard.
The good news is that it's super effective, like electricity on a water pokemon, if you can make it through. The bad news is that tackling it is hard, and the doctors aren't going to do anything without the patient's consent, obviously. For many patients, it's incredibly daunting to even think about this. The doctors I've seen in the past will usually give you an inventory of all the things that trigger your OCD and they'll ask you to rate, on a subjective scale from 1-10, how strong your aversive response is to any given thing. Most people with OCD will have minor triggers that aren't 10s on the scale, and the goal will be start small and build your way up.
This is often supplemented with meds. The way that OCD meds work, speaking as a longtime patient, is very hit-or-miss and often pretty poorly. I've never smoked cigarettes, but based on things friends have told me, I think OCD meds are a lot like sucking on a nicotine lozenge while trying to quit smoking. It isn't a panacea and it probably won't really even do much other than take the edge off. It still sucks and you frankly might not be able to make it, even with the chemical assistance. When I was on meds, I still had obsessions with about the same frequency as without the meds; on the 1-10 scale, at most, it maybe knocked down some things from a 7 to a 5. The stuff that was a 10 remained a 10, even on meds. The stuff that was a 3 essentially remained a 3 -- it didn't get pushed down to 1 or 0 and just go away. This was my experience.
My biggest breakthrough came when, supported by meds, I did a direct assault on the top-end of my scale, shooting for something that was like a 9. I sat in the doctor's office for about 4 hours while I waited out the rollercoaster of disquietude that comes with not doing your ritual after an exposure. (My rituals are physical, so I guess it helps that I couldn't physically do them without getting up out of the chair I was sitting in. If I had the mental form of ritual, I don't think I would've had the discipline not to do it over such a long time.)
When you delay performing your rituals, how much it upsets you ebbs and flows over time. The doctor had me graph out, on a piece of paper, on a scale from 1 to 10, how upset I was at any given time over the course of the 4 hours. It was essentially a form of mindfulness exercise, which the doctor was into. It was very interesting to note how the chart unfolded over time. There were periods 2 hours in where my level was higher than at first exposure, but there were other times it dropped way off before rallying back. The best analogy I can give is if you've ever done intentional fasting, the hunger ebbs and flows in the same way. If you can just ride out the extreme pangs when it's strong, it actually fades away to near zero afterwards. So it is with OCD if you defer the compulsions.
At the end of 4 hours, I had surprisingly made some kind of breakthrough. The 9 that I started with was like a 3 -- manageable, conquerable, not that big a deal anymore. I quickly realized this was expandable to many other things, too. In what was effectively a single day, the back of my OCD was broken. (It didn't stay that way forever, but it was still an incredible day!)
One note about the meds used to treat OCD: many of them have very unpleasant side-effects, including erectile dysfunctional in males. This is one reason why many people try to get off the meds as soon as feasible -- which sometimes creates a window of opportunity for the OCD symptoms to creep back in. This was also my experience, at one point.
OCD really is a devil to treat and to keep in remission. Getting your first, big breakthrough is, at best, only half of the battle.
@@StochasticUniverse Thanks so much for the detailed response. I'm really hoping to get a good understanding of what my gf is going through and if she attempts treatment again, I'd like to be knowledgable of the process and how to support her through that, or at least know what's she's going through without her necessarily having to explain every piece of it to me when it may have been, either literally or figuratively, a traumatic experience for her. Your response was very helpful for me in getting to a place of better understanding. I appreciate you.
@@StochasticUniverse DBT (Dialectical Behavior Therapy) is it's own separate kind of therapy and can be used to treat OCD. As far as I understand it, it's about changing behavior through changing mindset and thought-process, which really does get to the root of the issue.
I've not had DBT myself but I've seen some of the materials someone who *did* have it received, and it seemed decent. Depending on how the OCD manifests, a combo of both DBT and CBT could be helpful.
The main point is that OCD manifests differently in different people so different treatments will be needed.
As someone who recently found out that I have OCD, thank you. I went undiagnosed for a long time because my symptoms didn't match up to what everyone said OCD was.
My gf had her first real issue with ocd when she was very young, about 10, obsessing about killings herself, even though she literally had no desire to do so. They missed her diagnosis there I can’t say for sure but I think it’s a real shame because she could have started treatment then and probably had a much better go of life for the past 20 years.
Link up ⬆️
@@BassticklerBoi I’m sorry she had to deal with that. I had spurts of issues growing up but they didn’t become consistent until my early twenties where I was misdiagnosed with GAD.
@@kacysspace Yeah, I felt terrible for her when she told me about that. Very sad. When she had a particularly bad episode, it was suggested that she may have BPD but it seems like that is an incredibly controversial diagnosis and from what I understand about it (very little), it doesn't seem like she falls in that camp.
Thanks Dr. K for this video! One thing I want to clarify as a patient learning for years from an OCD institute in Spain is that as far as I understand OCD is actually an anxiety disorder. Without anxiety/fear theres no OCD whatsoever. So the usually better path to go and try to heal oneself from OCD is a therapy in which they can reduce the anxiety of the patient. EPR but with another approach in which they look at the origins of the patients anxiety so it can be reduced, hence reducing the OCD.
this made me determined see a clinician :/ over the last few years i’ve had the terribly intrusive thoughts that I am allergic to all my favorite foods and that i’m going to die so i’ve stopped eating a bunch of food. i’ve become obsessed with reading ingredients lists and/or demanding people to tell me what’s in the food they are serving me. not knowing has made had really bad panic attacks :( figured it was something I could treat at home but it’s ruined my love for eating out. thank you for this. i didn’t even consider this might be ocd
My main ocd is about having ffi/sfi thanks for randomly bringing that up for no reason awesome glad I watched this video 👍
Captures OCD perfectly. Very well put.
its so easy for a thought to just get in my mind and then i latch onto it. then i will go and scour places like the internet to soothe me or even sometimes to prove myself right. quite the challenge to live with this.
I just got diagnosed with OCD this year. I've been in and out of therapy since I was 16 (I'm 31 now) and none of my previous therapists caught it because my version of OCD is very different from the stereotype. I so appreciate you talking about this.
I also appreciate you talking about ADHD and how it interacts with OCD, because there's also a question mark as to whether or not I might also have it. In the venn diagram between OCD and ADHD symptoms, I meet every shared symptom, and almost none of the condition-specific ones. But I do know that bupropion has helped me a lot over the past year.
That said, I wish you would have tied it back up to OCD at the end... Kind of annoying that the topic veered right off the ADHD cliff (fitting though I suppose).
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I had no idea what ocd was actually like until now, and I find that pretty much everything Dr K mentioned applies to me- from the nonstop unwanted obsessive thoughts, to the compulsive behaviors, and taboo thoughts. I'm not trying to self diagnose, I don't think I have ocd- but I think I may have a few particular ocd like thoughts/ compulsions. This video was very clear in explaining this disorder tbh
Sometimes you just think that is who you are. Obsessions and compulsions become habit. It's when those obsessions start to have a major effect on your life, do you realize you had this longer than you've thought. Best thing to do is get diagnosed. From there, you will use tools to rewire your brain.
I've had compulsions for the last few decades, and only recently realized I had symptoms of ADHD. And I'm highly functional, but isolated, I binge watch Dr K as white noise to get things done. I'm living a strange, highly rewarding reality, some might call it hell, but somehow I'm making it work and helping others along the way.
I have struggled with OCD since elementary school. Luckily it isn't too severe but it mostly just makes me get a lot of anxiety from obsessing over things (along with a few other things like being unable to stop thinking about a pimple or needing to touch everything symmetrically on both sides of my body) like making mistakes and thinking I committed some unforgivable sin and I am a horrible person when I barely did anything wrong or just made a bad decision that almost led to me making a mistake. When the person on Reddit talked about the guilt part it made me feel so much better because it made me realize for sure that it is OCD. The guilt thing is the hardest one for me to beat because it's super hard to distinguish between actually doing something wrong and just thinking I did something way worse than I actually did. But the other thing is that everyone makes mistakes and I need to just accept that I might do something wrong and it isn't the end of the world because I will be forgiven and people will move on. We aren't supposed to live out lives in constant fear of doing something wrong, but as long as we truly repent and ask for forgiveness we will be forgiven by God and people and life will go on. It seems like my mind exploits my fears because those are the things I will obsess over. I am so scared of doing something wrong because I made some mistakes in the past that pretty much traumatized me because I felt like I had actually ruined my life permanently even though everything is fine now but I feel like I have been scarred by those mistakes. Thank you so much for this video Dr. K. I am only 3 minutes in but I am sure this will help me so much,
I knew OCD was way over used and miss understood, but I never really knew what it was truly like. Thank you for this break down of information. It has helped me realize why I do certain things and have certain thoughts. I don't think it's always negative though, it can be helpful too. I have a 3 year old and a 5 month old. Both when my 3 year old was a baby and now with my 5 month old, if they were quiet for any length of time, I immediately get the thought "what if they're dead?" usually followed by an image of them lifeless. My immediate reaction is wanting to cry because of the image in my head followed by the realization of what my life would be like if that were true. Then it doesn't matter what I am doing, I HAVE to stop and check on them. I don't want these thoughts and images in my head, the probability of them being true are highly unlikely, but at the same time, it could potentially save their lives if something did happen and I was there before it became disastrous.
Great video as always !
This is so relatable it scares me
Please do more OCD content. I have comorbid ADHD and OCD and been through the ringer of medications. Stimulants seem to help my ADHD but worsen my OCD. For physical health reasons, I can't take certain antidepressants. Any insight on treatment options would be invaluable!
Thanks for talking about this. Only 1-2% of people have this illness and even tho people with it are a small group it needs to be spoken about because the term OCD is used on a huge scale. Be extremely grateful that you are not in this 1-2% of people that have the real illness.
Fantastic presentation. Also love listening to a psychiatrist point out that medication doesn’t always have to be the answer. If one’s willing to learn about the machinations of these disorders, and is able to implement the necessary skills, they can and do manage them successfully.
Some further thoughts. I don’t think people who do often say “I’m a bit OCD” are too far off the mark to be honest. Sure they don’t understand OCD per se, but I’ve often just seen this as being an intuitive remark. It’s never bothered me. OCD was plenty enough to content with for the first 15-20 years of my adult life, to have bothered over such an expression.
Everyone has their idiosyncrasies and most people if not all have obsessions and compulsions of some kind. It’s just that to the average person they’re insignificant.
With regards to controlling behaviours, absolutely this can be an element within people with OCD, (not OCPD). Reasons vary but it’s also why it does get tricky sometimes in distinguishing between controlling behaviour / impulsivity and compulsions as pointed out. I do believe it’s more prevalent than is being suggested here though.
OCD is one of the shiftiest conditions out there. It will twist and turn and constantly morph to produce as many uncomfortable scenarios as possible, just to keep one on high alert so that compulsions can be practiced incessantly. We often hear the phrase knowledge is power, but in the context of managing OCD, it’s probably where it rings the truest.
If one directs their attention (or obsessiveness) towards learning as much about OCD as possible, it can make the difference between ending hell or not. I appreciate everyone might have different views and experiences with the few therapies out there used to treat OCD, but I highly recommend learning everything there is to know on how to apply ERP, and to apply it relentlessly, perhaps at the same level as the obsessions and compulsions that are being experienced.
Most importantly and regardless which therapy modality you engage in, it’s imperative you work with someone who specialises in OCD and the treatment must include exposure therapy. This last advice should be non negotiable should you come across any treatment contradicting it. Good luck!
...I just realized after watching this, and thinking about when my own intrusive thoughts started, that my intrusive thoughts began sometime after I turned 19. 👁👄👁
Man, I even have mantras too, and I thought I was SO CLEVER finding simple phrases that cooled off my anxiety. Lmao. Add it to the list of things to discuss when I finally get to seeing a therapist, I guess.
I have ADHD and Bipolar Type II with ocd tendencies. Basically my OCD comes with my depressive and mixed episodes and go away during baseline and hypomania.
It is hard to explain to people what ocd is. It sucks. The intrusive thoughts can be really distressing and they nearly destroyed me till I finally got help. The medication helped get my mind under control.
Lots of therapy and hard work later and I got things under control.
After years of being told to just change my thoughts, think more positively, not think about certain things etc it is so relieving to hear someone who has education in this field say that it's out of our control
It's so sad and terrifying being told that you have control when you don't, it's almost like you get gaslit after a certain point into believing you have control and are just a shitty person choosing not to be more "normal" and functional.
Yup. Ppl just don’t get it. Then proceed to tell how they dealt with say, an alcoholic father or something obvious; so what does that make me? Guess I’m just weak and can’t cope and live up to YOUR standard. It’s entirely unfair. Instead, ppl just like to laugh or demean if you have something mental going on. Like, eh, no real excuse there. Guess you’re just weak then. Gee, thanks. :(
On the misdiagnosis of OCD, this is something I went through where my OCD is almost entirely internal and looked a lot like depression. I started therapy saying I felt depressed and in the initial diagnosis ticking all the boxes for depression. But after a while with no progress or the depressive symptoms lessening while I was doing everything "right" on paper, my therapist suspected it might actually be OCD as I'd mention several small things in passing that were normal to me, but she thought might have been indicators for OCD.
We went through the Yale Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale and turns out I scored moderately. Going through therapy for OCD seems my original issues/complaints stemmed from the intrusive thoughts and compulsions manifesting in something that looked like depression. It's a tricky beast and I have a few minor obsessions, compulsions and just behavior that I didn't even realize were OCD until the treatment. Before all this it never even crossed my mind that it was anything but depression and maybe some anxiety.
Thank you for making this video and clarifying the difference between OCD, OCPD, and sub-clinical control issues.
I am a licensed clinician with a PhD in Clinical Psych.
I also have true OCD - both my obsessions and compulsions take place in my mind.
Believe it, or not - my cohort mates in my doc program were constantly pathologizing normal behaviors and idiosyncrasies, constantly stating “I am so OCD…”
First off, OCD is not an adjective.
Second, OCD is not a personality trait.
Third, nobody who truly has OCD just throws the acronym around casually.
Fourth, you do not control OCD - it controls you.
Fifth, OCD can be MANAGED, which always requires treatment - requiring psychotherapy, and (almost) always involves Rx intervention.
Sixth, stimulants are a person with OCD’s worst nightmare. I’ve been managing quite well since I have been taking Effexor XR, and a prn of benzos.
Seventh - I would not wish OCD on my worst enemy.
Eighth, and finally - it really does hurt some of us when the acronym is used colloquially - it is no trip to The Container Store.
39:00 as an autistic child, I studied social skills a lot. The studies and practice really helped me become more comfortable and capable of a variety of social situations.
Yeahhhhh. This is my life. Ocpd with anxiety, which manifests as physical pain. I'm always at the doctor swearing I have pain in a new place and they never find anything.
Any bump on my skin is the beggining of cancer.
But it all started with a brutal religious fixation that had me praying 12+ hours a day because of "evil" intrusive thoughts ( giving myself over to the devil, etc.)
I would have to cancel these thoughts with mantras and rituals that would immedietly be ruined by a new intrusive thought. Then I would have to add that to the backlog and continously pray in a manic state. If I ever failed or got tired I would have this existential dread to a degree I can't even explain. Like my brain knows a fake truth and my body knows it's about to die. It's fucking terrifying.
I am in tears. Thanks
Exactly. I have had OCD compulsions about eating specific things, eating the _"right"_ way (can't explain, makes no sense), having to listen to specific songs, washing my hands, discarding "poisoned" water, masturbating, self-harm, punishing myself in imagination for "wrong" intrusive thoughts I had, and downloading the last youtube video I just watched, none of those felt any good, _specially_ the ones one would think could have felt good, they felt very draining to perform, the only good part is that once you do it sometimes you're so tired it goes away (I listened to the damn song, I downloaded the damn video, my head really hurts now, I'm so tired I can't do anything but I also don't feel like doing anything, not even having any obsession/compulsion anymore)