im forever thankful you talk about compulsions being MENTAL. for the longest time i believed i couldnt have ocd because i 'just' had intrusive thoughts and would go in a loop of mental compulsions which would actually only make me su-cidal. OCD truly is like mental torture, not something i'd wish on anyone.
100%. i ruminate on a lot of intrusive thoughts but only have a few physical compulsions. it was one of the reasons why i felt like maybe i wasn't "ocd-enough", yet when i was diagnosed they told me i fit the criteria for severe ocd.
You are seen and heard, I can relate to you completely, recently had a massive bout with ocd that lasted a good 2 years surrounding obsessions about religion, it was a huge hit to my psyche because i didnt really struggle with my ocd for many years at that point, but it came back full force and only stopped until I basically abandoned my faith in god/jesus recently, which ultimately was the parasite which was destroying my life and making me physically unwell, just saying it as it is, I understand that many people have their own beliefs, but when you subscribe to such a toxic religion which claims you are depraved and which has a tendency to dismiss mental illness, it causes nothing but harm. I know we are all at different stage of recovery and managing shit like OCD, Im untreated like probably most out there but damn is it good to feel free again, my ocd has crawled back in its hole again, Dont know if it will come back like that ever again, But i'm hoping you are doing well. it chokes me up to know that others have to deal with the things ive went through, my honest best wishes to you and all my brothers and sisters who deal with this disorder.
there are 3 types of OCD: 1. mainly obsessive (thoughts) 2. mainly compulsive (actions) 3. a mixed variety where neither thoughts nor actions are more prevalent you have the mostly obsessive version
I absolutely hate when I hear those "omg im so ocd about..." comments. The last time I tried to explain why it was offensive I ended up getting laughed at and called a Karen. We NEED more content like this because ocd is not a joke or a quirky personality trait, it is a daily struggle for those who experience it. Thanks Dr K. 🌻
this! i never thought i'd be sick of hearing Karen. even though i've never been called one i am so sick of hearing it + hearing ppl called it. folks have taken the fun + funny out of it. OCD is serious + if ppl understood even a fraction of what we actually deal w| i think most would never make offhanded comments like that again. there will always be assholes but in general i think most would be chill. so yea, i agree w| you we need more content like this + the NOCD ads w| Maria Bamford that i've been seeing lately.
Well yes OCD is a serious disease but that shouldn’t stop people from saying “omg I’m so ocd”. It is just a way of explaining one’s behavior and although it isn’t inherently correct doesn’t mean people shouldn’t say it. You know exactly what someone means when they say that, no one really has ocd. Some could take it personally but it isn’t offensive to say it.
My wife has OCD. It's really hard sometimes because we have two beautiful children together and things can get out of control when she doesn't get enough sleep cause of the kids or stress or misses her meds cause our life gets super busy. It can def be overwhelming at times but I love her and our family and that's what matters most. I'll always be there to help her when things get hard for her.
I've got instrusive thoughts due to my OCD. I don't get upset that easily, but I do really get annoyed by people that act on an impulse and they say they gave in to their "intrusive thoughts". Those aren't intrusive thoughts, they're just impulses. Having intrusive thoughts is not a quirky "tick" that makes you impulse buy that cute skirt you saw.
Well technically, impulsive thoughts are a form of intrusive thought. Intrusive thoughts are normally addressed medically when they're negative bc the thoughts will be causing the patient suffering. But things like impulsive thoughts about shopping, or your favorite animal, or other positive things are also intrusive thoughts. I have OCD so I say this not to invalidate your feelings, but to share what my therapist (OCPD) has taught me to help me understand intrusive thoughts better. And as someone who has been addicted to shopping in the past, while having OCD and ADHD, I can confirm that the disorders made letting go of the temptation to shop much more difficult! I saw these goth boots at Forever 21 months ago and I still can't stop thinking about them...😅
@@raining_trees yeah, I agree. I also believe that our susceptibility to intrusive thoughts is also part of what causes so many people with OCD to also struggle with substance abuse. The urge to use is amplified by the constantly repeated intrusive thoughts about a substance, even after the physical addiction has been dealt with.
Some people have Pure O OCD to where they do not have compulsive behavior and some people have compulsive behavior acting as a coping mechanism to temporarily relieve obsessive/intrusive thoughts. This coping mechanism isn't healthy of course. They are not impulsive, they are compulsive, as they are repeated rituals. For example someone might be like "I need to touch X 5 times or X will happen to my family, etc". Impulsive shopping is more associated with mania.
@@gniewomircioek6845 Right, it is kind of a made up term to label how symptoms may manifest in someone and not from the DSM V. I've experienced all kinds of different forms and like you say, the reinforcement is the constant that drives it, whether psychologically or somatically. Regardless it is exhausting.
What sucked for me is that the majority of therapists and counselors I've talked to about this literally don't understand OCD past it being orderly. I'd bring up the taboo thoughts of sex or harm and they just wouldn't know. If you want to treat OCD, please see someone who specializes in it and practices Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP). It's the "gold standard."
I have very extreme OCD and live my life completely in gloves at this point.. Even sleeping in them. I go through over 400 a week. I can barely function anymore, everything in life is contaminated to me I can’t even touch my own skin and crying about it grosses me about because of the tears.. I got so excited when I saw you posted this because OCD is all I do at this point, it would mean the world if you made more videos on OCD to both understand myself more, have others understand, and know better how to recover. I’m very open about my condition if anyone has any questions
Have seeked helped? The theory behind the ERP thearpy is really simple. Can be harder in practise espically if you do it alone at first. Its not impossible as many have done it. But again I recommend if you have access to proffessional help, seek it! Medication can also help to make thearpy is easier. But thearpy is the best long term. "How does ERP therapy work? ERP therapy is a behavioral therapy that gradually exposes people to situations designed to provoke a person's obsessions in a safe environment. A hallmark of ERP is that is doesn't completely remove distressing situations and thoughts."
I was in a similar situation a few years ago and for a long time it seemed hopeless. i didnt want help because OCD had taken over so much of my life that nothing outside of it excited, i was OCD, there was no me left. i refused therapy and medication for a long time out of fear of losing my OCD. What i've come to learn is that i did actually want help, i was trapped and screaming out for help, but OCD is so extremely overpowering and controlling that is punches you down into such a small ball that you cant move, you are too scared to move. I eventually did take medication: sertraline. It helps OCD, but fucks up everything else in your life (at least in mine). i felt like a zombie for months, i couldnt sleep, my depression got worse, my hormones were fucked, i ate less but put on weight, i wanted to hurt myself so much. (note that i started on 50mg and went up to 200mg. NEVER DO THIS PLEASE) but after years of fear and gloves, i could finally go outside and touch flowers, rocks, and the face of my partner. i cried because i had barely felt anythign outside of gloves for so many years. i couldnt handle the side effects anymore so i changed to fluoexetine (20mg) which was a lot more mild, but it still dulled my brain too much (all of this was while at uni during covid) I am currently not on medication, but i feel the OCD coming back, i am in talkin therapy for a lot other issues and am seeing psychiatrist soon. OCD is fucking hard to live with and overcome, its a crippling disorder that can easily destroy you and your life. I can recommend medication and therapy, but ik how hard it can be to accept it and allow it to change you. I hope you can find some help and some peace from your OCD brain. Please always remember that this is a long long journey and that there will be many up and downs, and that letting the OCD back in is so so tempting, its addictive, but that you are strong, you dont need it, there is a person beyond this fucked up disorder. this is a you trapped inside of yourself, and never give up no matter how much you want to
@@oatmilk9918 talking thearpy does not help against OCD or rarely helps . "How does ERP therapy work? ERP therapy is a behavioral therapy that gradually exposes people to situations designed to provoke a person's obsessions in a safe environment. A hallmark of ERP is that is doesn't completely remove distressing situations and thoughts." You can read and learn alot about this thearpy on your own. This basically what Dr.K explained. Also medication can be a hit or miss, so maybe another one will help you more. I never took medication but thearpy is must. Lots of hard work mainly in the form of home works. GL with your work it will get better
@@dane2313198 as i said i'm in talking therapy for other mental health issues. I will probably move to a more OCD focused therapy after seeing a psychiatrist. that said, i now see a surprising amount of other issues are just OCD in disguise (shame, guilt, avoidance etc) i never made that connection until watching this video. after dealing with OCD for so long it can be hard to separate it from yourself and other comorbid issues
@@oatmilk9918 Sorry missed that you have other mental health issues aswell(its common). I was lucky to only have a very mild depression along late onset of ocd(26 years old). I was also lucky that I seeked help only after 2 months of the onset of OCD and feeling like my old self after 6months. Hope it turns out okey for you.
I enjoy watching Dr. K's videos so much! Yes, it took YEARS of purposefully stepping ON sidewalk cracks to stop stepping over them equally between my feet. My mom's back is completely fine btw!
When i was 11-12 y/o I had an obsession with counting numbers. Every single little micro-movement i did my body increased the counter in my head, I felt terrible because it was constantly in my head, and I had to focus really, really hard on not counting to make it go away. The one thing that helped with the stress was, as stupid as it sounds, resetting the "mental counter" to 0.
I had something like that but less bad when I was a kid, like counting too much or needing the number of steps I’d taken with either foot to feel balanced. It wasn’t a compulsion back then though, if felt almost sort of optional I did develop pretty bad contamination OCD later in life though
OCD is hell... I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy tbh. At one point in my OCD journey, my intrusive thoughts we're so worrisome that I couldn't eat or sleep. At it's worst, I was ok if were to get in a terrible accident or plane crash so I wouldn't have to deal with those thoughts any longer. Luckly enough, I was able to recover through my OCD specialist and ERP. Thoughts are just a thoughts.
Dr K, it would be so helpful if you could talk sometime about mysophonia, since I recognize that my attitude with mysophonia parallels pretty accurately with OCD behaviors, only that the disgust I feel is acoustic and not "hygienic" in nature. I'm not the only one, I don't know how much of your audience might suffer from this. I would be really thankful if you could touch this subject and whether your coaches would be prepared to help someone with this.
I'm so thankful you're talking about OCD, I have pure o ocd, and have had it on and off for 6 years, it's not as bad anymore but it used to make me literally suicidal. Also mine is very immoral and sexual which is why there is such a stigma and a lot of people are too scared to get help, or they might even not know they have ocd and think they want those things to happen
I also have the same immoral thoughts I know they are not me it was so bad to the point I wanted to do suicide but I couldn't and thought about running away from home which I did but my dad found me and I told him everything about the thoughts etc he told me it's okay don't give attention to your thoughts they will go away but still it hits like every hour a day which is making it very difficult for me
@@SpadesThunder What you're experiencing is very normal OCD especially Pure o, if you can you should try to get help from an OCD specialist psychologist. But I know it's hard but what helps me with my thoughts is not trying to fight them, just let them be there, it's an ERP technique, the more you fight them and try to get rid of them the stronger they become, just let them be and do nothing and your anxiety will calm down, it'll be hard but it helps
2 years ago I think my OCD manifested. Harm OCD to be specific I genuinely believed I was going to gouge my eyes out. This was my obsession for the next 4 months. I became unable to do a basic task for myself like eating or bathing which required using my hands, I would sit on my hands, I would ask my family if I would truly cause harm to myself. I would cry every single day because the images and thoughts in my head were horrific and graphic. And I started to become unable to trust myself at all. I would avoid sharp objects I would avoid putting my hands anywhere near my face. I needed a family member present at all times because I did not trust myself to be left alone. And don't even get me started on the sensations, next level horrifying. The only physical compulsion I had was checking my eyes in the mirror for at least 10 to 15 minutes straight. I never knew what I was looking for but it eased my OCD for a short while. Before rinse and repeat lol. Well anyway I was diagnosed by a psychiatrist with OCD along with some other disorders. And was prescribed Fluvoxamine. Thankfully, it had very much silenced my OCD, and I definitely am much better now.
I've always thought I had OCD but never talked about it because I understand the danger of self-diagnosing but also I have worked really hard over the past few years to separate the intrusive thought from the action and it doesn't debilitate me. I wasn't sure if I could have a disorder if it wasn't debilitating. Thank you for the video this has been so incredibly helpful especially for someone who hasn't talked about this with a therapist yet.
A lot of the time people don't get diagnosed for stuff unless it is effecting their quality of life but that doesn't mean there isn't something going on, just that treatment might not be required. There is no reason to get too caught up on official definitions of if you have or don't have something though, since the goal should just be to live your best life.
@@Lilitha11 You're absolutely right. I've never thought about it that way before but you're totally right. This helps me a lot thank you so much for taking the time to write this comment.
Get a diagnosis and therapy. I thought I had gotten rid of my compulsions by no longer performing external actions, but I ended up just internalising all of my compulsions and do them in my head instead.
I've isolated myself for so long that's it actually affecting my loved ones. It's such a spiral of bullshit. This year I'm going to try to reach out more. Hopefully I can repair the damage I've done trying to protect my loved ones from myself.
When I was living as a Buddhist monk I had loads of people come with that diagnosis. Will save this video for future reference, great stuff! Thank you for sharing :)
@@xaquariix Being able to manage difficult emotions and sensations and thoughts are some of the key reasons to practice mindfulness meditation. In the west we often view meditation as relaxation or a way of calming down. And so it makes sense to create an environment that is calm and soothing. But when we meditated at the the meditation centers we would welcome whatever came up both from within and from the external world. Then we'd learn how to handle how that would cause us to react internally. A thought is just a thought, you don't need to follow it, observe it and you'll see that eventually if you can sit with it it will dissappear. I don't have any specific videos on the topic , but I recommend listening to anything mindfulness related. Many that I met said that a daily meditation practice combined with mindfulness practice throughout the day helped them. Main thing many get wrong that come into meditation is that they want to get rid of your thoughts. What meditation does is help you observe your thoughts and see that they are just thoughts, you don't need to follow them or do what they say. They arise, then they pass away. Easy to say, but difficult to do. A daily practice is a great place to start. Good luck with your practice!
OCD has been a part of my life, and learning Vipassana has been a major help for me. It was so cool hearing Dr. K describe the psychotherapy for OCD and make the connection between that and what the Buddha taught. It is truly amazing the scientific connection of the two techniques!
@@impossiblefix1134 thank you for sharing your story. I agree completely, meditation is a great way to handle many of these diagnosises. Was it one of the goenka retreats you went to?
The timing of this is absolutely INSANE. Just yesterday I read about OCD and I got the sudden realization that some parts of my GAD resembled it a LOT. My therapist has suggested this before, but it never clicked (because I had a totally false idea of OCD), until yesterday. Definitely gonna get tested now. It would explain a LOT of inconsistencies.🙌🏻
THANK YOU Dr K!!! I'm 31 now, I've been struggling with my mental health since I was 15 or 16. I've worked with 5 or 6 different therapists over the years, and only JUST got diagnosed with OCD last year. The stuff I'd been doing in therapy prior to this helped, but now I'm doing totally different treatment that works SO much better than the other stuff. It took so long for me to get diagnosed because my OCD has nothing to do with cleanliness, germs, or magical thinking. On the surface, it really looks nothing like the cultural stereotypes we have about OCD, but the truth is, I do obsess and I do have compulsions, and those things debilitate me. I'm so grateful to finally know what's going on with me.
Statistically speaking people with OCD are very likely to struggle with addiction (as the neuro-circuitry are the same parts of the brain). When I was a kid I was basically addicted to day dreaming and I have OCD. I have gotten treatment and I have recovered. What I will say though is, Dr. K is wrong in that focusing on the content doesn't matter; he is right in that the content of the thought doesn't matter, however, lasting recovery comes from understanding the content of the core belief which fuels the fear/guilt/shame etc that is associated with the thought. Otherwise your OCD will be episodic (as mine was off and on for 15 years).
I have OCD and I am so happy this content exists on the internet because I know it will help people. This is the type of thing I wish I had seen growing up. It took me a long time and a breaking point before I was diagnosed and even longer and an even worse breaking point before I got actual help. Thanks for putting this out there!
Also, an example I use to describe OCD to get the ball rolling on an example that could fall into the umbrella is, “Pudge controls the weather” from Lilo and Stitch. The one time she didn’t give Pudge a peanut butter sandwich, her parents died in a car wreck in the rain. It’s an example of the magical thinking we might experience when we have OCD
Anybody who's suffering right now, trust me, it can get better despite how stuck and defeated you feel right now. My germaphobia had gotten so bad that I was showering for 5-6 hours but it barely affects me now.
I've had such intense internal monologue my whole life that is impossible to turn off. I've been picking my hands since I was at least 2, and for 26 years now I just thought I had an active imagination and lifelong depression. I get paralyzed with fear-based thoughts and check out, making my hands bleed. I used to think more positively about the future, but at some point I decided that thinking about a thing meant it wasn't going to happen, so therefore if I think about only bad things, then they won't happen. So I then magically-thinking'd myself into obsessively going over every horrible possibility of everything without even feeling like it's safe to consider what could go right. Somehow, it never occurred to my dad to mention to me that he used to massively struggle with OCD, and had to do everything 3 times. Check locks, turn off lights, say certain things. I had no idea he ever struggled with this and it only came up less than a month ago. I feel like it all now explains a lot. :P
One problem with the pathology model of OCD is that people more marginalized from cultural and economic power (including neurologically marginalized, economically, sexually, etc) live with a higher cognitive labor burden to just exist in civil society. We tell individuals to blame themselves for pathologies as though they emerge in an ether independent from systemic injustice and marginalization. Mental health research has been corrupted by the epistemological biases of enlightenment rationalism which are disinclined to challenge capitalist mythologies of rational individualism in seeking more historically and sociologically critical answers to behavioral outcomes.
Absolutely. Mark Fisher touched on this in 'Capitalist Realism', he said: "Considering mental illness an individual chemico-biological problem has enormous benefits for capitalism. First, it reinforces Capital’s drive towards atomistic individualization (you are sick because of your brain chemistry). Second, it provides an enormously lucrative market in which multinational pharmaceutical companies can peddle their pharmaceuticals (we can cure you with our SSRIs). It goes without saying that all mental illnesses are neurologically instantiated, but this says nothing about their causation."
The hardest part of my ocd for me, is that it so tied to morality and established hygiene standards/what docs or disability rights activists tell you to that the compulsions are difficult to let go. Especially if i want to listen to what they say, the mental compulsions that would trigger are just so hard to let go of bc of the pressure to be the rigid moral ideal others want me to be
I’ve been struggling with OCD for about 30 years, and I knew most of what you said. But this video was tremendously helpful and helped me realize how I can use my experience in treating my OCD into other portions of my life that I am struggling with. Thank you so much .
My OCD was undiagnosed for decades, just diagnosed last November, because the compulsions are all either in my head (counting, repeating phrases, repeating conversations, going over everything I know about whatever I'm obsessing on such as car safety statistics, etc.) or blended in with autistic stimming and avoidance behaviors so much that it doesn't even occur to me when it's an intrusive-thought-related compulsion instead (joint cracking, stretching, toe-walking, refusing certain foods, not liking to leave my house, putting off tasks. Sometimes it's just sensory/physical, sometimes it's a response to intrusive thoughts.) Understanding that the vast majority of my thoughts are either intrusive thoughts or compulsive responses was monumental. OCD can be invisible, and I wish more clinicians probed for differential diagnosis between GAD and OCD. I think it would not have gotten so bad, and I would be a lot further along in healing if that had happened 20 years ago, or any time since. I also think clinicians should consider anyone presenting with both ADHD and anxiety to be high risk for OCD. Intrusive thoughts are common in people with ADHD, especially those with high impulsivity, and it's a short jump to OCD when combined with persistent anxiety.
Thanks for speaking on OCD again Doctor K. I spent a good chunk of my childhood living in fear of the various scenarios my mind invented and doing compulsions to save myself/alleviate the negative feelings they brought on, not really knowing what was truly going on in my brain until much later in life. Right now it's still there but nowhere near as bad as before, it is mostly a struggle with obsessive and intrusive thoughts these days for me. The worst of it seems to come and go in waves every few years if the right scenario presents itself. Also, the video you did on maladaptive daydreaming in connection with OCD (along with other things) was really enlightening, I did not know about it before and it is something that I seem to do all the time if my mind isn't almost completely preoccupied... I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on what causes people to end up in certain camps of OCD (scrupulosity, harm, etc.) as well as your opinion on Pure-O OCD. Thanks again for the videos!
You made me realize the world when you talked about OCPD. I've always thought about having ocd but other people's experiences with it don't seem to completely resonate with me. I've always been obsessed about the way things are organized in my home: My closet has go be slightly open, the blanket on the couch has to be on the left side and things like that. But also things like constantly checking my phone's battery or my Nintendo Switch's brightness to reassure myself that it's at the highest level of bright. The thing is, you said people with OCPD don't try to push the intrusive thoughts away. But I do, everytime I have the thought of checking my phone's battery I try my best to reassure myself that I already checked it and it hasn't changed in just seconds, so I check it constantly. I'm still a bit confused since it almost seems like I suffer from a sort of hybrid between OCD and OCPD 😭. I'd love a video about OCPD
Maybe you don't have OCPD, but something else. Your checking makes me think of my problem: I have a tendency to verify and even when I'm sure I did or didn't do something I still have to check, but not more than once, I spend hours in the shower to be sure I'm enough washed and then rinsed. But it also looks as if I have some kind of social anxiety, and adding to that other symptoms, what I relate the most to is obsessional neurosis. This term isn't used anymore today, now we talk about anxiety, OCD, and anxious depressive troubles, it's quite confusing. That's why it is important to have a diagnostic, and even see several kinds of professionals to confirm.
Thank you Dr.K for your work. You are helping so very many of us who struggle daily with OCD. The mental anguish I experience is exhausting and overwhelming. I am so grateful to you and your work!! 🙏🙏
I think people need to understand that health anxiety is a form of OCD. Didn't make headway with my health anxiety until I started treating it like OCD. Unfortunately, my therapist didn't even understand and I had to figure it out on my own. Thank goodness for youtube.
Omg yay, I appreciate a video with a title about OCD that's actually all about OCD. I'm ADHD too & love all the other valuable stuff you say but recently one video seemed like it'd be an hour on OCD & it mostly strayed from the topic, which was understandable but a little bit of a bummer XD Can't wait to watch this in the morning. Thanks for all your useful insights & hard work
I would like to hear more about your perspective on Dermatillomania, because its the main way for me to release that "anxiety" caused by my OCD. I just had this specific talk with my therapist and I think your video helped me understand in a deeper level what happens with my mind whenever I go through that discomfort and seek release by harming myself. At this point it became a reflex, its disgusting. I know I need to face my discomfort and intrusive thoughts head on but sometimes I just cant function. Its horrible, now its taxing me on my body and I dont know what to do, I am very close to looking after anxiety meds.
I have dermotillomania as well. Specifically on my lips or any scabs/plaques on my face or body (I also have sebopsoriasis which is not a good combo haha). So I know how you feel. I have so much shame around what I do to myself and I worry a lot that I won’t be able to solve it. Especially as someone who wants to be a therapist. The thought of seeing clients and absentmindedly picking at my lips during a session horrifies me. I’m seeking therapy for it, so I hope it helps.
Hey I'm also struggling with this for the past 10 years. (Time flies...) It's gotten a lot better but sometimes it comes back. For me it's important to keep my stress low. I tried therapy and medication a few years ago, but now I'm mainly doing yoga and meditation a few minutes everyday and honestly after a few months I started feeling more peaceful overall and it's a lot better.
I appreciate this channel so much as a sufferer of OCD and cyclothymia. Your perspective is always so well-thought out and intelligent, i cant believe what youre saying is free ! You confirmed to me that i do wanna join the mental health field thank you!
Ocd fucking sucks but I am here to tell You that building a beautiful life is possible. I am an artist and I have suffered this shit for a long painful time, there were times I would wish to give my hands exchanged for another brain. But I have learned to build a life despite the pain and struggle and not giving up. The obstacle is the way, it's no easy, it's hard as fuck when you can't even leave your room with the fear lf becoming evil and causing dispair... when you can't even touch a pencil. But it's worth a try, it's worth the effort to be brave and accept the terror in all it's faces. To value your life beyond the pain is possible, because thoughts and emotions are not ours but our will and effort always are. You can grow strong and capable. My Best wishes to you if You are struggling with this, i send you virtual hugs and much love from México. And cbt es the best therapy.
One thing I found to be somewhat helpful is that when you start to obsess about something, you go over it in your head time and time again to make sense out of it and sort of "justify" why you're not a "bad person" for thinking it, or if you're thinking about the order of some things over and over until it "feels" right, like you made sure its done in the "right order", when you identify that you're having those thoughts, write them down in a notepad on your pc or in a diary or whatever. Something about it being written down and saved somewhere, feels like I won't forget about it, that I don't need to go over it anymore and its relieving, then few days later even if you delete it it won't bother you. Of course its not really some sort of "cure" but its time saving when you need to focus on things.
@@Wakshak321 Sorry, I think that came off wrong, I was referring to the video where he says like "people walking around with uncured OCD". I'm sure you know, it is a silly concept because at the end of the day, the person with OCD has to overcome and manage it themselves day to day regardless.
4:42 feel bored don’t feel like working Internal impulses and then give into them Ocd is about discipline Seperste thoughts from action Thoughts are so strong it brings action 5:33 OCD are thoughts with a couple key features 6:33 OCD can also be intrusive thoughts like hurting someone or sexual in nature 7:33 OCPD is different 12:22 13:55 how ocd forms 14:55 POA 18:50 avoidance will close off doors in line 22:00 training Mind to solve internal discomfort with external action instead of being with the emotion So we rather engage in accordance behavior = gaming, shows, searching thing that you think is helpful but not necessary If you keep reinforcing negative behavior that makes the circuit hyperactive
This is useful, because a few weeks ago my friend was telling me about her anxious thoughts and how out of control they get. I suggested that it might actually be OCD, but there isn't a lot of understanding of OCD.
i was diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder years ago and never looked too deeply into it, just tried some medications and nothing really worked too well so i just decided to live with it. then like a few months ago i found out what dermatillomania is and i realized, wait, i do that. and as i kept looking into ocd more and more, i'm realizing like all of my anxiety and behaviors and stuff fits neatly into this box. and this video really helped explain how it all fit together. i guess it's time to go see a therapist lol
This video is on point and very well done. I suffered from moderate to moderately severe OCD for over 12 years in total out of my 33 years on Earth before I finally arrived at an OCD diagnosis and proper treatment. I went through a lot of what you're describing... Not knowing what OCD really was and viewing what I was experiencing as anxiety or a physical health problem. I did incorporate mindfulness meditation practices into my recovery and I like how you recognize this as being the main "gift" from treatment that even non-OCD people would benefit from. One minor quibble is I don't think most clinicians really spend enough time on the emotional and physical experience once the OCD gets to a moderate level... Chronic anxiety, panic attacks, chronic shame and guilt, depression, etc. The relief you get from the compulsions doesn't last long and it becomes constant. Once the compulsions stop working is also a seriously bad development in the downward spiral. Otherwise, great video.
I got a lot of obsessions and compulsions. They’ve gotten so much better with getting out of a bad situation and finally getting therapy for anxiety and a tiny dose of ssri’s for depression. It makes me feel like this isn’t something I need treated since it’s so close to my sense of discipline and sense of self. They rarely objectively cause harm. The only thing I have left is I want a diagnosis so that I’m allowed to speak about this without feeling that I’m describing the wrong thing or people will think I’ve fallen off the deep end. I guess I’m just really struggling with how to cope with depression, anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive actions. Like in the example mentioned I’m afraid of going to a party, i avoid it and don’t go. But when I let myself have compulsions, I spend 15 mins tapping the wall, and I’m late - but I made it to the party. I know it could be a slippery slope but I fundamentally can’t understand how to live without the compulsion structure since it’s all I’ve ever known. On a higher dose of anti-depressants and trying avoiding compulsions - I stopped doing everything, and nearly got kicked out of college - but suddenly with the compulsions there I can function like a normal person just with a big secret part of myself that I feel no one understands.
I swear you've posted this like 2 times before! But it's good to hear again still. I struggle with OCD and one part that doesn't get mentioned is that the thoughts may seem irrational but they're so NORMAL that (at least for me,) I didn't notice I was forming OCD until it was severe...like didn't shower for a year severe.
I've been waiting for months for you to talk about OCD. I am constantly defeated by my own thoughts. Thanks for the big picture. Please... I'd love to hear your thoughts on OCD and Schizophrenic commorbilities. I have been obsessed with my obsessions. There include my other disorders
To me, it looks like some people are feeling personaly angry when others mislabel it, and I think this is due to some people who truely have ocd associating themselves strongly with it. In some sense, I think this is a problem too, because then it can become hard to have a calm and impactful conversation when you're confronted about what ocd really is. By the way, I have had severe ocd in my teenage years (got very close to psychosis apparently), and oh boy was it not fun to deal with. I'm glad I've been able to get it to a point where I don't really feel its effects on a daily basis. If you have to strugle with ocd on a daily basis, just know that it WILL get better over time if you put the efforts in. I'm a "miracle case" apparently, I'm proof that no matter how bad your ocd is, there is hope. Thanks for reading, and I wish yall the best 👍
I get very mad when people don't understand how OCD impairs concentration, and, as a result, your performance at work. I struggle with maintaining a job because of OCD and many people just straight up say that I'm not fit for the job...
this is an awesome video. as someone w ocd for around 7 years now, the beginning few years were horrid. zero concentration at all bc i was getting bombarded by thousands of intrusive thoughts that i painfully obsessed over. at one point i thought i had schizophrenia because it felt like a different part of my brain was saying shit to me. anyway, ive developed a lot of skills, and am about 90% better, esp w the help of medication. seek help ppl! you are not what your intrusive thoughts make you think you are 🖤
📝NOTES 4 types of OCD: 1. contamination 2. symmetry 3. thoughts of danger 4. forbidden/blasphemous/scandalous thoughts OCD: egodistonic -> don't like having the thoughts OCPD: egocintonic -> think nothing is wrong with them, and everything is wrong with others Thoughts are INTRUSIVE (don't want to have them) + Impairs Focus Obsessions + Compulsions -> engaging in compulsion calms down obsession -> corticostriatal thalamic circuit in brain governs attention, with action, and rewards aka what we think, do, benefit (hyperactive in people w/ ocd) -> brain learns, in order to relieve mental distress, must engage in compulsion -> THE MORE WE GIVE INTO COMPULSION, THE STRONGER THEY BECOME -> can lead to avoidance (missing out on big parts of life) -> can lead to shame SOLUTIONS -> LEARN TO TOLERATE NEGATIVE EMOTIONS AND NOT GIVE INTO COMPULSIONS (exposure response therapy... guys go get professional help!) side note: rocd is something many don't know about either, perhaps a vid on this could be helpful?
Where have you been all my life . Seriously. Started crying cause I felt so understood whilst listening to you. Please never stop uploading❤ My ocd has been so bad as a teenager, I didn’t even attend the funeral of two of my relatives. I am an adult now- until this day, no one in the family understands why I could not be there . They believe it must be because I’m a bad person and that I didn’t care which is so hurtful. Back then, it felt as if I didn’t have a choice. I wish someone would have helped me to cope with it. I was alone with this though and nowadays, in the day to day life , still am - since most people think mental illness is just imagination or a joke . „Other people have problems too“ and „ get over it“. So happy UA-cam algorithm recommended your channel. Love from Europe ♥️
A big part for me is that I’ll start randomly thinking about something scandalous that just makes me feel so gross since it’s morally wrong and it’s a thought I shouldn’t be having. And they don’t go away usually until I do that hand washing until I’m raw. So it has little to do with the fear of germs or getting sick or anything and everything to do with grossing myself out over the thought so I do something clean to cancel it out and make me feel neutral again. It’s like you’re constantly at war with your own mind
I’ve been struggling with contamination and responsibility ocd for my whole life, particularly bad for 2 years now Thanks for the education on the topic!
Can i just say how much i envy your highly dense dark wavy hair. I almot have the same hair as you, beside from the fact that my hair density is not that high. I thought i was balding, but when going to multiple barbers and asking the question, they said that i actually have a lot of hair. It's just that my hair is quite fine and not that dense, which makes my scalp really easy to see at times. I know nobody cares, but i had to get that out lmao
I would love to see more videos about dealing with OCD working on finding a therapist but haven’t had luck yet. My worst obsession is skin imperfections and I end up picking my face to the point of canceling plans because of how much worse I made it I’ve been struggling with this one as long as I can remember. I always picked insect bites as a kid. I didn’t realize my possible OCD tendencies were also behind me needing to “do something” to fix all my feelings. Mind blown as always thank you for your work
You literally described the situation i'm going through for the longest time. I've had many awkward moments where my actions from OCD get noticed by others around me, and I've managed to developed solutions to manage my OCD, which in fact made things worse, and it's actuallly is a cycle that I'm not getting out of. The worst thing is, I know my actions aren't gonna make things better in the long run but I do it anyway just to get out of the negative thoughts even if it's for a little moment.
As someone who has severe Pure -O (Form of Ocd) this video is extremely informative and digestible. Thank you Dr. K! This really motivates me to do ERP
For over 26 years I have been looking for help to alleviate depression. I always started the appointments by saying how depressed I am since childhood. I avoided all OCD symptoms because I was afraid to talk about them and because I thought they happened because of depression. But a few months ago I started to suspect my diagnosis because I have been intensively treating it with medication and sometimes with psychotherapy for 15 years and I have not seen results. Then it was like a pop in my head... I remembered that before the first bout of depression, I had OCD. First, when I was a small child, I thought that when people spoke to me, their saliva would get into my mouth and contaminate me. And then to talk to them I should have my mouth on the collar. The collar was drooling and my mother was very ashamed of me, she told me to stop but I couldn't. Then came the hair pulling OCD when I was around 8. And then came the inappropriate, sexual thoughts (which weren't as heavy for me as a child but which for me at the time were terrible), and religiously offensive thoughts that made me feel deeply guilty. I remember calling my mom to ask over and over if something (that had crossed my mind) could be forgiven. She patiently explained that everything was fine. And I felt calmer for a moment. But then another thought came up and I had to ask her again if everything was okay. Sometimes I would struggle with that thought for days because I didn't want to bother her and because I knew that as soon as I got rid of it, another thought would arise. And I started to distance myself from the things I liked so as not to create more uncomfortable situations that would turn into bad thoughts. I withdrew from the other kids, stopped playing, and gained a lot of weight (anxiety made me eat more sweets). And just then I was diagnosed with depression. But after the diagnosis I simply forgot to give due importance to these things that happened. I spent my entire adolescence enslaved by my thoughts. Sometimes the compulsions were visible and sometimes they weren't. I repeated many mantras and prayers in my head as quoted 7 times. It started with 3, but if I got it wrong it couldn't be 4, it should be 7. And if I got it wrong it should be more, but not 14, maybe 21. In early adulthood I got married and it was hell. He worked traveling and I thought something was going to happen. I spend 100% of the time in crippling fear. So after trying to treat myself for almost 7 years, I thought it best to ask for a divorce because I saw that my ex husband was sinking into my problems and he was such a normal and happy person that I thought it was absurd to do this with my life from him. I never had a serious relationship again. I didn't want to have kids because I knew my head would make my life unbearable. I would be worried every minute of my day and it was unbearable. I had to operate to not have children because I thought I was pregnant even though there was no reason for it and I was constantly taking tests. I had only a small improvement around the age of 28. I found a job I liked (despite being obsessed with it in an unhealthy way), and I also became obsessed with my fitness, even getting sick and running a fever from overdoing exercise and dieting. At the end of the day I always felt empty. But this was the moment I felt better. Only the pandemic came. I have to say that my most important and damaging defense mechanism in my life has always been oversleeping. When I was married I spent more than 20 hours sleeping a day, for days. And excessive sleep all the time always caused me a lot of problems. It was even because of sleep that I sought psychiatric help the first time. But it never got better. Staying awake is an exhausting challenge. It turns out that in the pandemic (and along with it a cancer diagnosis for my mother), my anxiety levels soared that I was completely out of control. My eye was always jumping with anxiety. My blood pressure stayed high for many months and the worst thing was: I couldn't sleep anymore. Sometimes I slept 2 hours, sometimes less than that, and even sleepy and exhausted, I couldn't sleep. It has been draining my energy to such an extent that at the moment I feel completely drained and without energy to do anything. I started working in 3 different places and I couldn't go on, I tried to go back to school and I couldn't go on. I think I've reached the end of my path. I don't see what else to do and I don't even have enough energy to do anything. And I can't give meaning to this existence either. I'm just here being beaten by life and disturbing others. I don't want to be a burden on my family and society, but I can't anymore.
I’m unsure if it’s an OCD thing but I really related to the physical ritualistic stuff. I know it’s irrational but before I go to bed I always have to make sure that I’ve locked my doors 15 times and check my stove 15 times otherwise I fear my apartment will be broken into or will go on fire. It’s really annoying cause sometimes I’ll be in bed and ready to go to sleep and I get up to do it again just to be sure even though I know I already did it. Thanks Dr K for your insight!
I've had OCD since as long as I can remember. (Seriously, I can't remember a time I haven't experienced it.) But I didn't realize I had it til I was 32, and I'm 33 now. It's actually frustrating that it wasn't caught sooner, even though it was so obvious. Actually, UA-cam algorithm caught it before I did and showed me Nate Peterson's (OCD & Anxiety) channel, and everything in my life made sense -- the eating disorder, self-harm, addiction, workaholicism, paranoia leading to agoraphobia, literally everything. I've since joined the NOCD community, and it's been so supportive. I've been in therapy since 2001, but ERP has been *the hardest* I've attempted. Some themes feel so unmanageable and so suffocating (especially ones requiring constant reassurance) that I haven't been able to confront them yet -- but I will. This was such a great video, and I'm glad more people are giving real info about OCD when there's so much misinformation out there.
I have this issue that whenever I have this intrusive thoughts, I change the behavior depending on how inconvenient or harmful it might be. Like, I understand and prioritize my physical well being, even my productiveness. Most of the time I can give in to the compulsive behavior, but if at some point, which is rare, it starts to get too stressful...then it is defeating its purpose, and then I stop. Or if it's something that is hurting my body, my mind is like..."ok this isn't working out" and then I am able to switch or modify that behavior
How do you always upload videos at the right time. I have OCD, last night i had pretty bad insomnia because of my intrusive thoughts and yeah i know my compulsion is watching games/playing games. Thank you Dr K
I greatly appreciate educating about OCD, it is one of the most misunderstood and misdiagnosed mental health issues out there. I have OCD, I have gotten treatment and I have recovered. What I will say though is, Dr. K is wrong in that focusing on the content doesn't matter; he is right in that the content of the thought or emotion itself doesn't matter, however, lasting recovery comes from understanding the content of the core belief which fuels the fear/guilt/shame etc that is associated with the thought. Once you learn what the core belief Dr. K's treatment is correct, you learn what the core issue is and learn to accept that if the worst case scenario of that belief were true that you're okay with it. Otherwise your OCD will be episodic (as mine was for 15 years). I agree though, learning to become comfortable with whatever horrible thought or feeling comes into my head does give a certain liberation
may I ask did your treatment involve medication (I know some people who take medication for OCD) or more Cognitive Behavioral Therapy? from. your comment I assume the latter but I'm curious. I think you're right in what you're saying, often there's some underlying self-esteem problem or core belief at the root of the OCD if you dig deeply enough. it also seems to develop in childhood and I have some suspicion that traumatic or unstable family/relationship dynamics may be involved in the developing brain's attempts to control its environment with the maladaptive OCD behaviors that develop.
Holy shit. I knew I have had some traits of OCD in recent years but I was never diagnosed with it so I wasn't so certain but when you started talking about repeating spells in your mind I came to a realization I've had this for a very long time and I never even really considered this to be an OCD trait. Now I'm 99% certain I have it. Although I know you shouldn't self diagnose.
(self diagnosis warning) I suspect I could have a light form of ocd in the form of random existential questions like what comes after death? Does life matter? What happens after I die is it nothingness? What was going on before you were born? Humanity is going to go extinct and the universe will die in a heat death in the future etc etc. They circle around in my head for hours and I feel relief by looking it up. Even tho the aswers do not exist the simple act of giving in and trying to solve these questions gives me relief. Thankfully I knew a little about ocd before it started occuring so I only gave in a few times and usually am able to resist the temptation of the "easy fix" but still it extremely annoying and sometimes panic inducing
As someone who has struggled with this type of OCD (there's actually a name for it; Existential OCD), the best way to get rid of it is by embracing the uncertainty of existence. You don't know much of anything about the nature of existence, and neither do I or anyone else. While we can, through science and other thought processes, come to logical conclusions about life (the world around us is real, other people exist, I exist, we are living on a rock floating around in space and that is the true nature of reality), we actually have no clue whether or not this is 100% true, because there's still a chance (albeit, small) that it isn't true. I compare it to all of my other intrusive thoughts I've had because of my OCD in the past and it makes me feel better as well. I used to get anxious thinking I would suddenly have a seizure and it would terrorize every second of my waking day. Only when I realized that my brain was focusing on a more irrational, tiny possibility was I able to feel better. If there was a 1% chance that an asteroid was going to hit the planet and kill me but the other 99% knew that logically, that didn't make sense, why focus on the 1%? Your fear of the unknown parts of existence is making thoughts that are otherwise extremely small in probability, super big. Understand that and hopefully you will start to look at the big picture and realize your anxiety is just trying to find something to cling onto. I hope this helps! EDIT: Also, stop looking your fears up. While it may give you initial relief, you'll just keep doing it and you won't be able to stop. Instead, find ways to distract yourself. Throw yourself into work, hang out with friends, go outside for a walk listening to music, anything you can do to cling back onto your daily routine. When you learn to stray away from your fears and fight your thoughts head on rather than find comfort on the internet, it will get better. It's a battle, but you'll grow a tolerance and feel better.
I ended up, after being diagnosed with OCD after a hard break-up, creating a formula for myself that seems to help. There’s a side of obsessive thinking that exists that feels relieving when letting it take over. It almost feels like indulging in a vice. It’s something I have no control of but it gives me a sense of control to define it as irrational. It includes things like; “my ex sleeping with others”, or “I bet my brother looked like this when he killed himself” even though I wasn’t there, or anything I have no facts to support or wasn’t present for at all. Again, these are the irrational thoughts. Defining them as such when they come helps give them less merit & control instead of acting out a compulsion because of them. After I have “indulged” in those thoughts as an observer and the itch is scratched in a way, I can begin thinking about the “logical” things. The second category to my formula of relief is that logical side. The logical side is what is based in reality. Not opinion. Not what I want to be reality to make myself a victim or anything similar. It’s based on the facts of the situation and can only be reached after I’ve let the obsessive thinking run their course. The obsessive thinking will try to make its way back in, but as long as I recognize those irrational thoughts as such, than I am okay to continue. Generally, the thing that makes an irrational obsessive thought so irrational, is that it has no basis in reality. The thoughts not based in reality are the ones that seem to want most of my time. But as time goes on, I’ve learned how to navigate them and sometimes just get them to turn off. Thanks for reading, love your work Dr K.
I have extreme harm ocd. I had to deal with constant thoughts of people killing me, I had reoccurring thoughts of chewing the fingers off of infants as they scream. I still do and this is the worst thing I deal with. It causes me to mutilate myself by biting my hands and pulling eyelashes or other hairs on my face.
OCD likes to suprise you with a new tentacle out of nowhere. You defeat one and then another one emerges. Thankfully though you do get XP from defeating each.
This is such a rudimentary description of OCD……I’ve had it my whole life and I’m 52! This bloke had ADHD. As well intended as this description is, it’s missing the visceral and unrelenting addicts that NEVER switch off. It’s hell
I've been dealing with OCD since I was 13 It started with me scared of having cancer, then having rabies and when I was 18 it went from illnesses to being scared of being a psychopath, I was scared I could hurt/unalive people I loved and that's when I started taking meds After 4/5 years of therapy and psychological treatment I can fully say I do not care about intrusive thoughts anymore Yeah, they don't go away, at least in my case, but I've learnt how to ignore them and be more in touch with reality
Interesting point you made at the end about the region of the brain that is effected and the comparison of feeling negative emotions and playing video games to resolve the negative emotions. Reminds me of when my OCD started.. prior to this I was 14y smoking strong weed chronically any time I experienced a negative emotion. No wonder my wires got crossed. Wish I could undo all of that.
I like your approach to treating that. My friend who has OCD went to a horable program for it that just did exposure therapy wich ended up triggering tourettes. He was so afraid of germs hurting him he would avoid eating in public or going camping. Would shut down if the family went on a camping trip. He's doing a lot better now than he's getting individual help instead of a one size fits all program.
The examples given were great and I hope you will consider expanding on the overview by providing examples of what that psychotherapy will look like as well as clarifying if there are any self-help solutions.
I've been talking to a girl with ocd. When I was working I had this sudden shift in my brain state where I was repeating the same numbers in my head over and over again. When I worked I had to write the time, julian date, and employee number on every part I worked with (over 400 parts a day). I was repeating the same number sequence habitually while I was at home or at work I'm not sure why but when I stopped working the repeating numbers eventually stopped. She was diagnosed with OCD about two years ago and she also has depression. She used to work on some sort of assembly line idk all the details but I imagine there's a chance her work could have produced her OCD which seemed to happen to me (temporarily). I will look for a way to ask her about it without making her feel wierd.
I have schizophrenia I've been diagnosed for about 6 years now, I told her if I could talk to somebody about it that would have helped alot but what went wrong with me was a massive cluster of things that's really complicated and can easily be misunderstood so idk if I'll ever be able to communicate with somebody about it. I was just trying to suggest to her to look for ways to talk about it. I know that during the bottom point of my psychosis all I needed was somebody to slightly readjust my thinking without completely dismissing my thoughts and I desperately tried to get that help from friends but found no support until I was officially diagnosed. She told me she does have difficulty talking about it and think she felt I was helping her.
I made my first comment before I finished watching this. I was only in 2 minutes when I wrote that. I am now 12:30 into it. I wasn’t really 100% 100% sure this is what I have but not I am. It’s right on. I’ve thought for the first time I may have ocd a couple years ago and never really thought I had that bc of the way it’s thought of in general. Ty for this video.
I’m concerned about talking to a therapist because it could make me acknowledge certain feelings I have. I know I should, but I can’t focus enough to reach out beyond telling others “I need therapy”.
Between ages 6-14, whenever I got stressed out or bored or anxious, I would actually take a notebook and write down every pokemon that existed at the time from memory. It would get to the point that teachers got concerned and I got in trouble a few times for it. Eventually I grew out of it but I really do wonder if that was OCD or just because Im on the autism spectrum, but im not really sure what made it go away either. I just sort of stopped doing that
im forever thankful you talk about compulsions being MENTAL. for the longest time i believed i couldnt have ocd because i 'just' had intrusive thoughts and would go in a loop of mental compulsions which would actually only make me su-cidal. OCD truly is like mental torture, not something i'd wish on anyone.
Yes that was really helpful for me as well
School of Life did a video about that where they called it Pure OCD.
100%. i ruminate on a lot of intrusive thoughts but only have a few physical compulsions. it was one of the reasons why i felt like maybe i wasn't "ocd-enough", yet when i was diagnosed they told me i fit the criteria for severe ocd.
You are seen and heard, I can relate to you completely, recently had a massive bout with ocd that lasted a good 2 years surrounding obsessions about religion, it was a huge hit to my psyche because i didnt really struggle with my ocd for many years at that point, but it came back full force and only stopped until I basically abandoned my faith in god/jesus recently, which ultimately was the parasite which was destroying my life and making me physically unwell, just saying it as it is, I understand that many people have their own beliefs, but when you subscribe to such a toxic religion which claims you are depraved and which has a tendency to dismiss mental illness, it causes nothing but harm. I know we are all at different stage of recovery and managing shit like OCD, Im untreated like probably most out there but damn is it good to feel free again, my ocd has crawled back in its hole again, Dont know if it will come back like that ever again, But i'm hoping you are doing well. it chokes me up to know that others have to deal with the things ive went through, my honest best wishes to you and all my brothers and sisters who deal with this disorder.
there are 3 types of OCD:
1. mainly obsessive (thoughts)
2. mainly compulsive (actions)
3. a mixed variety where neither thoughts nor actions are more prevalent
you have the mostly obsessive version
I absolutely hate when I hear those "omg im so ocd about..." comments. The last time I tried to explain why it was offensive I ended up getting laughed at and called a Karen. We NEED more content like this because ocd is not a joke or a quirky personality trait, it is a daily struggle for those who experience it. Thanks Dr K. 🌻
"Shut up Karren" 😂
this!
i never thought i'd be sick of hearing Karen. even though i've never been called one i am so sick of hearing it + hearing ppl called it. folks have taken the fun + funny out of it.
OCD is serious + if ppl understood even a fraction of what we actually deal w| i think most would never make offhanded comments like that again.
there will always be assholes but in general i think most would be chill. so yea, i agree w| you we need more content like this + the NOCD ads w| Maria Bamford that i've been seeing lately.
Well yes OCD is a serious disease but that shouldn’t stop people from saying “omg I’m so ocd”. It is just a way of explaining one’s behavior and although it isn’t inherently correct doesn’t mean people shouldn’t say it. You know exactly what someone means when they say that, no one really has ocd. Some could take it personally but it isn’t offensive to say it.
@@false7095 Well said.
I couldnt agree more
My wife has OCD. It's really hard sometimes because we have two beautiful children together and things can get out of control when she doesn't get enough sleep cause of the kids or stress or misses her meds cause our life gets super busy. It can def be overwhelming at times but I love her and our family and that's what matters most. I'll always be there to help her when things get hard for her.
Aw 🥰
❤ Thank you
Thank God there are still people who don't leave their wives because they got sick. There's hope left.
I've got instrusive thoughts due to my OCD. I don't get upset that easily, but I do really get annoyed by people that act on an impulse and they say they gave in to their "intrusive thoughts". Those aren't intrusive thoughts, they're just impulses. Having intrusive thoughts is not a quirky "tick" that makes you impulse buy that cute skirt you saw.
Well technically, impulsive thoughts are a form of intrusive thought. Intrusive thoughts are normally addressed medically when they're negative bc the thoughts will be causing the patient suffering. But things like impulsive thoughts about shopping, or your favorite animal, or other positive things are also intrusive thoughts.
I have OCD so I say this not to invalidate your feelings, but to share what my therapist (OCPD) has taught me to help me understand intrusive thoughts better. And as someone who has been addicted to shopping in the past, while having OCD and ADHD, I can confirm that the disorders made letting go of the temptation to shop much more difficult! I saw these goth boots at Forever 21 months ago and I still can't stop thinking about them...😅
@@raining_trees yeah, I agree. I also believe that our susceptibility to intrusive thoughts is also part of what causes so many people with OCD to also struggle with substance abuse. The urge to use is amplified by the constantly repeated intrusive thoughts about a substance, even after the physical addiction has been dealt with.
Some people have Pure O OCD to where they do not have compulsive behavior and some people have compulsive behavior acting as a coping mechanism to temporarily relieve obsessive/intrusive thoughts. This coping mechanism isn't healthy of course. They are not impulsive, they are compulsive, as they are repeated rituals. For example someone might be like "I need to touch X 5 times or X will happen to my family, etc". Impulsive shopping is more associated with mania.
@@jaimlawson there's no such thing as Pure OCD. There's always some reinforcement it just might be not that key behaviour.
@@gniewomircioek6845 Right, it is kind of a made up term to label how symptoms may manifest in someone and not from the DSM V. I've experienced all kinds of different forms and like you say, the reinforcement is the constant that drives it, whether psychologically or somatically. Regardless it is exhausting.
im so used to hearing the misrepresentation of ocd that hearing it described so accurately makes me feel like I'm gonna cry
What sucked for me is that the majority of therapists and counselors I've talked to about this literally don't understand OCD past it being orderly. I'd bring up the taboo thoughts of sex or harm and they just wouldn't know. If you want to treat OCD, please see someone who specializes in it and practices Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP). It's the "gold standard."
I have very extreme OCD and live my life completely in gloves at this point.. Even sleeping in them. I go through over 400 a week. I can barely function anymore, everything in life is contaminated to me I can’t even touch my own skin and crying about it grosses me about because of the tears.. I got so excited when I saw you posted this because OCD is all I do at this point, it would mean the world if you made more videos on OCD to both understand myself more, have others understand, and know better how to recover. I’m very open about my condition if anyone has any questions
Have seeked helped? The theory behind the ERP thearpy is really simple. Can be harder in practise espically if you do it alone at first. Its not impossible as many have done it. But again I recommend if you have access to proffessional help, seek it! Medication can also help to make thearpy is easier. But thearpy is the best long term.
"How does ERP therapy work?
ERP therapy is a behavioral therapy that gradually exposes people to situations designed to provoke a person's obsessions in a safe environment. A hallmark of ERP is that is doesn't completely remove distressing situations and thoughts."
I was in a similar situation a few years ago and for a long time it seemed hopeless. i didnt want help because OCD had taken over so much of my life that nothing outside of it excited, i was OCD, there was no me left.
i refused therapy and medication for a long time out of fear of losing my OCD. What i've come to learn is that i did actually want help, i was trapped and screaming out for help, but OCD is so extremely overpowering and controlling that is punches you down into such a small ball that you cant move, you are too scared to move.
I eventually did take medication: sertraline. It helps OCD, but fucks up everything else in your life (at least in mine). i felt like a zombie for months, i couldnt sleep, my depression got worse, my hormones were fucked, i ate less but put on weight, i wanted to hurt myself so much. (note that i started on 50mg and went up to 200mg. NEVER DO THIS PLEASE)
but after years of fear and gloves, i could finally go outside and touch flowers, rocks, and the face of my partner. i cried because i had barely felt anythign outside of gloves for so many years.
i couldnt handle the side effects anymore so i changed to fluoexetine (20mg) which was a lot more mild, but it still dulled my brain too much (all of this was while at uni during covid)
I am currently not on medication, but i feel the OCD coming back, i am in talkin therapy for a lot other issues and am seeing psychiatrist soon.
OCD is fucking hard to live with and overcome, its a crippling disorder that can easily destroy you and your life. I can recommend medication and therapy, but ik how hard it can be to accept it and allow it to change you. I hope you can find some help and some peace from your OCD brain. Please always remember that this is a long long journey and that there will be many up and downs, and that letting the OCD back in is so so tempting, its addictive, but that you are strong, you dont need it, there is a person beyond this fucked up disorder. this is a you trapped inside of yourself, and never give up no matter how much you want to
@@oatmilk9918 talking thearpy does not help against OCD or rarely helps . "How does ERP therapy work?
ERP therapy is a behavioral therapy that gradually exposes people to situations designed to provoke a person's obsessions in a safe environment. A hallmark of ERP is that is doesn't completely remove distressing situations and thoughts." You can read and learn alot about this thearpy on your own. This basically what Dr.K explained. Also medication can be a hit or miss, so maybe another one will help you more. I never took medication but thearpy is must. Lots of hard work mainly in the form of home works. GL with your work it will get better
@@dane2313198 as i said i'm in talking therapy for other mental health issues. I will probably move to a more OCD focused therapy after seeing a psychiatrist.
that said, i now see a surprising amount of other issues are just OCD in disguise (shame, guilt, avoidance etc)
i never made that connection until watching this video. after dealing with OCD for so long it can be hard to separate it from yourself and other comorbid issues
@@oatmilk9918 Sorry missed that you have other mental health issues aswell(its common). I was lucky to only have a very mild depression along late onset of ocd(26 years old). I was also lucky that I seeked help only after 2 months of the onset of OCD and feeling like my old self after 6months. Hope it turns out okey for you.
I enjoy watching Dr. K's videos so much!
Yes, it took YEARS of purposefully stepping ON sidewalk cracks to stop stepping over them equally between my feet. My mom's back is completely fine btw!
When i was 11-12 y/o I had an obsession with counting numbers. Every single little micro-movement i did my body increased the counter in my head, I felt terrible because it was constantly in my head, and I had to focus really, really hard on not counting to make it go away. The one thing that helped with the stress was, as stupid as it sounds, resetting the "mental counter" to 0.
That doesn't sound stupid at all! Why would it? That sounds rather straightforward to me!
Same. It’s was actually awful. I genuinely lost a good chunk of my own free will from things like that.
I had something like that but less bad when I was a kid, like counting too much or needing the number of steps I’d taken with either foot to feel balanced. It wasn’t a compulsion back then though, if felt almost sort of optional
I did develop pretty bad contamination OCD later in life though
OCD is hell... I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy tbh. At one point in my OCD journey, my intrusive thoughts we're so worrisome that I couldn't eat or sleep. At it's worst, I was ok if were to get in a terrible accident or plane crash so I wouldn't have to deal with those thoughts any longer. Luckly enough, I was able to recover through my OCD specialist and ERP.
Thoughts are just a thoughts.
Dr K, it would be so helpful if you could talk sometime about mysophonia, since I recognize that my attitude with mysophonia parallels pretty accurately with OCD behaviors, only that the disgust I feel is acoustic and not "hygienic" in nature. I'm not the only one, I don't know how much of your audience might suffer from this. I would be really thankful if you could touch this subject and whether your coaches would be prepared to help someone with this.
I'm so thankful you're talking about OCD, I have pure o ocd, and have had it on and off for 6 years, it's not as bad anymore but it used to make me literally suicidal. Also mine is very immoral and sexual which is why there is such a stigma and a lot of people are too scared to get help, or they might even not know they have ocd and think they want those things to happen
I am dealing with the same problem for 2 weeks now can you give me some tips please
I also have the same immoral thoughts I know they are not me it was so bad to the point I wanted to do suicide but I couldn't and thought about running away from home which I did but my dad found me and I told him everything about the thoughts etc he told me it's okay don't give attention to your thoughts they will go away but still it hits like every hour a day which is making it very difficult for me
Did you also had the thoughts that those intrusive thoughts feels like its you
@@SpadesThunder What you're experiencing is very normal OCD especially Pure o, if you can you should try to get help from an OCD specialist psychologist. But I know it's hard but what helps me with my thoughts is not trying to fight them, just let them be there, it's an ERP technique, the more you fight them and try to get rid of them the stronger they become, just let them be and do nothing and your anxiety will calm down, it'll be hard but it helps
2 years ago I think my OCD manifested.
Harm OCD to be specific I genuinely believed I was going to gouge my eyes out. This was my obsession for the next 4 months.
I became unable to do a basic task for myself like eating or bathing which required using my hands, I would sit on my hands, I would ask my family if I would truly cause harm to myself. I would cry every single day because the images and thoughts in my head were horrific and graphic.
And I started to become unable to trust myself at all. I would avoid sharp objects I would avoid putting my hands anywhere near my face. I needed a family member present at all times because I did not trust myself to be left alone.
And don't even get me started on the sensations, next level horrifying. The only physical compulsion I had was checking my eyes in the mirror for at least 10 to 15 minutes straight.
I never knew what I was looking for but it eased my OCD for a short while. Before rinse and repeat lol.
Well anyway I was diagnosed by a psychiatrist with OCD along with some other disorders. And was prescribed Fluvoxamine. Thankfully, it had very much silenced my OCD, and I definitely am much better now.
I've always thought I had OCD but never talked about it because I understand the danger of self-diagnosing but also I have worked really hard over the past few years to separate the intrusive thought from the action and it doesn't debilitate me. I wasn't sure if I could have a disorder if it wasn't debilitating. Thank you for the video this has been so incredibly helpful especially for someone who hasn't talked about this with a therapist yet.
A lot of the time people don't get diagnosed for stuff unless it is effecting their quality of life but that doesn't mean there isn't something going on, just that treatment might not be required. There is no reason to get too caught up on official definitions of if you have or don't have something though, since the goal should just be to live your best life.
@@Lilitha11 You're absolutely right. I've never thought about it that way before but you're totally right. This helps me a lot thank you so much for taking the time to write this comment.
Get a diagnosis and therapy. I thought I had gotten rid of my compulsions by no longer performing external actions, but I ended up just internalising all of my compulsions and do them in my head instead.
I just got diagnosed with OCD, now im watching these videos to get more insight into what's going on in my head
I've isolated myself for so long that's it actually affecting my loved ones. It's such a spiral of bullshit. This year I'm going to try to reach out more. Hopefully I can repair the damage I've done trying to protect my loved ones from myself.
When I was living as a Buddhist monk I had loads of people come with that diagnosis.
Will save this video for future reference, great stuff!
Thank you for sharing :)
Do you have any recommendations on how to treat OCD? Or do you have any videos you can share with us that you think are good? 😊
@@xaquariix
Being able to manage difficult emotions and sensations and thoughts are some of the key reasons to practice mindfulness meditation.
In the west we often view meditation as relaxation or a way of calming down. And so it makes sense to create an environment that is calm and soothing.
But when we meditated at the the meditation centers we would welcome whatever came up both from within and from the external world. Then we'd learn how to handle how that would cause us to react internally. A thought is just a thought, you don't need to follow it, observe it and you'll see that eventually if you can sit with it it will dissappear.
I don't have any specific videos on the topic , but I recommend listening to anything mindfulness related. Many that I met said that a daily meditation practice combined with mindfulness practice throughout the day helped them.
Main thing many get wrong that come into meditation is that they want to get rid of your thoughts. What meditation does is help you observe your thoughts and see that they are just thoughts, you don't need to follow them or do what they say. They arise, then they pass away. Easy to say, but difficult to do. A daily practice is a great place to start.
Good luck with your practice!
@@MartinKPettersson Thank you!
OCD has been a part of my life, and learning Vipassana has been a major help for me. It was so cool hearing Dr. K describe the psychotherapy for OCD and make the connection between that and what the Buddha taught. It is truly amazing the scientific connection of the two techniques!
@@impossiblefix1134 thank you for sharing your story. I agree completely, meditation is a great way to handle many of these diagnosises.
Was it one of the goenka retreats you went to?
The timing of this is absolutely INSANE. Just yesterday I read about OCD and I got the sudden realization that some parts of my GAD resembled it a LOT.
My therapist has suggested this before, but it never clicked (because I had a totally false idea of OCD), until yesterday.
Definitely gonna get tested now. It would explain a LOT of inconsistencies.🙌🏻
THANK YOU Dr K!!! I'm 31 now, I've been struggling with my mental health since I was 15 or 16. I've worked with 5 or 6 different therapists over the years, and only JUST got diagnosed with OCD last year. The stuff I'd been doing in therapy prior to this helped, but now I'm doing totally different treatment that works SO much better than the other stuff.
It took so long for me to get diagnosed because my OCD has nothing to do with cleanliness, germs, or magical thinking. On the surface, it really looks nothing like the cultural stereotypes we have about OCD, but the truth is, I do obsess and I do have compulsions, and those things debilitate me. I'm so grateful to finally know what's going on with me.
I would love to hear your thoughts on the connection between OCD and maladaptive daydreaming.
Statistically speaking people with OCD are very likely to struggle with addiction (as the neuro-circuitry are the same parts of the brain). When I was a kid I was basically addicted to day dreaming and I have OCD. I have gotten treatment and I have recovered. What I will say though is, Dr. K is wrong in that focusing on the content doesn't matter; he is right in that the content of the thought doesn't matter, however, lasting recovery comes from understanding the content of the core belief which fuels the fear/guilt/shame etc that is associated with the thought. Otherwise your OCD will be episodic (as mine was off and on for 15 years).
I have OCD and I am so happy this content exists on the internet because I know it will help people. This is the type of thing I wish I had seen growing up. It took me a long time and a breaking point before I was diagnosed and even longer and an even worse breaking point before I got actual help. Thanks for putting this out there!
I respect Dr.K a lot man he is a gem for this world
Also, an example I use to describe OCD to get the ball rolling on an example that could fall into the umbrella is, “Pudge controls the weather” from Lilo and Stitch. The one time she didn’t give Pudge a peanut butter sandwich, her parents died in a car wreck in the rain. It’s an example of the magical thinking we might experience when we have OCD
Anybody who's suffering right now, trust me, it can get better despite how stuck and defeated you feel right now. My germaphobia had gotten so bad that I was showering for 5-6 hours but it barely affects me now.
I've had such intense internal monologue my whole life that is impossible to turn off. I've been picking my hands since I was at least 2, and for 26 years now I just thought I had an active imagination and lifelong depression. I get paralyzed with fear-based thoughts and check out, making my hands bleed. I used to think more positively about the future, but at some point I decided that thinking about a thing meant it wasn't going to happen, so therefore if I think about only bad things, then they won't happen. So I then magically-thinking'd myself into obsessively going over every horrible possibility of everything without even feeling like it's safe to consider what could go right.
Somehow, it never occurred to my dad to mention to me that he used to massively struggle with OCD, and had to do everything 3 times. Check locks, turn off lights, say certain things. I had no idea he ever struggled with this and it only came up less than a month ago. I feel like it all now explains a lot. :P
Most dads aren't psychiatrists. If you didn't do the exact same things he did with OCD, he wouldn't necessarily make the connection.
One problem with the pathology model of OCD is that people more marginalized from cultural and economic power (including neurologically marginalized, economically, sexually, etc) live with a higher cognitive labor burden to just exist in civil society. We tell individuals to blame themselves for pathologies as though they emerge in an ether independent from systemic injustice and marginalization. Mental health research has been corrupted by the epistemological biases of enlightenment rationalism which are disinclined to challenge capitalist mythologies of rational individualism in seeking more historically and sociologically critical answers to behavioral outcomes.
This!
Yes exactly
Absolutely. Mark Fisher touched on this in 'Capitalist Realism', he said: "Considering mental illness an individual chemico-biological problem has enormous benefits for capitalism. First, it reinforces Capital’s drive towards atomistic individualization (you are sick because of your brain chemistry). Second, it provides an enormously lucrative market in which multinational pharmaceutical companies can peddle their pharmaceuticals (we can cure you with our SSRIs). It goes without saying that all mental illnesses are neurologically instantiated, but this says nothing about their causation."
I ain’t reading allat
The hardest part of my ocd for me, is that it so tied to morality and established hygiene standards/what docs or disability rights activists tell you to that the compulsions are difficult to let go. Especially if i want to listen to what they say, the mental compulsions that would trigger are just so hard to let go of bc of the pressure to be the rigid moral ideal others want me to be
Never heard anyone explain OCD this perfectly. Thanks for this video
was waiting for this.
Same
Oh hey, i'm in this video and i appreciate it. Thanks Doc.
I’ve been struggling with OCD for about 30 years, and I knew most of what you said. But this video was tremendously helpful and helped me realize how I can use my experience in treating my OCD into other portions of my life that I am struggling with.
Thank you so much .
My OCD was undiagnosed for decades, just diagnosed last November, because the compulsions are all either in my head (counting, repeating phrases, repeating conversations, going over everything I know about whatever I'm obsessing on such as car safety statistics, etc.) or blended in with autistic stimming and avoidance behaviors so much that it doesn't even occur to me when it's an intrusive-thought-related compulsion instead (joint cracking, stretching, toe-walking, refusing certain foods, not liking to leave my house, putting off tasks. Sometimes it's just sensory/physical, sometimes it's a response to intrusive thoughts.)
Understanding that the vast majority of my thoughts are either intrusive thoughts or compulsive responses was monumental. OCD can be invisible, and I wish more clinicians probed for differential diagnosis between GAD and OCD. I think it would not have gotten so bad, and I would be a lot further along in healing if that had happened 20 years ago, or any time since.
I also think clinicians should consider anyone presenting with both ADHD and anxiety to be high risk for OCD. Intrusive thoughts are common in people with ADHD, especially those with high impulsivity, and it's a short jump to OCD when combined with persistent anxiety.
Thanks for speaking on OCD again Doctor K. I spent a good chunk of my childhood living in fear of the various scenarios my mind invented and doing compulsions to save myself/alleviate the negative feelings they brought on, not really knowing what was truly going on in my brain until much later in life. Right now it's still there but nowhere near as bad as before, it is mostly a struggle with obsessive and intrusive thoughts these days for me. The worst of it seems to come and go in waves every few years if the right scenario presents itself.
Also, the video you did on maladaptive daydreaming in connection with OCD (along with other things) was really enlightening, I did not know about it before and it is something that I seem to do all the time if my mind isn't almost completely preoccupied...
I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on what causes people to end up in certain camps of OCD (scrupulosity, harm, etc.) as well as your opinion on Pure-O OCD. Thanks again for the videos!
You made me realize the world when you talked about OCPD. I've always thought about having ocd but other people's experiences with it don't seem to completely resonate with me. I've always been obsessed about the way things are organized in my home: My closet has go be slightly open, the blanket on the couch has to be on the left side and things like that. But also things like constantly checking my phone's battery or my Nintendo Switch's brightness to reassure myself that it's at the highest level of bright. The thing is, you said people with OCPD don't try to push the intrusive thoughts away. But I do, everytime I have the thought of checking my phone's battery I try my best to reassure myself that I already checked it and it hasn't changed in just seconds, so I check it constantly. I'm still a bit confused since it almost seems like I suffer from a sort of hybrid between OCD and OCPD 😭. I'd love a video about OCPD
Maybe you don't have OCPD, but something else. Your checking makes me think of my problem: I have a tendency to verify and even when I'm sure I did or didn't do something I still have to check, but not more than once, I spend hours in the shower to be sure I'm enough washed and then rinsed. But it also looks as if I have some kind of social anxiety, and adding to that other symptoms, what I relate the most to is obsessional neurosis. This term isn't used anymore today, now we talk about anxiety, OCD, and anxious depressive troubles, it's quite confusing. That's why it is important to have a diagnostic, and even see several kinds of professionals to confirm.
Thank you Dr.K for your work. You are helping so very many of us who struggle daily with OCD. The mental anguish I experience is exhausting and overwhelming. I am so grateful to you and your work!! 🙏🙏
I think people need to understand that health anxiety is a form of OCD. Didn't make headway with my health anxiety until I started treating it like OCD. Unfortunately, my therapist didn't even understand and I had to figure it out on my own. Thank goodness for youtube.
Omg yay, I appreciate a video with a title about OCD that's actually all about OCD. I'm ADHD too & love all the other valuable stuff you say but recently one video seemed like it'd be an hour on OCD & it mostly strayed from the topic, which was understandable but a little bit of a bummer XD Can't wait to watch this in the morning. Thanks for all your useful insights & hard work
I would like to hear more about your perspective on Dermatillomania, because its the main way for me to release that "anxiety" caused by my OCD. I just had this specific talk with my therapist and I think your video helped me understand in a deeper level what happens with my mind whenever I go through that discomfort and seek release by harming myself. At this point it became a reflex, its disgusting.
I know I need to face my discomfort and intrusive thoughts head on but sometimes I just cant function. Its horrible, now its taxing me on my body and I dont know what to do, I am very close to looking after anxiety meds.
Hey I hope you found some help. Much love
I have dermotillomania as well. Specifically on my lips or any scabs/plaques on my face or body (I also have sebopsoriasis which is not a good combo haha). So I know how you feel. I have so much shame around what I do to myself and I worry a lot that I won’t be able to solve it. Especially as someone who wants to be a therapist. The thought of seeing clients and absentmindedly picking at my lips during a session horrifies me. I’m seeking therapy for it, so I hope it helps.
Hey I'm also struggling with this for the past 10 years. (Time flies...) It's gotten a lot better but sometimes it comes back. For me it's important to keep my stress low. I tried therapy and medication a few years ago, but now I'm mainly doing yoga and meditation a few minutes everyday and honestly after a few months I started feeling more peaceful overall and it's a lot better.
I appreciate this channel so much as a sufferer of OCD and cyclothymia. Your perspective is always so well-thought out and intelligent, i cant believe what youre saying is free ! You confirmed to me that i do wanna join the mental health field thank you!
Ocd fucking sucks but I am here to tell You that building a beautiful life is possible.
I am an artist and I have suffered this shit for a long painful time, there were times I would wish to give my hands exchanged for another brain.
But I have learned to build a life despite the pain and struggle and not giving up.
The obstacle is the way, it's no easy, it's hard as fuck when you can't even leave your room with the fear lf becoming evil and causing dispair... when you can't even touch a pencil. But it's worth a try, it's worth the effort to be brave and accept the terror in all it's faces. To value your life beyond the pain is possible, because thoughts and emotions are not ours but our will and effort always are.
You can grow strong and capable. My Best wishes to you if You are struggling with this, i send you virtual hugs and much love from México. And cbt es the best therapy.
One thing I found to be somewhat helpful is that when you start to obsess about something, you go over it in your head time and time again to make sense out of it and sort of "justify" why you're not a "bad person" for thinking it, or if you're thinking about the order of some things over and over until it "feels" right, like you made sure its done in the "right order", when you identify that you're having those thoughts, write them down in a notepad on your pc or in a diary or whatever. Something about it being written down and saved somewhere, feels like I won't forget about it, that I don't need to go over it anymore and its relieving, then few days later even if you delete it it won't bother you. Of course its not really some sort of "cure" but its time saving when you need to focus on things.
I do not like the word "cured", it is quite misleading. It is manageable at best.
@@jaimlawson yes, thats why I said that its not a "cure" and that it might just be helpful
@@Wakshak321 Sorry, I think that came off wrong, I was referring to the video where he says like "people walking around with uncured OCD". I'm sure you know, it is a silly concept because at the end of the day, the person with OCD has to overcome and manage it themselves day to day regardless.
4:42 feel bored don’t feel like working
Internal impulses and then give into them
Ocd is about discipline
Seperste thoughts from action
Thoughts are so strong it brings action
5:33 OCD are thoughts with a couple key features
6:33 OCD can also be intrusive thoughts like hurting someone or sexual in nature
7:33 OCPD is different
12:22
13:55 how ocd forms
14:55 POA
18:50 avoidance will close off doors in line
22:00 training Mind to solve internal discomfort with external action instead of being with the emotion
So we rather engage in accordance behavior = gaming, shows, searching thing that you think is helpful but not necessary
If you keep reinforcing negative behavior that makes the circuit hyperactive
This is useful, because a few weeks ago my friend was telling me about her anxious thoughts and how out of control they get. I suggested that it might actually be OCD, but there isn't a lot of understanding of OCD.
i was diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder years ago and never looked too deeply into it, just tried some medications and nothing really worked too well so i just decided to live with it. then like a few months ago i found out what dermatillomania is and i realized, wait, i do that. and as i kept looking into ocd more and more, i'm realizing like all of my anxiety and behaviors and stuff fits neatly into this box. and this video really helped explain how it all fit together. i guess it's time to go see a therapist lol
This video is on point and very well done. I suffered from moderate to moderately severe OCD for over 12 years in total out of my 33 years on Earth before I finally arrived at an OCD diagnosis and proper treatment. I went through a lot of what you're describing... Not knowing what OCD really was and viewing what I was experiencing as anxiety or a physical health problem. I did incorporate mindfulness meditation practices into my recovery and I like how you recognize this as being the main "gift" from treatment that even non-OCD people would benefit from.
One minor quibble is I don't think most clinicians really spend enough time on the emotional and physical experience once the OCD gets to a moderate level... Chronic anxiety, panic attacks, chronic shame and guilt, depression, etc. The relief you get from the compulsions doesn't last long and it becomes constant. Once the compulsions stop working is also a seriously bad development in the downward spiral.
Otherwise, great video.
I got a lot of obsessions and compulsions. They’ve gotten so much better with getting out of a bad situation and finally getting therapy for anxiety and a tiny dose of ssri’s for depression.
It makes me feel like this isn’t something I need treated since it’s so close to my sense of discipline and sense of self. They rarely objectively cause harm. The only thing I have left is I want a diagnosis so that I’m allowed to speak about this without feeling that I’m describing the wrong thing or people will think I’ve fallen off the deep end.
I guess I’m just really struggling with how to cope with depression, anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive actions. Like in the example mentioned I’m afraid of going to a party, i avoid it and don’t go. But when I let myself have compulsions, I spend 15 mins tapping the wall, and I’m late - but I made it to the party. I know it could be a slippery slope but I fundamentally can’t understand how to live without the compulsion structure since it’s all I’ve ever known. On a higher dose of anti-depressants and trying avoiding compulsions - I stopped doing everything, and nearly got kicked out of college - but suddenly with the compulsions there I can function like a normal person just with a big secret part of myself that I feel no one understands.
I swear you've posted this like 2 times before! But it's good to hear again still. I struggle with OCD and one part that doesn't get mentioned is that the thoughts may seem irrational but they're so NORMAL that (at least for me,) I didn't notice I was forming OCD until it was severe...like didn't shower for a year severe.
I've been waiting for months for you to talk about OCD. I am constantly defeated by my own thoughts. Thanks for the big picture. Please... I'd love to hear your thoughts on OCD and Schizophrenic commorbilities. I have been obsessed with my obsessions. There include my other disorders
To me, it looks like some people are feeling personaly angry when others mislabel it, and I think this is due to some people who truely have ocd associating themselves strongly with it.
In some sense, I think this is a problem too, because then it can become hard to have a calm and impactful conversation when you're confronted about what ocd really is.
By the way, I have had severe ocd in my teenage years (got very close to psychosis apparently), and oh boy was it not fun to deal with. I'm glad I've been able to get it to a point where I don't really feel its effects on a daily basis. If you have to strugle with ocd on a daily basis, just know that it WILL get better over time if you put the efforts in. I'm a "miracle case" apparently, I'm proof that no matter how bad your ocd is, there is hope.
Thanks for reading, and I wish yall the best 👍
I get very mad when people don't understand how OCD impairs concentration, and, as a result, your performance at work. I struggle with maintaining a job because of OCD and many people just straight up say that I'm not fit for the job...
this is an awesome video. as someone w ocd for around 7 years now, the beginning few years were horrid. zero concentration at all bc i was getting bombarded by thousands of intrusive thoughts that i painfully obsessed over. at one point i thought i had schizophrenia because it felt like a different part of my brain was saying shit to me. anyway, ive developed a lot of skills, and am about 90% better, esp w the help of medication. seek help ppl! you are not what your intrusive thoughts make you think you are 🖤
Dr. K I think you might've just gave me the key to solving the biggest problem in my life. Thank you! Im glad I listened and clicked on this video.
📝NOTES
4 types of OCD:
1. contamination
2. symmetry
3. thoughts of danger
4. forbidden/blasphemous/scandalous thoughts
OCD: egodistonic -> don't like having the thoughts
OCPD: egocintonic -> think nothing is wrong with them, and everything is wrong with others
Thoughts are INTRUSIVE (don't want to have them) + Impairs Focus
Obsessions + Compulsions
-> engaging in compulsion calms down obsession
-> corticostriatal thalamic circuit in brain governs attention, with action, and rewards aka what we think, do, benefit (hyperactive in people w/ ocd)
-> brain learns, in order to relieve mental distress, must engage in compulsion
-> THE MORE WE GIVE INTO COMPULSION, THE STRONGER THEY BECOME
-> can lead to avoidance (missing out on big parts of life)
-> can lead to shame
SOLUTIONS
-> LEARN TO TOLERATE NEGATIVE EMOTIONS AND NOT GIVE INTO COMPULSIONS (exposure response therapy... guys go get professional help!)
side note: rocd is something many don't know about either, perhaps a vid on this could be helpful?
Man I feel like I’ve needed to watch this video for years, thank you so much
I'm glad you mentioned the OCPD because I've met alot of people who claim to have OCD to excuse their abusive behaviors
12:31 alright where is this part so I can drill a hole straight through it
Where have you been all my life . Seriously. Started crying cause I felt so understood whilst listening to you.
Please never stop uploading❤
My ocd has been so bad as a teenager, I didn’t even attend the funeral of two of my relatives.
I am an adult now- until this day, no one in the family understands why I could not be there . They believe it must be because I’m a bad person and that I didn’t care which is so hurtful.
Back then, it felt as if I didn’t have a choice.
I wish someone would have helped me to cope with it. I was alone with this though and nowadays, in the day to day life , still am - since most people think mental illness is just imagination or a joke . „Other people have problems too“ and „ get over it“.
So happy UA-cam algorithm recommended your channel.
Love from Europe ♥️
A big part for me is that I’ll start randomly thinking about something scandalous that just makes me feel so gross since it’s morally wrong and it’s a thought I shouldn’t be having. And they don’t go away usually until I do that hand washing until I’m raw. So it has little to do with the fear of germs or getting sick or anything and everything to do with grossing myself out over the thought so I do something clean to cancel it out and make me feel neutral again. It’s like you’re constantly at war with your own mind
Yes! I’ve struggled with OCD my whole life. Thank you for explaining this so beautifully!
This was tricky. Thank you Dr.K
I’ve been struggling with contamination and responsibility ocd for my whole life, particularly bad for 2 years now
Thanks for the education on the topic!
I've been battling ocd for several years now, and I've got to say that content in this video is amazingly accurate. Really good work 😁
Just got diagnosed with OCD. Thank you for helping me understand what’s going on in my head
Can i just say how much i envy your highly dense dark wavy hair. I almot have the same hair as you, beside from the fact that my hair density is not that high. I thought i was balding, but when going to multiple barbers and asking the question, they said that i actually have a lot of hair. It's just that my hair is quite fine and not that dense, which makes my scalp really easy to see at times.
I know nobody cares, but i had to get that out lmao
awkward.....
I would love to see more videos about dealing with OCD working on finding a therapist but haven’t had luck yet. My worst obsession is skin imperfections and I end up picking my face to the point of canceling plans because of how much worse I made it I’ve been struggling with this one as long as I can remember. I always picked insect bites as a kid. I didn’t realize my possible OCD tendencies were also behind me needing to “do something” to fix all my feelings. Mind blown as always thank you for your work
You literally described the situation i'm going through for the longest time. I've had many awkward moments where my actions from OCD get noticed by others around me, and I've managed to developed solutions to manage my OCD, which in fact made things worse, and it's actuallly is a cycle that I'm not getting out of. The worst thing is, I know my actions aren't gonna make things better in the long run but I do it anyway just to get out of the negative thoughts even if it's for a little moment.
I am a victim of OCD. Thanks for making another video on it Dr. K! Learning more about this demon in my head is helpful so I can outsmart it.
As someone who has severe Pure -O (Form of Ocd) this video is extremely informative and digestible. Thank you Dr. K! This really motivates me to do ERP
oh my god YES, ive been waiting so very long to hear dr k's indian accent even if just for a few sec. gotta love this man and his sense of self irony.
24:08:"I saw that uh..-" to be continued? 😐😂
For over 26 years I have been looking for help to alleviate depression. I always started the appointments by saying how depressed I am since childhood. I avoided all OCD symptoms because I was afraid to talk about them and because I thought they happened because of depression. But a few months ago I started to suspect my diagnosis because I have been intensively treating it with medication and sometimes with psychotherapy for 15 years and I have not seen results. Then it was like a pop in my head... I remembered that before the first bout of depression, I had OCD. First, when I was a small child, I thought that when people spoke to me, their saliva would get into my mouth and contaminate me.
And then to talk to them I should have my mouth on the collar. The collar was drooling and my mother was very ashamed of me, she told me to stop but I couldn't. Then came the hair pulling OCD when I was around 8. And then came the inappropriate, sexual thoughts (which weren't as heavy for me as a child but which for me at the time were terrible), and religiously offensive thoughts that made me feel deeply guilty. I remember calling my mom to ask over and over if something (that had crossed my mind) could be forgiven. She patiently explained that everything was fine. And I felt calmer for a moment. But then another thought came up and I had to ask her again if everything was okay. Sometimes I would struggle with that thought for days because I didn't want to bother her and because I knew that as soon as I got rid of it, another thought would arise.
And I started to distance myself from the things I liked so as not to create more uncomfortable situations that would turn into bad thoughts. I withdrew from the other kids, stopped playing, and gained a lot of weight (anxiety made me eat more sweets). And just then I was diagnosed with depression. But after the diagnosis I simply forgot to give due importance to these things that happened.
I spent my entire adolescence enslaved by my thoughts. Sometimes the compulsions were visible and sometimes they weren't. I repeated many mantras and prayers in my head as quoted 7 times. It started with 3, but if I got it wrong it couldn't be 4, it should be 7. And if I got it wrong it should be more, but not 14, maybe 21. In early adulthood I got married and it was hell. He worked traveling and I thought something was going to happen. I spend 100% of the time in crippling fear. So after trying to treat myself for almost 7 years, I thought it best to ask for a divorce because I saw that my ex husband was sinking into my problems and he was such a normal and happy person that I thought it was absurd to do this with my life from him. I never had a serious relationship again. I didn't want to have kids because I knew my head would make my life unbearable. I would be worried every minute of my day and it was unbearable. I had to operate to not have children because I thought I was pregnant even though there was no reason for it and I was constantly taking tests.
I had only a small improvement around the age of 28. I found a job I liked (despite being obsessed with it in an unhealthy way), and I also became obsessed with my fitness, even getting sick and running a fever from overdoing exercise and dieting. At the end of the day I always felt empty. But this was the moment I felt better. Only the pandemic came. I have to say that my most important and damaging defense mechanism in my life has always been oversleeping. When I was married I spent more than 20 hours sleeping a day, for days. And excessive sleep all the time always caused me a lot of problems. It was even because of sleep that I sought psychiatric help the first time. But it never got better. Staying awake is an exhausting challenge. It turns out that in the pandemic (and along with it a cancer diagnosis for my mother), my anxiety levels soared that I was completely out of control. My eye was always jumping with anxiety. My blood pressure stayed high for many months and the worst thing was: I couldn't sleep anymore. Sometimes I slept 2 hours, sometimes less than that, and even sleepy and exhausted, I couldn't sleep. It has been draining my energy to such an extent that at the moment I feel completely drained and without energy to do anything. I started working in 3 different places and I couldn't go on, I tried to go back to school and I couldn't go on. I think I've reached the end of my path. I don't see what else to do and I don't even have enough energy to do anything. And I can't give meaning to this existence either. I'm just here being beaten by life and disturbing others. I don't want to be a burden on my family and society, but I can't anymore.
I’m unsure if it’s an OCD thing but I really related to the physical ritualistic stuff. I know it’s irrational but before I go to bed I always have to make sure that I’ve locked my doors 15 times and check my stove 15 times otherwise I fear my apartment will be broken into or will go on fire. It’s really annoying cause sometimes I’ll be in bed and ready to go to sleep and I get up to do it again just to be sure even though I know I already did it. Thanks Dr K for your insight!
I've had OCD since as long as I can remember. (Seriously, I can't remember a time I haven't experienced it.) But I didn't realize I had it til I was 32, and I'm 33 now.
It's actually frustrating that it wasn't caught sooner, even though it was so obvious.
Actually, UA-cam algorithm caught it before I did and showed me Nate Peterson's (OCD & Anxiety) channel, and everything in my life made sense -- the eating disorder, self-harm, addiction, workaholicism, paranoia leading to agoraphobia, literally everything.
I've since joined the NOCD community, and it's been so supportive.
I've been in therapy since 2001, but ERP has been *the hardest* I've attempted. Some themes feel so unmanageable and so suffocating (especially ones requiring constant reassurance) that I haven't been able to confront them yet -- but I will.
This was such a great video, and I'm glad more people are giving real info about OCD when there's so much misinformation out there.
😂😂😂😂😂 that wig and beard part was amazing ❤️❤️🔥
I have this issue that whenever I have this intrusive thoughts, I change the behavior depending on how inconvenient or harmful it might be. Like, I understand and prioritize my physical well being, even my productiveness. Most of the time I can give in to the compulsive behavior, but if at some point, which is rare, it starts to get too stressful...then it is defeating its purpose, and then I stop. Or if it's something that is hurting my body, my mind is like..."ok this isn't working out" and then I am able to switch or modify that behavior
Hi @HealthyGamer GG! Thank you for your work. Could you make a video on tics (involuntary movement) for young children 12+ years?
How do you always upload videos at the right time. I have OCD, last night i had pretty bad insomnia because of my intrusive thoughts and yeah i know my compulsion is watching games/playing games. Thank you Dr K
I greatly appreciate educating about OCD, it is one of the most misunderstood and misdiagnosed mental health issues out there. I have OCD, I have gotten treatment and I have recovered. What I will say though is, Dr. K is wrong in that focusing on the content doesn't matter; he is right in that the content of the thought or emotion itself doesn't matter, however, lasting recovery comes from understanding the content of the core belief which fuels the fear/guilt/shame etc that is associated with the thought. Once you learn what the core belief Dr. K's treatment is correct, you learn what the core issue is and learn to accept that if the worst case scenario of that belief were true that you're okay with it. Otherwise your OCD will be episodic (as mine was for 15 years). I agree though, learning to become comfortable with whatever horrible thought or feeling comes into my head does give a certain liberation
may I ask did your treatment involve medication (I know some people who take medication for OCD) or more Cognitive Behavioral Therapy? from. your comment I assume the latter but I'm curious. I think you're right in what you're saying, often there's some underlying self-esteem problem or core belief at the root of the OCD if you dig deeply enough. it also seems to develop in childhood and I have some suspicion that traumatic or unstable family/relationship dynamics may be involved in the developing brain's attempts to control its environment with the maladaptive OCD behaviors that develop.
Holy shit. I knew I have had some traits of OCD in recent years but I was never diagnosed with it so I wasn't so certain but when you started talking about repeating spells in your mind I came to a realization I've had this for a very long time and I never even really considered this to be an OCD trait. Now I'm 99% certain I have it. Although I know you shouldn't self diagnose.
(self diagnosis warning) I suspect I could have a light form of ocd in the form of random existential questions like what comes after death? Does life matter? What happens after I die is it nothingness? What was going on before you were born? Humanity is going to go extinct and the universe will die in a heat death in the future etc etc. They circle around in my head for hours and I feel relief by looking it up. Even tho the aswers do not exist the simple act of giving in and trying to solve these questions gives me relief. Thankfully I knew a little about ocd before it started occuring so I only gave in a few times and usually am able to resist the temptation of the "easy fix" but still it extremely annoying and sometimes panic inducing
As someone who has struggled with this type of OCD (there's actually a name for it; Existential OCD), the best way to get rid of it is by embracing the uncertainty of existence. You don't know much of anything about the nature of existence, and neither do I or anyone else. While we can, through science and other thought processes, come to logical conclusions about life (the world around us is real, other people exist, I exist, we are living on a rock floating around in space and that is the true nature of reality), we actually have no clue whether or not this is 100% true, because there's still a chance (albeit, small) that it isn't true.
I compare it to all of my other intrusive thoughts I've had because of my OCD in the past and it makes me feel better as well. I used to get anxious thinking I would suddenly have a seizure and it would terrorize every second of my waking day. Only when I realized that my brain was focusing on a more irrational, tiny possibility was I able to feel better. If there was a 1% chance that an asteroid was going to hit the planet and kill me but the other 99% knew that logically, that didn't make sense, why focus on the 1%? Your fear of the unknown parts of existence is making thoughts that are otherwise extremely small in probability, super big. Understand that and hopefully you will start to look at the big picture and realize your anxiety is just trying to find something to cling onto. I hope this helps!
EDIT: Also, stop looking your fears up. While it may give you initial relief, you'll just keep doing it and you won't be able to stop. Instead, find ways to distract yourself. Throw yourself into work, hang out with friends, go outside for a walk listening to music, anything you can do to cling back onto your daily routine. When you learn to stray away from your fears and fight your thoughts head on rather than find comfort on the internet, it will get better. It's a battle, but you'll grow a tolerance and feel better.
I ended up, after being diagnosed with OCD after a hard break-up, creating a formula for myself that seems to help.
There’s a side of obsessive thinking that exists that feels relieving when letting it take over. It almost feels like indulging in a vice. It’s something I have no control of but it gives me a sense of control to define it as irrational. It includes things like; “my ex sleeping with others”, or “I bet my brother looked like this when he killed himself” even though I wasn’t there, or anything I have no facts to support or wasn’t present for at all. Again, these are the irrational thoughts. Defining them as such when they come helps give them less merit & control instead of acting out a compulsion because of them.
After I have “indulged” in those thoughts as an observer and the itch is scratched in a way, I can begin thinking about the “logical” things.
The second category to my formula of relief is that logical side. The logical side is what is based in reality. Not opinion. Not what I want to be reality to make myself a victim or anything similar. It’s based on the facts of the situation and can only be reached after I’ve let the obsessive thinking run their course. The obsessive thinking will try to make its way back in, but as long as I recognize those irrational thoughts as such, than I am okay to continue.
Generally, the thing that makes an irrational obsessive thought so irrational, is that it has no basis in reality. The thoughts not based in reality are the ones that seem to want most of my time. But as time goes on, I’ve learned how to navigate them and sometimes just get them to turn off.
Thanks for reading, love your work Dr K.
Great video! You mentioned that the solution is to separate thoughts from actions, but didn’t give hints on how to start on it. I’d love to know more
this man now explained my internal problems for at least 20 years in the span of 25 minutes.
subbed.
I have extreme harm ocd. I had to deal with constant thoughts of people killing me, I had reoccurring thoughts of chewing the fingers off of infants as they scream. I still do and this is the worst thing I deal with. It causes me to mutilate myself by biting my hands and pulling eyelashes or other hairs on my face.
You're so brave for putting this out there, I could never say my intrusive thoughts out loud
I have severe OCD. I'm a daily sufferer. If I get over one thing, the manifestations come from another.
OCD likes to suprise you with a new tentacle out of nowhere. You defeat one and then another one emerges. Thankfully though you do get XP from defeating each.
This is such a rudimentary description of OCD……I’ve had it my whole life and I’m 52! This bloke had ADHD. As well intended as this description is, it’s missing the visceral and unrelenting addicts that NEVER switch off. It’s hell
I've been dealing with OCD since I was 13
It started with me scared of having cancer, then having rabies and when I was 18 it went from illnesses to being scared of being a psychopath, I was scared I could hurt/unalive people I loved and that's when I started taking meds
After 4/5 years of therapy and psychological treatment I can fully say I do not care about intrusive thoughts anymore
Yeah, they don't go away, at least in my case, but I've learnt how to ignore them and be more in touch with reality
Interesting point you made at the end about the region of the brain that is effected and the comparison of feeling negative emotions and playing video games to resolve the negative emotions. Reminds me of when my OCD started.. prior to this I was 14y smoking strong weed chronically any time I experienced a negative emotion. No wonder my wires got crossed. Wish I could undo all of that.
I like your approach to treating that. My friend who has OCD went to a horable program for it that just did exposure therapy wich ended up triggering tourettes. He was so afraid of germs hurting him he would avoid eating in public or going camping. Would shut down if the family went on a camping trip. He's doing a lot better now than he's getting individual help instead of a one size fits all program.
it has been so miserably hard to get treatment that it has made me anxious with the thought i dont have ocd
The examples given were great and I hope you will consider expanding on the overview by providing examples of what that psychotherapy will look like as well as clarifying if there are any self-help solutions.
Thank you so much for this video, Dr K. It felt like this video was made personalized with how detailed and informative it was
I've been talking to a girl with ocd. When I was working I had this sudden shift in my brain state where I was repeating the same numbers in my head over and over again. When I worked I had to write the time, julian date, and employee number on every part I worked with (over 400 parts a day). I was repeating the same number sequence habitually while I was at home or at work I'm not sure why but when I stopped working the repeating numbers eventually stopped. She was diagnosed with OCD about two years ago and she also has depression. She used to work on some sort of assembly line idk all the details but I imagine there's a chance her work could have produced her OCD which seemed to happen to me (temporarily). I will look for a way to ask her about it without making her feel wierd.
I have schizophrenia I've been diagnosed for about 6 years now, I told her if I could talk to somebody about it that would have helped alot but what went wrong with me was a massive cluster of things that's really complicated and can easily be misunderstood so idk if I'll ever be able to communicate with somebody about it. I was just trying to suggest to her to look for ways to talk about it. I know that during the bottom point of my psychosis all I needed was somebody to slightly readjust my thinking without completely dismissing my thoughts and I desperately tried to get that help from friends but found no support until I was officially diagnosed. She told me she does have difficulty talking about it and think she felt I was helping her.
OCD is the worst and best thing that happened to me. It led me to my enlightenment.
What do you mean by that?
Can you share how you overcame it, and how it led you to enlightenment?
I made my first comment before I finished watching this. I was only in 2 minutes when I wrote that. I am now 12:30 into it. I wasn’t really 100% 100% sure this is what I have but not I am. It’s right on. I’ve thought for the first time I may have ocd a couple years ago and never really thought I had that bc of the way it’s thought of in general. Ty for this video.
Yeah, i might have to get evaluated for OCD at some point for sure. Everything here sounds very recognizable
I’m concerned about talking to a therapist because it could make me acknowledge certain feelings I have. I know I should, but I can’t focus enough to reach out beyond telling others “I need therapy”.
6:35 Finally going back to try therapy with the most insight I’ve ever had but this OCD is so hard
I couldn't find the guide in the description, did I miss it?
Edit, there's a short video announcing the guide. I was able to get it there
Between ages 6-14, whenever I got stressed out or bored or anxious, I would actually take a notebook and write down every pokemon that existed at the time from memory. It would get to the point that teachers got concerned and I got in trouble a few times for it. Eventually I grew out of it but I really do wonder if that was OCD or just because Im on the autism spectrum, but im not really sure what made it go away either. I just sort of stopped doing that