Hi Y,

These are indeed part of the OCD cycle of thoughts. I've been there. OCD thoughts come in many ways, and the simple way of spotting them is to ask, "Are these thoughts repetitive and upsetting?" and then "Do they make me feel bad about myself?" If the answers are yes, then it's more OCD.

My own variety of OCD is to remember hurtful comments that have been made to me by others, and then to think that they must have been right about me.

As with all thoughts in this illness, we are stuck in a self harming loop and we need to get out of it. We are judging ourselves as bad and unworthy and looking for evidence to prove it. Instead of this harmful pattern we need to get to truth, which is that no one's perfect, and that we are all just human beings, with all the imperfections that being human entails.

In my experience the worst people to be around are those who think they are perfectly OK and right about everything.It is much better to be aware of some shortcomings, but the OCD illness takes this to the other extreme, making us think that we are definitely not OK. The truth IMHO lies somewhere in between.

OCD is a miserable illness, and no mistake, but it can be reduced significantly with the right approach. It is an illness, it is not you.

Good thoughts and a warm welcome to the forum,

Myzen