OCD

Hi folks,

It's been quite upsetting to read through this thread, I must admit. What bothers me most is the physical signs of OCD.

I have suffered from nervous ticks, mainly in my right shoulder, for most of my life but I didn't really take it on board until late in life. I was at my father's funeral and one of my uncles started ridiculing me about it (at the funeral!) and saying that I was 'just like my (dead) father'. They had hated each other all their lives and I had never seen them together.

This really hurt. Then his daughter, my cousin, had a go at me as well. What a viper's nest.

Anyway, since then I have been very aware that I have some behavioural signs of OCD and I work hard to keep it under control. My wife says that it is barely noticable.

What bothers me most is how I feel when I see another person with 'tics'. It really upsets me, because I think 'Oh no, I don't want to be like that!!"

The odd thing is that my friends and my nuclear family never mention it. Maybe tics aren't the worst thing in the world, but I must be linking them with the bullying I had from my father as a child; I guess something like that is going on. I must be thinking that they are a clear sign of what happened to me.

Needless to say I have no contact with my birth family - nothing at all.

Hmmm, hard thoughts on this topic.

How do others feel about seeing physical signs of OCD? Is it as upsetting for you as it is for me?

M.

Justsignmeupalready...I love your name. I wonder how you were feeling when you signed up... hehehe.
I feel like everyone is looking at me sometimes. Not because I have three heads though. He he he.
I find that people don't understand OCD. They don't know about it and so they have preconceived ideas about what it is. Most people I have spoken to think that we should be able to grow up and get over our worrys. I should ask them to live in my head for a week and see if they like it. They just don't understand. I especially hate three step methods to fix my problems. 'If you do these three things you will be fixed'..... 'Yeah, whatever.'
Skin picking is so annoying, it's like biting fingernails, near impossible to stop. Not everyone who picks their skin has OCD though.
Ew, just thinking about biting fingernails makes me squirm. Imagine eating all the germs from under my fingernails. Not good. I could never eat my fingernails.

Hi Myzen. I don't know if these are tics that I have but I blink a hell of alot more than most people do. My friends (they aren't my friends anymore..actually they are more like rattle snakes now) used to comment on how I blink so much and I felt embarrassed. I also have this thing where my eye kind of twitches. One of my family members said something about it. I think it's a tic but I really don't know cos I am not a dr and too scared to bring the subject up with the t. But it's weird and looks funny. Don't like it please.
I am also very underweight because of the OCD and I get comments all the time about my eating. If it's my close friends I know that they care about me and they can say stuff about my weight, but not other people. Especially not strangers. I was being served in a line at a take away restaurant one day and the lady serving me asked if I was anorexic. Can you believe that? I just said to her that you don't say stuff like that. I wasn't rude to her or anything but I wondered if she had a brain in her head. I get really worried about when I go to the supermarket. I feel as though everyone is looking to see what I buy. I am sick of people going on about my weight. Another person I walked past in the shopping centre, and she said really loud, 'That girl just keeps getting skinnier and skinnier.' I felt bad about myself and I feel like everyone is staring at me because I'm so thin. I got invited out for tea this week too. These people (who I don't really like) invited me because they think I'm not eating properly. I don't like just anyone talking about my weight. It's none of their business. I realise that I am getting an attitude about this. I've just had too many bad comments about my weight lately and it's getting harder to just shake the comments off. It's getting inside of me now and it's hurting me.

Mostly what I have is intrusive thoughts. So then I try to distract myself, keep my mind busy. I make up little word games and just anything to stop me from thinking about what i dont want to be thinking about..then my friends will look at me and be like "what the hell are yout hinking about...your mind is always going". Thanks for the newsflash, bud...

My therapist believes that I can have a better quality of life and that it might take even up to a couple of years but I will get better than I am now. I thought there was no hope for me but now I think I believe him. He really believes that I have the skills to overcome this terrible hell. Now at least I have a small amount of hope. Maybe he is right. I have tried for so long to overcome all my fear but I have had no success. Maybe he really can help me.

I hope so. OCD is hell to live with.