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Is it just in my head


Guest Guest_Jennifer

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Guest Guest_Jennifer

My friends say its just in my head and that if i had it i would be on pills. But the thing is I know I have it and yes i would love to go on medication if only i had the guts to tell my parents. I have to keep checking things. Take a light switch for example. If I dont turn it on or off right I have to do it again till i do it right and I have to do this little cough thing I do and count to 3. Its really annoying and if I dont do it right then I will have this constant feeling something bad will happen so sometimes I spend 5 minutes turning off a stupid light switch. Its really annoying and I cant handle it anymore, I burst out in tears thinking im stupid because who takes 5 minutes to turn out a light because if I dont something bad will happen. please help me. Do you think I have OCD?

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  • 6 months later...
Guest rhonda

Oh Jennifer, I'm so sorry you're suffering. There are lots of us and lots of help. There are 12 step meetings for OCD (OCA) , a big book and group conference calls twice a week and like this forum, online help. :wacko:

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  • 4 months later...

Hi. I have something similar. Everything has to be done in multiples of three and I am constantly counting in threes and doing actions in threes 'cause to me, it feels right. When I'm out, I touch objects around me three times or in a number that is a multiple of three (usually 9 or 27). These thoughts and actions occur all day long. It can get very annoying, especially when I miss a bus or train stop because I can't leave my chair as I'm tapping it. I've tried stopping it by not doing it, but I've found that if I don't do it I feel so anxious and start to get scared. I thought I was just being paranoid or supersuperstitious or something until I just researched it now. I don't know what to do about it though, do I go see a doctor? Can it go away through medication? No one else knows. Thanks for listening...

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  • 7 months later...

Hi. I have something similar. Everything has to be done in multiples of three and I am constantly counting in threes and doing actions in threes 'cause to me, it feels right. When I'm out, I touch objects around me three times or in a number that is a multiple of three (usually 9 or 27). These thoughts and actions occur all day long. It can get very annoying, especially when I miss a bus or train stop because I can't leave my chair as I'm tapping it. I've tried stopping it by not doing it, but I've found that if I don't do it I feel so anxious and start to get scared. I thought I was just being paranoid or supersuperstitious or something until I just researched it now. I don't know what to do about it though, do I go see a doctor? Can it go away through medication? No one else knows. Thanks for listening...

 

For a little while now i've thought the stuff I do wasn't normal and something was wrong with me. When I kiss my husband I do it in like 3's or 10's, I count EVERYTHING...its annoying when I get nervous I move my feet in a certain pattern like a certain number of times I hate it!!! I am going to my doctor and my daughters Friday for her 6 month well baby check up, but I don't want to be on medication!!! I already take Wellbutrin SR and Buspirone (sp?) for my depression and anxiety my depression is gone still have a little anxiety but this crap drives me nuts!!! And i've done it off and on since I was like 13 years old is as far back as I remember doing it. I hate it!! I'm glad im not the only one who does this!!!

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HI,

 

Here is a great site that I found interesting and helpful.

Go to

http://www.jjsplace.org./

Click on kids games and play it, over and over, then play it in your head

to contain the ocd

This is a visual and a mind control process...can just be fun , too.

It will not hurt.

 

My son gets a verbal cue from me when out in public and helps

him to focus and manage a tough time.

 

Mustang Carole :)

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It seems to me that the meds you're taking are helping to some extent but not the underlying "driving" function for your "counting" thing. I think this is good because it isolates the counting thing, and that can be addressed with behavioral therapy. In this kind of therapy, you allow your self to do the counting or whatever things but under supervision so that you can find ways to break out of the cycle that is going on, whether it's 3 kisses, or 10 lock/unlock checks, or 5 shoelace retie cycles. The more commercial side of this therapy is called "Cognitive Behavioral Therapy" (CBT), which can be expensive, but can also help you to break these patterns and learn new ways to counteract and defeat new ones that come along from time to time. It seems to me you would be a very good candidate for this kind of therapy.

 

If you have any other particular "cycles" that you tend to go, like the 3 or 10 kisses thing and are willing to work on a counter-active behavioral plan, maybe you could describe it and we could get some ideas as to how to head it off at the pass or nip it in the bud, so to speak, and divert your attention and routine onto some other, more constructive alternative. The main thing is to untrack these grooves in your mind that have been deepening while you've been iterating/repeating this behavior, kind of like kicking an old plastic record out of its stuck mode, where it repeats itself indefinitely unless you kind of nudge it out of its repetitive rut/track.

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  • 5 months later...

im the same.

 

but i do it with my door. i have my door ajar at night and when im in bed i keep having to get up and make sure its ajar then i get back into bed and allways have to look to check my door is still ajar and then i count to 3 and then take a deep breath after.

 

it really annoys me and i do the same when i hang out washing i ahve to make sure i hand thewashing out with the same colour pegs and i keep having to check to see if ive done it right

 

my parents think im mad. i think i have ocd.

 

my parents just shout at me when i tell them about this so i keep quiet and ive noticed ive started washing my hands more than once cause i dont think ive one it properly. im afraid to tell me parents and i feel alone casue i ahev no1 to turn to.

 

xx em xx

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  • 1 month later...

Hi all, I also get the same things happening to me, it really puts a strain on my life, for example with my Phone if I ring up a wrong number and the persons says "o sorry but you dialed the wrong number" I

 

will have to repeat this 4 times dialing the same number, but it must be done 4 times, if I do not it's like something in my head saying o something bad will happen, but if I dialed a wrong number while performing my first action I have to also do that number 4 times, once I ended up ringing up 2 people 8 times for no reason. Just because some stupid thing in my head said to. I got so Frustrated after what I done I just now do not have a phone in my room. And if and when I do use the phone I spend about 5 min making sure that the keys I press are correct.

 

Same problem I also get with the lights, or opening and shutting doors. Same with windows if I opened a window in my bed room, I have to close it, reopen it and then close it again; until it reached the number 4 everything I do must be done 4 times, very odd.

 

When I was about 15 I also had a problem with also washing my hands I used to wash them about 50 times, but one day I said to my self that it no more, and for a week I felt really bad or something was going to happen but after it seems to were off, but the rest of my things above still remain.

 

But yes I know what you are all going though and your not alone.

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  • 2 months later...

Jennifer, your definately not the only one. I too take a long time to turn off the lights and you are not stupid, (and neither am I ;) ). Let your parents know, like most parents I am sure they will understand like mine did. Ask them to take you to a pshyciatrist/shrink and explain to them your problems, they are there to help. I hope your fight with this problem goes well.

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  • 3 months later...

i am 13 i think i have OCD .... i constently check things like doors as i think something bad will happen like bulgary ... and redo letters and english work even if it has been marked the teacher said it is good .. i got pictures in my mind....of my big brother killing him self and thing that that... i also have a constant feeling as if someone is stalking me or talking about me....i have started washing my hands alot..... and will not hold peoples hands...when i have a bad dream i have to think of ponies before i can get back to sleep .... i am scared of my mum getting hurt all the time... and i have started falling back in my school work.... i constantly clean stuff..andi will not touch the bathroom taps as they have germs on them...also i always feel as if i am lying...i always think oh something is going to go wrong...i don't have rituals as such but i say lol alot in my head and as you can tell i write.....dots alot..and also the ponie thing...today i have noticed that if i have to read a book i always have to have it tilted up i can not just read it flat so i feel bad.... but the problem is my friend has it to..so she thinks i am copying her but i'm not i have always been like this i just didnt tell her... so do u think i have OCD or do you just think i am copying my friend?

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  • 4 weeks later...

I have been diagnosed with OCD and all of the symptoms you guys have written about are classic signs of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, from my experience, anyway.

 

Violent thoughts, sexual thoughts, especially thoughts that repulse you and make you feel sick and disgusting are symptoms of OCD. There is nothing wrong with these thoughts. Having these thoughts does not mean you are going to carry them out. My doctor told me that he felt safer with someone that had OCD and had violent thoughts than a normal person with violent thoughts because the violent thoughts are so repulsive to someone with OCD that they would never act on them.

 

I know your suffering. The tapping, the checking, the fear that someone will be hurt if you don't do a particular compulsion, the counting. Want to know my numbers? They are: 1,3,5,6,7,9,10,12,15,16, 20-24, and from 30 up. The numbers in between are my worry numbers. If I tap something 8 times, I have to tap it one more time to make it 9. Of course, some numbers are safer than others. To me, 3 and 9 are the safest of all those numbers.

 

Sorry, I've rambled on a bit.

 

leigh, don't let your friend tell you what you're going through. Talk to your parents about seeing a doctor and ignore her complaints. Good luck, champ.

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