Sneaky Compulsions for OCD and Anxiety

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Have you asked for reassurance from a loved one and they have no idea that they just reassured you? This is an example of a sneaky compulsion. Are you doing them?

The following topics are covered:
👉What Sneaky compulsions look like.
👉Example of sneaky compulsions.
👉What is a compulsion?
👉Why doing a compulsion is dangerous.
👉Reassurance Seeking
👉Avoidance
👉Talking about your OCD story can be helpful and harmful.
👉What your job is when a loved one accommodates or reassures you.
👉How our brain is designed to react to anxiety.
👉Comparing problem-solving and having a headache.

MUSIC:
Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0

[ocdandanxiety]

Have you caught yourself doing "Sneaky Compulsions"? Now is the time to come clean 🤪 -- What sneaky compulsions have you done?

[joelfortier]

I often feels anxious about not feeling anxious enough. My mind is like: "if you are not anxious, then maybe you don't have OCD"

[cara_alexis]

I always want answers to my thoughts. So I google non-stop.

[muzduza]

I'm learning we are not "bad people tryna get good" we are "sick people tryna get well"

[no_you_hang_up]

I never thought how asking "Do you think this is OCD?" could be reassurance seeking.

Very helpful. Thank you!

[lilymulligan]

My sneakiest compulsion is avoidance. It's so hard cuz I don't even realize I'm doing it a lot of the time!! But my theme for 2023 is to grow my COURAGE so let's doing scary things!

[chadgarber]

The very end was the best part. With OCD, we have to leave our problems unresolved and not try to figure out how to relieve our pain. Tough stuff!

[siennae]

ironically, I keep coming back to this video (and others) for reassurance that my seeking of reassurance is actually related to OCD since I have ruminations that I am just faking the whole thing or making a big fuss out of nothing....oh dear

[onerichartist]

Brilliant, I have never heard anyone speak on sneaky OCD. I have been cycling through roughly 35 behaviors for 40 odd years. No one knows.

[mirp]

I sleep with my light on because every time i turn it off I get incessant intrusive thoughts about ghosts and monsters and horrific events ✌️ also I use 5 or 6 blankets and have a perimeter of pillows all around my bed. God it seems so ridiculous when I type it out. I'm an adult??

[-mkz-]

God almighty, being OCD and having the constant urge for reassurance and not getting it from someone trained on how to help someone with OCD is like the ultimate form of precieved-torture for the OCD individual.

[rebeccashelley]

having rOCD, I often ask my partner seemingly "normal" questions like "what music did you listen to growing up?" but they are actually me trying to get a specific answer from him to reassure me (like in this case for example, worrying that we aren't similar enough in music taste) its soooo shit and he can sense that there's pressure on the question quite a lot of the time which is not nice for him :(

[PeaceboneGotFound]

Mental checking is such a sneaky compulsion that I deal with! I mentally check my feelings and thoughts about certain things over and over again and it takes up a lot of time--I'm working on it with ERP (and not doing mental checking and other compulsions during ERP)!

[gee_ruiz]

I’ve been doing this I feel like. The issue is, I know that no matter how much reassurance I feel after seeing people’s reactions, or seeing how liberating it feels after I speak with someone well.... a few minutes/hours later, I still feel an intense amount of anxiety.

[MrsV]

A lot of my OCD revolves around emetophobia. I started doing something as a sneaky way to "check". If we were at a playdate and someone was sick or I heard about someone sick, I would contact them later to ask how they or their kid was. Of course I did genuinely care, but my motive was definitely to get reassurance on whether or not I need to be concerned.

Yes, my friends and family have definitely started keeping information from me for fear of setting off my anxiety. It comes from a place of love, and I do appreciate that. But when I find out someone was sick and they specifically didn't tell me, it actually makes me more anxious!

[EmilIrska]

I’ve just started researching ocd, and I know you can never self diagnose, but this is the first time I’m finding people who act, think, or do the things I’ve hidden doing for years... I’m trying not to just google the hell out of this even though I’m here from doing that, I should find a professional for answers.

Also, Why are you reading my thoughts and why do I hate it??? This whole video. Oh god 👀 I’m getting called out so much as I’m writing this and I do not know what to think right now

[brynnaandersen]

This video got me thinking: Does OCD ever really go away? I was never diagnosed in middle school and high school because I never went to get professional help, but I am 100% sure I had it then. Now, it's died down (I thought my way through it and figured out what my thoughts really were), but I just assumed it went away. However watching this I think my old OCD manifests itself in different ways now - not as difficult to manage (like checking a hundred times to make sure no one would be crushed by my door, ) but still obsessive and compulsive in more socially understandable ways. Is it like other mental illnesses where it never truly goes away but it simply becomes better managed?

Edit: I found out, 3 years later. It never goes away. I entered my first relationship a year ago, so guess which subset I’m dealing with. 🤪

[christineguerrero]

Ugh, so great. I finished a ERP treatment a couple months ago and all was going well but now I'm slipping... and my brain is telling me "this isn't OCD, this is real." I used to do a lot of sneaky compulsions, I would do something I called "pseudo confess" where I would walk around all mopey until someone asked me what was wrong and justify the confession. And I used to share my stories all the time, my new therapist always ignored me because she was trained so well. Right now I'm in that "if I tell I'll go to the cops" phase which is so so hard to ignore. And I know watching videos and reading about OCD can even be a bit compulsive for me because I think I'm doing ERP wrong and have to figure out the right way.

[goldieh]

My parents are always saying things like "that's okay honey, don't feel guilty about it". But, I've realized that they raised me to be dependant on it to manipulate me into become compliant, so I'm more sensitive to them telling me I'm selfish and thoughtless when I do something the disagree with. Since I've become aware of that, I haven't been asking them for any reassurance and now I'm going to try to ask them not to. They also like to say "honey, that makes us so happy you're making friends" and it just makes me feel responsible for their happiness.

[hannahhillig]

just wanted to let you know, your videos are very calming for me