ME or OCD - How can I tell the difference?

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– – – Disclaimer – – –
For information purposes only. Does not constitute clinical advice. Consult your local medical authority for advice.

[ocdandanxiety]

Do you ever question if your thoughts are YOU or your OCD? 🤔

[elisahadi]

Accept that you can’t control your thoughts, realize that they are just thoughts and do not describe who you are and don’t fight back, laugh off and accept what is coming into your mind, also target the triggers of your ocd and do not fade away from them

[billscannell]

One piece of advice this guy gave in another video, to welcome intrusive thoughts rather than resist them, has been helpful for me lately. When you don't let the thoughts freak you out and don't struggle against them, you begin to see them for the goofy "brain sparks" they are. It is a miserable thing, to constantly feel like you are at pointless war against your own mind.

[davidvalenzuela]

when i was 14 i watched something i shouldnt have watched, and my intrusive thoughts told me "DO THIS DO THIS DO THIS" and i did and i was so terrified and the fellings came back again.

[SL-pulg]

( not an english speaker ) crazy, you described this so well, I’m currently « healing » from pocd and other « sexual disorder » related ocd, and I experience this so often, at first I always used to tell myself « It’s ok it’s just the ocd » but recently, I’ve been starting to see it the other way and to wonder if it’s just the ocd or if it’s just me being completely gross, bad and disgusting. I felt like I was going to fall again into the ocd trap but you just helped me so much, healing is difficult without a professional, I don’t meet one because I don’t want to tell it to my parents, It’s been two years now, and I’m only 15 :/ . Anyways, thank you so much, you’re the first person who made me realise it was ocd and not me being a monster, really, I didn’t even know that term before watching your video on pocd, I just thought I deserved to die, I didn’t think I just needed help, you truly saved my life, I could’ve done something terrible to myself, thank you so much . I remember not being able to sleep at night ( or falling asleep in class because of stress ), not being able to eat, regurgitating my food out of stress, having digestive issues, always going to the toilets as soon as I woke up because I was so scared, avoiding my little brother, my father, my sisters, animals and children in general, always feeling like I owe something to people because I’m terrible, crying on my birthday because I felt bad for letting people wishing a happy bday and offering gifts to the error I thought I was, thinking my life was ruined and seeking for the cause of all of this in my childhood until my brain ends up inventing fake stories that never happened in order to make me believe the problem was part of me and sm more . And now I’m better, I’m totally better, thanks to you :), I truly wish you the best, you helped me and so many people

[ramiracastellano]

I’m not diagnosed with OCD but I’ve had harm ocd for a few months now and a really bad episode about self harm when I was 9. I hope I only have OCD. Sometimes my mind will convince me that I’m doing compulsions just to “have OCD” and I’m actually a bad person. I’ve never been violent, would never even hurt a fly. I find myself looking for feelings of anxiety because I want to feel anxious about these thoughts. Your videos have really helped me

[itsmalia]

my story (sorry it’s a doozy) i’ve struggled with ocd for about 8 months. it started out with seeing sad things on the news. as i began to fall asleep, i’d get intrusive thoughts about harming loved ones, hurting kids, entering psychosis or something horrible and going to jail. i began to call friends every night before bed in fear of having time to think, then locked myself in my room to sleep. i would hide any sharp tools around the house and would sleep under a weighted blanket to keep myself tucked away. once i found out these were common ocd themes, i cried tears of joy. i started to recognize that these thoughts attacked the things i valued most: life, forming connections, my family, my friends, my freedom, control over my own actions, etc. ocd makes you anxious because the stickiest thoughts that get an emotional response are a direct attack on your moral code and you don’t even want to fathom doing them. all ocd is trying to do is remind you of your love for people, life, freedom etc. i still deal with these thoughts, but i’m far better off than i was 8 months ago. some of the things i had to do was stop giving into security compulsions. for harm ocd, i had to stop tucking knives deep into the drawers or sinks so i couldn’t see them. for ocd about experiencing psychosis, i had to let go of control and tell myself “okay, do it then. go into psychosis.” and i never did. small things like this are helping me gain trust with myself so i no longer have to ever worry about acting on an intrusive thought. work on letting them pass, being like “ok cool. i’m gonna go back to what i was doing.” i’d love to hear your guys’ stories, finding community in youtube comments has helped me a ton :)

[Aleedis]

I subscribed to you because a close friend of mine has OCD. Thank you for helping me understand it so I can understand him better! 💜

[MentalStateWorld]

This video applies to me deeply. I have been dealing with OCD since 1986. I choose never to give up and keep on fighting. I continue to apply therapy and continue to get better. I started a YouTube channel talking about my mental health, to give others hope and feel like there not alone. Take care and God Bless!!!

[whippetvonsleipner]

"This is really riveting stuff bro", haha! I love it, I'm gonna start calling my OCD "bro". Thank you for sharing, your videos are truly helpful!

[CEShannVfB]

I was having a bad experience with a psychiatrist several months ago who was coming at my OCD from a purely psychoanalytical approach (and prescribing outrageously expensive medications.) Not only have many of your videos helped deepen my understanding of what I am going through, but thanks to you my wife and I decided to switch gears and seek out ERP (prior to watching one of your videos we had no idea what it was.) Three or so months later I am now working with a clinic using Dr. Abramowitz's methods/worksheets and working on ERP. I can't thank you enough for what you do. It was quite literally lifesaving. It would be awesome to see more on sensorimotor OCD. The quirks of what is an 'exposure' when dealing with something like hyperawareness induced tinnitus remain one of those stones in my and my wife's shoe that neither of us have really gotten our heads around. She's reading Dr. Grayson's book now. Thank you again!

[Jay-chxu]

THANK YOU. Unlearning to attach importance to intrusive thoughts and emotions is still a battle so this helps a ton.

[beefbaby]

You have such a great vibe, your videos make it seem like this illness that nearly destroyed me is such a breeze and just another part of life. Thank you so much for your great work 💟

[saanzarahmed]

Hey nathan ..! I can’t tell you how helpful your content has been in my journey with OCD man.! God bless you man..! Keep up with the good work💯♥️

[AmalAmal-znwm]

I learned something. Every time I get the thoughts. I quickly repeat. It’s OCD. It calms the fear a bit

[KieranHunter]

Man plugging your sponsor in the middle of this was one of the most dystopian things I've seen this week so far.

[Goosher]

Woah, i realized ive been dealing with this for the past 10 yrs and had no idea it was this. Im not diagnosed yet (so I'm taking it with a grain of salt) but it's relieving to know that there's a possibility that I'm not an inherently broken am awful person for having these thoughts. God bless to abyone else struggling with this, it's riugh out here. Im glad theres resources like this. Im going to look into getting help.

[AlondraRodriguez-igwr]

I just got diagnosed with OCD. Thank you for this video. I’m struggling so hard accepting it. I’ve been ruminating on this topic ever since I figured out what was wrong with me. I’ve felt so crazy for so long. Thank you for this video.

[NavneetKaur-keuy]

I just asked this question in my prayer, and u answered in this video... thanks, i felt God answered me through this video

[Surralll]

Thank you for the advice of using an illogical response to an intrusive thought to silence it. I just recently told myself that essentially I am ok with hurting people and being a fraud (of course I'm not though) and it actually worked pretty quickly. I'm just now realizing that it actually lead to the same result that doing the neutralizing thought would. I don't know if I have OCD, but I'm like almost entirely sure that I do. In any case, the advice is helping me live better, and I thank you for this.