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aspiechild
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09 Sep 2015, 11:28 am

Hey guys
I know none of you guys are qualified psychiatrists, but I would love to know if any of you guys have had similar experiences, or could shed some light on why I have been feeling these thoughts.
I should probably also mention beforehand, that I have bipolar and Asperger’s. And my sister has severe OCD. So mental illness has run through our family for generations. Ps I’ll try keeping it short so bear with me :D
Some of these issues I have had at the same time, sometimes they gradually alternate between each other. I’ll start of earliest to recent:

Fear of losing/totting my teeth:
I first noticed the negative thoughts when I was 11. It started off as a fear of having rotten teeth, and a fear of losing all my teeth. It got to the point where I would go to excessive lengths to brush my teeth and floss. It got to the point where I had to brush my teeth for over 15 minutes at a time/twice a day. And if at any point my mother made me stop before I had reached 15 minutes then I would have panic attacks and I would freak out because all I could think about are all the bad things that could happen to my teeth. I couldn’t get the thoughts to go away. I would always go to bed feeling sick because I was so afraid of the constant thoughts. This fear lasted 5 years.

Repeating prayer rituals:
My family is religious, but I wouldn’t consider myself overly religious. But despite that, since I was in my early teens I have had this compulsion to keep on repeating prayers over and over. But no matter how I say it I just feel like I need to keep repeating it until it feels right. Sometimes I’m up for hours and hours praying. It got to the point where I would be afraid to start praying because I won’t be able to stop and it just causes me way too much stress.

Fear of bumps in my mouth and compulsion to keep biting imperfections:
A few years later when I was 12, I started to have another fear of bumps in my mouth. As a result I had to keep biting the skin inside my cheeks and lounge. It eventually got to the point where I would obsess and worry over the bumps and sores in my mouth, and I would have an overwhelming need to keep biting away at it. It gets so bad that sometimes I bite in so deep that I hit a vein and the blood keeps filling my mouth. But no matter how bad they get, I just can’t get rid of the imperfections. I just have this feeling that if I can get rid of the bumps that ill feel better. But the more I do it the more the imperfections grow. It ends up like a snowball. The more it goes on the bigger it gets and I can’t stop it. It has been going on for 10 years to current.

Extreme/ exaggerated fear of pregnancy (I weren’t even sexually active)
Once I hit puberty around the age of 13, I had this unrealistic fear of becoming pregnant. Even though I was not sexually active. At one point it got so bad that when I went to the toilet I couldn’t touch the toilet seat or handles in the bathroom for fear of somehow coming into contact with sperm. Even though part of me already knew that it was not going to happen, because there was no way it would enter my body. It took me 4 years to finally do it with my boyfriend because I was so afraid of pregnancy. We even used contraceptive and extra thick condoms. But its supposed to be enjoyable between couples, but I can’t properly enjoy it, because I was so afraid I’d get pregnant.am 22 and only just did it with my boyfriend. This fearhas been going on 9 years to current.

I understand that these are unrealistic and illogical. But despite being a very logical person, I just can’t shake these thoughts. I just feel this overwhelming feeling that something bad will happen if I stop repeating these actions. i'm under more stress recently which has lead some of these issues to get worse and go over-board. I've always been afraid of saying these things, so have never told a single person, not even my psychiatrist.

any support or advice is welcome. but i'd love to also hear from people who have dealt with some of my own fears?
thanks in advance :D



starkid
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11 Sep 2015, 12:41 am

I wish I knew the reasons for obsessive, intrusive thoughts; I'm struggling with them myself, but mine are quite different from yours and I don't really have strong compulsions along with them.

The best I advice I can give for understanding them is to try to figure out how the obsessions are important to your life, what sorts of issues you are concerned about that makes you fixate on brushing, praying, etc. Did something change in your life to make you worried about those things?

What you describe fits the description of OCD. Aside from seeing a therapist, you could look up CBT or Mindfulness to try to treat yourself.