Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) talk

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Gee, what a wonderful friend you have...NOT!

I think I have OCD ideas. I started to notice it when I was12 and would check my alarm clock, to make sure it was set correctly, but I would have to check it 4, 4 times= in 16. Or else I would feel that my alarm wouldn't go off. I still do this actually but only if I need to be up with alarm otherwise I'm fine. I now knock on my base board of my bed 4,4times =16. I've only been doing this for a year or so. It's stupid but I feel like if I don't something bad will happen and I can't sleep. However, if I don't sleep in my room than I don't feel the need to do it? It weird, I know.

I have to check my alarm three times.

Have to.

Even though I'm obsessively compulsive at times, I know I don't have OCD because I can stop a compulsive behavior if I try. I feel much sympathy for those that do.

I became unable to function due to OCD when I was about 10. Thankfully, my OCD symptoms respond well to medication.

Yeah, I had HORRIBLE OCD as a kid.
My parents didn't catch it.
I thought everything was a spiritual problem and would check and re-check and do and re-do. I think I ran up my parent's phone bill to a huge degree checking. I thought everything I did was a sin and that I had to undo it.

It was awful.

I've had OCD since I was 10, and it has seriously affected parts of my life.
When I was 10/11 I would dribble all over my school jumper as I was afraid I had poison in my mouth. I also had a complete fear of getting Ink Poisoning as somebody had said their uncle had died from it. I had to stop at every bit of different flooring (Say the flooring was Laminate and then changes to Lino) because I had to reassure myself, which made me look very odd stopping randomly around school. It was an absolute nightmare. I left that school, and then found out I had Aspergers when I was 12. I started a new school with an Autism Unit, and for a few years I was fine. Then when I was 14 I went down hill again with my OCD and missed long periods of school. My last OCD episode was December last year, where i missed a lot of school again. It's a horrible disorder and I really feel for people who have it. I also really REALLY hate it when 'celebs' say they are a 'Bit OCD' about something. They don't even know what it is!!

I have it. I have to replicate any touch on one side of my body on the other. Of course I always go too far, and have to keep going back and forth with it, until I feel balanced. I have to take even numbers of steps between cracks in sidewalks , and even numbers of bite-sizedfoods. I used to think I was psychic, because I felt like there was some force guiding my hand sometimes. Like when I am choosing candy from a dish, I will hold my hand over the bowl and some will feel wrong but one will feel right. When I get my hand near it, it flees to another piece, and I must chase it until I catch it. I also thought I would get ink poisoning from chewing my pens.

I recall having OCD tendencies all the way back to third grade(definitely around fourth grade, I'm not completely sure if it was that bad in third), I washed my hands very often around that time. I once had a Dollar Store phobia(I believe it was in around fourth or filth grade when I had this). I had issues touching things from that store, I really do mean "issues" too, I had to wash my hands like crazy after touching items from that store. I have difficulty explaining that one, I think it was because I associated the stores with cheapness which lead me to think their selection was unclean. I remember crying while washing my hands for such a long time, I don't recall what phobia it was when that specific incident happened(probably just the basic germ phobia). Back in fourth grade I used to wear thin snow gloves on my hands, I was told to take them off at one point and the principal and my teacher thought my parents beat my hands because of how chapped they were. I wore the gloves to avoid touching things if I recall that correctly, I remember washing my hands with the gloves on in those days, I also played a lot of Sonic games too, that had something to do with it.

My worst phobia was in my head more than anything else. I started having very bad negative thoughts back in 6th grade, the thoughts mostly consisted of my mind frequently bringing up hell and religious thoughts (mostly me going to hell). This was an extremely awful time for me since I believed in all that stuff back then. I saw people called "atheists" on TV before that one started and it really freaked me out, I also recall reading just a tiny sentence about hell in a mythology book pretty well, I guess I'm trying to explain what exactly triggered this one but I have no clue what exactly caused it. I think the horrible hell thoughts came back in 8th grade for a time, although I'm not entirely sure, in 7th in 8th grade I had a recession of OCD for the most part.

In 9th grade the worst thing I did was use too much acne medication on my skin (I had benzoyl peroxide covering my face, similar to a face mask). Going to a school even once with your face covered in dried up white cream is a bad ideal but I really didn't want to have acne(9th grade was when I finally got diagnosed with OCD and aspergers). I think I explained the acne phobia pretty well so on to what I'm like now and what leads up to how I am now. I developed a health-conscious side back in 8th grade and towards the end of that grade I started doing apple fasts to help with my skin. When 9th grade started I had quit soda and fast food for good and I exercised frequently. I also fasted a lot because I had an irrational fear of being fat back then around 9th grade. Right now I feel ok with my OCD actually, I don't like anyone touching my stuff and I hate touching other things that I don't own in my family's home. I'm also very OCD about food, I cannot bring myself to eat any meat, soda, fast food, foods that are artificial and other food that is unhealthy, the OCD helps me avoid foods like that I actually wouldn't have any desire for food like that even if I didn't have OCD. I have never taken medication for a long period of time but I'm actually pretty happy now as a sixteen-year old atheist vegan grammar-nazi(mein grammer sucks right?). I mostly just read things on the internet and play games as my hobbies, and I no longer do any extreme fasts like I did back in 9th or exercise like crazy (I'm skinny enough already), my release from religious belief back in April/May 2012 also feels very good.

Basically the story of my life. One of my siblings used to hassle me about it, too. My girlfriend also has OCD, and her family teases her, as well.

But yeah, my OCD is nowhere near as bad as it used to be. I used to wash my hands after almost everything; now, I try to only do it if it's genuinely needed.

How does one get diagnosed with OCD, I wonder?

OMG! I used to do the spitting thing when I was a kid, too, but I totally forgot about it until just now! I was often afraid of eating/drinking something "contaminated," and sometimes just by looking at a food or touching it, I'd worry that I'd accidentally swallow some...

My parents got mad at me and told me to stop my compulsions, but never got psychiatric help. :/

I always felt out of place and weird and had a handwashing compulsion as well as others, and social problems that led me to be homeschooled after 5th grade. I suspected OCD and Asperger's in the past; now I feel I identify strongly with both, but perhaps more with OCD.

Here's something I wonder. With OCD -- and definitely with me personally -- there can be a general tendency to do things very slowly and methodically, to get them "just right." Are Aspies often slow too or is this a more OCD trait, or unrelated?

I had OCD as for back as I can remember. I think some of my OCD is because I have problems doing things others do because of my AS & various physical & mental disabilities & issues/quirks. My dad probably has Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder & my mom's kind of a perfectionist sometimes. I felt like I never did things rite sometimes by my parents & teachers. I worry about making mistakes & I do things specif ways & double check my work partly to help minimize my chance of screwing up. I reread a lot of the post I make a few times after I've posted them. I have OCD in other ways to some of which change periodically; some of them are having intrusive thoughts, impulsive urges, very time consuming obsessions that I don't like but cant stop. I screwed up my 1st relationship because my OCD got really bad with it. I kept having bad painful thoughts about things she told me from her past & I kept having thoughts that she was doing something bad or in trouble even though I didn't really believe those things were really going on.It caused me to have lots of panic attacks & I got extremely controlling as a result. I was very obsessed with her & after we broke up I kept obsessively checking her post history in the forums I knew she went to. I had a mental breakdown & slashed my arm after I couldn't stop dwelling on something bad she posted about that she did. I spent the next 5 years seeing psychs & taking meds. I was diagnosed with OCD, depression, Obsessive Compulsive Personality, other anxiety disorders & other things. I think the psychs diagnosed me with Obsessive Compulsive Personality & some of my other things because they didn't believe I had Aspergers even thou I'm pretty sure I do. Anyways... none of those antidepressants, antipsychotics, benzopines, & mood stabilizers I was on helped my OCD much except my making me feel very tired & sleepy or causing me to zone out. I heard the term treatment-resistant applied to my OCD by a psych a few times & I think my OCD might could be classified as treatment-refractory because I couldn't tolerate the gold standard med for it, Anafranil at all. I started taking the generalized anxiety med Buspar last year because I was having anxiety problems & other issues in my 2nd relationship partly due to my OCD. Buspar helps reduce the anxiety aspect of my OCD but it doesn't reduce the OCD. I did a bit of research on alternative meds for OCD after the relationship ended because my OCD spiked in some ways. I decided to try the seizure med Neurontin/Gabapentin & it's helping my OCD a lot. I'm in my 3rd relationship now & my OCD isn't causing problems in it like it has in the other two. I don't feel restricted/limited/controlled by my OCD with life in general like I did before for a very long time.

Thanks for starting this thread. I am the parent of a child with OCD. Classic onset. I wish I could erase the pain you all experienced. But perhaps you can help someone. I cringe as I have been guilty as a parent of some of what many of you complain about.
My question is how do you wish your parents had reacted to your OCD? Sympathize, push into areas you are not comfortable?
I realize healing is a journey of trial and error, but is there anything that you felt helped, anything definitely not helpful.
Medication is a given under a psychiatrist.

I wish my parents had realized I had a reason for behaving strangely; that they weren't just bad habits I needed to stop. I had reasons, sometimes embarrassing ones, for all of my compulsions, and those reasons needed to be solved before the habits could "just stop." I should've seen a psychologist as a child, but my parents thought they could deal with me themselves. They were wrong...

I have Morbid Obsessions. If I see myself as having power over something, (A pet for example) I can't stop picturing myself killing or injuring it. If I see anything that could possibly be a threat, I can't stop picturing it killing me somehow. If I try not to think about how it could kill me, I see it or myself killing another... and so it continues.

It's extremely distressing. And very difficult to talk about.