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OCD is picking a single bean out of your chili because it looked at you wrong and you can just tell that eating it would be a mistake
Hang in there guys
I decided to create a masterpost that would help you with what you are struggling with. Hopefully any of the links below will help you! Reminder; You’re going to be okay. What you are going through will pass, just remember to breathe.
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Here are some distractions to help keep your mind occupied so you aren’t too focused on your thoughts.
-Draw something
-This website translates the time into colours.
-Create your own galaxy.
-Play flowing.
-Make a 3D line travel where ever you like.
-Listen to music.
-Calm.
-Ocean mood, do nothing for two minutes.
- 8 hour sleep music.
-Rainy mood.
-Meditation.
-Coping with nightmares.
-How to cope with nightmares, 11 steps.
-Calm
-Foods that can affect your sleeping, both positive and negatively.
-Rainy mood.
-10 hours of rain and thunder.
-3 hours of rain and thunder.
-Human heartbeat.
-Rainforest.
-Sound of rain on a tin roof.
-Autumn wind.
-Rain on a tent
-Traffic in the rain.
-Soft traffic.
-Fan.
-Train.
-Simply noise.
-My noise.
-Rainy cafe.
-How to stop worrying.
-Tips to manage anxiety and stress.
-The 10 best ever anxiety management techniques.
-Self-help strategies for anxiety.
-Helping a friend with anxiety.
-All about worrying.
-8 myths about anxiety.
-“I’m always sad”
-Feeling sad.
-Going through trauma.
-“I’m always angry”.
-Anger management.
-All about anger.
-National helplines and websites.
-Self-help strategies for depression.
-Dealing with depression at work.
-Dealing with depression at school.
-Pets and mental health.
-All about loneliness.
-“I feel so alone”
-10 more ideas to help with loneliness.
-How to deal with loneliness.
-Alternatives to self-harm and distraction techniques.
-146 things to do besides self-harm.
-More alternatives to self-harm.
-Self-harm alternatives.
-How to take care of self-harm wounds/injuries.
-Getting rid of scars.
-How to help a friend with a drug addiction.
-What is addiction?
-All about alcohol and addiction.
-The facts about drug addiction.
-Helping a friend with an eating disorder.
-Eating disorder treatments.
-Support services for eating disorders.
-Self-help tips with eating disorders.
-Eating disorder recovery.
-Recovering from an eating disorder.
-100+ reasons to recover.
-Understanding and managing eating disorders.
-3 ways to ease self-loathing.
-How to turn self-hatred into self-compassion.
-Self-hatred resources.
-10 step plan to deal with self-hate.
-International suicide hotlines (1) (2)
-Preventing suicide.
-Reasons to stay alive.
-Dealing with suicidal thoughts and feelings.
-Coping with suicidal ideation.
-All about schizophrenia.
-Helping a person with schizophrenia.
-Understanding and dealing with schizophrenia.
-Delusions and hallucinations.
-Managing your OCD at home.
-Overcoming OCD.
-How to cope with OCD.
-Strategies for dealing with the anxious moments.
-Helping someone with BPD.
-All about personality disorders.
-Treatment for BPD.
-Healthy relationships VS abusive relationships.
-Emotional abuse
-Overcoming sexual abuse.
-Hotlines services.
-5 ways to escape an abusive relationship.
-Domestic violence support.
-Signs of an abusive relationship.
-What do to if you’re in an abusive relationship.
-Surviving abuse.
-What you can do if you’re sexual harassed.
-Sexual assault support.
-What to do if you’ve been sexually assaulted or abused.
-How to stand up against bullying.
-How to protect yourself when it comes to cyber bullying.
-How to help stop people bullying you.
-How to cope with a suicide of a loved one.
-Grieving for a stranger.
-Common reactions to death.
-Working through grief.
(Other loss and grief)
-Moving away from friends and family.
-Coping with a breakup.
-Seeking help early.
-All about psychological treatments.
-Types of help.
-All about age and confidentiality.
- Don’t stress about being fixed because you’re not broken.
-Remember to remind yourself of your accomplishments. Tell yourself that you’re proud of yourself, even if you’re not.
- This is temporary. You won’t always feel like this.
-You are not alone.
-You are enough.
-You are important.
-You are worth it.
-You are strong.
-You are not a failure,
-Good people exist.
-Reaching out shows strength.
-Breathe.
-Don’t listen to the thoughts that are not helping you.
-Give yourself credit.
-Don’t be ashamed of your emotions, for the good or bad ones.
-Treat yourself the same way as you would treat a good friend.
-Focus on the things you can change.
-Let go of toxic people.
-You don’t need to hide, you’re allowed to feel the way you do.
-Try not to beat yourself up.
-Something is always happening, you don’t want to miss out on what’s going to happen next.
-You are not a bother.
-Your existence is more than your appearance.
-You are smart.
-You are loved.
-You are wanted.
-You are needed.
-Better days are coming.
-Just because your past is dark, doesn’t mean your future isn’t bright.
-You have more potential than you think.
- Your value doesn’t decrease based on someone’s inability to see your worth.
Please remember to look after yourself and know that you are more than worth it and you deserve to be happy. Keep smiling butterflies x
if you have violent intrusive thoughts I love you. if you have sexual intrusive thoughts I love you. if you have bigoted intrusive thoughts I love you. you are not your thoughts and you are worthy of love and care and help and affection. you are not a monster you’re a person going through it and that’s okay
this disability pride month, i ask that you include OCD on your mental illness positivity posts. for some reason we are rarely included in those. much love to all my OCD homies
Recently saw an insta vid where a musician was singing lyrics that described their intrusive thoughts as a person with OCD, and in the comments every so often there would be people writing like "bro what is this 🤨🤨" and "keep this between you and your therapist dont post it on the internet" and it just further fueled my belief that OCD symptoms and intrusive thoughts need to be talked about more because a majority of the struggle with the disorder is the shame surrounding its symptoms. OCD is not able to be easily romanticized or 'quirky'fied like other disorders or neurodivergencies have been*, and as a result its symptoms are more quickly met with disgust or repulsion.
Other people in the comments were thanking OP because it captured the struggle of real intrusive thoughts instead of impulsive ones. Impulsive thoughts are more of the 'I'm gonna dye my hair randomly on a thursday night' thoughts vs the intrusive 'what if I drove my car into that family and suddenly killed us both' thoughts, the latter of which make OCD as a disorder truly debilitating. And the people that immediately assign bad morals to intrusive thoughts? They only further condemn people with OCD to never wanting to talk about the symptoms they've already been struggling with shame about.
I feel it needs to be made more blatantly explained to the public that OCD intrusive thoughts aren't desire based. They're fear and disgust based. You fear hurting anyone so badly your mind can't stop thinking about what if you hurt someone. You fear molesting anyone so you never want to even touch anyone. Your mind fixates on the 'what ifs' and distorts them into the idea that, because you think this way, you must want to act this way--when the reality is the exact opposite.
If a person with OCD ever confides to you one of their intrusive thoughts and you feel a knee-jerk reaction of disgust towards them, it needs to be reiterated that:
1. the person does not want to be thinking about this, their brain is legit hardwired to make those thoughts pop up
2. the person themselves also feels this disgust, often intensely, and they very likely resent themselves for ever thinking it
and
3. they have no desire to enact the intrusive thought, because its intrusive nature hinges on the person's fears and dislikes.
*And to clarify what I mean by romanticization and 'quirk'-ifying, I do not mean to imply that romanticizing any disorder or condition is inherently a good thing. It's only to state that conditions like anxiety and ADHD have been made such common/'trendy' topics recently that they're less taboo to speak about--leading to more people talking about their struggles with it, and helping others realize they might have it too and aren't alone. Because certain OCD traits aren't as marketable (obviously) a lot of those with it are left rather isolated.
Does anyone's OCD come with hyperfixations on certain pieces of media? Like you get into something, but then you get so obsessed with it that you have to start, like researching everything about this piece of media and you need to know like more and more and it kind of like consumes your whole soul in a way?
People with Cluster B Disorders. I am sorry about the world. People with Psychotic Disorders. I am sorry about the world. People with OCD. I am sorry about the world.
So many people say they're allies, sometimes even specifically to you, but oftentimes they're lying. They refuse to accommodate on even the most basic level and then treat you like a monster. It's fucked up. It's not your fault. You are not uniquely evil or fucked up. They're just Ableist, and you're just naturally struggling in a world that makes itself completely hostile to you.
Expirience with OCD so far
A visual representation of what living with OCD feels like
I think people need to get better at saying “maybe, maybe not” or “do I really need an answer?” when faced with uncertainty. this is something that gets taught to people with OCD, but I think the masses would benefit
“what kind of attraction am I feeling?” would it be the end of the world if that question didn’t have an answer?
“am I allowed to identify as x when I’m not sure if it applies to me?” maybe! who cares!
literally. you can apply the “fuck around and find out” method to anything
continuously feeling the need to hunt for answers is going to eat you up inside. take it from me. your life gets so much easier when you let yourself be unsure
listen to me. thoughts do not have moral weight. a thought will never hurt anyone. the actions you take because of a thought can hurt yourself or other people, but the thought itself is powerless and there is no such thing as thought crime.
"but i have thoughts about being violent towards people! towards children! surely that makes me dangerous!" are you being violent? for real? with your actions? if not, then you are not actually hurting anyone
"but i have thoughts that are offensive and hurtful! they're bigoted, or they're horribly rude, or they're invalidating to others! i'm a horrible person." and what are you doing with those thoughts, exactly? are you taking bigoted actions, or saying those rude things, or taking steps to actually invalidate people? no? well then. no one is getting hurt. and in the meantime, if it really bothers you, doing things like helping unlearn your biases (both against minorities and just, like, against furries and theatre kids and shit) might help some of those thoughts go away, but sometimes you just get shitty thoughts.
"but i have horrific thoughts about sex!" are you hurting people. are you forcing people to do things they don't consent to. or are you just playing the upsetting possibility in your mind over and over again, and acting like that's even remotely the same thing?
thought. crime. is. not. real. OCD. is. hell. (and anything else that may cause intrusive thoughts.) but it does not define you. your thoughts will always, always come secondary to your actions. you're gonna be fine.
"I support people with POCD as long as they seek help and don't act on their urges" people with POCD don't HAVE "urges" they have intrusive thoughts that they are disgusted and horrified by and would never act on, please learn the difference
Greetings bugs and worms!
This comic is a little different than what I usually do but I worked real hard on it—Maybe I'll make more infographic stuff in the future this ended up being fun. Hope you learned something new :)
If you are still curious and want to learn more about OCD, you can visit the International OCD Foundation's website. I also recommend this amazing TED ED video "Starving The Monster", which was my first introduction to the disorder and this video by John Green about his own experience with OCD.
The IOCDF's website can also help you find support groups, therapy, and has lots of online guides and resources as well if you or a loved one is struggling with the disorder. It is very comprehensive!
Reblog to teach your followers about OCD
(But also not reblogging doesn't make you evil, silly goose)
so i've been experimenting a while with filtering phrases, and here is a list i've come up with that i use to get posts that trigger my ocd / have compulsive language off my dash! this ends up taking out about 95% of these posts. i'm sharing it here so anyone who also wants to blacklist this stuff can as well.
it is helpful to me as someone with ocd to blacklist these phrases and makes tumblr much more accessible, so i hope it can also help others with ocd and similar mental illnesses (or people who just find this stuff aggravating)
asking for reblog
follows>likes
follows > likes
hit that reblog
ignore for
i know you see this
keep reblogging
must reblog
obligated to reblog
obligated to vote
people can reblog
people reblog
please rb
please reblog
please share
rb after voting
rb for
rb if u vote
rb if you vote
rbs > likes
rbs>likes
rb this
reblog after voting
reblog bait (people use this one as a trigger tag, so this one is better under filtered tags instead of filtered post content)
reblog for (this one tends to catch a lot of non-compulsive posts, but leaving it out allows a lot of compulsive posts onto the dash, so it's a tossup if you want to include it)
reblog for exposure
reblog if u vote
reblog if you vote
reblog it every time
reblogs > likes
reblogs>likes
reblog this
remember to reblog
required by law to
sample size
you will reblog
just filtering the word "reblog" will also work as a catchall for most of these, but will also catch a lot of non-compulsive posts, so this list is meant to minimize that effect.
on desktop/web: settings > account > filtered post content (should be right under filtered tags), at this url
on mobile/app: settings > account settings > content you see > filtered post content (again will be right under filtered tags)
tag posts with compulsive statements as "#reblog bait"
avoid using compulsive statements in posts - according to polls, this makes people less likely to reblog anyway! (poll 1) (poll 2)
if you are able to, avoiding sharing posts with aggressively compulsive statements would help. for example, those "reblog for good luck ignore and you'll never have good luck again" type posts, or things with "rules". i saw a lighthearted tournament with "From now on, if you see a matchup post - even accidentally - you are immediately morally obligated to vote one way or the other. Refusing to vote is strictly forbidden" in the pinned post. this is an example of an ocd unsafe statement. (op of that poll is not malicious though and is currently collecting opinions on whether to remove the statement or just warn for it).
avoid implying that reblogging, following, voting, etc or not doing so carries a moral value.
while reblogging a post may be very small stakes in itself, things like this can trigger compulsions that spiral into more than just reblogging a post. this is why this stuff is important even if it's small-stakes by itself.
you are under no obligation to share this.
the feeling when everyone has made every accommodation they can for me but i'm still making no progress is the worst because i can't blame the world anymore, the problem is just me
how much anxiety is normal before it stops being audhd and becomes an actual anxiety disorder
my therapist asked me if i consider myself an anxious person, to which i responded 'no' as if i'm not purposely withholding my worst fear from him bc i'm convinced that if i tell anyone they'll use it to sabotage me
i think if you’re feeling a certain kind of way and you know why you’re feeling it & you’ve done everything you can about the problem causing the feeling for the time being you should be able to go to your guardian angel and smile beatifically and say “i’ve done my feelings homework” and they smile beatifically back at you and say “alright my child” and they tap you on the head and you feel an immense sense of peace that washes through you and escapes as light from your fingertips and then you feel normal again
I feel like people don’t talk enough about the guilt, shame, and embarrassment that come with having mental disorders or experiencing low mental health. Constantly worrying that you’re secretly a horrible person or that you’re negatively impacting anyone who is close to you. Feeling selfish because you’re so stuck in your own head sometimes that you’re not doing enough to “earn” anyone’s company or care and that ultimately you must be a terrible friend because of that. Berating yourself for not just being better already. Believing that you don’t have a “good enough” reason to be feeling the way you do. Fighting constantly between wanting connection with others and wanting to hide yourself away to protect them and you. Having your rational mind on board while experiencing symptoms so you have to watch yourself not always acting rationally or healthily. The humiliation of being seen behaving in ways you normally wouldn’t behave when those symptoms are lesser or that low mood is higher. Just hoping people can see through to the core of you and allow some grace for your humanity.