Obsessive-compulsive disorder

Guoy Darko

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I need some help I guess. Things aren’t going too smoothly with my mental state the last few months and I want to discuss it here and maybe some people have some tips. I have this problem which for some people who never experienced it might probably be really laughable. Still it’s really frustrating and it’s interfering with my life. I just looked at my room, and it’s a big mess. I stopped going to the gym three times a week and now only go once… Well anyway, I wanted to post this for quite a long time but was also looking up to it. Maybe because I’m a bit ashamed of it. Still discussing this with my psychologist (older man) doesn’t seem to help at all, and maybe discussing it here will help me more.

I have this problem called obsessive compulsive disorder. I have it for probably many many years. Only the last one and a half year things have really changed for the worst. Where I used to only have an obsession for once or twice a year, I now have it non stop.

I won’t bother you with the first year, but since October…. Okay here comes the weird part……. I have these problems with trying to avoid clothes or things owned by older women. Okay, that didn’t sound very well. :S Let’s start at the beginning: I posted this before, but when I first experienced this feeling I was about 8 or 9 years old: my grandmother came and baby-sit my little brother and me once a week. In the afternoon she sometimes took a nap in me or my brother’s bed. How my brother felt about it, I don’t know. I was, for some reason, to put it mildly, disgusted.

This feeling came back about three/four months ago. My girlfriend, who stays at my place a few days a week, has no problem at all with sharing clothes. She, her sisters and mother share, where possible, scarves, boots, sweaters, I dunno what else. I don’t mind it when she is wearing my clothes like boxers, tank tops, sweaters, t-shirts etc., but whenever this comes in contact with clothes her mother could have wore, it pretty much disgusts me and I want to throw these clothes away. I don’t know why! I don’t hate older women. :S Maybe it’s something “Oedi*****”. Some unconscious fear where contact with older women, in any form, especially with my mother and my GF’s mother, should be avoided. Even their clothes.

I give some examples to explain how extreme things have gone:

- My GF brought a bathing wrap she owned for many years, from her parents place to my place. Because I know she shares things like shoes, boots, scarves etcetera, where possible, with her mother I also have the strange feeling her mother could’ve borrowed/wore this bathing wrap from her sometimes. I don’t know whether or not this is true, but even the possibility makes me avoid this bathing wrap at any cost. Like this morning my GF wore a tank top of me (which I don’t mind at all) and later when making breakfast she wore her bathing wrap over this tank top. I now just want to thrown away the tank top! Like it’s tainted forever and I can’t even wash it out.
- My GF's parents gave me a second hand chair a few months ago. I thought it was just always her dad’s lazy chair. When I heard it used to be her grandmothers chair I didn’t want to use, or own it and gave it away.
- I left my scarf at my parents place a few weeks ago. Because I know my mother has this thing for scarves and owns a million scarves I felt like she could’ve borrowed mine for the time it was at their place. Although I’m not sure this happened and probably only happened in my mind I don’t want to wear this scarf anymore.
- Pillows that I used for more than 5 years I threw away, because I felt they were much older than that and could’ve been used by my mom before that.
- Sweaters my GF lend from me and took home, I don’t want to wear anymore, because there could’ve been a possibility that her mom borrowed that sweater from her.
- A poncho, my GF’s mother made for her has been in my backpack. Now I feel like I can’t put my gym-clothes in that backpack anymore, because they will be “tainted”.

Aaaahh, I can go on and on and on. Last few months, I gave away a perfect good chair only because it used to be owned by an older woman. I threw away pillows and backpacks, bought new ones. I washed my clothes, bed, myself and my hands many many times, even when it wasn’t necessary. I stopped wearing/using shoes, shawls, jackets, rain coats, sweaters, tank tops, backpacks etc, only because they came or could’ve come in contact with and older women or her clothes.

And when I do just wear those clothes I feel I can’t wear anymore, I get this extreme urge to just wash myself from head to toe and wash or throw away these clothes. :( It just feels dirty. Like I wore second hand clothes that used to be owned by granny’s. :S

It prevents me from functioning normally, it costs a lot of money and it basically sucks *ss.

I just want to discuss things here. I know many people are not fond of second hand clothes but I’m wondering if people have this problem as extreme as I do. Would you also throw away/wash these clothes the way I do? Do you have similar issues or not at all? Do you have any tips to solve this? Basically, I’m just curious how “normal” men would handle in these situations. Would you care at all? Wash it? Throw it away?

To me this site is mostly about self-improvement. This obsession prevents me from improving myself, I want to destroy it and continue my self improvement, I just don’t know how. If anybody can help me, please feel free to post. I don’t know if more people here have OCD, psychological problems or obsessions that are not girl related, but feel free to post them! Maybe people can help.
 
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Nygard

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If I told you that I have 8 cavities, what would you tell me? You'd send me straight to a dentist, of course.
I do the same with you. Ask a psychologist. Unlike me, he's a professional and is more capable than me or yourself to help with such problems.

Take care.
 

Guoy Darko

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Of course I know people here are not psychologists. But like I wrote in the first paragraph, I do go to a psychologist, still it doesn't seem to help me discussing it with an older male (in his fifties), and I'm just here to discuss it anonymous with guys closer to my own age. Because it are really day-to-day situations I cannot cope with. I'm just wondering what people here would do if they were experiencing situations like these.
 

horaholic

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You might need to have someone physically lock you in your mothers closet for an hour.

My ex said she got over some really bad OCD, when her boyfriend would mess up her closet (she felt every hanger had to be two fingers apart, or the world would end) and literally sit on her for an hour. She would scream and cry, and kick, and absolutely panic. After a few times, she started getting over it.
 

Guoy Darko

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Aaah, that would be a total nightmare. Still I had this form of OCD from ever I could remember. I always though every guy must have this. But lately things are spinning out of hand and I'm not sure anymore. Nobody here would have a problem with situations like I'm in now?
 

6-heads lewis

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It's been discussed before, I had terrible OCD myself. I spent several hours per day debating whether or not I was gay, to the point that I would watch gay porn to see if I was aroused. When I didn't get aroused, I'd wonder if that was only because I hadn't admitted yet. I spent years avoiding being alone with a male under any circumstance, in case something gay happened.

OCD can't be talked out of you, it can't be reasoned with. You HAVE TO take medication.
 

godofanxiety

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No. OCD can be cured without drugging yourself up. Depends on the severity of course. I suffered from it badly when I was younger, and it still comes up when I'm stressed out. Therapy is the way to go, of course. Some therapists are 'pill happy', but they didn't do anything for me. I recommend specialist in some form of Cognitive behavioral therapy, Rational emotive behavior therapy for example proved to be the best for my particular neurosis. Which was OCD plus a whole lot of other ****.
 

Forty0ztoFreedom

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I am not a therapist . . but I have similar problems. You just need to learn how to manage them. I don't think there's a cure, but you can live with it and be as happy as anyone else in spite of it.

NEVER fight the thoughts. And NEVER run from the anxiety, move towards it. Face it. Face your fears.

I have/had whats called Pure O. Meaning I don't wash my hands 500 times a day, it just all takes place in my head. Some weird thought comes up, and rather than dismissing it like a 'normal' person would do, I freak out and cut myself down to the core with it. I used to repeat things in my head, or count to a certain number over and over . . "I'm in control of my own life, I'm in control of my own life, I'm in control of my own life." I did these things to PUSH the thoughts down, unaware that in doing that I was making it worse and worse.

Sometimes I get the 'gay' OCD lewis mentioned (its called HOCD and there are lots of articles on it). I've also had POCD, same as HOCD but replaced with CHILDREN. Yeah, fvcked up. I've had the violent OCD, where you think you're gonna snap and kill someone you love. The obsessions I hate most revolve around incest. Yeah, INCEST. I struggle with that. What OCD does is attack whatever it CAN attack. Meaning, something you find really disturbing . . thats what it goes for. I once ruminated for hours about whether or not I'd kill a puppy if nobody was around to ever know. I think of it now and its like WTF? But if my OCD latches onto it, its quickly "Well, maybe . . " . . "No, not maybe, definitely not, I love dogs" . . "But what if. . "

Somehow I have managed to lead a pretty positive life in the last 6 months. I am not CURED. But I am CONTROLLING it, and not letting it run my life anymore. Now I can even sometimes laugh at the thoughts. They're just thoughts! Literally NOTHING.
 

6-heads lewis

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Forty0ztoFreedom said:
I am not a therapist . . but I have similar problems. You just need to learn how to manage them. I don't think there's a cure, but you can live with it and be as happy as anyone else in spite of it.

NEVER fight the thoughts. And NEVER run from the anxiety, move towards it. Face it. Face your fears.

I have/had whats called Pure O. Meaning I don't wash my hands 500 times a day, it just all takes place in my head. Some weird thought comes up, and rather than dismissing it like a 'normal' person would do, I freak out and cut myself down to the core with it. I used to repeat things in my head, or count to a certain number over and over . . "I'm in control of my own life, I'm in control of my own life, I'm in control of my own life." I did these things to PUSH the thoughts down, unaware that in doing that I was making it worse and worse.

Sometimes I get the 'gay' OCD lewis mentioned (its called HOCD and there are lots of articles on it). I've also had POCD, same as HOCD but replaced with CHILDREN. Yeah, fvcked up. I've had the violent OCD, where you think you're gonna snap and kill someone you love. The obsessions I hate most revolve around incest. Yeah, INCEST. I struggle with that. What OCD does is attack whatever it CAN attack. Meaning, something you find really disturbing . . thats what it goes for. I once ruminated for hours about whether or not I'd kill a puppy if nobody was around to ever know. I think of it now and its like WTF? But if my OCD latches onto it, its quickly "Well, maybe . . " . . "No, not maybe, definitely not, I love dogs" . . "But what if. . "

Somehow I have managed to lead a pretty positive life in the last 6 months. I am not CURED. But I am CONTROLLING it, and not letting it run my life anymore. Now I can even sometimes laugh at the thoughts. They're just thoughts! Literally NOTHING.
Great post, this is what OCD really is, not just the surface 'I organize my books a certain way' most people seem to think. Among untreated OCDers, suicide is really the only way to get that sh!t out of your head. The rates are accordingly high.

I went into therapy once, but I felt EXTREMELY uncomfortable being alone with my therapist. I kept on debating if he was gay, if he was checking me out, etc. Even worse, I'd keep a close tab on my own arousal to see if I was getting turned on by his 'advances'. Fear of getting gay with him drove me away with therapy, so I took 300mg of antidepressants without any therapy. Now OCD is about 90% gone, therapy might help, I just can't be bothered to go.

For the average person, a combination of therapy and medication is probably the best answer, depending on the severity of your case.
 

Skel

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I have OCD. I cant eat the ends of foods *shrug*. My friends just make fun of me but whatever
 

OzyBoy

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I think a lot of people are obsessive about some things. I know i am but its probably no big deal.
 
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