memory and OCD

[tagurit]

This is tormenting me and consuming 100% of my day. People just tell me "Oh hah, distract yourself", but I tried and it doesn't work- maybe I just need to keep on distracting myself, Idk.

Anyways- this is my problem and its two folded. I feel the need to know everything about. particular topic and I can spend hours on end googling something over and over. I then google related topics and I always have the constant thought that I'm forgetting something or that I didn't cover something. I spend hours in my mind just thinking "Did I forget something, Did I miss something, Did I not cover something". I spend hours in my mind checking to make sure that I did not forget anything. Here's an example- I'm planning my upcoming semester and I have this constant thought of "You're forgetting something. Are you sure that you covered everything" . This and my need to know about everything is taking over my life.

[Hidden]

I am sorry to hear that you are going through a rough time.

I have the compulsion of "need to know" about any topic, by researching every detail.

I also get the obsession that "maybe I missed something important" ?

I understand it is very difficult.

Try to resist the urges that come with the compulsion.

Sit with the anxiety in a room, by facing the feared consequences.

The anxiety will be high in the beginning.

But slowly with time it will get lesser.

The thoughts might keep popping up, but now you can just observe them, as an OCD thought.

Do not interact with them.

Slowly with time, the thoughts will fade away.

Hope this helps.

[Selesnya]

Anything in dealing with OCD isn't generally 100% a success or failure -- it is a question of whether you can keep going when your OCD voice/fears occur. When you say that distracting yourself doesn't work, how do you measure that? I have found it helpful to set a specific goal of something that I want to do (reading a chapter of a book for work on a topic that I don't understand, for example). When I start off reading the chapter it isn't going to be long before my OCD side is going to start questioning whether I'll ever be able to learn this, if I am a failure and I should kill myself, if others can do this faster/better than I can, etc. I know those thoughts are coming, and it isn't a failure when they happen. I can agree with those thoughts -- yeah, I'm probably never going to learn this; yeah, I'm probably going to end up homeless and alone -- and then get back to reading. As long as I keep doing the general activity that I want to do, then OCD hasn't won, even if it may show up.

In your case, you could say, "Yeah, I probably forgot something, but I can deal with any problems that I've overlooked when they actually happen," and then get on with what you want to do. In isn't a failure that OCD shows up and questions things. You know that OCD is there and trying to look out for potential danger. It is only when you give up on your own goals and follow the OCD fears that OCD has won, so just get back to what you want to be doing.