Ocd

[Miakinz188]

I have the obsessive part of ocd my doctors told me. I usually ask questions over and over till I’m reassured . Is this normal with that diagnoses?

[Hidden]

I have always asked alot of the same questions to doctors, bosses, other business leaders. Seems I can never be satisfied with the answer they give the first time. Especially doctors. They always give me this face when I ask about my arm. I know I need surgery on it and they want to hold off. I keep asking them what happens if it gets worse. They try to reassure me it shouldn't but i have this feeling it will get worse.

[Miakinz188 in reply to Hidden]

It seems like my anxiety is pretty bad but hey switched my meds around so hopefully it’ll help me I don’t know I worry quite a bit about everything

[Hidden in reply to Miakinz188]

Hopefully the meds will help you out.

[Sallyskins]

That's typical OCD behaviour - demanding reassurance, but the more reassurance OCD gets, the more it demands, until you're completely at its mercy.

To demand more and more, is simply to feed the OCD.

[Hidden]

Not sure but, I have obsessive character traits (I like to fixate on things, and it feels good), and this is not quite the same thing as having OCD (I have both - obvious I guess? given this is an OCD group).

I have in the past had my doctor conflate the two and call my obsessiveness "OCD". Which made me pause at the time. lol.

.... Maybe I should be clear, you can be obsessive without having an OCD obsession (I think? that seems to be me), but you can also switch between the two things - between firstly fixated on something in a pleasing "feels good" kind of way, and then all of a sudden you start getting anxiety (OCD), and an OCD obsession takes over instead.

[sealonging]

There is something called pure obsessional OCD, where the compulsion is hidden because it's in your thoughts not in your outer behavior. The inner seeking of reassurance, called rumination, can definitely be a compulsion. My personal litmus test is whether or not the asking questions is productive. Do you arrive at answers which eventually satisfy you, and then you can move on? Then that's not OCD. That's productive thinking, even if it seems obsessive at the time. OCD is when you can't move on from the question, regardless of how much assurance you gain. You can be perfectly satisfied with your answer one day, but then the next day a new "What if?" question comes up and you're at it again. That's not productive because you're just spinning around in the same spiral again and again.