#pocd

Rumination is probably the most common type of OCD compulsion, but I rarely see anyone talking about it. I've talked to multiple people diagnosed with OCD who didn't even recognize it as a compulsion.

Basically, if you have OCD you have terrible intrusive thoughts. They can be about anything, but common themes are fear of being a bad person, fear of hurting someone, fear of contamination. etc.

Rumination is when you get stuck in a spiral. Rumination is when you spend hours catastrophizing, overthinking, analyzing, telling yourself it's going to be okay.

I'll say it again:

Rumination is a compulsion.

Rumination is a compulsion, and that means you have to stop doing it.

I did ERP (exposure response prevention) for my OCD with a therapist! For 9 months! And it did help, but the idea didn't really click until I found this website a couple years later.

And Oh My God. It made things make so much more sense, and I was able to pull myself out of an episode even though I wasn't in therapy or on meds at the time.

Genuinely if you have OCD, or even if you suspect you have OCD, I'm begging you to read some of these articles.

Like this was genuinely life changing for me.

Here are some of the ones that were most helpful to me:

Defining Rumination

How to Stop Ruminating

ERP Exercises for Compulsive Rumination

here are some tips for my fellow OCD havers on navigating life online:

you don't have to respond to every single message you get. if someone is trying to bait you into an argument that doesn't appear to be in good faith, you can ignore it. you should ignore it. this is especially true if the message includes a false or exaggerated accusation about you. you owe this person nothing. don't give them ammunition

moral OCD can trick you into joining in on discourse because it's the 'right' thing to do. don't do it. it is only going to make you feel worse and won't actually help anyone. if someone sends you an anon asking you if you support someone you've never heard of that has apparently done multiple terrible things, there's a 99% chance they are trying to trick you into joining a harassment campaign. turn off anons. block anyone who sends you messages like this, they're likely trying to get you to do their dirty work.

the block button is your best friend. you can block anyone you want. if someone is posting something that's making you uncomfortable or feeding your obsessions or compulsions, block them. even if it's stuff that you think you need to be 'aware' of. your mental health comes first. blocking people before they can start shit with you is also pretty handy! something i do occasionally is search names of the latest Main Character Of The Internet and block people posting about it who seem prone to joining in on online hate mobs in general. only do this if you're feeling up for it, this can trigger your OCD.

if you have real event or false memory OCD, online climates can make you feel like you have to "confess" to them publicly. confession is a compulsion, don't do it. the only person who needs to hear about your real event or your false memories is your therapist. you should only discuss these things with professionals who can help you deal with them in the appropriate way. strangers on the internet cannot do that for you. also, no one asking you about your real event or false memories is doing so in good faith. block them

responsibility OCD can also trick you into joining in on discourse. "oh, but if i don't also post about this, what if someone gets hurt because i didn't say anything?". listen. listen to me. posting very, very rarely brings about material change. OCD is so rotten because it correctly identifies you as a person with strong feelings about making the world a better place, and then tricks you into hurting yourself over it in a way that doesn't actually help anyone. joining in on posting about these situations will only end up hurting you. you can make a difference in the world, but not like this. responsibility OCD is lying to you

familiarize yourself with online privacy and internet safety, but be careful. these are real things to be concerned about and they should be taken very seriously, but also something that OCD can latch onto very quickly and create further obsessions about. no one's going to track down your home address from a text post you made about what you had for dinner so there's no need to lie awake all night thinking about that. but posting a bunch of pictures around your identifiable hometown in quick succession probably isn't the best idea, so deleting those is probably for the best. be smart, but try not to panic over what ifs. we can cross those bridges when we come to them

get a group chat!!!!!!!! seriously. sometimes you wanna vent about some stupid shit you saw online, but it's almost always best done privately. get a group chat with some like minded friends and vent there instead. you might find your friends are in need of a private space to rant instead of their public blogs too! this goes for everyone, btw, not just folks with OCD

Let's say you are experiencing intrusive thoughts about dropping your infant brother and seeing his viscera explode on concrete.

The best practice way to cope with an intrusive thought like this is neutrality. Building that neutrality takes time and effort and typically involves sitting with the uncomfortable feeling the thought provides without any compulsion in response to it.

People's compulsions can vary widely, but with intrusive thoughts like these my compulsions often manifest as reassurance seeking. To stop myself from reassurance seeking, I'll often sit with the discomfort, write down how the discomfort makes me feel in a very basic "I feel [ X ] when I have [ X ] thought" manner without any additional writing that might moralize the feeling (I do this somewhere private like my notes app or journal), and then attempt a mindfulness exercise where I try to be present in my body because my intrusive thoughts often cause me to dissociate.

This is a practice I have built with a lot of trial and error between the time I was 16 and now as a 27 year old adult. This is something I started with minimal professional therapy but a LOT of reading from other people with OCD and other mental illnesses that struggle with intrusive thoughts and dissociation. It is not perfect, and I am not always perfect at it, but it helps me from having complete breakdowns about ~~committing scary thought crimes~~ and that rules.

The best practice way to cope with those thoughts is NOT to go online and say "I want to drop my infant brother on concrete and watch his viscera explode everywhere. Here is my "dropping my infant brother on concrete and watching his viscera explode everywhere" paraphilia blog on Tumblr where I talk to other people about how much we want to drop our infant siblings on concrete and watch their viscera explode. I think about this all the time and think we should normalize wanting to drop infants on concrete to see their blood splatter and broken bones and should befriend people who want to drop their infant siblings on concrete and look at the aftermath."

If you are indeed struggling with intrusive thoughts, going online and talking about how "I want to do this thing because I keep thinking about this thing and think it should be normalized because I am not a bad person I just have thoughts!!" is itself a form of reassurance compulsion and it is doing YOU more harm than good.

This is not to say people shouldn't talk about their intrusive thoughts, clearly - I have literally used my own as an example - but it IS to say that maybe you should examine your behaviors in response to your intrusive thoughts a little more thoroughly.

Safety Plan

What is OCD?

OCD Subtypes: Examples

Managing Intrusive Thoughts

Panic Attack Info Sheet

Urge Surfing

Imposter Syndrome

Circle of Control

Thought Defusion

Thoughts on Trial 

Decatastrophizing

Challenging Anxious Thoughts

Challenging Negative Thoughts

Thinking Errors

Cycle of Avoidance

Confronting Avoidance

Healthy vs. Unhealthy Coping Strategies

Worry Exploration Questions

Triggers worksheet

What is Exposure Therapy?

Creating an Exposure Hierarchy

Imaginal Exposure

What is Perfectionism?

Stress Exploration

Introduction to Stress Management

Stress Management Tips

Grounding Techniques

Deep Breathing

Sleep Hygiene

This is OCD saneism and paramisia. (@thisisparamisia)

What the actual hell? I’m so sorry. That’s awful. I really hope you’re doing better. Genuinely, I’m really sorry and I hope things are going better for you. I hope you have people in your life who are willing to listen and help you. You deserve it.

I feel like people see the word pedophile/paraphile and their critical thinking just turns off. They immediately jump to predator and listen to nothing else the person says.

1: POCD doesn’t mean you’re a paraphile. The very essence of the subtype is you’re afraid of being one and avoid people and things out of fear you’ll hurt someone. It’s a compulsion and you shouldn’t feel the need to do that, but OCD is a good manipulator.