#reocd

[weemietime]

Hi, hope its been good for you. I wanted to ask about moral ocd. I'm guessing it's an obsession with being morally correct. I didn't know it was an actual condition but I have heard a lot of people say that it's most prominent in leftists, especially like far left. Is there actually any correlation between being on the left and having moral ocd?

Moral OCD is often tied to Real Event OCD! That means you think you did something (like that you've actually physically done) in the past that was morally incorrect.

It's related to moral injury except the OCD part makes it repetitive, intrusive, unable to stop thinking about it, constantly checking, seeking reassurance, researching, talking about it, etc etc.

Moral injury is when you do something/are forced to do something against your ethics. Such as being held at gunpoint and told to hurt someone else or you/they will die, accidentally killing somebody, survivor's guilt, etc.

Moral OCD does not require you to have actually physically done anything, you just think you've done it. Such as, you once thought about your sister's ass when you were a child so now you think you're a pedophile 10 years later. That is OCD, lol.

OCD can appear in people of any political spectrum. I post a lot about 'purity culture' on this blog because I think purity culture (both on the left and right - it exists on both sides in different ways) has a nasty intersection with moral compulsivity.

The thing is, having moral OCD doesn't make you moral. It means that you obsess about what you think is moral. So any person of any ideology can have this neurotype, they will simply be obsessed about what they think is moral.

For example a lot of people with moral OCD have religious OCD, and are obsessed about sinning or going to hell, or about being gay. That stuff I'd expect more from a right winger - but to be clear, you can have OCD about those subjects while also understanding that homophobia is wrong. OCD knows no bounds. You could potentially obsess about both being gay and homophobic. OCD can make you think basically any horrible thought.

(Friendly reminder for all my OCD havers out there, There Are No Thought Crimes, Yes Even The Dead Babies In Blenders, your thoughts are not reflective of your morality, they are reflective of your mental illness lol. OCD is the "hey man what about THIS!" OCD is the most dramatic motherfucker lol.

It will make you think anything. The worst most vile most putrid shit you could possibly imagine. That's the mental illness. It causes us suffering, its not fun, it doesnt mean we are deranged. Its moral OCD. Thats just OCD.)

The thing about moral OCD that I always tell folks is that you can have actually done something truly horrible and it is still OCD. A lot of ppl are like "well it's not OCD cos I actually did bad stuff." Nope! If you can't go longer than 24 hours without obsessing about your event, that's OCD. Regardless of if you actually did the bad thing.

I actually did commit bad shit. I was in a gang for 5 years as a child. I have committed armed violence. I have hurt people. Sometimes against my will, and sometimes not. And it's still OCD.

[swampskye]

if you have reocd, ily. you deserve love and compassion despite what you may believe.

[thicc-anxieties]

OCD is traumatizing . Get ERP , do the work , do the exposures , seek out being able to let the thoughts pass without engaging in the anxiety and seeing it as a reason to latch on . But also , allow yourself to grieve . I think this is something that is not talked a lot about in ERP because it is very behavioral based , and that is important , it works. But you are allowed to be upset that this is happening to you, you are allowed to take time to mourn what it was like before this , you are allowed to be angry , because this isn’t fair, it is not fair that you have to work this hard , it is not fair that you have to confront these thoughts every day, it is not fair that you have to train yourself every day to learn something new. Give yourself time to grieve , it is not your fault this is happening. I just wanted to say i see you , i know how painful it is. I am proud of you for every step you have taken and i hope things get easier with the work you absolutely need to put in. You are strong for doing so , and you certainly aren’t alone if you feel like your life has been completely changed, if this has been utterly traumatizing for you, i know it has for me. We will do the work , but the pain you are going through is a lot to handle , and you will never ever be the only one going through this no matter how out there you think your intrusive thoughts and obsessions are. They can be so damaging and its exhausting, and i am proud of any steps you have taken at all , even if you didn’t start realizing it till a minute ago. I see you 

[variant-archive]

Real Events OCD (RE-OCD*): a subtype of OCD where one’s obsessions center around an actual event in someone’s past. People with this subtype have intrusive thoughts and guilt about something they did in the past that is very disproportional to the event and highly distressing to the person with RE-OCD. The events obsessed over are usually relatively benign events that those without the disorder would consider honest mistakes and forgive themselves for, such as making fun of a classmate in elementary school, leaving a bad review of a business and it shutting down, raising your voice at your friend, being rude to a sibling while growing up, or lifting chips from a gas station when you were 13. However, some people with this subtype obsess over more substantial mistakes but still blow them way out of proportion and feel constant guilt and self-hatred that impacts their life and self-esteem immensely. People with RE-OCD have a false emotional narrative of these events and feel that their actions are unforgivable and heinous crimes and that they are responsible for serious harm when this is not the case. RE-OCD has some similarities to False Memory OCD/FM-OCD; I have both. However, with RE-OCD the obsessive events actually happened in some way (even if the narrative is heavily warped), while with False Memory OCD it is unclear whether the events happened or not due to the cycle of OCD confusing and warping memory (although in most cases of FM-OCD the event did not actually happen).

Colors are my personal representation of “nostalgia” and the FM-OCD teal.

Learn more about Real Events OCD.

*RE-OCD is a shorthand to go along with the other subtypes that have one.

[swampskye]

i dont care what your event is. i dont care about your past. i care about who you are now. "but i did x, y, z!" i dont care. you're not doing x, y, or z now. you deserve to move on and live your life. you can't control what happened but you have control over whatever you do and say now. you've punished yourself more than enough and you deserve to give yourself compassion and rest.