OCD Does anyone have ocd symptoms with ptsd?

[13931ethan13]

I also have many symptoms that I believe to be OCD. The first and most annoying would be if I am writing and a pen slips off the edge of the paper, or my finger hit's the edge of my mouse-pad on my laptop, etc. I get a very odd, slightly stressful, and annoying feeling like I somehow have to "fix" that edge. Think about if everything on my laptop was made of clay except my mouse-pad, and my hand slipped off of the mousepad and hit the edge of the plastic or "clay" around the mousepad it would get pushed back. It feels almost like that happens, and when I try to "fix" it, it's like an endless loop of my pushing and trying to shape that non-existent clay back. The second, and most stressful would be that certain sounds or phrases will stick into my head and play constantly. That longer these sounds go, the more stressful it gets. These sounds are normally if I hear a water drop fall into more water, or someone laughs or yells at me, etc. I also get very worried for no reason if I forget something at someones house I will begin to get an extremely annoying feeling much like the "clay" edge one except much stronger, almost to the point of panic, until I get that item back, this will happen with even non-important items such as a piece of paper, or a sock. On rare cases I will repeatedly check certain things, making sure they are somehow 100% fine, as in my mind they feel as if they aren't. I also have an odd obsession of keeping boxes, not to the hoarding state, but I feel as if the more boxes I have the more organized I get.

 

[Emilie]

One of the things I've learned about OCD and PTSD is that a lot of PTSD symptoms can be similar to OCD, but OCD itself is a different monster with a different neurological cause, although you defineatly can have both. You wouldn't really know if you have OCD unless it's present before or after PTSD. My father is diagnosed with OCD that he takes prozac for. Prozac is ineffective for PTSD, but very effective for OCD because it works in a different way. Sometimes psychiatrists treat obsessive PTSD symptoms with prozac, but PTSD usually just manifests itself in a new way when you do that. It's like playing whack a mole when you treat PTSD symptoms.

Sometimes the need for control over a situation breeds compulsive behavior, because PTSD leaves you at the mercy of your body. It's natural to want to feel some sort of power over what's going on in your life when so much of it is out of control. If you like making art, art is such a great way of releasing that frustration.


GL to you all, I too suffer most of the stuff you guys explain here. My family calls me "detail oriented" to be nice xD

 

[MountainKing]

This may sound weird but I had a lot of OCD things that bothered me, like obsessively tapping out patterns to assure they were always symmetrical for example. Frankly, what I found got me over my ocd habits was to straight out break the pattern, and break it more and more beyond the point of recognition, and then doing so I noticed a great sense of calm wash over me.

I also often got repeating phrases in my head and what I found got rid of them was to do a few things. I would say them aloud, calmly and loudly and then have a laugh, no matter how ridiculous or weird they were. This usually got the phrase off my brain. Another thing I would do was to simply take whatever phrase I had in my head, and to change it, to repeat it incorrectly, to repeat a phrase that rhymes with it or some other nonsense until the original phrase gradually became so modified it was unrecognizable, and then I would simply forget about it because it would lose its signifiance in my head.

This seems to work for any OCD type things that become habitual for me, I just simply and aggresively break the pattern to remind myself it has no real power, and that everything is fine even if the pattern gets messed up.