Association OCD. Has anyone heard about this ?
Hey everyone so I have a question about something a friend of mine is going through.
She is too scared to post on reddit so I am doing it for her.
If you are sensitive please don't read this post it may be triggering !
My friend has a lot of intrusive thoughts. Her theme of harm ocd started when she was late 19 juste before turning 20.
She first was scared of being violent then it merged with the fear of being inappropriate to everybody. Family members, teens, kids, other adults, old people.
For a while she avoided medias with kids because that was very triggering for her. I remember her favorite movie was karate kid and she couldn't watch it for some time.
She grew up, learned to understand her OCD but she still has ocd spikes. Periods of time when her mental health crumbles.
We both stopped smoking so it adds to her stress to not have some kind of "support".
She was seeing a therapist but she wasn't really helping so she is looking for someone knew now who understands OCD but in our country it is kinda hard to find someone.
Now, after a couple of years, she handles it better but she has a new ocd spiral where she is questioning something which happens from time to time.
We don't really know what to call it so I just named it "association OCD"
She has been dwelling on it for months.
I'm gonna try to explain as clearly as I can.
Let's say she sees a handsome actor or man who has charisma in a movie or tv show, well just the average Damon Salvatore. You get me. Handsome man, wearing rings necklaces, confident attitude etc. Typical bad boy.
These cues are attractive to her when she sees a grown man doing/wearing them. People romanticize bad boys constantly using this patterns throughout all types of media.
Now, she watched a movie a couple of months ago and in the movie, a kid was singing and was just charismatic overall. Average child actor being confident on stage. The kid however was wearing rings and that was the trigger.
When she saw the kid's confidence, the rings the way he "behaved" like an adult she associates it with other famous people like Damon Salvatore etc.
It's like her brain is gonna recognize patterns she sees in adults (accessories, movements, attitude) and when someone younger is gonna reproduce them (especially in movies) there is gonna be an association.
She proceeds to tell me how weird she is because nobody notices these types of things and it is gonna come in spikes. She is gonna think about it, spiral, feel better and repeat.
I tried to reassure her which is not the best thing but I tried to stay factual. Child actors can carry a lot of charisma that doesn't mean she wants to do something or be inappropriate.
It's like she doesn't make the difference between aura/charisma or just a kid acting like an adult. Because kids in the industry are portrayed in a different way then regular kids. She is far away from acting on anything especially not because of hands.
Those hands could be attached to nothing/ no one just floating in the air and she would still have intrusive thoughts. The hands were the trigger not the kid. They just so happen to belong to a kid. And it was a trigger because she associated it with adult behavior.
She is the sweetest person I know but I feel like she is spiralling hard because of this. She repeats and says "I notice these types of cues because I'm not normal."
Have you guys heard about this ?
Sorry I may have explained it horribly but feel free to ask any questions I will try to ask her.
Edit : she also wanted me to add that she doesn't know if it is OCD or not anymore. Since she finds X attractive in an adult and a kid reproduces it she technically admitted to herself that she finds both things "attractive" she feels like a monster which of course she isn't but OCD can be a b*tch.
Also she doesn't understand the difference between something : charismatic/satisfying and sexual. Her thought process would be :
OCD : Well technically you do find this visually attractive/satisfying right ?"
Her : well I guess so...
OCD : see i told you you were attracted to kids
Which is one hell of a shortcut. Just because the kid had rings on its fingers and was doing flowy movements while singing. It is just satisfying. But for her she can't find what a kid does satisfying or charismatic or pretty. Her brain translates that to sexual which it is not.
But since she already admitted that it was visually pleasing she thinks she is too far gone.
When I tell her it is "nothing", it doesn't seem to ease her mind. But if we are 30 to tell her that this symptom exists and that she is not a monster, it may help her.
Thank you already for your comments. She really feels a tiny bit less alone.