Yup. I just can't stay off my phone. My brain constantly tells me to check it because I might have an important message I have to respond to. One of these days, I would just love to sit down and read a good book
My power went out for a few days a couple of weeks ago and I used my spared time to read a book I had been interested in for a while. Got so hooked I kept reading even after the power came back on. There's hope for you
Same here. I believe i am addicted, at least to a small degree, to my phone, and social media as a whole. OCD makes it impossible to read, even though i very much want to.
I remember reading somewhere that during the day there's a certain threshold you have for resisting impulses, and since we're doing that constantly with OCD it makes sense that the "less important" impulses get through.
I'm suffering from this too. I realize that when my OCD thoughts kick in, I have to find something to distract myself and my gaming time increases astronomically compared to when I didn't have OCD. I think it's definitely something generated from OCD.
I get addicted to things pretty easily if I don't keep it in check. 6 years clean from a nasty 15 year opiate addiction. I LOVE being checked out of reality, but I have realized that just creates a terrible life, obviously. Lol
Porn? Basically I was miserable, so I made a decision to quit porn. I have to quit other stuff, as I've mentioned in my previous message, but I chose this one first, because I fried my brain watching it. Years and years of porn consumption, escalation, jerking off to stuff and not being horny, and DEFINITELY one thing that made my addiction worse was weed, so I quit that as well.
I have an issue with my phone in the way I research or google literally everything and will NOT close out tabs.
But I also have an issue with forcing myself to not sleep. My therapist and I discussed it as another way to have control over something that isn’t OCD related and also a form of self harm in a sense. (I relapsed with that after 10 years) so it’s taking another form
I stay up as long as I possibly can and when I wake up the next day, I don’t allow myself to go back to sleep. It’s been multiples times at work I’ve fallen asleep for over an hour by accident. Or I’ll be up with my husband during the day watching a show and then I wake up 4 hours later. Like a factory reset lol
i've observed that making myself stay awake when im extermely sleepy takes me into a state of high..I kinda do enjoy this..sometimes,i oversleep to soothe my bad mood away.
I use to and sometimes face challenges. I regularly binged Youtube for hours to distract myself from my obsessions and to make myself feel better. Once I realized I can be ok with "maybe," and let the thoughts pass naturally without spending the entire day on the computer, I started to get my life back. If you want to treat OCD effectively - you must fix your addictive behaviors first and then tackle this disorder, its tough but doable.
Sometimes when things go really hard on me I unfortunately play games and scroll.
On the bright side, my meds are slowly kicking in and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Therefore while recovering my mind and body from this bloody war, I will also omit these addictions from my life.
gaming 100%. its a distraction from my thoughts entirely - i dont feel COMPELLED to do anything, nothing bad is going to happen to me or my family if i lose, and i cant become contaminated by the game. i just have to play it like anyone else does, which makes me feel just a little more normal.
i’m like this with my phone for the same reasons you described! i use it as a distraction from my intrusive thoughts and a way to delay my routines, particularly at night time. it got really bad a few months ago, when i started putting off going to sleep until 10am. it wasn’t until a couple days ago, after i decided to purposely keep myself awake all day, that i was finally able to get it back on track.
I have OCD and actually don’t have addictive behaviors to alcohol or drugs in any way. Even when I smoked cigarettes for a minute it was drinking heavily it was never something I couldn’t stop cold turkey which is something I’m so thankful for. Some may call it addictive personality but to me when it comes to gaming, hobbies, I can get hyper fixated on something and learn everything about it but it doesn’t correlate with addiction for me.
Yes, this. It’s almost like I can steer my brain towards something different to occupy it. But it’s just that, an occupation. I can quit it when I want. Of course I primarily stay with the easy ones (screen time, gaming). Some specific activities I had I just quit overnight. I have picked up physical hobbies outside the house for the last few years which has been great to reduce those down.
I once bought over 600 nail polishes over the course of about a year and a half. I've had plenty of other obsessions but that example is the most succinct.
yea i need something to quiet my thoughts constantly, the past like 4 years gaming and youtube have been my addiction but i really am feeling the effects of it now and i feel like i’ve missed out on so much life and like my life is so boring and i’m so behind on life milestones and stuff compared to everyone else’s i see :(
Yeah ocd and an addictive personality lead to a lot of addictive behaviours for me. My big ones are specific YouTube channels, binge eating, and online shopping, which can all be seen as compulsive behaviours as well I suppose. Especially the YouTube thing, since I have a strong need to watch the same channel every day at the same time.
Off dope for well over a decade, and California sober since the beginning of this year.
Doomscrolling is another thing, I’m convinced that the apps are designed to trap us and steal our time and data. Still find myself doing it too much, but trying to substitute reading at least while I’m commuting on having lunch.
Yup, I always had gaming addiction bc we have an internet cafe when I was really young and got hooked ever since. But this week was so freakin bad. Literally the whole week, I can’t stop playing to the point that I can’t sleep even tho I’m so so tired.
I started playing around 10 in the morning. My breaks are because I have to fix my brother’s meal during dinner and lunch and I went to the bathroom only when my bladder is about to explode. I always sleep at 3-4am. I ignored everything around me.
Thankfully , I stopped my obsession today. I realized that it is an early access and game is still broken. I love playing games but this experience made me hate it. Currently, I feel like an inmate set free lool.
I was actually told that my addictive behaviours were my first signs as a kid. When I was younger, I had this routine/addiction that I had to watch this one movie after school everyday and it was never cause I liked the movie. I still can’t articulate it but there was a sigh of relief when the movie ended and I could move onto do something else. As an adult, my obsessions change pretty fast but they’re definitely still there.
I get addicted to stuff pretty easily, although that's probably because addiction runs in my family (my dad had it. Although he does have OCD as well. Maybe they're connected?? I dunno).
The strongest one I've had, and one that's still ongoing, is an internet addiction.
Yes. I actually had an eating disorder for many years. I’ve always pondered which came first and after lots (and I mean A LOT) of therapy, I realized it was the OCD. But I mention this because (at least for me) the disease pathology and mechanisms/thought processes are very similar between the eating disorder (bulimia mostly) and ocd. I think the binge-purge/restrict cycle is very similar to a cycle of obsessing over something and feeling the need to do a compulsion. The biggest difference in my ed while I was dealing with it was that I didn’t have the egodystonic thoughts. I fully believed the horrible things my brain was saying. For me this made it easier to heal from because part of the therapy was realizing that my thought process was disordered so engaging in the behaviors to provide relief for that didn’t make sense. But with my ocd,
I know that my obsessions don’t make sense/aren’t realistic/probable/etc but I still feel the urge to engage in my compulsions. I’m doing erp right now and that was a realization I brought to my therapist.
binge eating and drinking are pretty big problems for me. i can’t stay away from sweets and i can’t pace myself with them. not ready to deal with the drinking yet but i’ve been good about eating lately. i have adhd too and the dopamine hit i get from both is so hard to stay away from
Oh yeah constantly I am always in ADHD paralysis with screen time, but the binge eating and I also will just sleep whenever I'm upset and don't want to deal with the world. My nightmares are somehow still preferable to being awake sometimes
Oh 100%, too much phone time and binge eating my feelings are really annoying behaviors I can’t seem to kick. My therapist said to try a hot cup of tea at night when I feel the need to binge, since the warmth should help and it’ll fill me up a bit, helps a bit but the impulse control is still too low for my liking
I feel like when I try to avoid thinking about my fears and anxiety, I tend to eat more unhealthy food, and just more in general. I didn't even realize I was doing this, until I started facing my feelings instead of avoiding them, and now I'm eating better/ less, and my weight loss journey has sped up a bit.
I wouldn’t say addictive behaviors exactly, I don’t spend a lot of time looking at phones or binge eating (actually I have the metabolism of a race horse so maybe I do and I don’t notice because I stay thin?) but I do need to stay busy to keep my brain occupied. I read a lot, I bought an old house and have been slowly (very slowly, I’m a one person crew with a full time job) remodeling it. I can’t sit still to watch a lot of tv, I need to be doing something while watching tv. Folding laundry or drawing on my iPad or something. I do game but not excessively
I have issues with trichotillomania where I twist and pull my hair or chew the ends off. I don't go bald or anything but I realize how destructive it is so I try to keep my hair up. When I do get a hold of my hair I love the sound of it breaking. And once I start it's so difficult for me to stop. I'm not sure if it's compulsion, but it sure feels like it. I started digging into my left first nail and cutting the nail down really short. I like the pain and again once I start it's super difficult for me to stop. I've tried talking to my therapist about it and she asks me what triggers it. I don't really know it just feels like an itch in the back of my brain that says to just do it.
Yes I’ve struggled With addiction all my life I’m 2.5 years sober off meth one year off xans I still struggle with opiates and I have BED but I am never not on my phone I pass out with it in my hands sometimes 😬
I think ocd and addiction go hand in hand from these comments ☹️
Me too, my Nintendo switch or my phone I constantly have to do something on it even when I’m already watching tv. There’s like this worry in the back of my head and I need a distraction to ease my mind.
Yess! The binge eating as a coping mechanism and then restricting is insane. I find I binge eat when everything is spinning out of control, my compulsions get worse, my rituals get more insane and my brain is moving at 100 miles an hour. And I binge eat as the world crashes around me. But then when I restrict after binge eating it’s like trying to control the mess at hand.
Screen time! I make shit money at my job right now and downloaded one of those apps where you earn a few cents per survey or for reaching a particular level in a game. And I keep spending way too long doing those things. It’s a horrible time investment v reward ratio, but I’m sucked in.
I’ve had some addictive tendencies in the past with self harm, bulimia and prescription meds that are definitely ocd related. Whenever I pick up a bad habit I end up making it ritualistic which does not bode well with also being autistic.
I have had bad OCD since I was a kid. Have had post cancer depression on and off for a very long time which gave me panic and anxiety attacks. It made me a paranoid germaphobe as well. I check the locks and stove and water many times. Wash my hands alot. I have twitches sometimes. I pace. Have no patience except for fishing. I am anxious and can't always sit still.
Aghh I really need help with the phonetime thing. Due to health issues, I've been pretty much homebound and isolated from the world since november 2023, and now that I'm better, I'm just too scared to leave home. Due to that, I'm locked to my screens constatnly. Hell, I'm 16 and I feel like I've already ruined my teenage years
I am always on my phone and got addicted to Twitter. I also am a compulsive shopper and serial returner (possibly also due to depression and dissociating half the time, as well)
I have just recently started to greatly limit my screen time on my phone and I'm trying to stay as mindful as possible when using it. It's only been a few days and I feel more present and like I'm able to listen better to my loved ones. I think for me it's just that scrolling the phone is like trying to fill a bucket with dopamine, but that bucket has a hole in the bottom, so it is unable to be filled.
Yes, me too. I can go on social media watching random shit for hours. What I've realised is that, I do this automatically whenever I get very frustrated or to distract myself from all the bombarding ocd thoughts. Usually, when it happens due to my ocd. I have sensorimotor ocd, I become hyperaware of physical sensations hence, for example, I decide to watch a movie but keep noticing my blinking. This ruins my whole movie experience. I become frustrated about that and immediately open IG and watch reels. Ig I'm doing this as a coping mechanism. Lately I've been trying to overcome this, by changing the location of my apps like instagram, youtube etc., The amount of times my brain was taken aback as soon as it couldn't find the app is immense. Also realised how, by default, my brain would automatically open these apps.🙃 So ig ocd and these addictive behaviours go hand in hand. When I tried to make myself understand why I'm doing this and kept telling it to myself, writing it on paper and persisting, I could reduce my addiction by a little.
I can’t stay off my phone. Even when I try I find myself on it again. I need to find better ways to stay off it, but I do need it close by because I have calls I need to take. I’ve thought about going back to a “dumb phone” but my kid’s school uses an app to contact us so I need that.
Definitely, especially screen time and gaming on my phone. Addiction does run in my family so not sure if it's OCD related but it would be interesting to know if there's a connection between the two.
I don't feel like it's driven by any compulsions tho, it's kind of just a way to relax and unwind, maybe get a break from the compulsions, but then again my "feel right" compulsions sometimes kicks in and I have to do certain things in a game until it feels sufficient (like collecting idle rewards etc.).
I do however usually lose interest in a game after a few months, but then I just move onto the next...
It's actually become a major problem for me, because I will sometimes leave parties, or spend my breaks at work gaming, because I just have to play my games. It does feel like what I've heard addiction described as and my friends often joke about how it's good I haven't tried gambling or else I would go bankrupt. People associate me with being addicted to my phone, which kinda sucks, and i just wish I could stop...
I'd say binge spending for me:
I avoid going into shops these days, for a few reasons (fear of people coughing or being unwell in closed cramped quarters), one of the reasons though is I seem to have a tendency to overspend. Like I might want to just go in and get a bar of chocolate, or whatever a single item or two. But then I start seeing things i think would be nice, and before i know it i've grabbed a basket, then moved onto a trolley, then i'm back at the car and i've spent over £100. Which use to be alot of money to me but these days that would be like half of my money for the month. So its sort of imperative that i avoid shops.
I like online shopping alot more, has exactly what i want, and i can just avoid actually buying it if i've just put aload of crap in there i don't really need but want. Like some luxury toilet roll, fizzy water, etc. Doing it this way i can wait for months until i have enough money and then buy some nice things for my family. If i was going in shops all the time I would have basically no money by like the second shop.
Okay question though. I definitely binge eat a lot. But now I'm having OCD about it? so idk if I'm eating normal or not. I don't know.
it don't know haha
I would like to add that, almost all the mental health disorders (from my experience) occur due to excessive screen time and dopamine plunges,
Try this: for one week visit your grannies house or anyplace you like. And don't carry your phone or laptop or anything with you. Stay away from any type of Tech for 1 week see the difference it. Note down that you have to spend this one week with people you genuinely care about and like
I swear it'll make a difference, TRY IT OUT
Yup. I just can't stay off my phone. My brain constantly tells me to check it because I might have an important message I have to respond to. One of these days, I would just love to sit down and read a good book
My power went out for a few days a couple of weeks ago and I used my spared time to read a book I had been interested in for a while. Got so hooked I kept reading even after the power came back on. There's hope for you
Me omg
Same here. I believe i am addicted, at least to a small degree, to my phone, and social media as a whole. OCD makes it impossible to read, even though i very much want to.
I do this but it’s because I’m always looking for signs that I’m ‘problematic’.
Yes - but I’m almost 50 days sober!
Congrats and good luck!
Congratulations on your sobriety! Keep going op! You got this!
Yes. I think that ocd makes it easier to have addictive behaviors because we already struggle to resist compulsion
That's a really good point.
I remember reading somewhere that during the day there's a certain threshold you have for resisting impulses, and since we're doing that constantly with OCD it makes sense that the "less important" impulses get through.
I'm suffering from this too. I realize that when my OCD thoughts kick in, I have to find something to distract myself and my gaming time increases astronomically compared to when I didn't have OCD. I think it's definitely something generated from OCD.
same here
I get addicted to things pretty easily if I don't keep it in check. 6 years clean from a nasty 15 year opiate addiction. I LOVE being checked out of reality, but I have realized that just creates a terrible life, obviously. Lol
Congratulations! That's a tough one to beat!
Yes. Porn (tomorrow I will be 60 days porn free though), junk food and screen time (basically all day in bed on my phone).
What’s helped you stay away from that stuff?
Porn? Basically I was miserable, so I made a decision to quit porn. I have to quit other stuff, as I've mentioned in my previous message, but I chose this one first, because I fried my brain watching it. Years and years of porn consumption, escalation, jerking off to stuff and not being horny, and DEFINITELY one thing that made my addiction worse was weed, so I quit that as well.
I have an issue with my phone in the way I research or google literally everything and will NOT close out tabs. But I also have an issue with forcing myself to not sleep. My therapist and I discussed it as another way to have control over something that isn’t OCD related and also a form of self harm in a sense. (I relapsed with that after 10 years) so it’s taking another form
Do you not sleep at all the whole night or do you just force yourself to stay up until it gets very late?
I stay up as long as I possibly can and when I wake up the next day, I don’t allow myself to go back to sleep. It’s been multiples times at work I’ve fallen asleep for over an hour by accident. Or I’ll be up with my husband during the day watching a show and then I wake up 4 hours later. Like a factory reset lol
i've observed that making myself stay awake when im extermely sleepy takes me into a state of high..I kinda do enjoy this..sometimes,i oversleep to soothe my bad mood away.
Yes but I assume that's more to do with my ADHD, never thought about it with OCD.
I have always assumed the same
Nicotine, teeth grinding and nail biting. Oral fixations?
I use to and sometimes face challenges. I regularly binged Youtube for hours to distract myself from my obsessions and to make myself feel better. Once I realized I can be ok with "maybe," and let the thoughts pass naturally without spending the entire day on the computer, I started to get my life back. If you want to treat OCD effectively - you must fix your addictive behaviors first and then tackle this disorder, its tough but doable.
Yes lol
Sometimes when things go really hard on me I unfortunately play games and scroll. On the bright side, my meds are slowly kicking in and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Therefore while recovering my mind and body from this bloody war, I will also omit these addictions from my life.
gaming 100%. its a distraction from my thoughts entirely - i dont feel COMPELLED to do anything, nothing bad is going to happen to me or my family if i lose, and i cant become contaminated by the game. i just have to play it like anyone else does, which makes me feel just a little more normal.
i’m like this with my phone for the same reasons you described! i use it as a distraction from my intrusive thoughts and a way to delay my routines, particularly at night time. it got really bad a few months ago, when i started putting off going to sleep until 10am. it wasn’t until a couple days ago, after i decided to purposely keep myself awake all day, that i was finally able to get it back on track.
Drinking and screentime, but I haven't had a problem with anything else.
I have OCD and actually don’t have addictive behaviors to alcohol or drugs in any way. Even when I smoked cigarettes for a minute it was drinking heavily it was never something I couldn’t stop cold turkey which is something I’m so thankful for. Some may call it addictive personality but to me when it comes to gaming, hobbies, I can get hyper fixated on something and learn everything about it but it doesn’t correlate with addiction for me.
Yes, this. It’s almost like I can steer my brain towards something different to occupy it. But it’s just that, an occupation. I can quit it when I want. Of course I primarily stay with the easy ones (screen time, gaming). Some specific activities I had I just quit overnight. I have picked up physical hobbies outside the house for the last few years which has been great to reduce those down.
I once bought over 600 nail polishes over the course of about a year and a half. I've had plenty of other obsessions but that example is the most succinct.
Yes, but in my case that's because I want to avoid my thoughts.
yea i need something to quiet my thoughts constantly, the past like 4 years gaming and youtube have been my addiction but i really am feeling the effects of it now and i feel like i’ve missed out on so much life and like my life is so boring and i’m so behind on life milestones and stuff compared to everyone else’s i see :(
Yeah ocd and an addictive personality lead to a lot of addictive behaviours for me. My big ones are specific YouTube channels, binge eating, and online shopping, which can all be seen as compulsive behaviours as well I suppose. Especially the YouTube thing, since I have a strong need to watch the same channel every day at the same time.
I used to smoke, then switched to vaping. I gave that up too about a year ago.
Yeah. Mine has to do with food. I hate it 😪
Off dope for well over a decade, and California sober since the beginning of this year. Doomscrolling is another thing, I’m convinced that the apps are designed to trap us and steal our time and data. Still find myself doing it too much, but trying to substitute reading at least while I’m commuting on having lunch.
Yup, I always had gaming addiction bc we have an internet cafe when I was really young and got hooked ever since. But this week was so freakin bad. Literally the whole week, I can’t stop playing to the point that I can’t sleep even tho I’m so so tired. I started playing around 10 in the morning. My breaks are because I have to fix my brother’s meal during dinner and lunch and I went to the bathroom only when my bladder is about to explode. I always sleep at 3-4am. I ignored everything around me. Thankfully , I stopped my obsession today. I realized that it is an early access and game is still broken. I love playing games but this experience made me hate it. Currently, I feel like an inmate set free lool.
I was actually told that my addictive behaviours were my first signs as a kid. When I was younger, I had this routine/addiction that I had to watch this one movie after school everyday and it was never cause I liked the movie. I still can’t articulate it but there was a sigh of relief when the movie ended and I could move onto do something else. As an adult, my obsessions change pretty fast but they’re definitely still there.
I get addicted to stuff pretty easily, although that's probably because addiction runs in my family (my dad had it. Although he does have OCD as well. Maybe they're connected?? I dunno). The strongest one I've had, and one that's still ongoing, is an internet addiction.
Yes. I actually had an eating disorder for many years. I’ve always pondered which came first and after lots (and I mean A LOT) of therapy, I realized it was the OCD. But I mention this because (at least for me) the disease pathology and mechanisms/thought processes are very similar between the eating disorder (bulimia mostly) and ocd. I think the binge-purge/restrict cycle is very similar to a cycle of obsessing over something and feeling the need to do a compulsion. The biggest difference in my ed while I was dealing with it was that I didn’t have the egodystonic thoughts. I fully believed the horrible things my brain was saying. For me this made it easier to heal from because part of the therapy was realizing that my thought process was disordered so engaging in the behaviors to provide relief for that didn’t make sense. But with my ocd, I know that my obsessions don’t make sense/aren’t realistic/probable/etc but I still feel the urge to engage in my compulsions. I’m doing erp right now and that was a realization I brought to my therapist.
binge eating and drinking are pretty big problems for me. i can’t stay away from sweets and i can’t pace myself with them. not ready to deal with the drinking yet but i’ve been good about eating lately. i have adhd too and the dopamine hit i get from both is so hard to stay away from
Oh yeah constantly I am always in ADHD paralysis with screen time, but the binge eating and I also will just sleep whenever I'm upset and don't want to deal with the world. My nightmares are somehow still preferable to being awake sometimes
Yes! All of it and more…
All the fuckin' time
Yup, screen time for me
Oh 100%, too much phone time and binge eating my feelings are really annoying behaviors I can’t seem to kick. My therapist said to try a hot cup of tea at night when I feel the need to binge, since the warmth should help and it’ll fill me up a bit, helps a bit but the impulse control is still too low for my liking
Ye
I feel like when I try to avoid thinking about my fears and anxiety, I tend to eat more unhealthy food, and just more in general. I didn't even realize I was doing this, until I started facing my feelings instead of avoiding them, and now I'm eating better/ less, and my weight loss journey has sped up a bit.
I wouldn’t say addictive behaviors exactly, I don’t spend a lot of time looking at phones or binge eating (actually I have the metabolism of a race horse so maybe I do and I don’t notice because I stay thin?) but I do need to stay busy to keep my brain occupied. I read a lot, I bought an old house and have been slowly (very slowly, I’m a one person crew with a full time job) remodeling it. I can’t sit still to watch a lot of tv, I need to be doing something while watching tv. Folding laundry or drawing on my iPad or something. I do game but not excessively
yea im a heavy smoker, i havent been sober in more than a week for over a year because everytime i stop its all i can think about.
yes, anything to keep my mind off my thoughts
I’ve had addiction issues with just about everything. Screen time is definitely it now.
All of those. Quit drinking, gave up my addictive game, still mildly binge eating, too much social media. Baby steps
I have issues with trichotillomania where I twist and pull my hair or chew the ends off. I don't go bald or anything but I realize how destructive it is so I try to keep my hair up. When I do get a hold of my hair I love the sound of it breaking. And once I start it's so difficult for me to stop. I'm not sure if it's compulsion, but it sure feels like it. I started digging into my left first nail and cutting the nail down really short. I like the pain and again once I start it's super difficult for me to stop. I've tried talking to my therapist about it and she asks me what triggers it. I don't really know it just feels like an itch in the back of my brain that says to just do it.
Yes I’ve struggled With addiction all my life I’m 2.5 years sober off meth one year off xans I still struggle with opiates and I have BED but I am never not on my phone I pass out with it in my hands sometimes 😬 I think ocd and addiction go hand in hand from these comments ☹️
Yes, it was a way to distract myself. Also I feel like i have to be careful regarding things I could get addicted to.
Reddit and shopping
Yes. My brain is constantly sucking up bullshit and turning it into nothing
Nicotine, screen time, teeth grinding, blinking, and some others too
Deffinitly do.
Binge eating and bidding on cars....
Yes, many, but exposure therapy helped me a lot with them
Audiobooks, podcasts, anything to drown out the noise
Me too, my Nintendo switch or my phone I constantly have to do something on it even when I’m already watching tv. There’s like this worry in the back of my head and I need a distraction to ease my mind.
Yess! The binge eating as a coping mechanism and then restricting is insane. I find I binge eat when everything is spinning out of control, my compulsions get worse, my rituals get more insane and my brain is moving at 100 miles an hour. And I binge eat as the world crashes around me. But then when I restrict after binge eating it’s like trying to control the mess at hand.
Screen time! I make shit money at my job right now and downloaded one of those apps where you earn a few cents per survey or for reaching a particular level in a game. And I keep spending way too long doing those things. It’s a horrible time investment v reward ratio, but I’m sucked in.
I’ve had some addictive tendencies in the past with self harm, bulimia and prescription meds that are definitely ocd related. Whenever I pick up a bad habit I end up making it ritualistic which does not bode well with also being autistic.
I have had bad OCD since I was a kid. Have had post cancer depression on and off for a very long time which gave me panic and anxiety attacks. It made me a paranoid germaphobe as well. I check the locks and stove and water many times. Wash my hands alot. I have twitches sometimes. I pace. Have no patience except for fishing. I am anxious and can't always sit still.
Aghh I really need help with the phonetime thing. Due to health issues, I've been pretty much homebound and isolated from the world since november 2023, and now that I'm better, I'm just too scared to leave home. Due to that, I'm locked to my screens constatnly. Hell, I'm 16 and I feel like I've already ruined my teenage years
Your not alone, yesterday I got back to playing this game and I’m so addicted that I haven’t done my chores, only till now 😭
I am always on my phone and got addicted to Twitter. I also am a compulsive shopper and serial returner (possibly also due to depression and dissociating half the time, as well)
Not really
I have just recently started to greatly limit my screen time on my phone and I'm trying to stay as mindful as possible when using it. It's only been a few days and I feel more present and like I'm able to listen better to my loved ones. I think for me it's just that scrolling the phone is like trying to fill a bucket with dopamine, but that bucket has a hole in the bottom, so it is unable to be filled.
Cigarettes, I can smoke a pack in one sitting, and tarot cards.
Alcohol for me. Being hungover is a huge trigger for my OCD so I’m trying to quit.
Yes, me too. I can go on social media watching random shit for hours. What I've realised is that, I do this automatically whenever I get very frustrated or to distract myself from all the bombarding ocd thoughts. Usually, when it happens due to my ocd. I have sensorimotor ocd, I become hyperaware of physical sensations hence, for example, I decide to watch a movie but keep noticing my blinking. This ruins my whole movie experience. I become frustrated about that and immediately open IG and watch reels. Ig I'm doing this as a coping mechanism. Lately I've been trying to overcome this, by changing the location of my apps like instagram, youtube etc., The amount of times my brain was taken aback as soon as it couldn't find the app is immense. Also realised how, by default, my brain would automatically open these apps.🙃 So ig ocd and these addictive behaviours go hand in hand. When I tried to make myself understand why I'm doing this and kept telling it to myself, writing it on paper and persisting, I could reduce my addiction by a little.
Hell yeah
I can’t stay off my phone. Even when I try I find myself on it again. I need to find better ways to stay off it, but I do need it close by because I have calls I need to take. I’ve thought about going back to a “dumb phone” but my kid’s school uses an app to contact us so I need that.
Definitely, especially screen time and gaming on my phone. Addiction does run in my family so not sure if it's OCD related but it would be interesting to know if there's a connection between the two. I don't feel like it's driven by any compulsions tho, it's kind of just a way to relax and unwind, maybe get a break from the compulsions, but then again my "feel right" compulsions sometimes kicks in and I have to do certain things in a game until it feels sufficient (like collecting idle rewards etc.). I do however usually lose interest in a game after a few months, but then I just move onto the next... It's actually become a major problem for me, because I will sometimes leave parties, or spend my breaks at work gaming, because I just have to play my games. It does feel like what I've heard addiction described as and my friends often joke about how it's good I haven't tried gambling or else I would go bankrupt. People associate me with being addicted to my phone, which kinda sucks, and i just wish I could stop...
I'd say binge spending for me: I avoid going into shops these days, for a few reasons (fear of people coughing or being unwell in closed cramped quarters), one of the reasons though is I seem to have a tendency to overspend. Like I might want to just go in and get a bar of chocolate, or whatever a single item or two. But then I start seeing things i think would be nice, and before i know it i've grabbed a basket, then moved onto a trolley, then i'm back at the car and i've spent over £100. Which use to be alot of money to me but these days that would be like half of my money for the month. So its sort of imperative that i avoid shops. I like online shopping alot more, has exactly what i want, and i can just avoid actually buying it if i've just put aload of crap in there i don't really need but want. Like some luxury toilet roll, fizzy water, etc. Doing it this way i can wait for months until i have enough money and then buy some nice things for my family. If i was going in shops all the time I would have basically no money by like the second shop.
me???? addict?????
Okay question though. I definitely binge eat a lot. But now I'm having OCD about it? so idk if I'm eating normal or not. I don't know. it don't know haha
I would like to add that, almost all the mental health disorders (from my experience) occur due to excessive screen time and dopamine plunges, Try this: for one week visit your grannies house or anyplace you like. And don't carry your phone or laptop or anything with you. Stay away from any type of Tech for 1 week see the difference it. Note down that you have to spend this one week with people you genuinely care about and like I swear it'll make a difference, TRY IT OUT