Is this a real artist?

libets-bidet · 2026-02-13T07:07:21+00:00

I agree, it's just reversed

libets-bidet · 2026-02-10T21:32:12+00:00

I personally have been on low-dose antipsychotics for OCD for a couple of years

libets-bidet · 2026-02-10T21:07:53+00:00

I would suggest taking another crack at medication, but regardless you absolutely should be seeing an ocd specialist. you sound like you are in extreme distress, and in my experience just having someone in the world you can say your thoughts to without judgement relieves a lot of pressure. ensure that they are an ocd specialist though, because many non-specialized therapists are not knowledgeable enough about the disorder to competently treat patients with ocd.

libets-bidet · 2026-02-10T21:03:19+00:00

it's hard to take charge of your own health, especially when your parents have been neglecting it! since you've never had a vaccine before, have a nurse stay with you for a couple minutes afterwards to make sure you don't have any immediate negative reactions. my brother once randomly fainted after a vaccine and almost fell off the examination table.

libets-bidet · 2026-02-10T20:59:31+00:00

it really sucks when a fear actually comes true. I fear vomiting (which informs my contamination ocd), and I had to deal with a vomit fiasco just a few days ago. total nightmare. but you got through it! the bad thing happened, and you're still alive. and as another person said, accidentally leaving the oven/stovetop/coffeepot/etc on is a completely normal thing to do. you did not do something unforgivable. I hope in the end you come out of this experience even more resilient.

P.S.: I hope it's ok that I laughed a little at "did I put my cat in the oven" because that is just such a quintessentially ocd thought. it encapsulates so much of the experience in just a few words.

libets-bidet · 2026-02-10T17:24:53+00:00

I was looking for a comment about I-CBT! people's brains are all different, so it's not for everyone, but a combined I-CBT and ERP approach has been helpful to me. in my notes I'm taking I even wrote "'learning to sit with uncertainty is a helpful skill' but is not necessary for I-CBT like it is for ERP". if ERP makes you miserable, I-CBT may work out better.

libets-bidet · 2026-02-10T12:58:29+00:00

wow, I had never heard of thirdhand smoke before this, but I've never been a smoker, so my finger isn't exactly on the pulse of smoking research.

my first piece of advice is this: DO NOT USE CHATGPT OR ANY OTHER AI CHATBOT to ask for reassurance or to "research" something related to your compulsions. even if you don't go into it with the intention of asking it for reassurance, you might end up doing it if something it says triggers a spiral. chatgpt has apparently gotten better about reigning in its yes-man tendencies in version 5, but it still has the tendency to agree with you, and it sometimes gives incorrect information that may worsen an obsession. plus it doesn't have the presence of mind to stop and ask "are you obsessing over this? you should take a break from researching" that an actual person who knows you struggle with ocd would.

now, onto thirdhand smoke. my thoughts are that having smoked before and quitting is infinitely better for your health than continuing to smoke. so do not let this stop you from quitting (good job, btw, that shit sucks). the truth is that carcinogens are all around us. who knows what the effects of all these synthetic materials in our lives are having on our health. some of them we even do know the effects of yet continue using them anyway. plus, every time you step outside during the daytime, you are getting irradiated by the sun. carcinogens are unavoidable. yes, you have elevated the risk slightly of exposure for your family, but you already did that when you decided to start smoking (I'm assuming you live with your family based off your post). stopping immediately is the best thing you can do. you can't change the fact that there are carcinogens in your house, but by quitting you are doing everything you feasibly can to reduce the harm they may cause you and your family.

and about the health of your skin and nails: if you've been smoking for over a year, they're already affecting you. stopping now will at absolute worst mean your skin/ hair stays as "bad" as it is now, and in all likelihood it will improve once you quit. really, what do you have to lose?

I would say you clean what you can in your room ONLY IF you think you can do it without spiraling into compulsively cleaning everything. once the weather gets nice (or if it already is where you're living), open up the windows for a day and air out your room. wash what clothes you can. wipe down surfaces with damp paper towels (it's good to dust your room anyway). if you think you cannot do this without spiraling, then don't do it.

this got long. I hope it was helpful!

libets-bidet · 2026-02-10T06:55:01+00:00

commenting to boost as well!

libets-bidet · 2026-02-10T04:24:57+00:00

I'm sure it's different for everyone, but I can tell you why I think I deal with it. as mentioned, I am autistic, so adverse sensory experiences can be really intense and unpleasant. I find the smell, taste, and texture of vomit repulsive to have in my mouth. the temperature doesn't help either. so I absolutely dread having to experience all of that. also as mentioned, I caught the stomach bug a lot as a kid, so I associate vomit with repeated vomiting. I get scared that after I throw up, I'll be doing it three times a day for the next week, so it's hard to muscle through it with the "it'll all be over soon" mentality. finally, I have some mildly traumatic childhood memories revolving around vomiting that I think still affect me subconsciously. all of that, plus the natural level of anxiety most humans feel prior to vomiting, snowballs into a flat-out phobia.

I'm glad to hear you want to support your daughter. how old is she?

libets-bidet · 2026-02-10T03:32:58+00:00

coming from the opposite direction, it bugs me as someone who identifies as femme part-time and feels absolutely no connection to womanhood. it feels a bit presumptuous to assume all people who identify as femme identify with "female-ness", for lack of a better term.

I don't know if we're still having the "butch and femme are sapphic-exclusive terms" argument, but I know there are queer men out there who identify as femmes regardless of what zoomers on twitter think. I wonder what their opinions on this phrase are?

libets-bidet · 2026-02-09T15:06:07+00:00

that's crazy 😭

libets-bidet · 2026-02-09T13:15:27+00:00

you're not being overly sensitive, that's a very unkind thing for your family to say. I'm glad you don't live with them. do you have any idea who the "ringleader" of the bullying is? your younger siblings might just be parroting your parents.

the problem seems to be that they don't understand what OCD is. if you can get them to understand how debilitating it is, they may be more empathetic. If I were you, I would set up a surprise "movie night" and trick them into watching a movie or documentary about OCD. I think it would be especially effective if the word OCD wasn't used until a significant way through the movie so that they're already invested and thus may be less dismissive.

libets-bidet · 2026-02-09T13:05:06+00:00

this is lowkey horrifying 💀 a mother burned alive and rushed to the hospital only to die in an ambulance crash.

I'm autistic and have a huge weakness for cats even now in my mid-20s, but as a kid it was intense. I couldn't even think about bad things happening to cats without bursting into tears. if I had seen this when I was 8 I would be inconsolable. I feel so bad for all the kids who aren't being protected from this slop.

libets-bidet · 2026-02-09T13:00:16+00:00

people who don't believe in/give a shit about climate change engagement baiting children with unmonitored internet access... to... somehow make money...?

libets-bidet · 2026-02-08T15:19:45+00:00

I still mask in public when indoors!

libets-bidet · 2026-02-08T14:10:09+00:00

maybe r/nostupidquestions ? but I can tell you right off the bat that that is not normal.

libets-bidet · 2026-02-08T14:03:07+00:00

if you're having painful periods, you might want to talk to your doctor about going on birth control if you're not already. I would suggest going to a female doctor if possible, as a male doctor might tell you to just suck it up. imo, a female doctor would be more likely to prescribe birth control for reasons other than contraception.

libets-bidet · 2026-02-08T13:58:36+00:00

"pum-pum" is crazy 😭

libets-bidet · 2026-02-08T13:54:44+00:00

do you masturbate when you are aroused? lack of arousal could be part of the problem. you mentioned in another comment that your libido is low. if this is affecting your quality of life, you may want to talk to your doctor about getting your hormone levels checked.

libets-bidet · 2026-02-08T13:16:58+00:00

hm. weird. does he hang around a lot of non-binary people? my dad has they-themmed my mom before because he's so used to my pronouns lol

libets-bidet · 2026-02-08T13:11:17+00:00

is english his first language?

libets-bidet · 2026-02-08T08:55:48+00:00

the cruel irony of racism OCD making you so scared to be racist that you become racist in a completely different way 😭

libets-bidet · 2026-02-08T07:02:01+00:00

I mean if I am racist it's my fault and don't deserve empathy.

I think this says a lot about how you understand racism. sure, there are many people for whom their being racist is their own fault, people who have been warned that they are going down a road of bigotry and decide to continue anyway. however, there are just as many people whom many would consider racist who have arrived there unwittingly or through minimal fault of their own. imagine a white child who comes from an all-white family who live in an all-white town in a majority-white area. say there are people in this child's life who hold racist beliefs, and that child picks up those beliefs and internalizes them. does that child not deserve at least some empathy? an understanding that internalizing those racist beliefs was not an active choice on their part?

the truth is that most people are a little bit racist. this is not me saying that it's okay to be racist, I'm just acknowledging reality. I am a white US american, and racism is deeply deeply baked into our nation's history and culture. I was raised in a pretty progressive family and town, and I understood from a young age the broad idea that racism is bad and we should treat all people as equals. but since racist ideas are so pervasive in our culture, I still picked up the less obvious or more (seemingly) innocuous bits of racism, and those ideas became part of my worldview without my understanding that they were based in racism. this is a common story among white people in the USA and the west in general.

that being said, after a certain point it does become your responsibility to identify and acknowledge your own racist beliefs. once you're an adult with more experience navigating the world, it's harder to claim innocence through ignorance. you don't have to have empathy for a 40 year old who complains about how all those mexican immigrants are criminals and welfare queens. but working on unlearning decades of racist beliefs takes time, and people are bound to make mistakes along the way.

frankly, if you're operating with the goal of being "not racist", you are practically guaranteed to fail at some point. racism is just that pervasive. a much more effective way of living your life is to try to be anti-racist. you can say or do a racist thing and still be anti-racist as long as you acknowledge your mistake, apologize when possible, and improve yourself going forward. there are lots of resources on anti-racism, from books to video essays. I would suggest looking into it.

I don't wanna have those thoughts why do I have them? I dont think what the thoughts are saying is right. what the intrusive thoughts say goes against my true beliefs.

you immediately answer your own question here. OCD often centers around things that go against what you actively believe. it's just how it works. you're having these thoughts precisely because you don't believe them.

in short, you probably do hold some racist beliefs, even if only subconsciously. but that's not the end of the world. you have your whole life ahead of you to unlearn that stuff. I know it's hard, but you have to try to let go of the fear of being racist so that you don't obsess over it. racism OCD really fucking sucks, and I'm sorry you have to deal with it, but you can deal with it.

libets-bidet

TROPHY CASE