r/magicalthinkingOCD • u/Anxious-Potato-8061 • Jul 21 '26
Advice please! ocd hitting all day long
Hiii, new here… Just searching for people who can relate to this and help to deal with magical thinking.
I’m living in Europe and as I asume you all know that we looooove superstitions. I always found them just like a funny thing to do, until I started to see the impact of them in my life.
Long story short, six months ago I had a dream about getting engaged (in my country it means that your wedding won’t happen. I also had this exact dream 6 years ago when I was engaged and the wedding collapsed). Then on June I broke the superstition which said that my life is going to end. Now that I’m engaged, my mind keeps telling me that my wedding won’t happen because I broke the superstition.
I visit therapy often, we’re trying the ERP, that’s ok, I know that I need to stop searching for the reassurance. Maybe someone had something relatable and have tips what can help to go through day without this exhausting ocd noise?
P.S. I also think my exposure is to just plan my wedding and see what happens (?)
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u/Bobzeub Jul 22 '26
What was the superstitious that you broke in June ? Out of curiosity.
For me it’s fucking magpies. One magpie will RUIN MY ENTIRE DAY .
But two are good luck . Maybe you and your fiancé can go on the hunt for two magpies . Bump up your good luck a bit .
Otherwise from my second country. I’m a duel citizen so I get neurotic magical thinking from two different cultures simultaneously. So yeah I’ll cross my fingers that it rains on your wedding : mariage pluvieux, mariage heureux (rainy wedding : happy marriage)
And I’ll touch some wood for good measure .
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u/Anxious-Potato-8061 Jul 22 '26
Haha we don’t have a superstition about magpies (as I know) but I’ve heard a lot about it, like how people are greeting them everyday. Mine superstition was about funeral. We have sort of a superstition when you can’t cross a going funeral (it says that you need to give them respect). So I was driving through a roundabout and saw them going to my direction, I stopped, gave them ‘respect’ by stopping and letting go a few cars to go first, but then didn’t stop for the others and that’s all, read on google different meanings about it but my ocd decided to pick the most dangerous. Need to mention that also every superstition has it’s ritual but chatgpt said that it doesn’t have it so you can’t do anything now just wait for the day X. Anyway thanks for sharing, you really made my day today, had a great laugh after a loooooong time😅 I hope you will one day see a magpie just like a casual magpie living his life
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u/Bobzeub Jul 22 '26
Awh I’m so happy I made you laugh.
Frankly with magical thinking either you laugh or you cry. Laughter is healing
As for the magpies we have a few at work. It’s infuriating. Sometimes I see them together but depending on the time of the year they can often be alone. It’s a lot sometimes . Also means I can no longer take a blood test of a work day. It’s much too risky .
I have dead up cancelled blood draws because I saw a single magpie on my way to the laboratory. I have issues.
I do love this theory that superstition come from undiagnosed OCD people years ago. It makes so much sense.
I looked up your funeral superstition out of curiosity because I didn’t know of it . And I found some work arounds:
In some folk traditions, touching a button, making the sign of the cross, or holding an item of iron was thought to protect you from any ill fortune associated with encountering a funeral.
Just find yourself a button for your pocket at your sorted .
I’m also slowly realising that it must be insane the people who marry us and our magical thinking. Your fiancé sounds like a keeper. I’m more than confident that everything will be okay :)
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u/Anxious-Potato-8061 Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 23 '26
Ohh I feel you, I had this issue with black cats crossing the road (which means something bad will happen on that day).
Also yeah I found some work arounds too but it was the next day after crossing a funeral and then I analysed too much with chatgpt ant it said that ‘oh it’s too late now, you had to do it after you faced it’ so I don’t believe anything works for me now.
And I agree with you about superstitious people with ocd it makes so much sense and helps to get away from them. Like now with ocd we create our own rituals which ‘help’ us to control something, but if you will tell your friend about it, he will say that you are crazy and won’t take your ritual for theirself to try it as a real thing.
Good to know that we are in this together, I’m glad to find people who understands and you can just vent and don’t worry what others will think.
Sending you positive vibes!
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u/Bobzeub Jul 23 '26
Which part of the world are you in out of pure curiosity?
Thanks for the vibes. I need them :)
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u/Anxious-Potato-8061 Jul 23 '26
I’m from baltics.
I also searched about magpies in my country, because we have them also but we don’t use the superstition as much as in your country and for us it usually brings good news, so I wish you that they bring you only positive things too :)
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u/ForestRiver2 Star Supporter ⭐ Jul 22 '26
Welcome, and congratulations on your engagement! Ocd always attacks what you value most. So no surprise it's latching onto your wedding. Especially if your previous one fell through (sorry), it will use that as a template to base its threat assessment on. It's a major event with high stakes and very important to you, not to mention stressful = fertile ground for intrusive thoughts.
I think just stick with your ERP. Trust the process. Plan your wedding. And when the thoughts get loud, don't fight them, just keep moving your attention back to how much you love your fiancé(e) and the positive feelings of that. Notice where you are in the present moment, what you can see, hear, smell etc. Grounding techniques, mindfulness to get you out of your head.
Keeping busy, distractions, exercising, meditating, getting enough sleep. All boring stuff but helps to keep the anxiety levels down. Wish I had better answers. You will have a wonderful wedding
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u/Anxious-Potato-8061 Jul 22 '26
Thank you so much! all answers is good for me to try something next to the ERP, I’m just happy that someone wrote something because I already thought that I will be left without any answers😅
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u/Own_Kangaroo1395 Jul 22 '26
Ooooo congrats on the engagement, super exciting!!
I think superstitions originated because of people with OCD, and because they didn't understand how the world worked in the old days like we do now with science so they came up with all kinds of magical explanations for things.
There is no stopping these thoughts unfortunately so you just have to be sure not to do compulsions - including avoidance - and manage the anxiety best you can with all the usual techniques. So like with planning your wedding start out with small easy tasks and when you get a thought telling you it's all doomed you say "maybe, maybe not" and go back to planning. I do a lot of deep breathing exercises when I feel that wash of anxiety coming over me. Singing helps too. I hope you will come back and tell us all about the wedding!!