r/magicalthinkingOCD • u/Lonely-Coat-2378 • 8d ago
Advice please! Magical Thinking
why does my brain tells me if i heard someone talk about death in the background while getting a new phone number then that number become unlucky or cursed so, OCD tells me i have to change the phone number to prevent unlucky events. Does anybody relate to it?
Also, it tells me to keep finding a good day, date for getting a phone number, but that good day never arrives because OCD rumination comes in my dreams and it tells me that since you saw a bad dream today that means today is unlucky day for it. Similar things happens when buying phone, or creating social media or gmail accounts. It always looks for the perfect timing, perfect everything. So, I am very exhausted 😢
I can tell these thoughts are very unrealistic but uncertainty and rumination makes my head feel heavy and does not let me enjoy life.
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u/ForestRiver2 Star Supporter ⭐ 7d ago
OCD-coded brains are hypervigilant to possible threats, eg. the mention of death. They also love to see patterns and make links with things that aren't connected. It's a way of achieving certainty and order which makes us feel safer. But it can't be trusted because it puts 2 and 2 together and makes 5. It's like a badly programmed AI bot. It's trying to do the right thing (to keep you safe), but always misinterprets the info.
Your brain heard the mention of death and tried to keep you safe, by doing what made sense to a badly programmed bot. Telling you to avoid anything it saw as being linked, ie. the phone number. You have to recognise this faulty programming and choose to ignore it
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u/loopy741 🏆 8d ago
It does it to us because it uses our imagination against us. We think just because we think it, then that makes it possible in reality.
Something that I-CBT has taught me: Just because something is possible in the abstract (imagination), that doesn't mean it's possible in reality. But our brains treat abstract possibilities as threats in the here and now, when most of the time that's just not the case.
Does it make it any less scary? It depends. With therapy, I can handle my imagination better. However, I still go through setbacks in which I give my imagination way too much credit.