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dealing with coincidences
lightTalker6898 March 1st
.

i know being oversensitive to coincidences is a big part of OCD, so normally i try to watch out not to get sucked in. but within the last two weeks, i've been experiencing truly bizarre coincidences every single day and i'm starting to really freak out. the thing is, they're not related to my fears or anything, or they're not "bets" that i do with myself like "if x happens right now, then y is true". they're just little things, like something obscure that i haven't thought of in years randomly popping into my mind and then seeing it on my feed just a few minutes later, and similar stuff.

i won't bore you with examples but it's something new literally every single day. and i try to rationalize it, think about how bizarre it really is to try to break it down, but some of them are truly inexplicable. anyway, long story short, does anyone have any advice on how to deal with coincidences when OCD is making me freak out about them? i keep trying to tell myself that "it's just coincidences, they don't mean anything", but the more they happen the harder it's getting for me to believe it.

3
Hope March 1st
.

@lightTalker6898

Thank you for reaching out. I can see that you are distressed by this. OCD indeed has a way of blowing things out of proportion but it can be overwhelming for the person. 

A channel called 'OCD and anxiety' is a great one to explore for this and you may find the tips helpful. 

As for this specific concern. It reminded me of this: the Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon (a.k.a. the Recency Bias or Frequency Illusion) The Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon, otherwise known as the frequency illusion or recency bias, is a situation where something you recently learned about suddenly seems to appear everywhere. 

It is super common for people to experience this. It happens to a lot of people. Its rarely anything more. 

lightTalker6898 OP March 2nd
.

@Hope thank you so much for your reply. see i know about these things yet in the moment it's hard to remind myself of them, but i'm trying. and i love nathan haha he's a hero! thank you again for your help i really appreciate it

Hope March 4th
.

@lightTalker6898

Totally! Once you give attention to the thought and start to reason with it. You have gone down a slippery slope and its very hard to get out of the loop. 

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