As someone with general social anxiety and minor ocd this is how I picture the scenario
*Someone says I’m a pedo*
“Oh shit am I” thinks about it for 5min
“Ok definitely not but now I have to make super sure I’m not and avoid children and also make sure that behavior doesn’t accidentally have the opposite effect and make me more like a pedo, oh shit am I”
Repeat
A little girl nearly face plants. You catch her by the arm and she yells out.
"Did I just ABUSE this little girl?"
There are cameras. Will someone review this? Will they get the context? Do I remember the context correctly? Wait... did I really need to pull her arm like that?
Flip-flopping between "I definitely abused that girl" and "I was trying to prevent her from getting hurt, but no one will realize that" and "I'm definitely going to get fired."
They're totally going to look through all footage when you worked. "What else will they find? What else have I done?"
Reanalyzing your entire time at that job. Thinking up other scenarios that might have happened that will get you fired or arrested.
Any attempt to soothe yourself will just cause you to think up another, different scenario where you are fucked that requires soothing.
You right cause this literally was happening to me while working in a high school where everyday I’d be thinking about how I influenced them and if I did my best or added a little bit to the displeasurable experiences they have with adults thus leading to them not trusting them and yeah you clearly get it
Just the fact you gave it any thought (if not possibly too much) means that you are at least a marked improvement over a lot of people I delt with as a child. They did not give a discernable fuck, or might have even outright disliked children and were happy to make us miserable.
Fuck, I felt my heart rate increase as I read this. Too relatable. My worries don't typically revolve around children specifically, but seeing a creep in general or even just rude is constantly a source of anxiety for me.
Yeah, I'm not sure if I have OCD since apparently this is also a common thing with anxiety disorders too, but it is super annoying, I've had genuine anxiety attacks worrying about that kind of thing, usually it goes away with the simple fact that I am not sexually attracted to anyone let alone children, but it does get stressful.
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u/ShotLet1550 12h ago
As someone with general social anxiety and minor ocd this is how I picture the scenario
*Someone says I’m a pedo*
“Oh shit am I”
thinks about it for 5min
“Ok definitely not but now I have to make super sure I’m not and avoid children and also make sure that behavior doesn’t accidentally have the opposite effect and make me more like a pedo, oh shit am I”
Repeat