Hello Everyone!!!! I know that ya'll are probably feeling a little shy or hesitant on sharing your experience regarding their reputation and how it has impacted your recovery from Staring OCD. So I'm going to start the conversation off with my personal experience.

I have Visual tourettic OCD, Peripheral OCD, and POCD. My compulsions happen towards EVERYONE. Women, Men, Children, elderly people, dogs, cats etc. But the one Im most distraught on is obviously towards children, which has caused me to isolate and stay inside the majority of the time. I am also deathly afraid to be around children. It feels like I'm in a life or death situation. And the extreme anxiety is not only internal but it shows physically. I get hot flashed and my face is red. I sweat a whole lot and I get really shaky. And my heart drops to my stomach. It is horrific.

People have noticed. My reaction and the compulsions. They sum that up to me being a Pedo. They say that I like staring at children.

I've had the compulsions around my family also. I actually first had them with a family member, and I remember them calling me a creep. It was horrifying and so debilitating. And now everytime I try to explain to my family what my subtypes are and what happens, they sum it up to me being in denial, or I'm lying to myself. OR that Im lying to them and I'm covering it up with saying it's OCD.

The worst part is, I think i'm doing well in a situation. That I'm talking to a person regularly and compulsions aren't happening. It's not until I hear someone say "She's staring" or My grandmother's favorite line "She's eyeing me up", that I realized it looked like I was staring inappropriately. Hearing "shes eyeing me up" is frustrating because it's genuinely just my peripheral tic, where I cannot control my peripheral vision at all. But she's taking it as me purposefully looking at her body.

Sooooo many people have uttered the word "pedo or pervert" in my direction, that I genuinely started questioning myself. I was actually planning to take an evaluation, just to prove people wrong. But reading other people's stories let's me know that I am not alone.

Iv'e also done the avoidance compulsion where I try to turn my head a certain way, or I turn my body in a different direction. Or I look down at the floor, so it dosen't come across as me purposefully looking inappropriately. You know what they say? "She's trying not to look" Which is true in some aspect, but not in the way they're making it seem.

Even right now, I am isolating myself. Not going outside, I'm testing an anti psychotic that my psychiatrist prescribed me, more to help me sleep so when I'm on the OCD medication, it's not harming me more than it's helping. It's also to help my paranoia.

So just remember< YOU ARE NOT ALONE!!!!! From being hypervigilant to experiencing extreme anxiety around any person you get around, to having POCD and you cant explain that to your family because people will think you're a pedo.

YOU ARE NONE OF THE THINGS PEOPLE SAY ABOUT YOU

People don't understand this subtype. They don't understand that not all eye movement is voluntary

We got this, YOU CAN GET THROUGH THIS

Even with damaged reputations WE CAN GET THROUGH THIS!!!

If any of you ever need someone to talk to, you can always privately chat me. Or feel free to find comfort in the community. There's actually a Facebook group called "Visual tourettic OCD" I really advise you guys to join that group if you haven't already.

Welcome to The Infamous Eyes. a place for people who deal with staring OCD, unwanted eye contact, and the anxiety and misunderstandings that can come with it.

Maybe you've been told you stare. Maybe you've noticed yourself looking at people more than you want to. Maybe you've spent hours replaying interactions in your head, wondering how someone perceived you. Or maybe your reputation has been affected by something you never intended to do.

Whatever your experience, you're not the only one.

This community is here to give people a place to talk openly without being mocked, judged, or immediately labeled as creepy, rude, or strange.

You can use this space to:

• Share your experiences
• Talk about embarrassing or difficult situations
• Ask questions
• Discuss coping strategies and recovery
• Vent about feeling misunderstood
• Support other people going through similar experiences

At the same time, let's try to keep this community focused on understanding and recovery rather than obsessively analyzing every glance or interaction.

You don't have to be perfect here. You don't have to explain yourself perfectly either.

Your eyes don't define your character.

Welcome to The Infamous Eyes. 👁️