Post by rainbow on May 16, 2023 10:47:54 GMT 10
This is a sequel to my other thread about the link between generationology/decadeology and autism, where I stated that those who are on the autism spectrum seem to be disproportionately into these two topics, which may explain the nature of those two subs.
However, I’ve recently been thinking that OCD could also make one more likely to have an obsession with these topics (especially generationology, but I’m a bit biased)
OCD hits closer to home because I have suspected that I do actually have it. My sister was diagnosed with it, although I’ve never gotten an official diagnosis. I noticed a lot of signs looking back in my life, such as obsessively googling things I was worried about, reassuring seeking, intrusive thoughts, and a weird everyday ritual which I won’t get too much into detail about since I want to keep this thread on topic.
But as I was looking back on my life, I realized that there may have been another sign of my OCD, and that was being into r/generationology back in 2020.
OCD involves a lot of reassurance seeking. If something is not absolutely 100% certain, they will continue to obsess over the topic to find a concrete answer (which never actually happens with OCD, which is why we keep doing it). And because generationology is inherently arbitrary, that means absolute certainty is near impossible. This may explain why you constantly see the same topics over and over being posted onto the subreddit.
You may be finding that I’m a bit of a hypocrite because I criticize generationology so much while owning the decadeology sub. To me, these two topics felt very different to me. I never felt like I was reassurance seeking on decadeology. It was more like a fun and interesting topic to talk about in my free time.
With generationology, it felt like I was seeking reassurance on what generational cohort I am. Generationology feels more personal because you’re talking about people. I remember I would always reassurance seek on what people consider my birth year as, because nobody could figure out if I was early or core Z. When you have OCD, your compulsion and reassurance seeking method is to make dozens of threads asking about your birth year, which is pretty much what I did.
I believe this may also ring true for the majority of active users on r/generationology. I’m lucky enough to have successfully quit my addiction to generationology all together ( I did make a few comments on there a few months ago) but I have never made a single thread on there since late 2020. It has gotten to a point now where I cannot get myself to even look at the sub for more than five minutes max because I just cannot get myself to care all that much about it anymore. If someone asks me what birth years I consider what generational cohort, I literally will not answer.
It is not healthy to spend so much of your time obsessing over your birth year or even just a specific year. These kinds of people remind me a lot of those who are into astrology and are insecure about one of their “bad” placements in their birth chart.
Now I’m not gonna lie, quitting generationology was pretty difficult. The ultimate trick I found worked for me was to just find another topic to be interested in. For me, decadeology is another topic I’m interested in despite overlapping with the generationology community a lot. But I’m also into other things such as city-data, nutrition, and mental health (yes that’s why I made a post about OCD and autism lmao) I unsubscribed to any generationology subreddits and muted them. I also removed myself from any discord generational servers and actively avoid generationology.
Now I’m at a point in my life where I literally cannot get myself to care all that much about the topic anymore. My (undiagnosed) OCD has gotten wayyyy better from it, and I felt like I could finally get interested in any other topic now that I wasn’t consumed by arbitrary generational years.
OCD is just another thing IMO that makes you vulnerable to being addicted to this topic, and I speak from experience. Don’t take this thread the wrong way, but I wanted to provide some insight on the topic.
However, I’ve recently been thinking that OCD could also make one more likely to have an obsession with these topics (especially generationology, but I’m a bit biased)
OCD hits closer to home because I have suspected that I do actually have it. My sister was diagnosed with it, although I’ve never gotten an official diagnosis. I noticed a lot of signs looking back in my life, such as obsessively googling things I was worried about, reassuring seeking, intrusive thoughts, and a weird everyday ritual which I won’t get too much into detail about since I want to keep this thread on topic.
But as I was looking back on my life, I realized that there may have been another sign of my OCD, and that was being into r/generationology back in 2020.
OCD involves a lot of reassurance seeking. If something is not absolutely 100% certain, they will continue to obsess over the topic to find a concrete answer (which never actually happens with OCD, which is why we keep doing it). And because generationology is inherently arbitrary, that means absolute certainty is near impossible. This may explain why you constantly see the same topics over and over being posted onto the subreddit.
You may be finding that I’m a bit of a hypocrite because I criticize generationology so much while owning the decadeology sub. To me, these two topics felt very different to me. I never felt like I was reassurance seeking on decadeology. It was more like a fun and interesting topic to talk about in my free time.
With generationology, it felt like I was seeking reassurance on what generational cohort I am. Generationology feels more personal because you’re talking about people. I remember I would always reassurance seek on what people consider my birth year as, because nobody could figure out if I was early or core Z. When you have OCD, your compulsion and reassurance seeking method is to make dozens of threads asking about your birth year, which is pretty much what I did.
I believe this may also ring true for the majority of active users on r/generationology. I’m lucky enough to have successfully quit my addiction to generationology all together ( I did make a few comments on there a few months ago) but I have never made a single thread on there since late 2020. It has gotten to a point now where I cannot get myself to even look at the sub for more than five minutes max because I just cannot get myself to care all that much about it anymore. If someone asks me what birth years I consider what generational cohort, I literally will not answer.
It is not healthy to spend so much of your time obsessing over your birth year or even just a specific year. These kinds of people remind me a lot of those who are into astrology and are insecure about one of their “bad” placements in their birth chart.
Now I’m not gonna lie, quitting generationology was pretty difficult. The ultimate trick I found worked for me was to just find another topic to be interested in. For me, decadeology is another topic I’m interested in despite overlapping with the generationology community a lot. But I’m also into other things such as city-data, nutrition, and mental health (yes that’s why I made a post about OCD and autism lmao) I unsubscribed to any generationology subreddits and muted them. I also removed myself from any discord generational servers and actively avoid generationology.
Now I’m at a point in my life where I literally cannot get myself to care all that much about the topic anymore. My (undiagnosed) OCD has gotten wayyyy better from it, and I felt like I could finally get interested in any other topic now that I wasn’t consumed by arbitrary generational years.
OCD is just another thing IMO that makes you vulnerable to being addicted to this topic, and I speak from experience. Don’t take this thread the wrong way, but I wanted to provide some insight on the topic.
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