OCD staring / eye contact / peripheral vision

Hi @rejee. Hope all of you are fine.The core idea of my method is that when we chat with some person in various social situations , our primary attention is towards his face. But apart from his face all the region around his face is in our view. Imagine a person and you sitting facing each others in an office. His full body is visible to you (no other object like table in between). A cockroach comes in that room and crawls up his trouser. You will be able to notice cockroach even before it has reached his knees. Although you were chatting with him and looking at his face.
So the point is that we humans have two eyes on our face and objects within a large angle are in our view. Although while facing someone we look at his/her face but objects around his face (left and right, up and down) are in our vision. We can not get his/her body out of our vision by trying to focus our eyes somewhere else. It is how our eyes work.
Lets imagine another example. A person is watching tv in his room with interest.His eyes would be really focused on tv screen. now if a lizard comes in his room and crawls on wall he will be able to notice it although it is still many feet away from tv screen .
So when people (even not suffering from OCD) face a person his/her crotch or chest is in their vision. They just keep their focus where it should be and dont become anxious. Whereas people with OCD staring become panicked and try their best to get other person's private parts out of their vision which is not possible. In fact it backfires . Their vision diverts again and again to other person's private parts. Other person is able to notice their sight moving to and fro between his face and privates. He also notices nervousness in their eyes as committing something bad. That person becomes uncomfortable and unhappy. At this point people suffering from OCD can see his facial expressions and becomes more anxious. In this way this vicious cycle goes on and on.
As OCD progresses the sufferer becomes conscious of this all and he tries to avoid seeing privates of any people in his surroundings. No doubt it is a futile effort and backfires.
Now question is that what is way out of this vicious cycle for an OCDer with staring problem?
First of all he needs to understand that it is not possible to restrict our sight to a small region. Objects away from our main focus will still be in our view like chest or crotch maybe.
I tried myself and advised others to just focus on whole face of other person while conversing with him/her. Her chest or his crotch can be in my view but i will not panic and keep calm. OCD sufferer should try to focus on whole face of other person not on a single point like center of eyes or nose. Focusing on whole face along with contours is much natural and worked best for me.
In case an OCDer is in a different situation like attending a lecture and lecturer writing on board. He has to keep his sight focused where it should be, like on writing on the board in this case. Lecturer's chest or crotch may come in his vision but he has to keep calm and not worry about it.
One key factor that helps this vicious cycle to continue is the fear that other person will observe me staring at his privates and can be angry. Its my personal experience that if one can learn not to panic and keep eyes focused to his face regardless of his privates being in view other person do not notice anything abnormal. As a result of such an encounter OCDer becomes relieved as he did not see any discomfort on other person's face.In this way his staring problem will reduce more and more and he will be able to be like normal people as this fear will be out of his mind and subconscious.
There may be some point in my writing that need more elaboration . If you find some ambiguities or have some more questions about this method let me know.

I have great sympathy with OCDers with staring problem as it is perhaps most embarrassing type of OCD and because i have been in this hell for many years. If some OCDer need to talk to me about this method i can have video or audio chat with him online .

Hi @Raheel,

Thanks for your post, you very clearly described the difficulties that some people with OCD face in regards to vision.

I just need to chime in here, and let you know that this is an anonymous forums, which means that any information that can reveal your identity is restricted. This means that private messaging or video chat or sharing details to video chat cannot be published.

But you are more than welcome to continue using the Forums. I hope you don't feel discouraged by this. The Community Guidelines are a bit hidden so it's understandable if you haven't come across them yet.

CherryBomb

Hi Tyler. Ocd peripheral vision used to be automatic with my eyes too. It is because this fear is always at the back of our mind. Ocd staring sufferer fear that he will look inappropiaately others and he cant help this. But once you are able to control it fear is no more there in mind and its no more automated then after few days.

Please give me the name of that supplement! I have had this problem for so long, and my fear is that I could accidentally get fired for "sexual harassment."

I can't describe the terrible fear that goes along with this neuro-chemical disorder. I am always afraid that it will be wrongly interpreted as sexual deviance.

Thanks for sharing.
Just letting you know I've made a group on facebook call "OCD eye contact anxiety staring". Hope to see you on it!. We have group skype chats every once in awhile as well.

Thankyou @Tyler01 for sharing your story .. i am 21 yr old from india ...i've been struggling with this form of OCD since 8-9 years.. and also i have ADHD and anxiety Disorder ... my palmer hyperhydresis and pigmentation on my face makes my anxiety worse and when i have too much of anxiety my OCD is 100% uncontrollable... till the age of 19 i didn't know what was happening with me... i heartily appreciate you for sharing your story because there is not a single information about this form of OCD on wikipedia or any other OCD sites as far as I know ... thanks for clearing this point too that this form of OCD is not related to any kind of sexual obsession !!..