I’ve had this for as long as I can remember but it never really became an issue until I was around 14 years old. I’m currently 19. I just assumed everyone had it and because of how much anxiety and cringe it causes in my head, I could never bring it up to anyone until it got bad. Let me give you an example. I have this cousin who is great and everything. She really likes cheese and for as long as I can remember, I unintentionally assigned the word cheese to her. Whenever I text her, that stupid word “cheese” gets in my head and triggers an anxiety attack when I communicate. It sometimes makes it hard to take a person seriously or truly listen to them because it’s intrusive to my brain. Another example is, I associate smelly vagina with the phrase “the maple” Why I do this is beyond me. But I had this crush that I associated with a smelly vagina for some reason. God only knows why. I sure as heck wish I knew. So it was extremely difficult to talk to her because whenever I would communicate with her, “the maple” would get in my head. There is 0 evidence to suggest that she has a smelly vagina so why I do this is unknown. But it was intrusive to my ability to communicate with her. And for some reason, I associate moms of teenagers with the phrase “we’ve got the bananas” and whenever I talk to my friends moms, that gets stuck in my head and triggers anxiety. Usually, I’m able to fake it not being a problem but being in college, the assigning words thing became so overwhelming, I had to isolate in my dorm and looking at people was hard. I don’t understand the science behind it. What I do know is that it is very silly and irrational. It’s ridiculous to think assigning “the maple” to someone can trigger loads of anxiety when attempting to talk to them. I saw a psychiatrist and took Zoloft for a bit. She said I had OCD and generalized anxiety. The Zoloft did nothing. She told me she’s never heard of this case before. It’s very hard to talk about. I come on here because I would like to hear if anyone else has experienced this because I feel alone. And if so, what’s the solution? The thoughts just keep ruminating and it affects my ability to socialize. What the hell is wrong with me?