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I feel like I’m always going to feel this way. Either I can’t feel connected to him because I’m anxious, or I’m anxious because I can’t feel connected to him. I constantly worry about how he’s thinking about me, how to respond to him, etc. But when I’m calm and relaxed, everything is really good and I’m trying to trust that. But I don’t get to live in a calm and relaxed state and it’s making me feel like maybe he’s bringing me the anxiety because we aren’t compatible. But then I think about breaking up with him and I panic because I really don’t want that. I love him so much and want him in my life always. Just wish my mind could calm down. I feel like no matter what I do, I can’t feel good about this or any relationship.

i’m at the end of my rope. i’m in non stop genuine f***ing agony every day over my own eventual death it’s making me miserable. it feels like my life has no more meaning and i’m missing out on so much. please i just want to be happy again. i’m so sad all the time i feel like i’m already dead. i cannot comprehend nonexistence and religion feels like a cop out. i can no longer sleep at night from stress. i’m so sad. anyways. i’m wasting my f***ing life. i’m only 18 please why won’t these thoughts STOP i’m in so much pain

I just went through my first breakup. My ex and I dated for almost 5 years and the breakup was mutual but it still hurts so much. I had ROCD throughout our entire relationship that I’m sure took a toll on us both but what led us to the end was completely separate—he hurt me in a way I couldn’t get past after it happening multiple times before. Even though the breakup was mutual and I know we need this to move forward either with or without one another, I am in so much pain. We both are still in love with the other and it’s making this breakup 10x harder because I am freaking out over whether or not I overreacted and I am throwing away something amazing just because of my ROCD sabotaging everything for us. It wasn’t the only issue but I guess I’m freaking out thinking it could’ve been the root of many of my frustrations. I just feel nauseous and depressed and exhausted (I can’t sleep). I guess I just need some guidance here. I have no idea how to navigate a breakup, let alone one where OCD is involved.

I randomly just got reminded of my past mistakes again and I was doing just fine until I got triggered all of a sudden. I don’t know what to do. I feel so much guilt just fill my body and now I can’t seem to let it go no matter how many times I’ve been told to let it go and forgive myself I just can’t because I was so stupid when I was younger and didn’t realize at the time what I was doing wrong and I hate myself so much for it that I almost want to give up because I feel like I don’t deserve to move on and be happy

Vent/Story time So regardless of what my OCD tells me, I do identify as a straight male. When I was 18 years old, my modeling agent (he’s openly gay) kinda groomed me. He tried to convince me that I was gay for over a year because I was a virgin basically. He also had a crush on me & this dude is a narcissist and a manipulator (horrible person). Personally, I realized I was close with him because I tend to be a very codependent person. But after I spoke to my dad about what this person has done to me and said to me (he sexually assaulted me and manipulated me to think it wasn’t his intent) I had to drop him as an agent. Ever since this kind of triggered my HOCD. And ever since my HOCD has been going crazy. “What if he was right about me?” Those kind of thoughts. It’s been hard for me to talk to girls because of the intrusive thoughts I get. I’ve always desired women, sexually and romantically. I’m a virgin because I personally never seeked out to have sex due to my anxiety and obviously my ocd and other mental health issues. I was always just worried about myself and my life to be doing anything like that, if that makes sense. Little vent, not looking for reassurance or anything, just wanted to share my story. Fuck all narcissists :)

Hi everybody. My name is Matt and I just had my first therapy session and I am optimistic. I am suffering from ROCD and overcame SOCD about 4 years ago. I just wanted to reach out and talk to anyone going through or has gone through ROCD. I would like to chat with anyone going through this. I hope everyone is having a good day🙂

I kinda of have a two part question. 1-Has anyone here just gotten better? 2-How do you know if ERP is working? My ocd goes through phases, and always has even before ERP. There are times where I just feel completely normal. Is ERP supposed to lengthen those times of feeling better? If I have times where I feel 100% normal, then why is OCD incurable? Something in my brain is going back and forth to think irrationally and then back to thinking rationally.

Anyone here recovered from severe OCD with NOCD? I’ve had it for thirteen years and just feel like my ocd will never get better because I’ve had it for so long and it’s so severe right now

For years, I called my problem “depression,” thought of it as depression. Even calling it anxiety seemed strange to me, since I always seemed so tired and unmotivated and despair overtook everything. But I can easily see it in my behaviors, how I would avoid social situations, check the shower for dead bodies, check under my pillow for severed hands, come up with plans to handle wildly implausible scenarios, make lists of reasons people would reject me. But I always called the emotional part depression. At some point I realized there was more of a “sting” or “energy” to what I felt, but it felt different from anxiety. I called it “distress.” I have public speaking anxiety and the anxiety there feels very obvious. My heart pounds and races, I feel like I’m about to cry or vomit, I sweat. But I don’t really feel emotional distress (I used to, but I’m used to it by now). But when I experience obsessions it’s different. My heart pounds but it doesn’t race. My skin, chest, and throat feel sensitive, but the physical symptoms aren’t nearly as bad as the public speaking anxiety. But I feel so much pain in those moments. Anybody experience something similar?

Can real event ocd, or ocd in general make you feel bad for something you did that was actually wrong? I keep thinking about things I’ve done in the past that are defiantly wrong and shitty things. But I’ve never really thought of them before. I knew they were terrible things, and I’ve not gone back since. Maybe 10+ years ago (when I was 19-21). I thought real event ocd was your brain taking things that are trivial and twisting them to make you seem bad. In these cases I’ve grown as a person l, I’m really not proud of myself and hope to never go back to that place. Is this ocd, or am I suddenly just feeling remorse for being a terrible person? I just feel the need to confess to my wife again, even though she knows most of it.

I feel helpless. I have had sexual fantasies about women(I am a woman) but always desired to be with a man emotionally, physically, and romantically. I’ve never been with a woman in real life and never desired to. When I was single the thought of hooking up with a woman never entered my mind. I am married to my wonderful husband now and he knows all of the fantasies I have and it doesn’t bother him at all. However, I can’t stop feeling the obsessive need to define it and I feel it’s not right. I have this perfectionist in me and the need to have answers and define it. It sends me into this dark, depressive, OCD spiral I feel I can’t come out of. Does anyone else feel this way? I hope I’m not alone someone please help! Any advice at all is appreciated!

how do you deal with urges to do something you don’t want to do? for example, an intrusive thought telling you to shout something in a library. how can you silence that impulse? i can’t ignore these urges when they pop up.

tw for this i’m babysitting my baby brother and hes laying on my lap and keeps trying to put his hand near my crotch and it’s driving me mad

I’m struggling so much. I’m in a bad place. I’m considering maybe medication but I’m scared. I don’t know who to talk to. I’m missing my ex who was super supportive with my mental health. 😓😓

I can’t believe I’m a 29 year old woman wit ocd it’s insane to think that majority of ppl are normal and I no there’s other mental illness and other problems but my ocd rituals are rediculous and that’s it there rediculous wat is the reason for this illness that is so crazy that makes a grown woman incapable of takeing care of herself I can’t believe my life sometimes that here I am a smart healthy woman doing wierd stuff just to put clothes on I can’t believe my childhood was taken by this illness even when I was better it was still so hard to just be a kid and go stay the nite at a friends house I’d have to give these things second thoughts like can I go to there house wat bout my dressing ritual can I do it there witout others noing will I even be able to do it in the bathroom really quick and will the other girls do things that I can’t and I have to pretend I’m just not interested just cause my ocd makes me feel like certain things are bad even if I do attend these things will I even be present enough to actually just relax and be normal and enjoy the weekend no school hanging out wit friends will I just be thinking bout all the ocd things I can’t do and go home to do all of them to make up for not being able to do them and that’s the way it usually went my friends being excited for weekends and hanging out packing and unpacking so easily comeing home from a friends house and not a care in the world while I dread comeing home to put my stuff back in it’s place carefully and have to hurry and start the rituals to get ready for bed and for school the next day all while pretending I’m normal it sucks to just pretend I’m always pretending I pretend that I’m just as excited for the weekend and for events when really I’m calculating wat I need to do to preper for the next few days go ahead and do these rituals so you don’t have to do them outside my home wat would happen if I didn’t bring a certain item I mite need to perform a dressing and showering ritual will I not have my hairbrush and be offered by a friend there hair brush and not be able to use it cause of my ocd I always use a regular hair brush wat if there’s is a round barrel brush my ocd thinks there wierd and bad so I’d have to turn it down and make up a reason for not showering would the other girls play makeup and me sit there haveing to pretend I’m just a Tomboy when really my ocd tells me some make up is bad useing brushes to apply makeup is bad all of these rules running threw my head and still sitting there pretending I’m normal always lieing always pretending now I’m an adult wit no childhood and I still see woman excited for the weekend excited to hang out and I’m at home barely able to wash my own hair and shame my own body I don’t feel like a woman I don’t even feel like a person I’m just here existing trying to get threw everyday wit minimal ocd rituals and trying to do the bare minimum just so I don’t have to deal wit the repetiveness of it even if it doesn’t take long to do these things these ways it’s the point of not haveing freedom in my own body to do wat I want to do wat I’m suppose to do as a human being I can’t just do something I gotta prepare and take the time to do things and they have to be done at once no interruptions I can’t stop and eat a bite of food in the kitchen I can’t stop and answer the door I can’t make a tiktok bout the way I do my makeup cause I can’t even touch my phone while doing these things everything’s dirty and everything’s gotta be rinsed off and set in there clean area and packed away seperatly this isn’t a life even though I have a decent life I can’t live it cause I’m not even a person I’m just here.

Is this OCD? Ever since I was a child I'd had a weird dark obsession with tobacco and cigarettes. I would experience a lot of intrusive imagery of death dying, tumours, lung cancer and the concept of addiction. It terrified me and I would spend hours rumentihg on it. Neither of my parents smokes and I would try to avoid situations where people were smoking as it weirded me out. It was the 90s and they begun playing anti smoking commercials on TV. These would fill me with dread and to the point where I began leaving the room during and breaks incase I saw one. At point I went in a public rest room and saw an anti smoking poster on the back of the door. It sent shivers to my core and from then on I refused to go in any rest room without checking if there was a poster on the back of the door or now. I took up smoking as a teenager as away to gain control over the anxiety and carried on doing it until I was around 21 when I quit. The whole time the obsessive thoughts out if the blue would come and go regularly I would rument even when not around it At 25 I had a partner who smoked and everytime he did it I'd be filled with emense anxiety. After I'd been dating him a few months the anxiety of atchi v him do it became so intense I started doing it again myself. I then became obsessed with figuring ou how muc he was smoking so I could smoke the same amount. If we were in public I couldn't focus on conversations because I would be too busy watching him to figure out if he was going to have a cigarette so I could have one at the same time. Even though I knew it was rediculous I couldn't stop myself from doing it. Even the thought of not performing this compulsive behaviour filled me with anxiety beyond belief. This went on for about a year and a half until he out of the blue quit smoking and I did the same as soon as he did). This happened in exactly the same way with another partner I had a few years later. When it happens it's debilitating and it takes over my life. I have anew partner we've only been togethe r a few months an I had resisted the compulsion to start doing it along side him and he's just quit and I can't stop obsessing over whether he's doing it or not. Last week he had a relaps one day and he came hom Frome work smelling like it. I had a complete meltdown. I felt like it was all over me room a million showers and spent about 2 days unable to leave my house because of anxiety. There are other things that have caused the kind of distressing/obsessive thoughts over the years. At one point I became fixated on the idea that the world was about to end. I would have nights about it. And diialy intrusive thoughts about what if the world is ending. Everytime I heard an aeroplane in the sky I would go outside to check it wasn't a comet. I would spend hours googling super volcanos to make sure non were about to erupt. I knew it was extreme and rediculous but I could t get the thoughts out of my head. I also experimenced a bout of health anxiety where I was convinced I was going to get a tumour or something and would prang out and scan my body at any sign of pain. The latter two obsessions have since subsisted but the smoking one has been there since I was a chil and has as much if not more anxiety now than ever. I'm trying to figure out if this is an obscure form of OCD or something else because I'm trying to find an answer for what to do with the excessive and extremely obsessive thoughts. I have other exampled but for the sake of length I'll leave it at that for now

Does anyone have a type of OCD where you go down a rabbit hole of researching random terms using an endless amount of sources on the internet? Not sure if there’s a name for this. The thoughts associated with it are typically, “I need to figure this out and become an expert on this.”

I’m so sorry. I just wanted help. I feel like I’m spiraling again 💔

If you’re constantly fearing and panicking over harm intrusive thoughts, can you get to the point where you have little to no anxiety? I’m having that right now and I have not seen a therapist not even once. It’s so weird. Right now I’m just having fear over why I’m not having the anxiety anymore. I still get some fear from the precedes of the intrusive thoughts but it’s been going down. I’m confused.

I feel so alone now more than ever and no one will help me. I can’t do this