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the NOCD Community

How do you all stop ocd in its tracks from not ruining your goals, wishes, and daily tasks?

This isn’t ROCD anymore… I think I actually don’t want my partner anymore…. I’m having so much anxiety about this… 😞

Best exposures for moral scrupulosity? Plz help

Just found out a guy I was seeing for around two months and I really liked and was convinced he was in love with me was also seeing another girl at the same time as me (he had convinced me he wanted to be in a relationship with me, taking about future plans, even asking me about my ocd because he wanted to be educated on it to help me). Im kind of friends with the other girl and she told me she wanted nothing to do with him. I tried to present myself as not caring to him and aired his messages. Today I find out he was messaging her all day apologist saying he wants to be with her. I feel horrible. No guys ever want a relationship with me, and I always have my guard up because I’m scared of getting hurt. The one time I let it down I do get hurt. I just want to run away, all my friends are so happy and I’m so sad and being left behind.

Just discovered this app, and feel like it’s the place to maybe find someone who relates/some support. So, cue rant! I’ve always been a more anxious type person, hypochondriac, fearing loss of control, but it was never to a overtaking extent. 3 years ago, I underwent a burnout during school and starting experiencing physical symptoms of anxiety and panic - which scared the sh*t out of me. That was enough to start a cycle of fear and obsession about being anxious itself. It started experiencing alllll the symptoms, DP, difficulty sleeping, hyperawareness and constant checking. I would constantly check in on my breathing and mind to see if I was feeling anxious, hoping that it would go away. Obviiiiiously, as you all know, the checking never helps 😂. So I entered a vicious cycle. I ended up seeing a therapist and starting escitalopram which pretty much *cured* me within weeks/couple months. Since then, I’ve been pretty stable and ok! I actually stopped my medication approx 6 months ago, without any issues. Until last month. I’ve been through the most dreadful year, purchasing a house, renovating, being a front line health worker, you name it, this year was terrible! In December, I started feeling close to that feeling I felt before burnout; but I was still ok. Then, I watched a psychological thriller where the person has split personality/schizophrenia/psychosis, that same night I had a panic attack. Then that week, while watching tv, the show had a person going through a massive psychotic episode. *Cue the rumination cycle* I just started panicking that I would lose my mind. I started feeling disconnected, fearing loss of touch with reality, insight. I googled and googled away for symptoms of psychosis, schizophrenia, delusions, you name it - I looked it up. I then started the whole cycle of ruminating, catastrophizing. I constantly was scanning my environment for proof/disproof that I was in fact going to develop psychosis, looking for possible hallucinations. It brought me to such a state of hyper vigilance and hyperawareness and self checking that EVERYTHING triggers fear/anxiety in me. It’s almost as if nothing feels real, and I’m pretty petrified. I’m analyzing my thoughts, constantly questioning if they’re normal or not, and obviously that causes more and more anxiety. I just constantly look in my surroundings analyzing everything, seeing if they “feel/look normal” and obviously, when you analyze anything that much, everything seems weird and off. I would be triggered by the slightest glare or frown from a stranger, fearing that I was becoming paranoid or delusional. I imagine the scariest scenarios and things, and I honestly don’t even know why at this point. All to say, I guess I’m scared of being scared - which is triggering so much hyperawareness which is making my whole world and thought process distorted. I restarted the medication almost 4 weeks ago and it’s helping with the anxiety but the thoughts are so all-consuming. I have an appointment with my therapist next week, and I just can’t wait to start to get the ball rolling ! Have any of you experienced anything like this? Mental health OCD? What helped you? Let me know 🤍 * I want to clarify that I’m not in any way trying to stigmatize the community really suffering from psychosis,schizophrenia or any other mental health disorder, all my love and strength to you all. This is simply about rumination about a certain theme*

Any female HOCD sufferers been triggered by stories of females coming out later in life, who were always in relationships with males?

hey, are there any young teenagers who have questions about socd? i’m a 18 year old who recovered at 15, so i experienced it at a young age. maybe someone wants to talk about something, so i’m here for you guys :)

Hey everyone :( it’s been while since I posted but I’m having hard time with my relationship cause of my ROCD. I keep worry about small details like the fact my bf recently changed his voice note messaging to expiring after two mins. I know his best friend talks to him 24/7 and he is always sending my bf voice notes (sometime his friend talks about illegal things) but is this something I should worry about? I feel like over analyzing his behaviours to see if he is hiding something from me or being disloyal. My heart knows it’s not in his character but I’m still worried :( any advice would be great. (Also have PTSD from being cheated on in past relationship)

I really wish I didn’t worry so much about taking medications and the side effects. I wish I could just take it and be done with it. Every time I look up the medication, all I see are negative side effects. It’s really frustrating. I know if I want a chance at getting better, I have to just start. I’m starting this morning and will be taking 1.25mg lexapro and will do that for a week. I’ll have a follow up with my doctor next week and will increase it then to 2.5 for a week then likely to 5. Has anyone else tried this approach at such low low doses and had good experience with the side effects because it was such a small dose to begin with?

How was your OCD first discovered? I have Tourettes and I was in and out of the different doctors offices and specialists for a long time when I was younger. I use to constantly hum and snap my fingers and my parents would get so annoyed but I would tell them I couldn’t stop. After a while of being watched carefully and everything I was officially diagnosed with OCD and Tourettes. Just thought I’d share. Please share your story.

I am such a horrible person, I cant even try to fight this feeling that I am a bad person, its like I gave up. I just forget my existence. I cant hold this more. I hate myself so much. I just want to end it all.

Does anyone else struggle with the sub type of getting other mental illnesses? I don’t know why but out of nowhere I have now been struggling with thoughts of developing schizophrenia. Now I spend my time checking and making sure I’m not having any symptoms but the weird thing is my brain is like mimicking symptoms and then I end up with an anxiety attack because I feel as if I’m going crazy or I’m having delusional thoughts. It’s kind of put me in a funk and I’m hoping this passes. I’ve had something similar happen a few years before and was able to get out of it but if I have what I feel is a bizarre thought, I convince myself the thought wasn’t normal and I’m going crazy. Does anyone have any tips? Or similar situation?

Any tips to how do I beat this real event ocd. I have some sexual experience when I was 8 or 7 because I got expose to porn at that time. I was wondering if it was consensual or not and it is driving me nuts. Please help.

My brain keeps telling me to enjoy things before I kill myself but I don’t want to. I don’t want to die. Help me.

I feel like I’m navigating this medication journey alone. Was prescribed by my Dr and the psychiatric np (whom I’ve never met). Was given hydroxyzine for quick relief. Finally after 2 weeks of having it on hand, I took it last night. (Just 1/4 of the dose) and again early this morning. I am trying so hard to get the courage to take the lexapro and told my Dr I wanted to start at a quarter of the 5mg pill. She said I could but I likely wouldn’t benefit from it. I just wanted to start on that to minimize side effects. Anyone start that low (1.25mg) or lexapro. How did it work out. I wanted to try it for a few days then go up to 2.5. Then if need be up to 5. I’m alone. I fear side effects. I’m phobic with medications. I’m proud that I took the other medication. But the issue is I was told that I can not take the hydroxyzine and lexapro at the same time. So how do I calm myself enough to take the lexapro or if I get additional anxiety from it? I have to wait several hours between both. I’m not sure what to do. But I know that I need to start the lexapro asap. I can’t feel this constant anxiety all day and night day after day.

Having a serious panic attack and I have to go into work and I really don’t think I can do it. I offered to come in on my day off and now with the way I’m feeling I don’t know if it’s such a good idea but if I stay busy and talk to my friends I might be ok I don’t know. I started getting flashbacks to almost a year ago (on Feb 6th) to when my dad passed and I immediately started screaming and crying. My dad was there for me during my hard times with OCD and he was so supportive and understanding and didn’t judge and gave advice and now I feel so alone because my mom gets upset with me when I mention it at all and I don’t really have anyone else to talk to. My past mistakes are bothering me so much right now and all the “what if” thoughts I keep having about that certain event is making me want to give up which I’m not going to do don’t worry it’s just what I’m feeling. I don’t know what else to do. It doesn’t matter what anyone says to me, I can’t get passed it or forgive myself to move forward. I just can’t

I literally feel like I'm never going to be happy or truly know who I am. Is that being bisexual? Or confused. It feels as tho I want to be with a man but I don't ever want to give up women. Although I don't feel what I used to it seems 😔

i’m so frustrated. i just wish i could be okay again. i should’ve never taken meds, ever since i took them i can’t feel emotions and it’s worrying me. my thoughts are killing me. im so fucken scared for what my future will bring.

To everyone with health concern ocd, I just wanted to ask, how often do you fell scared you have an honest illness. Like right now I’m going through a cancer scare right now just because of some little weird things going on with my body. I’ve been doing a lot googling and seeing websites that say it’s cancer and others that say it’s just the body being the body and that 9/10 it’s nothing to worry about, I suppose I just want to hear what are some things that made you fear you may have had cancer before in the past and then turned out to be nothing. I usually tend to catastrophize everything

If you have a partner with OCD, you may struggle to understand their experience, wonder what to do when OCD flares up, and worry about how OCD is impacting them. While there aren’t any perfect solutions, there are key ways for you to support your partner while taking care of your own mental health: 1. Avoid creating an enabling environment. It may seem like a good idea to accommodate all of your partner’s compulsions and reduce their anxiety, but this can make OCD worse in the long run.  2. Learn how to help them through OCD episodes. OCD can spike unexpectedly, which can be difficult. By learning to recognize your partner’s compulsions, you can respond supportively and effectively. 3. Educate yourself on OCD and exposure and response prevention (ERP) therapy. The more you know about the way OCD is treated, the more you can help your partner effectively manage their condition.  Read more about what you can do to help your partner manage OCD while creating a safe, healthy and supportive environment for you both.