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Does anyone fear spreading things to others by using the bathroom? Do you keep needing to wash over and over?

I literally just almost had a full panic attack at the fact that I can think … like I sat there while I was thinking something in my head. and I have ocd where I like to feel even in my body usually and I felt like I couldn’t feel my head or control it .. it just scared me so much.

I have a massive fear of flying. I have a long flight coming up in a month and I’m already panicking about it. Any tips from people who get like this too? I feel like with OCD it’s an added level of anxiety that just makes it so hard

does anyone else feel like they’re simply existing? i cant describe how im feeling. it’s not like i want to die, but i’m just at a crossroads. while i’m so blessed for this life i’ve been given, i find it tough to get ti the end of the day. i just go through periods where i don’t feel like myself. almost like another person inside of my body.

You all inspire me greatly and your constant bravery is so encouraging. I’m newer here. My biggest question is - how have you all that deal with ROCD and have had success in managing it, sift through the differences of ROCD thoughts (which drive self sabotage) vs. legitimate concerns in a relationship or partners behavior? Do you find at times ROCD grabs hold of something small or normal in relationship conflict (like white lies from your partner or defensiveness) and blow it up to larger than life indicators that drive your anxiety/ruminations to be incessant? How do you cope? (I just started ERP)

I’m new to this one here. How do I cope with a fear that is truly real? I posted before that my dog had been diagnosed with heartworms (don’t come at me, he lived outside for over a year on a chain before we rescued him.) but ever since then, we’ve obviously begun treatment and I’m not sleeping. My OCD has been triggered by this and im CERTAIN he’s going to die. Even knowing his odds are very good, I’m still so sure he’ll die and I’m obsessing. Not sleeping. Watching him sleep all night…This is triggering old fears that I haven’t had in a very very long time surrounding children. I’ve struggled with infertility for over a year and we are FINALLY beginning treatment. This trigger has me wondering all over again if I even want to be a mom which is crazy because it’s all I’ve truly ever wanted! Also this fear didn’t creep back in until I was triggered by my dogs diagnosis…I guess I’m wondering how I do ERP around events that could genuinely happen. While my dogs odds are good, there still is a chance he could not make it and I need to get ahold of this anxiety before I spiral.

i told my therapist about erps i could try and do (like her bringing a knife or scissors or a lighter next time i see her) and she thinks it’s a good idea, but now i’m having anxiety about when she actually brings them 😭 i’m scared i might act out on intrusive thoughts and hurt her. is this normal? like is it normal to feel anxious when you know you’re going to do an erp 😭

does anyone else’s ocd get worse during their period too?

If anyone is willing to connect with me on ROCD, I’d greatly appreciate it! Having a tough time.

‼️‼️TW:BULLYING:‼️‼️ I just had a breakdown in front of the whole school I’m so scared I’m hiding in the bathroom rn.I just get bullied non stop bc I’m goth I jus wanna be able to get my fucking work done but with this going on and my mental health problems I can’t.My grades are dropping drastically and my attendance is out of wack.Everyone’s disappointed in me. I keep getting told I’m imagining shit and nothings happening.The counselor even yelled at me today.Everyone’s turning away when I need help but I’m always right there when ppl need me.I jus got out of the mental ward and I’m alr back to the point where I wanna kms.

I’m not sure I have been riding horses since I was a baby. Over the past three years I have been debating if I like riding. My horse has been slipping and it has really been effecting me. All is I question is she is dangerous to ride. Before this happened all I could think about was riding was a chore. It is very hard to differentiate if I really like the horses. I woke up at 5 am worrying about it. I j feel like I don’t want them. It is causing me to fall in a depression and it’s all I think about. Please advice.

Good afternoon all; I’ve recently noticed when I have a change occur in my life that my anxiety and OCD goes off the chart. Do others have this happen to them? How do others deal with the situation in the moment and after? I’m currently laid up in bed, a stressful and anxious mess, taking a leave of absence from work due to changes that have been going on there that I’m overwhelmed with. Any coping strategies for now and at work would be appreciated.

Can you believe we are already through the first month of 2023? We did it! I want to take this time to check in. I know some of you shared with me your goals for 2023. How have you been doing and how is your ROCD? If January was great goal wise - awesome, please share! If it was tough or maybe those goals sat on the backburner, that's okay too. How can we do better for February? Remember - we are on this journey together!

I‘m sorry for the really long text. There is something I have been struggling with for a while now and I never talked about my current situation with anyone so far. :( I would appreciate any responses like advice and/or own experiences. Anything. I‘ve been together with my partner for over three months now and I feel like ever since the first day of our relationship I have been struggling with ROCD. It is my second relationship as well as the second time I’m experiencing it. So far I‘ve had a few different fears in my current one but there is one in particular that I haven’t been able to get over since around almost three months now. It all started when my boyfriend asked me to tell him if I ever liked someone else. I promised I would but I felt uneasy at the idea of it because in my last relationship I experienced extreme distress after I felt butterflies because of a classmate I used to have a big crush on years ago which led to me obsessing over it for months until I eventually stopped being scared of it. I got over that fear by spending time with that guy and being around him, the butterflies faded away too, they were only there twice before the obsession started. After that it was just extreme anxiety. Before all of that, I never paid any attention to him, never noticed him or even cared when he walked past me. The „butterflies“ might have only been excitement though because I got them after I was seated near him in class. A few years before that, we sat next to each other and it was really fun because we kept joking around during class and laughed a lot. On top of that, when I got that sensation, I don’t remember having any romantic thoughts. I was just excited at the thought of it maybe being just like a few years ago. The next day after my boyfriend asked me to do that, the obsession started once again about the exact same guy. This time it started because a random thought popped up in my head: what if he confessed his love to me? (he used to have a crush on me too) Before that happened, I again rarely noticed him, didn’t feel anything for him and I was sure I didn’t like him ever since I got over that fear the first time. The fear started all over again just because of that one random thought. I instantly started questioning myself why I thought that, if I liked the thought and if I still liked that guy. I *promised* my boyfriend I would tell him something like that so I felt the urge to find out what it meant. I started panicking, felt extremely anxious and I‘ve been doing compulsions ever since. Not soon after, I started feeling sensations on my cheeks whenever I got an intrusive thought and it makes me scared, although I don’t always get it. Sometimes even when I’m not anxious I get it. I’m worried. What if it’s actually true I‘m still not over him, after all those years? Or what if this obsession caused this to be true? What makes it also complicated is that sometimes I can tell for sure that I don’t like him anymore but then sometimes I doubt it and I‘m scared it’s true. After some time, I managed to reduce the anxiety, intrusive thoughts and sensations by a lot but it’s still not fully gone. I did that by constantly telling myself it is OCD and not real. Almost everyday I would explain to myself how it is OCD and how the whole current situation doesn’t make any sense logically, compare myself to OCD symptoms etc. I can not say that for sure though because I never actually talked to a therapist. Thank you for reading. It really means a lot <3 I really just wanted to get all of that out of my chest after all this time.

I’m in the thick of dosage adjustments, feeling awful and looking for a glimmer of hope!

okay , so I’m at my aunts house right now and I usually am here a lot I do school here. so every time I’m here and I think about my house it doesn’t feel real ? like I feel like I never been there. and the same for when I go to my house and think about being here ? but when I get here it’s all good and feels normal .. thoughts ?

Any mothers out there struggling with POCD ? Can the thoughts come in forms of terrible “phrases” “outbursts” saying horrible things in the form of words

Is it common to cry a lot because compulsions don’t work anymore and it seems like nothing is going to work to calm the thoughts?

I’m doing this here because I find that it’s easier talking here than to anyone close to me. I take online classes right? I started taking them after I came out of psych last year. It’s not super hard. I get to do most things on my own thing. One thing I’ve struggled lately, and have struggled with most of my life, is math. I HATE math. It’s hard. It makes me feel bad and has made me have awful thoughts. Not only that, but failing math is like… certainty that you have to retake the class and I’m already retaking 11th grade because towards the end of that year I tried something awful, ended up, at the hospital, then psych and not going back to public school after that. I’m not entirely sure if anyone has been through what I’ve been through. I know lots of people hate math like I do, but for me, it’s to the point where I’m scared of it. I don’t want to disappoint my parents. They really want me to go to college and have been even more adamant about it after I came out of the ward. It’s stressful and I’m very stressed right now. If anyone has read this far, thanks. I really appreciate being heard.

Ladies only: Has anyone with OCD had a hysterectomy? Do your symptoms feel any different after.