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working to conquer OCD
Hi all! I have partner-focused ROCD (undiagnosed if that matters). My fears and themes mainly revolve around him being an awful person, and him doing awful things. The problem isâŚI also love true crime documentaries. But in almost every one, my brain fixates on a detail and it triggers either a real event or memory (something heâs said or done in the past that MIGHT elude or be evidence towards my fearsâŚsorry itâs hard to explain). Anyway, itâs very easy for me to get very triggered with true crime and so I want to stop watching it. But now, the thought of having to stop watching it is making me even MORE anxious because I keep thinking âif I am that easily triggered by so many different things, then it must mean all these fears are true and heâs an awful person. If I have to avoid this to feel okay, then Iâm ignoring/avoiding the problemâ Iâm not sure what to do hereâŚthanks for reading!
I been noticing flaws on my bf that donât bother me at all I love him the way he is but I feel bad that I notice something is that normal ?
okay so Iâm being sent into panic rn because yesterday and a few times the last few months I felt like I was â evilâ and then my cousin who also struggles with the same things I do said she felt â evilâ too .. and weâre both scared weâre possessed and mirroring eachother.
So now it's switched to sending me images of women either doing graphic sexual acts on each other, or doing them on me! (Followed by a groinal response). The content is starting to bother me less, but the sensations I get after these thoughts (grounal), is what worries me?! I have never had a desire to "experiment" with woman because women are only aesthetically attractive to ME, its never really been sexual. So WHY do I keep sexualizing random women on the street?! On top of this, I feel like I've been noticing men less since this started about a year ago.
I grew up believing that all people are equal and deserve to be treated with love and respect. I was always surrounded by black people and went to predominantly black schools. Recently, out of no where, I've felt scared about being around black people out of fear of being perceived as racist. I have an extreme fear now whenever I see a black person. I fear that my anxiety may cause me to inadvertently do something racist. I feel so much shame at the thought that I could be racist but I know that I'm not. Why am I scared of black people then? Why do I try to avoid them? Someone please help me. I'm waiting for my therapist to respond to me so I can get some professional help but I would appreciate any helpful advice on this.
I drive a really old truck on narrow streets and I keep getting really scared that I am going to hit another car without realizing it and get charged with a hit and run. My car shakes a lot and I keep getting scared I hit someone and didnât notice. I should have stopped this time and checked.
Why is it that when you're in a loving and healthy relationship with someone who has the qualities you've been waiting for , for so long, and treats you like gold, that you still have to be nitpicky about superficial things and still doubt if you are truly in love? This is me I'm describing. I fear the commitment of marriage, yet I have all I've waited for right in front of me. Wh y does my mind make me question such an amazing relationship and get me stuck on flaws in my partners appearance? I hate ROCD and its mind games!!
18+ I didnât know what loli was what of that content it represented when I did my private time to it when I was 17-18⌠I thought it was safe to watch because it had millions of views, the content was on public sites, and some of the creators said they were 18+ in some of the content⌠I had avoided most of it but thought it was safe for those reasons when I rarely did it⌠I had no idea what that content was⌠when my POCD started, I wondered what loli actually was because people were triggered by it, and when I looked up what it was I puked and gagged⌠I had no idea the type of horrible content it represented at all⌠I donât ever want to ever be a P or a chomo in any way shape or form⌠Iâm 21 now and Iâm so triggered everytime I see anything related to the concept of loli⌠I donât ever want to ever be attracted to kids in any way shape or formâŚ
Anyone here experience friendship OCD? Unwanted thoughts about your friends & becoming scared of potential friendship dynamics you donât want to experience like competition or jealousy?
Those of you in recovery.. what does it look like? How often do you have flare ups? I went through therapy here for about 6 months, Iâm on medication. I just feel like Iâm stuck in such a cycle of feeling normal-ish for 2-3 weeks then feeling bad for a couple of weeks. Woke up this morning and am feeling super anxious for no reason. đ
Sorry if this is uncomfortable for anyoneâplease click away if it is. All my OCD is real event OCDâI've known this for a long time. But it's not just about real events; it's about what could have possibly happened during these events. About a year backâI'm in high schoolâI began to wonder if perhaps, when I make jokes, I'm actually sexually harassing people. I'm pretty open sexually, and talk and joke about my body a lot. With my close friends, I also pretend to flirt aroundâthey have all said they're okay with it, which I know because my OCD made me ask. Then there are other times where I make sexual jokes, they don't land, and I spiral. What if I sexually harassed them? What if I'm a predator? Just the other day, I was hyping my friend up because he wanted to ask out his crush, and I told him he was handsome jokinglyâhe made a face at me, which I assume is because we usually insult each other playfully, not actually compliment each other. Some time back, some girl helped me with a problem, and I told herâagain, jokingly, in the way girls in my class usually doâthat I loved her and wanted to marry her. In this case I spiraled for a day until the next day, she began to say stuff like that to me too, and then I calmed. Just today, I had another incident like that. For context, my friend and I have a running joke she sells pictures online for a living (I don't remember where it started, but it was probably her) and some kid I'm somewhat close with overheard and began to laugh. We joked around with him for a bit until my friend mentioned he had really big feetâwe could see his shoesâand I blurted out, "Oh, show me!" without really thinking, which is somewhat inappropriate because of what we were talking about before. He made a face and said "ew, no" but didn't seem super uncomfortable; we do pretty often make jokes like those together, but never about each other. I'm spiraling now too, wondering if that's enough to consider sexual harassment, or if it was just a joke that landed weirdly. I also know the topic itself is weirdâI promise I'm not this strange usually, lol, it just so happens that the times I make sexual jokes are what my OCD picks onâbut hopefully someone can reassure me they have similar themes? I know I'm probably overreacting, but idk. I also worry thatâbecause while I'm not always making sexual / romantic jokes, I do pretty often, usually about myself but occasionally about othersâI might have sexually harassed someone and don't even remember. Admittedly, if this were the case, most high schoolers, who are always making sexual jokes, would have sexually harassed people, but I just feel so dirty and guilty inside. Does anyone feel the same way? Is there anything I can do to make it feel better? I feel like accepting that I might have done something wrong is also harmful, because then I'm saying "yes, I sexually harassed someone, but who cares?" As long as there's a chance, isn't it morally right that I keep looking?
Do you doubt if it's OCD or not? If you feel symptoms strongly resonate with you, but you're still doubting you have OCD, this is very common amongst those who do in fact struggle with OCD. I want to validate this, and let you know it's typically another sign of OCD when you doubt OCD itself, even when the signs are very clear. This is the perfect reason to see a therapist for an assessment - it can provide some relief and clarity, and allow you to take the proper next steps to overcome this! ??
The first time I experienced pure OCD was about 2 years ago. Although it was hard, I have been able to come out of each theme that I experience and manage them with time. I haven't had an OCD episode in MONTHS until yesterday. I was able to get out of it after a couple of hours and then had a normal day. However, this morning I woke up "checking" to see if my OCD was still there. I felt extremely stuck and I'm not sure how to get out of this one. I'm super down and anxious because I feel that I was making great progress and now I feel like I'm back to square one. I'm also not sure how to get out of this "theme" when I'm not even sure what this theme is - like my mind just keeps checking to see if I'm ok and not letting OCD get to me as I try to get through my daily tasks, which makes no sense. Has this ever happened to anyone / does anyone else feel this way?
Does anyone have any tips for a breakup when you also had/have ROCD? Just found out a few days ago that my partner of 8.5 years was having an affair and he doesn't want to be with me anymore. My heart is completely broken. I had spent the last year healing from ROCD and had genuinely got back to a place where I felt more certain again and back in love but now I have no idea where all of that fits in my life now. He also blames me hurting him as one of the reasons he cheated which is so unfair. I know I hurt him because I did confess all my thoughts to him before I knew what ROCD was, but since learning about it and healing from it I tried so many times to share that it wasn't ever actually about him but he never really understood. He never asked me about this side of my mental health, he just maybe wasn't interested and I'm so angry and upset about that.
So..for context, I'm a first year teacher dealing with POCD (and staring ocd). Because of the nature of my ocd, I try to keep contact with students to a minimum: no long hugs (side hugs if possible) and hyper aware of proximity at all times. Despite my disorder (and my social awkwardness) I try to build positive relationships with my students by bonding with them on their favorite anime, music, etc. but that's hard with the added stress of dealing with students with challenging/disrepectful behaviors. I understand not all students will like you and your discipline style and may try to "test" the limits of the new teacher. I've been called so many disrespectful things by students, including a bitch but when some students are going around calling me a predator/pedo...my heart dropped to my stomach. I cried and was so disheartened and shocked that I had to tell my team leader what's going on. Apparently, since they haven't said it to my face, I can't do much but if it escalates, then the principal or whoever but the damage is already done. They know it could ruin someone's reputation but they don't care. I don't know what to do or what I did to be called that. I don't even want to go to work anymore, I feel on edge and paranoid and I feel like the students don't trust me which adds to their disrespect. I don't know how to address this, advice please.
I been dealing with sexual intrusive thoughts about anyone like family,my pets anyone that I would never wanna think of like that I get intrusive sexual thoughts about Anything itâs disgusting I canât even be on social media sometimes because I get intrusive thoughts of videos or pictures of people or anything like itâs that bad I canât even watch the news cause I get intrusive thoughts and this has been bothering me so much my bf was telling me a story about someone doing something sexual with a dead body and I got an intrusive image of me doing it like wtf then I got an intrusive thought about a family member that passed away has anyone dealt with that or anything similar this makes me feel so gross why would I get a thought like that
Does anyone in this group ever get panic attacks? I had one yesterday before going to bed. It came as I had the realization that my life was meaningless and that Iâm a piece of shit. It kept snowballing until it reached a point of no return. I felt my heart racing, sweating, light headed (about to faint), and had left chest pain. It felt like the onset of a heart attack, which unfortunately, Iâve also had before. How do people in this group keep this from escalating? I took me a while, but after taking a Lorazepam, I was finally able to go to sleep. I mean, what kinds of things do people in this group do besides taking pills?
I don't even know how to describe it. It's like my whole past was fake and it all feels like it meant nothing. And it makes me sad bc I just wanna be who I was before, but my head is telling me I'm enlightened, but I don't wanna be. I want my brain to stop blaming all my past issues on boys or saying it was bc I was gay and didn't know. I used to think I could marry a guy and be happy one day, but now it seems like that was impossible from the beginning. It seems like my past feelings with boys were fake. When at the time it made me feel good. And during those moments of clarity in the beginning when I knew this was absolutely stupid, I never felt bad, I felt good during those moments of clarity.
i had a fear of all social media that started in the beginning of the year which made me delete all my social media. I recently have been trying to work on it so i downloaded instagram and sat there just looking at it with my thumb over the app and then ended up deleting it after a few minutes never opening it. yesterday night i decided to do it again but this time logging on. i decided to scroll and saw this hinge that triggered me but kept scrolling pushing myself which lasted for 20 minutes. i ended up deleting the app and felt so guilty for even being on it. today i decided to do the same thing and have been on and off again. it didnât bother me and i was like omg am i finally going to be normal. i had gotten a thought that then sparked my old thoughts and whenever i checked my phone i felt stuff happening down below which i like to say but i know it is groinal response which makes me even more anxious and confuses me so much cause it makes me then think you want these things to happen or whatever the case may be. i wanna download the app again cause i enjoyed having connection with people again. i then sat asking my friend did i do ERP which now iâm asking if i was doing ERP? i now sit here thinking i downloaded the app which means i wanted these things to happen or come true and ever since iâve been on meds i donât get anxious but i ruminate so much. can someone please explain to me what is going on?
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OCD doesn't have to
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