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I'm confused on this. We're told to sit with the anxiety, but wouldn't that be suppressing our feelings? I'm confused.

I've spent all day watching masc lesbian tiktok and It convinced me im a lesbian too, then I decided to go out to stop thinking and I went to a bar which normally Is empty. But tonight there were like 30 lesbians, It was someone's birthday, I got triggered so much. I'm still shaking from the anxiety I had all day. Life sucks.

hi ok so. typing this im terrified. 2023 was a really hard year for me. there was this girl at my work who made my life hell. i was 21 she was 29 and she would make shit about me to tell my coworkers. I left that job feb 2023. the next couple months I was unemployed and going in and out of depressive mode and ocd constantly triggered and I could not break my routine. the stress of being broke was an everyday mental game. then I returned to work in October and got hit with shitty sicknesses left and right. I got a stomach bug x2 and covid from my girlfriends parents and got the flu in january and had an ovarian cyst rupture which led to a uti and then the medicine from the uti gave me a yeast infection… not fun. Then bc of the flu I sat and couldn’t shower and got a tailbone cyst bc of excess sitting…. it sucks because I would get sick and then get so panicked about being sick and make it worse and then start to feel better and make myself sick again or just get sick because of like unavoidable things like flu or covid. it caused me to be Hyperaware of my body and feelings and symptoms and it just caused so much stress. I’m trying to tell myself everything ok and I even tried to help it with therapy and I got a therapist (not on here) and tried to tell her about all of this and the health anxiety has just been hypersensitive lately and all she said was, “That’s a lot. Is it an underlying condition you’re unaware of?” why would u say that to me. what the fuck. and I told her I had health ocd/anxiety. I just felt so unheard and not listened to. I’ve been trying to regulate my nervous system to make everything get better but it’s hard when I’ll just be sitting and feel butterflies in my stomach. I just feel like people don’t understand. and I just want to feel less stress so I can stop getting symptoms which make me s*ck. thanks for listening

I’m 54 yrs old and had my first episode at 17. Didn’t know what it was at the time. Intrusive thoughts that made me feel like I had lost my mind. It’s continued off and on since then. But just recently found out I have ocd. I was too stubborn or embarrassed to ever admit or ask for help. Anyway, when this is triggered and I get chronic severe anxiety that lasts months I get these symptoms and wanted to see if anyone else experiences these? Severe memory loss from recent events. Even feeling like I don’t know people. A numbness always on the left side of my face. Extreme ear ringing. Feeling like my head is in a vise, but not a real headache. I was just curious. The memory thing is a real issue for me and makes my anxiety worse. These physical symptoms always go away when my anxiety is gone but it’s concerning to me. Please share any similar experiences. Hope everyone has a great weekend. Jeff

I just wanted to come on here and rant for a minute because it has been awhile, back in September I started experiencing rocd with my husband I have been with for 9 years. At first I didn’t understand what was going on but then I found out I had ocd. It was swarming my mind for months like I was stuck in a loop and couldn’t get out and I had so much anxiety and as you could imagine it also lead to depression (which I also suffer with) in November I found out I was pregnant and I got really excited and scared, I had to stop doing my therapy due to finances but overall my mindset eventually started getting better, I worked really hard to get out of my cycle I was in. I still had intrusive thoughts but they didn’t get to me as badly and I was able to kinda just accept them and move on with my day but I still get my days where they become more overwhelming and I start to give in to the thoughts and become sad or anxious and start to believe them meanwhile trying not to but my brain questions rather it’s truly ocd or if it’s just how I feel. It has been a major rollercoaster and I’m still learning how to fully cope with it, I want to be better mentally for my baby and for my husband but it’s just not that easy, these thoughts are obsessive and it’s like it always tries to find a new way to bring you back into it. Like today and yesterday it’s been really heavy on my mind like “what if I don’t want to be with him, what if I don’t want to be with him FOREVER, what if this isn’t what I actually want to do with my life” so on, but I don’t want to be with anyone else and I only want to be with him, he is the only person I want to do life with. And yes these are valid questions for your normal person but with someone with ocd they are obsessive and they give you anxiety and they scare you and confuse you and make you start to believe them. So if your going through this I promise your not alone this shit just sucks

I feel like I’m going crazy and second guessing everything rn. I keep wondering if I did or said anything racist and I just can’t remember or I did and i didn’t acknowledge it. I feel like people at my school hate me or are ignoring me. I don’t know how to get out of this endless loop of doubting myself. I know I would never do such a thing but I keep second guessing myself. Im starting to believe I’m a terrible person and I don’t know how to prove myself otherwise.

I’m about to begin high school and am so obsessed with making the right decision. I am stuck between two highschools, one with all my friends but a bad school, and one with only some of my friends but very good. I’m afraid I’m gonna choose the wrong school and have a bad highschool experience because of that. The highschool with my friends in it is smaller and has a bad reputation, but the friends i have there I am extremely close with. On the other hand, the nicer highschool is way bigger and i only have a few friends in my grade so i will most likely go into it alone. Please help in any way, i’m so extremely nervous and need some guidance.

With a little backstory, I've been struggling with physical sleep issues that a medical hospital is trying to to help me with (sleep apnea, TMJ issues, etc.). Anyway, I guess my OCD knows that sleep is a problem, so it's created an obsession around it. I was laying on my two pillows, on my side, and had the thought "Hmm, my shoulder is up against the pillows, is this squishing the pillows in, bunching them up? Is the level of the pillows now unevenly distributed because of my shoulder against it? How soft/hard is my shoulder pushing against the pillow?" It's ridiculous, because I've slept this way my whole life. But now I'm hyper focused on how my body is laying against the pillows and having to have the pillows perfectly even, without any dents or flaws in them. This sucks because on top of the physical sleep issues, now I'm having OCD sleep issues. Im just so tired. I wish I could ignore it, but OCD gets so strong when I lay on my pillows now. Any advice? Anything to tell myself that could help? Thank you ahead of time.

My ocd always makes me think the worst and tells me that the only explanation for things is that I did something horrible. I had an incident many years ago that has made my life miserable. I guess it’s a real event and possibly false memory as well. When my son was little he would crawl into bed with me alot. One morning I got up and he was still asleep. I put my daughter on the school bus and went back upstairs to my room and he was awake sitting up wrapped in the blanket. I said good morning and told him to come downstairs with me and get breakfast like I always did but when he got out of bed he didn’t have his underwear on. I yelled at him demanding to know why he took his underwear off. He was 2 or 3 and he pointed at me and yelled “You!”. My ocd immediately kicked in and made me think the worst that I must have done something horrible to him in my sleep. Why would he say that? 😪. At the time I didn’t think too much of it though because toddlers randomly do weird things and take their clothes off and they yell back or blame you because they don’t like getting in trouble or getting yelled at so I shrugged it off but out of nowhere all these years later my ocd brought this back up. Since it’s been so long my memory has faded so my ocd adds more “evidence” and tells me things like maybe I was drinking and did something to him and just don’t remember. I try to think of all the scenarios that could have happened as to why he took his underwear off but my ocd won’t let anything make sense except that I did something horrible and I can’t live with that uncertainty like other people can. It makes me not want to be alive anymore 😞

I've been in a depression for almost a week. I've barely talked to anyone. I just want to feel myself again and not have this cloud over me. Is there anything I can do to make myself feel better, even if it's only for a few minutes?

Guys, I have ROCD. Back in 2019, I had been in a six-year relationship with my fiancé and father of my daughter. I was happy in my relationship, until we decided to take the next step and get married. He proposed to me on December 25, 2018. And I remember not feeling much at all. Anyway, we began the wedding planning process shortly after which I was insanely excited about. We went to wedding expos, worked through all the fun details and even planned to get married at the four seasons. It was bound to be an amazing wedding. We eagerly made the deposit on the venue and shortly after that, the OCD came in hard and fast. It was as if it hit me that this wedding was really going to happen. Several months later, because I hadn't been diagnosed with OCD yet, and I had no idea what was going on and was absolutely terrified and overwhelmed by the constant panic attacks and doubts, we, sadly, cancelled the wedding. And we were out thousands of dollars because the venue and vendors we paid wouldn't let us off the hook for cancelling. (Which I understand.) Over the next three years or so, I assumed what I was afraid of was marriage. I'd try on my wedding dress that I had bought, and would cry in front of the mirror, wondering what I missed out on, and hating that I had to give up the wedding experience because my OCD won. But, guess what! In October of 2023, exactly four years later, I held a small ceremony in my backyard and my fiancé and I got married! I did it, y'all. I married the love of my life. I was nervous and too scared to really feel any type of verklempt but I did it! And I'm happy I did. I'm happily married, love calling him my husband and only regret not marrying him sooner. Well, now that we've bene married for a few months, I thought I was finally in the clear to have the wedding of my dreams. So we are in the planning stages of the wedding and everything is going so well! Our venue is bending over backwards to give us exactly what we want. We are financially in a place where we can afford a lavish wedding. And the planning is coming along really well. I have been absolutely over the moon about it, and how awesome I think it will be. And have even begun letting a few people on our guest list know so they can start planning accordingly because I don't want them to miss it. Well, just yesterday it was time to make a payment to a vendor and I had a panic attack. Boom. Back at square one. Just like that. I felt agitated, anhedonic, and a loop of doubts about whether or not I loved my husband or my children played in my mind. The sheer terror of the severity of what I knew my OCD can be, has led to suicidal ideations. The pain and fear of it all has made me think that if I lose this battle again, and have to cancel my wedding and live through that humiliation all over again, I don't want to live through it. I honestly don't know if I can. But I'm hopeful I don't have to cancel because, clearly this is an irrational fear; I'm already married. And, when I'm not being attacked by my OCD, I can honestly tell you my family is the greatest joy and blessing in my life. So at this point all I'm doing is planning a huge, expensive party to celebrate with the people I love the most. So by deductive logic, it would seem what I'm afraid of is weddings. Or, a wedding. Can you believe that? My OCD is still attacking marriage even though I'm married. OK, so, here's the question. Do I push forward with the planning and the wedding and fight this OCD or do I step back and stop now before I'm in too deep and out a ton of money if I decide to cancel later in the planning process and decide I can't go through with it? Please help. And don't worry, I don't have any plans or intentions to unalive myself. It's simply ideational.

I’m starting to be convinced it’s not ROCD and I don’t know what to do anymore 😔 I’m very irritable around my partner now and extremely overly critical of his social behaviours and the way he talks and acts and just everything. And I keep seeing other people talking about their symptoms and their intrusive thoughts and how they know they don’t believe those things, and I feel like those things are real flaws that genuinely bug me and it feels real and I’m worried it’s not OCD anymore and I’m scared. I feel like I’m losing touch with reality because of how much I spend in my head worrying and trying to figure out if what I’m thinking is bad.

Since last night my Harm OCD flared up really bad and I'm still dealing with it today😞If anyone is able to talk please let me know

I’m looking for my harm/suicidal ocd people here to shed some light and hope. I’m not asking for reassurance (I know we can’t do that with OCD) but just people who can share their experiences and what has worked for them in dealing with and overcoming this awful theme. Thanks in advance.

Hi all I was curious how you all think about this situation. I have severe ocd and mainly on cancer, lyme and since recently scabies. Of course something happened and now I don't know how to handle it. My girlfriend went on a trip and possibly slept under a comforter without the lose cover you can wash. So now I am worried that someone who was in the hotelroom before him and slept under that comforter without a cover and had scabies my boyfriend now is infected with scabies. We didn't meet up yet but next week we probably will. And I am terrified that I get scabies also. And it will take months of itching and trying to beat it. On top of it I am scared my son will catch it from me. I can't ask him about it because he wouldn't understand and if he did sleep under the contaminated comforter than damage is already done. How do I cover with this, because there is a change but maybe it's a small one. I just don't want to get it but I also really don't want to lose my boyfriend or not meet up Thanks a lot!!

I dont know if this will help me, i just tried it maybe someone can give some good advice. Im 5'4" (163cm) and I used to deal with being insecure about my height. For a year i actually didnt cared, i was even told that im short but i had so much confidence that i didnt cared at all like if someone judges me because of my height, something i cant change than the problem is not with me... However for some reason im sad again about my height and i write this cause it got toa point where i see it as unhealthy for me. Like affects my confidence and how i see myself in a negative way. I know i shouldnt care about what others say but when you get it from everywhere its hard, and i know social media plays a big part in this. I just cant get over this now, it affects how i see myself. The universal view of short guys is that they are these clowns that you can have fun with, but they are not mature, they are just as i said clowns, people just have fun with them but they are weaker and basically the only good thing about them is that you can laugh with or at them. Im a funny guy too i like that, but i dont want to be viewed as a clown. Like people dont take me serious. I even got it once from a girl that its "cute" that im smaller. When i got it i didnt cared cause i was in that season but now it makes me feel shame. I dont have problems with girls who are tall and want a guy as tall or taller than them, like okay thats normal but then you hear these things that short girls are ment for tall guys and then Im like "then who should o get? None? Cause im just a clown? Like even short girls think that im weak, even that im taller than them but im not 6 foot..." It really makes me feel shame about myself but i shouldnt, its something i cannot change, but i still keep thinking people see me as a weak person and im only just a clown.

Hi! I have a recurring thought that I need help reasoning about. I'm 21 years old and have been struggling with OCD since I was very young, and it's been worse than ever since I turned 16. Anyway, I'm young now and I don't plan on having children until I'm maybe around 30. Unfortunately, I have a strong fear for the future, what if I can't have children because they might also be affected by OCD? I've experienced most themes, and I wouldn't wish this terrible illness on my worst enemy, so how can I possibly risk my future child having it?

two weeks ago i read a book after that i started to questioning my relationship which is four years long and everything was going perfect in our realtionship. we werent fighting for a month. we were in love su much. but then and i started to think there must be a reason why i thought that way and i started to feel extreme guilt and anxiety which i couldnt eat for a week i lost 8-9 pounds and i started to cry all the time. i told about this to my boyfriend. he was acting nice to me even when i told about my concerns about our relationship and on the valentines day i coulndt take it i gave a break on our relationship bu i cried for 4-5 hours than i said sorry multiple times because i felt that i love him but i cant be sure there is always what if sound in my brain. Then i went to therapist she said these sound like obsesion. and i started to doing research about my problems and i learned about rocd and intrusive thoughts for the first time in my life. when i read the rocd i know that this is whats happening to me. but still i cant be sure. what if i dont love my bf (even writing this words makes me wanna cry) please help if u experienced somthng like rhat

I keep getting images of girls naked and whenever I see girls on tick-tock I keep setting thought in my mind u like her and it’s becomes like a fealing. Btw I’m a girl and I don’t like girls I’ve never had any crush on a girl I’ve always liked boys. When we I think of a boy I get thought about a girl is it an intrusive thought could some one please reply to me I need help I don’t who I am anymore. I went doctors again yesterday and they increased my fluoxetine dose to 30 Mg. All I want to know if I’m straight or no I’m scared I want to have a husband My parents are very worried for me

I feel like sometimes when I try to communicate my feelings or my needs with my parents, they are quick to judge. Instead of coming from a place of understanding, I feel like they like to label my thoughts and feelings as “good” or “bad” for me, even though I try to voice that those labels are the very thing that are spinning me into a loop. I feel incredibly frustrated and the mental compulsion to avoid my feelings and shut down continues to happen, but it only makes the thought pattern restart. Does anyone have any advice on how to communicate with people who may not understand, or be willing to understand? Or how to move on if understanding is not able to happen?