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What differences did you notice when you started to actually resist compulsions? Are intrusive thoughts less frequent? Less intense?

Please don't read this if you are underaged or sensitive to topics of POCD and sexual content. I only want adults to see this and not otherwise. There's something that I couldn't get off my mind the moment I saw it the other night. Last night, there was a YouTuber that I watched that turned out to be a pretty negative person and wasn't professional with their fans or the environments they themselves hosted. They've done pretty bad things, but one of them is save a folder of sexual content that involves fictional minors. Seeing an example of it in a video that talked about this person triggered me greatly and it affected my thoughts for a bit. As I called it out in the comments, there were some people saying it wasn't that bad or that fiction is fiction. I can understand that real children aren't harmed when this stuff is made, but what are the chances that people viewing it proceed to awful videos of real children being harmed by horrible adults taking advantage of them? Someone told me that watching fictional content of this doesn't always lead to real life pedophilia, but I think it's still quite concerning. Especially if some people are saving it. I guess it'd be one thing if someone who is addicted to pornography seeked it out and faced immense guilt, shame, and really hard feelings of not ever wanting to do that again ever, but I don't think the person in the video felt that way about their actions. It would also be different if a young teenager is exposed to a variety of adult content and stumbles upon videos featuring characters that are around their age, which unfortunately happened to me many many years ago. I guess it does depend on the person but it's overall still very disturbing and unsettling that this stuff is just freely on websites people can browse on like YouTube or adult sites. There are people that may just want to see videos of fictional adult characters they find very attractive and that's not bad, but then related searches point to characters who are minors but are either aged up or just depicted in these situations and it's really bothersome. I've made posts about this from time to time in the past and it just bothers me a lot, but some people say it's a big grey area and others full on defend it and don't see that it's bad. I just don't get it.

I’ve been struggling the past year with my OCD. I left work for a bit to go to an outpatient program. But I’ve been fighting myself for a promotion. Everytime I turn around I end up “messing something up” or forgetting how something is done. In return get a talk from my supervisor that I am not near a promotion because I’m still not getting to where I need to be. Recently just this week, I was assigned a task I did a bunch of times and literally looked at it like what is this. My brain just forgets how something’s works and 2 years into a job I’m still referring to how to process docs.. I’ve been more forgetful and can’t concentrate on anything. People say something at work and I’m like what just happened. I started ERP therapy just a couple months ago and someone said it gets worse before it gets better. I honestly just wanna quit and take time for myself. The stress of trying to make a living and pay bills is driving me to a place where I’m becoming so unstable. I’m putting so much pressure on myself to be better at work when getting out of bed, taking meds and showering is still a job to me. Has anyone else just struggled with expectations of life. And you wanna just be left alone. I’d love to work part time or something but with todays costs I couldn’t make it. Is this all OCD related or even depression? I don’t feel I was this forgetful or that I “sucked at my job” in my words. It makes me feel incapable of doing any type of job because I’ll probably “mess it up”

Hi I'm mother of 10 month old baby n suffering from contamination ocd . I was completely normal before tragic loss which I had during COVID pandemic. I had a miscarriage due to COVID and I was 6 month pregnant that time. Due to lack of treatment I lost my baby and I have to face many issues... Now I'm still following COVID appropriate behaviour... Which my own close one feels i have some mental disorder...b Whenever anyone touches my baby with dirty hand I feel so panic ... I need to change his clothes... I don't touch anything like door knobs , switches, chairs where other people sit... . I don't sit on others chairs or beds... Which making me away from my closeones ... I really need help nobody understands me what iam suffering from..... Everyone only sees that she's doing discrimination........ Even my husband now days get always irritated with me need help ..... There no single day when I don't cry ... Want to get rid of dis cage

Isit me alone or anyone experienced this. My anxiety and worry somehow at the peak every night before i sleep. I have never fall sleep on time because of my intrusive thoughts. All the worry, bad thoughts, anxiety of something bad will happen, guilt, you name it, entire world problems will run in my head. I end up using phone so that i wont think, just scroll social media or read articles to divert my mind until im so exhausted and my mind shut down. This is very exhausting and tiring. Anyway to deal with this?

My current OCD flare surrounds health, and death and life after death. My mind is latching on the “what if” there is no God, Jesus or life after death. I was raised Christian, but these thoughts (obsessive) keep questioning. I keep Praying for a CLEAR sign, which hasn’t come yet. I wish I could pick up the phone and talk to loved ones passed. Due to these obsessions, I’m terrified of losing a loved one daily. It’s torture.

Hello! I recovered from my severe religious themed OCD about 3 years ago. I thought my OCD had went away but I'm starting to think it's still impacting my life. Or maybe I just have high anxiety now. I have been told I'm a perfectionist and I have a huge fear that I'm not always "living correctly" which causes me to intensely compare myself to others and other things. This fear got so bad last august that I got into a relationship with an emotionally abusive person just because I thought I was falling behind. He was my first boyfriend and now I'm dealing with the affects of this. Im a baton twirler and although I'm getting better with exposure therapy.. I have anxiety attacks when I don't perform or practice perfectly. Where I can't even twirl in front of my mom right now without just shutting down and panicking because I somehow think she's judging me harshly when she's not at all. I also avoid doing assignments in school or asking questions because I have a huge fear of being considered slow or getting a bad grade. But this also makes my grades worse so it's a terrible endless cycle. I'm out of the relationship and I'm starting to take care of myself but I'm just kind of rusty on OCD knowledge and I'm trying to figure out if these are just new obsessions or if I'm just a perfectionist. Ever since I was little I've had this cronic fear of missing out or not feeling perfect for myself or others. And failure makes me flip the fuck out.

This is for the ladies. Has anyone got through menopause with OCD and is now post menopause? I’m having such a tough time with hormones and my ocd. I pray this gets better. Having a double whammy with this has been tough. Thanks

I am getting married in two months. Today was a terrible day. I went to church with my fiancé and there was no attraction at all and I felt I was towering over him so much taller. I couldn’t stop thinking about the attraction all day long. It just got worse as the day went on. What do I do in these situations. It is so bad at times:( what should I do when this happens

Hello fellow OCD sufferers; Long story short I will be purchasing my own place and taking on some responsibilities that I’ve never had before (taking on and caring for a family members pet). Maybe I was ignorant to everything, but it suddenly hit me in the face overwhelmingly with stress and anxiety how much this was going to take and this new endeavor. While it should be “good stress”, my OCD will take what it can and my dormant SO-OCD has started to get rear its head. My question to you all is, in times of stress and change, does your OCD flare up or get worse? If so, how do you pull it back in, and lessen the noise as well as the stress/anxiety.

I have known for a while that I may have OCD. After downloading this app and reading everyone else’s experiences, I am certain I have OCD. In the past few days, I have had serious relationship doubts and my thoughts in general have become so loud that it’s debilitating. There are so many voices that I can’t move or do anything. I just shut down so I can shut them up. Now, basic decisions are paralyzing. I can’t make a grocery list, pick a tv show, or decide when to leave for school. My brain just freezes now when I have to make any sort of decision. Any tips on how to get past this? How to shut the voices up so I can finally think for myself?

Hi, i have been on and off with my SOOCD and I have been really good at understanding that my thoughts are just thoughts, yesterday i seen a masculine lesbian and it triggered me and I got severe anxiety because I was expecting some thoughts to come as I had been triggered. I then got thoughts “you find her attractive don’t lie”, when I seen her I do not personally think she is attractive looks wise and all that, but all my mind is saying to me now is I do and I am lying and it’s started to just get to me i just want to shut off and get the thoughts away from me😫then I seen on tiktok this person had SOOCD and then turns out they were gay and I just am spiraling.

I’m going for my first run since my most recent OCD flare up last year. Running is a huge trigger for me so this will be a pretty big exposure. Hoping I get through it! I used to love running. 🥺

18+ Have you ever said something to someone that came off as very creepy, but it wasn’t intended to be? Like your delivery was super awkward in the moment, and you somehow expressed a compliment, joke, remark, etc. in a way that sounds much different than you intended? I was telling my coworker when she was joking about making an onlyfans that “respectfully she could make bank” but i phrased it in a different way that sounded super suspicious. I feel super guilty even though i know i didn’t mean to make her uncomfortable. I am so tired of feeling disgusted all the time with myself for not being able to communicate like everybody else.

I have to go and do photoshoot for a bride today (I’m a content creator) and it’s the first time I have to go to work outside of the house since the flare out began. I’m in anxiety. I don’t want it to ruin it for me. Helpppp

My husband has been struggling with ocd for honestly I think most of his life. Officially diagnosed in the last two years now with paranoia as well. It’s difficult. I struggle myself with some anxiety and depression and overthinking situations. And we both have struggled self insecurities and insecurities in our relationship. He always tells me I don’t want to loose you after he has been is a dark place and needing reassurance. Right now we just feel very disconnected after a situation. I been trying to be as understanding as I can. And acknowledge that we both need to not seek so much reassurance from each other. Anyone have any tips on ways to feel connected again after an intense ocd episode?

Having low self esteem make my ocd and depression way worst I have so much to work on low self esteem ocd depression ptsd and the list go on the low self esteem come from always been skinny and people pointing at it but I was thinking I shouldn’t care if people think I m too skinny or no but I do I guess I care because my self esteem is low :/ need to work on it

Hello I've been on fluoxetine for 3 weeks now The first two weeks my intrusive thoughts got much much worse Almost to an unbearable point Now I feel restless legs and hands Also my sleep hasn't been so bad since I've been taking alprazolam but still I wake up some times at night I'm taking 40 mg a day Should I be worried?? I was reading about some real crazy side effects and bad stuff that just made me fell worse And right now I'm not sure I'm really in danger or it's just my ocd attacking me I don't wanna develop akathisia And I've been feeling some uneasiness in my limbs but not to that point I think

feels like i’m in deep denial idk wtf to do i’m freaking out i can’t sleep i just want to feel normal again 😭😭😭 i wanna be a girl not a boy 😭😭

These past couple days, Ive had 2 huge panic attacks in a row. I’m getting worried because they were kind of the worst theyve ever been. I couldn’t function at all and if my partner weren’t with me, I’m afraid I wouldnt have been able to move or get up. I was convulsing and couldnt stop having the worst intrusive thoughts. I was so disappointed in myself that I started having super intense suicidal thoughts and couldn’t speak. I really hate ocd. I ruined some of the most fun days that were planned out in a trip too. Idk what to do anymore