Welcome to
the NOCD Community

Has anyone found good books they’ve read that address OCD/provide coping strategies?

Lately I have been going through this theme about being obsessed with just being a brain. I constantly wonder What if I’m just a brain and genuinely have no control over anything I do and just think I do. Like I question why do I make certain decisions specifically and what makes me make those decisions specifically like in my brain. Literally every thought that pops up in my mind I question like how did this thought get here? What makes me want this thought? What makes me make this decision based off this thought? If I’m not my thoughts then what determines my actions if actions are determined by thoughts. Even writing this I have these same thoughts. I genuinely don’t know how to sit through these ones, they feel so important. Like what if I’m not questioning these I’m just on autopilot basically and not actually conscious of anything. I also catch myself doing little actions that I am not usually consciously aware of and fixate on them and wonder what in my brain makes me do these things. Like is it me or just my brain?! I feel so stuck and was just wondering if anyone has had this theme or these thoughts.

I was texting my best friend, and I was responding to her reels. She sent this one where a little animal was having a spa day. I responded to it. After I had this feeling of attraction and I remembered a picture I had seen where I thought she looked pretty and I sent another message "aw you should have a spa day like this". I think I flirted. I was going to go see that picture too but immediately stopped myself.

My OCD has gotten better, at least as good as it can get, but my depression has been awful lately. I take 100mg of Zoloft, and I feel as though I’m going backwards. It’s helped my anxiety a ton, but it feels as if it’s made my depression worse. I spoke with my PCP, and she recommended adding 75mg of Wellbutrin. I’m picking it up today. I’m hoping this can help me. If not, I’ll switch everything and start taking Luvox. It’s so annoying trying to find the right meds when you’re already struggling. Anyone else taking Wellbutrin in combination with another med ?

Im not diagnosed, so my situation is more scary :( Today I was in art class, which is really scary to me since because I deal with sexual nasty thoughts, images and urges and we’re all in the same table and that makes us be really tight one to another, and I get really uncomfortable Everything started good, we’re only a few of us and everything was fine and i didn’t have much issue but then a female classmate sits next to me and we start talking, but then idk what came first but i had this thought of me touching her chest inaproppiatly before or after ( i don’t remember) i was talking to my classmate and she answered my question with a nervous tone and the answer was short and, first I didn’t overthink but then i tried asking her more questions and she answered me with the same tone and I got really anxious because why isn’t she answering me? Then she got really frustrated because she didn’t wanted to do her drawing and she was really frustrated all the class so maybe she was answering me weird because of it, and I don’t even know if her answers to me were 100% weird because I haven’t talked to her a lot but I felt like she was ignoring me and now I’m scared that I did do my thought and that I traumatized Then when I had to leave, I complemented her drawing and she just said “yes” so I’m overthinking right now What if it’s true and I traumatized her for life and then she’s gonna acuse me or something even though I don’t know if it’s true aaaaa help

i like seeing this images in my head and im not sure what they are and im afraid im schizophrenic…they might be intrusive images but im not sure and its scaring me i want it to stop are they demons??

Hey everybody. I was recommended this app by my psychiatrist, and I wanted to check it out. I’ve read a few posts, and I wanted to share my own. I’ve put a trigger warning on here just in case it messes with someone. Trigger warning for sickness and vomit I’ve experienced symptoms of OCD for as long as I can remember. I was a heavily anxious child and I would constantly get upset over worrying about something. It’s kinda funny to look back on now, as one of my silly little fears was showers at Home Depot. One of the more vivid memories of me experiencing OCD would be when I was about 2-3 years old. When I was around this age, I would get really upset if my parents started the car before I got the chance to buckle up. It messed with my little brain and I was afraid of something bad happening. As I got older, me worrying about random stuff got worse and worse. When I was about ten years old I caught a really bad stomach flu that caused me to vomit multiple times during the night. For some reason, it scared me so bad for years. I developed a full on phobia of getting sick to the point where I wouldn’t eat as much as I should out of fear I’d get really sick. As I grew into my teens, that fear slowly got better, but it never truly went away. When I was about 12 years old my OCD was at its peak. I became incredibly superstitious and obsessed with “bad luck” and I would constantly be afraid of something giving me bad luck. It took a little while, but that slowly faded into “counting” and “checking” OCD (I think that’s what it’s called) where I would have to count in my head as I did things such as washing my hands, writing, or literally just touching something. For example, if I was washing my hands, I would have to count to 20 four times in my head in order to be done washing my hands or something bad would happen. I would also constantly have to check my closet, under my bed, under or around certain surfaces. If I didn’t do that, I’d convinced of something really bad happening while I was asleep. That continued on for years, causing me such distress. It slowly started fading into what I have now, which is “contamination OCD”. All of this would make me lose sleep at night, make me feel terrible, and sometimes would even get in the way of my social life. I finally decided to get help. I finally went to a psychiatrist when I was 16, and I was diagnosed quickly after I described what all I had gone through. I was put on medication, which slowly started to help me. I am doing a lot better now, but this is still a big part of my life. I have an amazing family, amazing friends, and an amazing girlfriend to help support me through everything. I am very lucky to have them. I want you to know that it’s okay to get help if you think you have OCD. In fact, I highly recommend it if you can. Being put on medicine was one of the greatest things that’s happened to me. Thank you guys for reading and I hope you are all doing well with your own journey. Stay safe you guys!

Has anyone else experience mind reading where you say something in your mind and the other person answers out loud? For example I was telling someone in my head that I don't have dog treats for their dog in my head like repeatedly.. and when I saw them they said "we know" out loud which basically freaked me out bc what do you know?! And how could you know anyrhing as I haven't said anything to you out loud. Things like that happen all the time it feel like incan have full blown conversations in my head with someone except they're responding out loud and I'm not. Has anyone experienced this?

Im overwhelmed and stressed. My child was talking to me and i worrt about groinals but I didnt want to ignore them so i look at them when they talk to me.

Hello, I need some help with responding to intrusive thoughts. I know the best response is when your OCD tries to mess with you "okay, maybe I will." but that is in some cases way too hard and scary. Trying to fight your OCD is even worse, but I was wondering if there were responses that we're sort of in the middle, a 'neutral' response.

Hi, sorry this is a long post. While I’ve started doing ERP therapy, it’s only been recent, as in the past 2 out of 4 or 5 sessions I’ve had now so I’ve only recently learned that I have ocd and that I should’ve been diagnosed for it much sooner in life (I’m 21 now and these compulsions and behaviors began all the way back to my preteen years like 11-13). Since I’ve learned that I have ocd it’s been enlightening being able to describe my thoughts and feelings (intrusive or otherwise). I’m realizing now as well that throughout this time, pretty much every minute of every day creates stress for me, mainly because these intrusive thoughts can spawn from what literally feels like out of nowhere. I wake up in the morning and sometimes an intrusive thought is the first one I have for the day and it’s been weighing on me for so long. I’m not sure when, but it eventually gotten to the point where anything I’ve ever found fun or relaxing has a seriously limited effect on me. All it serves to do is just mitigating the overriding stress. In more recent years, it’s made me question my morality and character heavily. I understand that these intrusive thoughts do not reflect me as a person, but it’s hard to not ask myself if I am this bad of a human being if my mind is capable of conjuring these horrible thoughts from nothing. These thoughts can even carry both inside and outside of my dreams too. Either an intrusive thought I can’t seem to get rid of no matter how hard I try bleeds into my dream, or I have such a horribly vivid dream that I can’t get it out of my head after I wake up. I’m currently in between my junior and senior year of college and despite being done with the spring semester, this stress has only risen since I’ve been home from school. While I still really want to try ERP therapy, it’s felt very difficult to achieve, particularly doing hierarchies of stressors because everything is already stressful. For many years I thought and was led to believe by certain adults is that this is just what adulthood was about, just working through the stress and things will change but after finding out about my ocd and that life is not meant to be like this has also fed into the stress. I’m not worried about doing anything drastic, but I can’t help but being so physically (I’ve only slept like 6-6 1/2 hours within the past 3 days) and mentally tired and I can’t stand it. Again, as much as I want to continue ERP therapy and try to make it work, I feel need something that will give me more immediate relief because I really can’t take feeling this way every minute of every day anymore.

Ladies out there, do hormone fluctuations make your ocd/anxiety symptoms much worse? I notice more intrusive thoughts as well, anyone relate? thanks

I am a Christian and OCD is coming at me currently about my faith. I am not perfect and no one is. I get that but I keep getting the thought of “if you have sex outside of marriage again you’re going to hell, you will melt down and you’re going to be alone” I think I can just keep from doing it until I get married but I am 35 single mom of 2 and that could never happen or be forever so I start freaking out about that.

Do any of you take this medication? If so, what dose?

I think I’ve figured out one of the biggest triggers that I have been experiencing over the past few months with my bf. During school with him I was feeling triggered so regularly. We graduated a bit ago, and we just met up with some friends from school last night, and I’m starting to see where some the triggers start. It’s almost like my bf is a different person socially when he’s with our friends. He’s super hyper and loud and sometimes in my eyes it comes off as annoying or cringe. It seems to be that I’m the only one who feels this way strongly tho, because he is good friends with a lot of people. But I can’t stop obsessing over how he sounds and acts, it’s almost like his voice even changes and gets more annoying, he becomes more hyper and says a lot of cringe things. But it’s so different from how he is with me, when we’re just calm together. Maybe I’m the only one who sees it. But the problem I’m having is I worry that this will become a deal breaker. I don’t want this relationship to end, and I don’t want to find those traits annoying or weird, but I do, and I feel like I need to do something about it. I just wish I didn’t feel that way. It’s all so confusing.

I’ve noticed an overwhelming amount (in a good way!) of believers on this community and I had no idea I would come across so many faith filled sisters and brothers in Christ. I have followed some of you for hope and encouragement but if you come across my post and you’re a Christian I’d love to give each other a follow ❤️ maybe I can share encouragement everyday as well. Thank you guys for being brave and giving me the courage to express my faith. I’ve been really struggling with ERP as a Christian but I almost feel like all the times I’ve done mediation with the Lord that in an way that was an exposure because I was allowing the Lord to confront things with me. I think I’m struggling with not wanting scripture to be a “compulsion”. If we say things like “I may or may not” but then speak scripture over our lives. And I said like actually … no I am the head and not the tail. Hope this makes sense.

So I’ve been having these weird guilt issues and I feel like I’m lying to myself. I had this weird thing where I thought I had feelings for children even though this is 100% not what I want and it goes against my moral code. But I keep trying to make sure that I feel 100% sure that this is the truth. It is just more distressing and causing more issues. Can anyone help please or have some advice? Thank you:)

So for about a year now I have been dealing with the uncertainty of a real event that happened decades ago. My mind only tells me the outcome of that event is the worst case scenario. It has been obsessively on my mind for a year, everyday all day. I started seeing the theme or what I was obsessed about everywhere. It got so bad that I thought God was telling me something that I started to ask God to tell me if it was true. Well then I kept seeing signs that confirmed my fear even some that were so exact that on what I was obsessing about I have almost convinced my self that God has been telling me stuff through videos, license plates, phrases or words spelled out in names I see, things I hear in conversations form other people and movies. Then there is the rare occasion I get some type of confirmation that what I’m obsessing about is not true. So I ask myself is God telling me now it’s not true. The signs that say my fear is true seem to be the ones that stick and the ones that say my fear isn’t true seem to just fade away. I’ve never dealt with this before. Anyone else deal with this or seeing signs of your fearful obsession everywhere

I'm starting to question my OCD diagnosis. I don't know if I actually do any compulsions. Yeah I google sometimes especially with health ocd. But whenever I get a thorough I just can't stop thinking about it. I'm now afraid of schizophrenia. And the only thing I do is think if I have it and sometimes I check to see if some things I see or hear is true. But I mostly just sit and can't stop thinking about it. And I'm just scared that at any moment I could start hallucinating. Are any of these actions actually compulsions?

My fb videos is filled with clips of sitcoms, I keep watching this show called B99 even though I’ve watched it numerous times. There was this one clip about a character called Rosa coming out to her colleagues and friends, when Amy asked her what made her know that she was bi- she answered that when she was a kid, she watched this show and thought this guy and a girl were both hot. Now lately whenever I see some girl who’s attractive or even noticed their cleavages- my mind immediately thinks that they’re hot. It’s still a trigger for me and I find myself getting anxious. I know there are women who are attractive and even called “hot” platonically by other women but what Rosa said has stuck in my mind and it keeps making me think that I’m also bi. I feel like this a spike but it feels so real. I just got off a situationship with a guy who ghosted me and whom I genuinely loved. I’ve been going through some hurtful feelings, getting more piercings, cutting my hair. I don’t want people to think I’m into women when I do this kind of stuff. I’ve also been getting anxious about “signs” like I’ve had terrible relationships with men. Most of them end up breaking up with me and it’s making me think what if I wasn’t made to “be” with a guy. That sticks in my mind all the damn time it’s frustrating.