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I am looking for ways to beat my OCD when I need to remain highly focused. My OCD flares when something is highly important and requires seriousness and focus. However, my OCD is very quiet when I do something that I am fully invested in and am actively enjoying - some people call this being in the zone. However, whenever I need to do something that requires immediate and constant focus such as listening to a class, writing an exam or studying... my ocd gets loud. This usually leads to avoidance and procrastination... any advice, suggestions or help on identifying the mechanisms at play here and how to overcome would be GREATLY appreciated. ERP is great but I find I can miss information when I’m trying to do ERP AND trying to focus on a lecturer, simultaneously, for example... there’s gotta be a way...

This is a long post... Okay so, I’ve suffered from intrusive thoughts for the majority of my life. When I was younger I kept thinking the house was going to be on fire or I feared no one liked me so I had to keep getting reassurance from my friends that they liked me. The past few years I’ve had intrusive thoughts telling me that I don’t like this group who I know I’m in love with, I love their music and love their videos, yet my mind tries to convince me otherwise. I don’t really have physical compulsions, but I have mental compulsions of avoidance and I avoided the thoughts for so long up until recently. I’ve learned the past couple of weeks that I need to accept the thoughts which I’ve been trying to do even though it has been hard. Today I’m finding really difficult because my mind wants me to keep avoiding the thoughts no matter how hard I try. It’s so upsetting. It may seem silly and I feel ridiculous because people have worse thoughts than I do, but these thoughts are taking over my life. It’s so frustrating because I just wanna be able to enjoy listening to the group’s music and watching their videos without getting these thoughts. It sounds silly but it’s so upsetting for me because I know I love them, but my thoughts try to convince me otherwise. I keep fearing that I’m doing the wrong thing. I also keep getting thoughts that I won’t get better and I’ll never be able to enjoy my group. It’s awful. I feel so mentally exhausted. I am learning to not avoid the thoughts and not avoid listening to their music or watching their videos, but today I’m just finding it so hard. It’s hard to resist my mental compulsions. I just feel like I’ll never get better. I just wanna cry. I keep wanting to avoid my exposures because I feel so upset even though I know I shouldn’t. I’m feeling so awful today, my head hurts so much.

I call this my `1234 Method` and it works. It's an easy to use anywhere and practical CBT method. The great thing is that it is easy to remember, simple and when followed properly creates a virtuous upward circle where good things start to happen in addition to relieving OCD symptoms ... Understand and apply this rule to your daily life : You only ever consciously experience four sequential stages in your life... 1) Thoughts and Events stage. You have minimal to no control over the thoughts that pop into your head. Likewise you have minimal to no control over external physical events that happen. Thoughts can be images or ideas. Events I refer to here consist in the vast majority of occurrences you find yourself in without actively planning to to be involved in in the first place. At this point it is important to practice `ACCEPTANCE` that you have minimal to no control. This relieves pressure unduly created in one`s mind that you are hyperesponsible for what is happening and what the end result should be. *Note that I will mention in stage 3 and 4 action that should be taken in regards to thoughts and events... Please read stage 2 beforehand. 2) Reaction to Thoughts and Events stage. Following stage 1, you will have an emotive reaction to both these thoughts and events. Everyone lies on a spectrum of emotive reaction. If you suffer from OCD it is likely that you exist on the extreme sensitivity mark where you have a catastrophic emotional reaction to these thoughts and events. Again it is important to understand and ACCEPT you have no control over this. Do not try to control stage 1 or stage 2, only come to clarity that you must accept these awful feelings. Remember this reaction is not normal and has the influential potential to be totally destructive and detrimental to your life if you let it influence the choice you are faced with in the next stage, stage 3. 3) Choice of Behaviour stage. This is the crucial part where you can and will alter your brain chemistry and neural connections in stage 4 for the better. As mentioned earlier you will also enter the virtuous upward and NOT viscous downward spiral. Remember how influential your emotional reactions are in determining your behaviour. You must, regardless of what your emotive reactions tell you to do, choose the following thought and choice process...I am going to BEHAVE in an activity that is beneficial, logical and practical for the physical and mental well-being for myself and others around me. 4) Do the behaviour you have chosen using the above stage statement. Doing this behaviour will start to influence stage 2 and start to drag you back down on the reaction spectrum considerably. This is where behaviour directly modifies the faulty brain chemistry and connections that generate this ridiculous false feeling of dread and fear negatively influencing you to choose the WRONG behaviour . To sum up: 1). Thoughts and Events = No Control = Acceptance 2). Reaction to Thoughts and Events = No Control = Acceptance 3). Choice of Behaviour = You Have Control = Think to yourself always..."What is the most beneficial, practical and logical behaviour that is best for my physical and mental well-being and for others ` physical and mental well-being." 4). Do it. Remember everyone that this is an ILLNESS and nothing more. Always remember in line with the above stages that you are ill and you are the best person to look after yourself. You all deserve happiness no matter you think you have done. Life is cruel but it's beautiful too. Focus on the beauty. You are all beautiful and life is messy...Accept it's messiness and do the best you can. Will H.

Hey everyone! As you all know, hocd goes through phases with a variety of different symptoms. Currently, I'm in the "I am bored" phase where I don't feel like I care anymore and I feel unbothered. However, I still get intrusive thoughts and sometimes anxiety attacks. Here's a link that will hopefully support you: https://www.scribd.com/doc/215149439/HOCD-What-It-is-and-What-to-Do-About-It

I recently had another relapse with my HOCD. It’s tiring and really hard to manage on a day to day basis, and sometimes I feel like giving in to get it to end, but even then will things keep getting worse. I miss being gay, and now calling myself gay doesn’t even sound right, it doesn’t sound the way it did before this problem resurfaced. I feel like identifying as what this disorder wants me to identify as is easier than what I want and what I feel and that causes severe distress and anxiety. I feel like it’s only getting worse and I just want things to get better. Some days you feel like you’re recovering and about a day or two later it hits you again with full force and you feel like giving up again, like giving up is the only option you have. Will things ever get better? Will my life ever be normal? Will I ever be able to say “hey, I’m gay and I’m proud!” without questioning if I’m actually gay? I’m tired of crying every day and every night because of this fight. I’m tired of battling my mind and my thoughts every day telling me one thing when my heart wants something else. What am I supposed to do? Nothing’s working, nothing’s helping, and I can’t keep crying, thinking the only way out is suicide. The only things keeping me alive right now are my passions and my goals, knowing that I’ve worked so hard for everything that I have and everything to come, and I don’t even know if those are strong enough anymore. I’ve won the battles, but how long is the war?

Unpopular opinion: being active on OCD forums (such as this) delays your healing progress and affects your anxiety levels in a negative way. Could also lead to a tendency of reassurance seeking. I want to hear your thoughts on this, because I am notincing my anxiety going up the more I read posts and try to help ?

I would love to take psychedelics. I'm sincere. But I'm frightened by the consequences that it may have on my ocd.

I’m unsure how to move on from this particular symptom. I exhibit no warning signs of being dangerous, no history of this behaviour, or having joy and intention to do something sexually inappropriate, but I just have this feeling that I could want to even though I feel so anxious and scared. I’m worried that maybe developing POCD awakened some repressed urge in me to hurt people and it’s just not how I see myself. I don’t WANT to want this, if you know what I mean. This post is scary to make, but I would just like to know if this is normal, I’m worried treatment won’t work for me because I really feel I could be a bad person who does bad things.

tw: eating disorders, trichotillomania, fatphobia my best friend triggers me easily like it's more about my eating disorder than about ocd but she's so beautiful and y'all know she's trying to make jokes about herself but they are very triggering like 2 days ago we were watching a movie and there was a girl who was fat and my friend said "ugh I'm so glad I could take control over my eating habits so I don't look like her" and I'm like WTFFFFF it hurts so much cause I see myself having a big body and her words hurt me so much also she makes jokes about calories food and exercising and it triggers me so much and stressing makes me pull ouout my hear idk she's just a little selfish when it comes to her?? she usually pushes other people down for their voice or their drawing/singing skills and I hate it but she doesn't say it to themselves, just shares with me and I don't support her in this case I'm just like "hmmm okay" I love her and she supports me but I can't ask her to stop cause she wants to talk with me about things which bother her and it's okay I'm just too sensitive??? idk

I was at work and my mind just randomly thought I said something and I was like okay maybe then I had an idea of what I may of said which is something positive I always say, every single day I say “I’m a queen” to uplift my spirit and confidence. It’s a way of reassurance for me. So I was like okay I think I remember saying that, if anything, which is fine ofc, then my mind says “what if you said queer” and I was at work I was doing a few things at once, I whispered it ofc but I was like no I wouldn’t and would never say that. This topic has brought me so much pain and I’ve fought it COUNTLESS times before and always will upset me because I’ve always liked boys I’ve been with my boyfriend whom I love very much for a year and a half, my mind always will try to twist and trick my mind and it makes me angry because I know I would never say that after all the hurt these stupid thoughts have brought me. Also I was calm which made me believe I said queen, I sounded out “queen” and “queer” and I say them completely different, and I literally say “I’m a queen” multiple times a day, every day, so there is way more likelihood that I said that in my opinion, I was calm after and then I was like “wait did I said something” and then my mind began overanalyzing, I am trying to stick my ground and I hate not being able to go back and time and know for sure. What I’m sure of his I love my boyfriend so much and I’m not EVER changing ever because of these stupid thoughts. But help!!! What can I do?

I figured out that I have been triggered by a movie and my relationship issues. I’m scared I’m relapsing into this horrible pit of dispair. What does one do when they relapse? How can I feel safe? I don’t feel safe even in my own home sometimes :(

I'm scared I have melanoma because of a swollen lymph node in my upper thigh. It's a bit bruised, too, so it's freaking me out. I'm 18, and my grandmother died of skin cancer, so I'm a bit paranoid now. I want to bring this up to my derm when I see her for my acne but I dont want to make a fool of myself by being overly cautious and changing the subject from my face to something else.

Anyone here could share your experience with real event ocd Because I think I'm going through something like that right now

Hello guys, I need your advice because I am currently engaged in ERP teraphy and the thing is that I do not feel any fear with the thoughts I am trying to expose so basically it does not work for me. I feel very anxious and want to do rituals only when I have sudden thoughts so I don't really know to deal with that.

this is a rlly rlly dumb question and i feel like i know the answer but i’m gonna ask anyways in case i’m wrong but, if u know ur obsession isn’t true why do u keep getting anxious about it? like shouldn’t ur mind just move on like it does with literally any other thought? what makes certain thoughts stick and others not stick?

I believe I have a personality disorder (or multiple personality disorders) in addition to OCD. Of course this is a huge trigger for me as it plays into my fear of long term suffering as well as being inflicted with something that is commonly corresponded with violence and lack of empathy as well as lack of treatment options. Anyone have any experiences with having a personality disorder as well as OCD? What has helped you? What have you learned works best as far as treatment goes.

I’m so tired of this. It’s mentally draining. I’m so tired from it all. HOCD has taken over my life (if it even is hocd). I spend countless hours analyzing my thoughts and getting a groinal from them. I don’t even know if it’s HOCD the thoughts and feelings feel so genuine. I don’t know where to turn I’m legit so lost. I miss being able to like girls. This is so stressful and mentally exhausting. It’s been about 3 months since I felt this way. How do I continue to live life like this when I can’t ever find peace? It’s like a living hell everyday. I wish there was just a medication to let this all go away because I can’t take this anymore it’s hell...

I'm so worried right now. My brother and Mom were talking about some girls at her work that have a little crush on him. It feels like I'm jealous even though I could care less :( I don't want to be with women and I haven't even meant this girl in my life. Yet it feels so strong and powerful. It makes me want to do a checking compulsion even though I know it wont help and it will just make my ocd worse. I wish the sensations and everything didn't feel so god damn real. Im hoping that it is because im jealous of the fact that she is so confident she likes guys and can be sincere and im over here every damn day wondering if I'm attracted to them or not cuz I have felt that before but I just hate this shit.

Hi! So I’m new to this forum and I’m glad that I’m able to be in a community and understands how I am feeling. I’m hoping therapy through this will lighten my pain through this hellish experience. Hope you all are doing well and we can get through this!!!

I need desperate help I’m confused because when I said I’m not straight it felt true and there wasn’t any anxiety and it felt as if it weren’t ocd. Then I compared it to saying I’m straight and that gave a 5 second relief then a little bit of anxiety. So then I said fuck it and kept saying I’m not straight and it gives me anxiety but it still feels so true and real and as if it’s not ocd and it’s truly happening.