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Maybe this will help someone. I have had Pure O / POCD / ROCD for about 18 years. Recently I’ve started to open my mind to all the negative thoughts, to just sit and say ‘Do your worst’. And when the thoughts come I refuse to deal with them, I just accept that these things might happen. And of course, when I feel like I’ve dealt with one thought, my OCD looks for another, and another...but I just deal with those in the same way. I feel like I’m tiring out my OCD, little by little. It can be really scary, but it definitely works. I don’t know how it works, but it does. In a few weeks I felt a lot better about two specific thoughts that I’ve had for literally the past few years. We all need to remember that the stuff we think works (rumination, reassurance) doesn’t, and the stuff we don’t think will work actually does! Stay strong everyone ?

I have literally never felt worse than I feel now. I can’t stop randomly telling my boyfriend of 4 years every little unnecessary and upsetting detail of every sexual thing I did with people in the short month we weren’t together over 3 years ago. This is after so far having one of the worst days as far as my ROCD in a long time, I’ve been confessing stuff all day but now it’s getting ridiculous and really hurtful. He’s considering leaving me because of the things I’m saying. I completely understand because after saying these things such as explicit details of these sexual encounters or my thoughts and feelings about them out of extreme guilt, I realize I’m sharing things that could ruin our relationship. But I can’t help it and now I’m miserable because I STILL feel like I have to keep going despite the fact he’s already almost gone. Help me

So the fact that i haven’t been officially diagnosed kind of makes my ocd worse. I’ve kind of become positive that I have it. Thinking back now, I can think of a few rituals I did as a child that could be seen as warning signs for OCD, but the debilitating stuff happened about 5 months ago in October. I saw a therapist for about a month and a half but she never gave me an official diagnosis and even though I asked, she just said it hasn’t been long enough to tell. It seemed like she wasn’t helping at all and wasn’t doing anything for me I couldn’t hear off of a forum such as this or an informative YouTube video so I quit going. I had problems this entire time but just this past week it has spiked up to the severity it was when it first started and is once again making me desperate for help! I think I want meds this time so I want to go to my regular doctor and ask. I guess my general question is how should I go about seeking help and can I say I have OCD even if it wasn’t officially told to me? This week has been very debilitating and the fact that I’ve been suffering for 5 months makes me believe this isn’t going to just go away.

This is gonna sound super weird but here goes. After having general cheating ocd and ROCD for months and gone through many different obsessions relating to those, my brain has become creative and given me some obsession as specific as NOT thinking about male genitalia. I know that’s absolutely ridiculous but if I single thought of one pops up my brain either from seeing/hearing something or just anxious thinking, my brain goes “what if you aren’t satisfied with your partner’s” “what if past people you’ve been with had better ones” “what if other people have better ones” and the whole thing makes me absolutely sick!!!! I’ve never had thoughts like this before like a week ago and I’ve always been happy with my boyfriend. My main compulsion seems to be confessing information to my boyfriend. I do this like an addiction almost. So here I am telling him hurtful things that I don’t want to think or feel. He got mad the first couple times with this theme, even though he’s used to me confessing stuff in general, but now he’s realizing that I have a big problem with this one too. Thanks to anyone who actually reads all this and doesn’t judge me too much because I know it’s weird and disgusting and I’m a horrible girlfriend for it but I just want these thoughts to stop happening and just live in the moment with my boyfriend. Don’t know what else to do because I’ve already confessed it to him a million times and I want to stop so bad!

Absolutely disgusting that someone just told someone on here to not talk about drug use that helped them with their OCD because there are younger people on here. How about we let everyone discuss what works for THEM. I don’t see anyone freaking out that we’re talking about antidepressants. THOSE ARE THE REAL DRUGS. Those led me to attempt suicide those led my OCD spiraling out of control! Where is the restriction of talking about those drugs on here?!? Some of you are so backwards. We should be HELPING each other. If you don’t agree with medicinal drugs here’s an idea, don’t take them. But don’t bash those who want to talk about how it’s helped them!

SSRI success story: so far... It’s been 5 months since my POCD flare up. And it’s been by far the worst experience of my life. I was terrified to even leave my house and go to work (I work in child care) in December I decided enough was enough and went to see a specialist for a diagnosis. She diagnosed me instantly with OCD and recommended I gave medicine a shot. I started on Lexapro 4 weeks ago yesterday and the change has been incredible. That with a mix of ERP and Acceptance of the thoughts (Acceptance has been the biggest help, and very easy to do when the Lexapro makes me not care about the thoughts) Now, I won’t say I don’t get thoughts. I still absolutely do, but I get less of them. And when I get an extremely hard convincing one, I accept it in, and sit in any guilt I have until it naturally dissipates. I’m not recovered, not by a long shot. But I have a small piece of me back, and it feels good. I’m hoping with hard work, and not letting OCD thoughts get under my skin. Recovery will be possible. If you’re scared to try an SSRI. I completely understand. I was lucky enough to have the first one work for me. The side effects were HORRIBLE, almost worse than the OCD for well over a week. But the benefits I have now outweigh the negatives of that week. I’m not promising a fix with an SSRI. But I think it’s worth a shot. Hell, this could all come back to bite me in the ass, who knows? I believe in you guys, and I’m starting to believe in myself again. We can do this. We’re one big family here, and we need each other. (But no reassurance ??)

Tw Do you guys think with POCD/HOCD it‘s nearly impossible to not develop ROCD? I met my boyfriend during recovery, but I didn’t have any butterflies or faster heartbeat and I wasn’t that attracted to him but I was fascinated by his character, attitude and charisma. I started to google and asked friends if I’m allowed to start a relationship with him if I don’t have overwhelming feelings. I noticed I still thought about other guys.But I knew that I wanted to be with him I was feeling good and happy, he is perfect. I thought maybe I’ll develop harder feelings during the next couple of weeks. But I didn’t. I developed more feelings than I had in the beginning and even sometimes butterflies, but I always thought it wasn’t enough. After 2 months my POCD started coming back because I was asking myself constantly if I’m not enough attracted to my boyfriend. We got intimate a couple of weeks before it came up again and it was new and everything to me and it was hard to manage, questioning my feelings constantly. My therapist also said that we have to work on my feelings because she thinks I’m not letting me feel enough. She’s right, since POCD is here again, I am afraid to have feelings towards anyone because I think all my feelings are linked to children. I feel like I just can’t let go and be happy. I don’t know what to do. POCD is one thing, but I thought about breaking up with my boyfriend a lot of times because I feel very guilty concerning the fact about my lack of physical feelings. I know that I love him, I want to be with him, I want him to be the last person I see in the evening and the first person I see when I wake up, I feel safe, he feels like home, he is the most caring, loving and sweet person I’ve ever met. The thought of braking up with him makes me cry so hard and breaks my heart. But I just can’t stop thinking about whether it’s enough or not, whether it’s enough or not, whether it’s right or not. I think my OCD plays a huge part concerning the feelings but at the same time I question “what if not? What if OCD isn’t the one who stops you from feeling things and you just don’t love him?” It makes my POCD even worse. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do/feel/think. Whether it’s my OCD ruining it or not. If I’m ruining it myself and in denial and just not wanting to let go of my boyfriend. I feel very guilty especially towards him. But I want to be with him but all the things from the beginning and everything tells me that I shouldn’t. I don’t know anymore.

Does anyone have advice for how to begin the conversation about telling your partner about your OCD? I don’t want to have a huge sit down conversation about it but almost how to work it into normal conversation

I know I’ve always had OCD, but it’s been manageable my entire life until about a year ago. I had never ever ever experienced anxiety or suicidal thoughts until this year and I feel like I’m in a constant state of obsessive fear nowadays and it’s horrendous. I have always been the happiest, most positive person I know so this is the polar opposite of what life used to feel like :-( I feel like I’m in a totally different realm than everyone else and I’m just barely getting by. Of course it has gotten somewhat better since I have learned different ways of how to cope, but I feel extremely disheartened by the idea of this being how my life is going to be from now on. Medication makes everything way worse but I’m trying counseling again. I just really want this to go away and feel like my old self again. I feel like I took my mental peace for granted before and would trade the world to be back where I was before :-(

Hey I believe I'm suffering from hocd and it sucks. But the worst part is when I want to get intimate with my girlfriend it starts off nice but then I'll start getting intrusive thoughts. And the worst is when I get them when I'm finishing. Does anyone have advice to work through this?

This doesn’t have anything to do with OCD honestly. Just complaining. I’ve been waking up sick to my stomach every day so nauseous because there is never food in my house so I never eat. It honestly makes every part of my life miserable I can never think straight. My parents shop maybe once a month and I barely make enough money to pay for medical supplies I need. So I’m just constantly feeling like shit. How am I ever going to feel better living in this way? I feel like my life is a joke

does anybody else have constant intrusive thoughts about being like attacked or hurt or killed? like in the shower or even in my own bed at home i feel like i am in danger like someone or something is watching me constantly i constantly have to open my eyes or look around me to make sure i’m alone and it’s so annoying bc not giving into the compulsion gives me so much anxiety that i always think maybe this is the one time??? every time i leave the house, when i go to the store or at driving i can constantly just basically picture every person, especially men, just like attacking me idk... it’s terrifying cause i feel in a constant state of fight or flight and i can never stop worrying or feel safe :/ it’s exhausting

Anyone with HOCD ever feel this strong feeling that they may be 'in denial' and that eventually you will have to come out to the world and live that Gay lifestyle. I am honestly just tired of this, it feels like I am being severely pushed into something I deep down know I don't want, I don't know how long I can last. I am accepting the thoughts, urges and feelings however it's too exhausting, too distressing and too painful, it feels like I am repressing myself, repressing my 'true identity' and I need to just go with whatever my thoughts and urges are telling me to.

please read!!! a few months ago I smoked wax and got AN AWFUL reaction. I had a complete panic attack, depersonalization, and derealization. it was THE SCARIEST THING EVER. I haven’t really felt the same ever since... I’m SO SCARED THAT IT MESSED ME UP FOREVER. I get panic attacks, depersonalization and derealization, feel depressed, have terrible existential thoughts, always have anxiety, and feel depressed. I can’t even sleep at night. I’m so scared I’m forever messed up. Could wax do that to you???? Please help! Has anyone else experienced this????

Do any of you think they are traumatised besides OCD, or their OCD is part of a trauma, or have been diagnosed with PTSD?

Does anyone else have EXTREME anxiety about dying? I’m so fucking terrified. I think about it all the time.

Im just really sad, depressed and no one gives a shit about me. Not even the people who I thought I had my own family. Im all alone.

What are the best techniques you have learned that help(ed) you go through relationship ocd?

POCD TW I was scrolling through Instagram and saw a picture of a little girl and suddenly I had the urge to kiss or touch her or something it scared me a lot and I started scrolling faster to get away from it BUT I felt a groinal response and it felt SO real like butterflies and twitching and itching and everything maybe even vaginal lubrication and I had the urge to masterbate and scrolled back to make sure I don’t desire this and I felt calmer when I didn’t feel anything looking at her again but I still feel anxious and kinda aroused during the day thinking back to the situation I don’t know what to do it feels so real the urges and everything ?

I was finally feeling better, but now I feel myself getting worse.