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I need help, please. I cannot stop ruminating and I'm still not getting medicated, and that's the onlu way out I can see right now. I cry everyday out of distress, I feel sick, and I force myself to get arcades so I really feel that I'm not attracted towards women. It’s torturing me, I cannot take this anymore. It makes me think that the slightest thing I notice on a woman means that I'm attracted towards her. And it also makes me obsess over certain people which I found something interesting in, and tries to make me believe that I like them, it's disgusting, sickening, draining. By the way, I have a boyfriend, and I love him, so this makes everything worse. This all goes against all my values, morals, everything. It makes me look for things that happened in the past and alters them, and makes fake scenarios and tries to make me feel as if I'm actually attracted and it makes me suffer a lot. It takes almost my whole day, and it starts over and over again every time I wake up. I'm going insane, please, I just need to get rid of this. I cannot find any reasons to slay alive other than my boyfriend, I could never break his heart, so this is really making me feel like a really bad girlfriend and a failure.
My pocd it's getting really bad again and I don't know what to do ... I am so scared .. I will go to therapy but Idk if I could talk about my intrusive thoughts...I am scared . Any advice?
hi everyone, i’m new to this app and it’s taken me a lot of courage to even post this or publicly say anything regarding my OCD because i feel so much shame and guilt and distress because of my POCD intrusive thoughts. it’s one of the most draining, most anxiety filled things ive ever been through. i’ve had OCD since i was little. i’ve had different themes ranging from my sexuality to health ( i still struggle with health OCD ) from awful morbid thoughts about my mother and now i’m having thoughts about children. i’ve been struggling with POCD for maybe almost 2 years and even though i know it’s OCD, im still constantly being mentally reminded it is a reflection of me. i keep getting to a point where i feel as if im starting to get better and even though i keep having a strong urge to compulse, i don’t proceed to and it’s been helping a lot. but then i get into a state where i start questioning “ what if i really don’t have OCD and these thoughts are genuinely who i am “ then i give into compulsions to check if im really an awful person. so it feels as if im back to square one. i really need advice and help and i want to know if anyone is experiencing the same thing and how you deal with it. thank you for taking the time to read this :)
18+ Please any help/advice I used to love the tv series full house when I was teen. I always loves Stephanie. I thought she was adorable and funny so I adopted her personality. Although I thought by doing this it would make me ‘cute’ and ‘quirky’ and would act like her around boys. But my ocd is telling me I’m a p for this as the character was like 5 and I was 17/18. I’m ashamed in myself that I used the personality of a 5 year old to try and attract and impress boys, like I was doing it for s*xual gain, surely that’s s*xualising her? I feel awful, I’m so scared I’m a p.
I just got triggered by something and I started to spiral. I was obsessing with my thoughts for a really long time I wasn’t doing anything but sitting there and obsessing. I finally had to bring my partner to work and it takes about 40 min to get there. I finally noticed that I had to pee really bad I was obsessing over my POCD and I got in my head thinking what if this feeling is sexual and you are a P. I finally made myself pull over at a gas station and went to the restroom. I never had a problem with my OCD until i started heavily drinking. When I was drinking with friends one night at a bonfire there were these two little girls at the time I really loved kids I wanted to have some of my own some day. So I started playing with the little girls just being silly and picking them up and playing. I eventually pick one of them up and kissed her on the cheek because I thought she was so cute. But I was drinking and the father told them to go inside the house. Know that I’m thinking about it I don’t know if it was because or he just wanted them to go inside because it was getting late. He never said anything to me and my friends never said anything to. But I instantly felt bad for being drunk and playing with. But for some reason I woke up the next day and I felt like I had done something wrong and what if I was a P for kissing the little girl on the cheek. I started drinking back then just for fun but it slowly became a problem I had just turned 21 and I wanted to have fun with my friends and that is what people do when they turn 21. I’m now 31 and an alcoholic but for the last 10 years I haven’t been able to forget about that night and I just have been obsessing about it ever sense. I think now that the alcohol brought out my OCD and I wish I could go back and never started drinking in the first place. Now I am almost 3 months sober. But recently I have been prescribed medication that will make you physically sick if you drink on them. I also have found an online 24 hour zoom meeting that is awesome. The reason I bought the drinking up is after I stopped to go to the bathroom the thoughts of being a P went away greatly I wasn’t having sexual feelings I just had to go to the bathroom. When I got back in the car and started listening to the zoom AA meeting my thoughts pretty much went away. I wanted to let everyone know about the online meetings it’s called The Zoo Crew. I am so happy to be sober now and so grateful that I found the meetings. So I just wanted to get that out there for anyone struggling with POCD, OCD in general, or alcoholism. There has been very few problem that I have talked about having these thoughts with. Most of them have been with medical professionals it feels so good to have found this app and be able to talk about it with other people. I hope this could help someone else in knowing you’re not alone in this. I know this was really long but I hope it helps someone. Thank you!!!
When i was a teen (younger than 18) i fell into the world of 🌽. I admit i would get off to it and it may have became an addiction. Eventually i fell into more taboo topics. Things like cnc and pee which eventually lead to diapers. I don’t have those kinks but as a teen it was just something new. Anyway the main thing that distressing me was people roleplaying younger. I didn’t know they were trying to act like kids and thought it was just something new. About a year later i was diagnosed with ocd officially even though i had been dealing with it my whole life. Then i fell deep into a spiral thinking i got off to kids. I obviously never watched child p or things like that it was all roleplay and stuff but i feel horrible. I’m older now and think about it all the time. I read things about real pedos doing stuff like that when they were younger and i’m so scared i’m one. I didn’t even realize they were trying to act like kids i thought that was just how it was. I feel horrible and wonder what to do a lot. Please don’t be mean i’m really struggling.
literally randomly through the day ill worry “are u a p?” Or my brain tells me I am one and it actually feels like I am one. I get these groinal responses immediately after and get the urge to self soothe. that is a bad compulsion of mine. I really hate this. my mind goes straight to p related things for EVERYTHING it doesn’t even have to be kid related but somehow my brain does and finds connections in anything about me being a “p” im really scared i am one. i have no “proof” besides these thoughts, urges, and sensations and compulsions, which i feel like is enough proof and i should search for help for being a p.
It’s been almost 5 months since this has started. It’s been on and off. Ive come to realize it’s probably POCD to fitting into every symptoms. Ive never been diagnosed with OCD but I do have anxiety and am constantly worried about everything. I dont know if anyone here can help reassure me that this happens to people and i am not what i think i am because it is basically taking over my thoughts and life. Seeing that i have every symptom, am i sure that i do? ugh this is so stressful. Never in my life have i ever had this thought. Never ever thought of children in that way. Growing up I’ve always liked older people older. I never had crushes on any child. Or did I and it just didn’t stick out to me? It’s gotten to the point where I can’t take these instrusive thoughts anymore either.. and are they even intrusive because I feel like I’m forcing myself to think about them just to see if I give myself a response. I have kids and have friends with kids and I can’t stop have the thoughts of maybe hurting them even though I never have before!! Then it makes me fixate on them and why am I fixating on just them if I wasn’t someone with POCD??? just the terrible person I’m scared that I actually am. It’s no other kids just the ones I’m familiar with or have known forever. Can you just turn into a P and not realize it until wayyyy older? I’m so stuck im not sure what to do.
How can to tell the difference actually being gay or hocd I’ve been struggling with this I don’t want to be gay the thought of it scares me and I’ve always liked women but suddenly I get these intrusive thoughts of possibly being gay and it scares the crap out of me but if feels so real. It’s so much lately that I feel like a certain attraction to same sex but I feel it’s like a false attraction. I’ve had ocd for a few years now it was only contamination and a bit of pocd but now it’s this theme . Please help? Anyone go thru this ? How can you tell the difference am I really turning gay or is this HOCD? I obsess about this day and night it gives me a lot of anxiety I fear it being true my thoughts
I also have pocd and real events OCD regarding explicit anime/explicit cartoon corn too… (14, 17-18) the content was on public sites and some of them said the characters that were underage in canon, were 18+ in the content, so I thought they were safe to watch… I don’t ever want to ever be a P or a chomo in any way shape or form… some of the explicit anime characters looked and were really young… and i avoided most of the content involving the really young anime characters, but i thought some of this content wasnt Pediphilic because they were on public explicit sites and had millions of views… so i thought it was safe to watch... I didnt know how horrible the young anime character content was or what it represented… I assumed that some of this content was safe to look at because it was on public sites and had millions of views… and doing my research about it later on made me vomit… i dont ever want to ever be a P or a chomo in any way shape or form… there were some anime characters that looked and were extremely young… i didnt know how horrible this type of content was or what it represented… When i was looking at explicit anime content (i was 19 and was making sure the characters were over the age of 18) I accidentally looked at characters that were 17 by mistake... (a couple times even though the site said all characters have to be 18+) my pocd is saying im in denial for all of this... this, combined with my previous pocd and real events based on this... makes me just feel so alone...
Hi all, I was wondering how other people with POCD deal with the guilt and shame that come with the POCD
I can almost remember the day this all first started. I was in high school, the year was 2019, and I was watching a horror movie in theaters with my friends. The movie was The Prodigy. At the very beginning of the film, there’s a scene where a woman gives birth to a child, and then it cuts to a shot of a completely naked baby. Child nudity has always bothered me severely, but this stayed with me for weeks. I couldn’t enjoy the rest of the movie because I was so bothered by it and it eventually started to plague my personal life to the point where I was questioning myself and getting extremely uncomfortable around life. Eventually, I ignored it and after a week, it went away. A few months later, I watched the film The Boondock Saints. During the scene where Willem Dafoe is making out with another man while he’s dressed as a woman, I felt something happening in my pants. At first, I panicked and checked to see if it was an erection, and was relieved to see that it wasn’t the case, because I’m not gay, I’ve never had the urge to do anything with another man before, and I’m certainly not opposed to my own sexuality. I could care less if I’m gay, straight, bisexual, etc. But because I felt something in that moment, I questioned myself every day since. I’ve tested myself many times and I’ve always came up with the same answer: I find men attractive, but not sexually attractive. Eventually, after battling with it for three years, I decided in 2022 that I had enough. I couldn’t go out in public or be around another man without staring at them for prolonged periods of time; it didn’t matter who it was. I would get extreme anxiety, but I was compelled to keep doing it. I get a tingling, almost burning sensation in my genitals that convinces me I’m having an erection, which further coerces my thoughts, thus making me want to do things I don’t want to do. I always snap out of this state but I can’t prevent it from happening. I tried doing what I did before with children and ignore my OCD until it went away, but this time it didn’t work. I eventually fell into the rabbit hole again with POCD and, to his day, have struggled severely with both to the point where I avoid going anywhere outside of work and home in fear I might do something I might regret. Even after I snap out of it, eventually, the intrusive thoughts come back again and I feel like I’m in danger to myself and others. I have no way of beating this at the moment, so I hope this app helps.
I feel like there’s two versions of me. I feel like there’s an evil version where my OCD wants me to do urges and be bad and prove I am this person and it is so convincing and it feels like me. Then another version of me where I’m like “duh that’s not me”. But I’m terrified the bad version will win. It feels like “I want” to think of these thoughts. I had a moment today where I was like “yeah I would be this person if it wasn’t illegal” and believed it. Then came out of it and was like “no that’s not true”. I also found myself feeling like I wanted to think of a bad sexual thought during sex.
The other day I was in the kitchen and the children I work with were in a rush and I was trying to push them out of the kitchen. When that happened, I was nudging them out with my hands and legs. When I was nudging a child forward, I noticed a sensation in my leg near my crotch area that I was pushing, but it wasn’t gratification and it wasn’t sexual. But I feel awful because I recognized the sensation but didn’t move my body. I continued to push forward. Now I feel like I’ve committed a heinous crime. When it happened it was very subconscious and unaware. I was not imploring myself to do anything else or really anything at all. It was just that weird feeling in my leg but I still feel awful that for 2 seconds I continued to push them forward. It’s driving me insane that I feel like I tried to continue to push forward. Now that I’m writing this, I can recognize that I was not trying to be weird or anything and I think my mind is tricking me. But it still SUCKS!!!!!!! I hate having OCD!!!!! I know I didn’t do anything and I’m a good person. But I don’t know how to be comfortable with this one.
I’m struggling to understand how ERP will work for me, I’m new to this. I’m 2 weeks into therapy and this session we start my first ERP steps and I feel like I can’t seem to grasp the concept because often times I understand my obsessions are illogical but then again I think I ruminate often with it so in a way it’s also self reassurance. For example, my one goal is for POCD and to sit with the discomfort of maybe seeing a kid on social media and immediately panicking over what people may think if I like the video or if I shouldn’t find the kid cute, etc. Well, I feel like sometimes (which I’m not in a super bad depressive state) I sort of stop myself and remind myself things logically to sort of push that stress away… I can’t tell if maybe this is just another compulsion. Writing it down sort of makes me feel like maybe it’s leaning toward compulsion and I just thought it was logic… whoops? Ah idk.
Something just isn’t right. I used to be different, attracted to much older men and guys in general, and it felt good to be gay. And I used to be completely against pedophilia, cause I know it’s wrong, that should be a universal thing, and these thoughts haven’t always been as present as they are now. But now, it’s the complete opposite. It’s like me being a pedophile is all that exists in my head. I feel like no one gets it and keeps basing it on their own experiences and OCD in general when it’s not that easy. I keep having these thoughts and while yes I may react negatively I think I’m just trying to do that to avoid actually acknowledging that I may just like these things. I mean I can never enjoy myself sexually without thoughts of kids or literal infants show up in my head. How I could become this person? I believe it’s because I was exposed to a lot of sex and porn when I was younger and I gained some kind of sex addiction and now I can’t enjoy sex like I used to cause I need something different to get off. Makes sense to me, so Idk how anyone can “reassure” me when this sounds like the logical explanation behind everything. And yes, an OCD specialist told me I have OCD, but misdiagnoses can happen. I just am this person. Do I want to do these things? No, I know better, but if I really had OCD these thoughts wouldn’t feel like they’ve become my entire identity and who I really am. Who I used to be is gone and now it’s this. There’s nothing I can do to change that.
Why is it making me think I like these things, when I don't, just because I'm not disgusted by them? And I think this person is nice, if a bit odd, but because of that, it's telling me I must like her and I'm getting a response that feels real, all because of the way I'm assuming they look at me, and makes me uncomfortable, but I'm not shying away from it. (But anything that seems remotely sexual with anything sends off things in me, like sexual disturbing things and makes me think I like them too because they seem sexual. Same with kids). But I don't want it but, my god, it feels so real. It's messing with me, it's going "you like her." And I'm not always fighting it, which brings on more response, which makes me more convinced and then it gets persistent. I've never had anything like this. Please does this sound familiar?
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