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What can you do when you get an intrusive thought so bad it scares you so much that all you can do is sit there and cry your eyes out

Does anyone else find when a huge change happens in their life their ocd comes crawling in?

I think I realized (probably too late) that I’m scared of losing myself to one of these themes. I’m not sure if it’s like this for everyone but sometimes when I have intrusive thoughts it slowly erodes my own sense of self. Intrusive thoughts become so muddied and virtually indistinguishable from my own. I have this idea of myself that all of my intrusive thoughts go entirely against, and I’m afraid I won’t be me anymore. I am trying to practice more self love, and more self care in general. I’m trying here. To gain a self esteem, to not be in control but to be comfortable with being uncomfortable.

Does anyone else feel like if there friends, family or partner knew what their intrusive thoughts were then they would fear you or hate you or feel disgusted by you? I hate my intrusive thoughts but feel like a liar or fake person for not sharing them.

please don't judge 😢 i have a 2 year old and my partner lived at my moms but was classed at living at his dads i told my benefit people i was single because i knew wouldn't have any money as my partner works, i felt i wanted my own money to buy my daughter things, i've now told them i have a partner and he's moved in i'm overthinking they they will say something as he was paying bored to my mom my heads really scrambled with fear i don't know what to do i could say he offered to help pay mine and his daughter bored instead of child maintenance etc but i just feel so sick anxious i can't eat i'm constantly in a state of panic 😥 i know we can make mistakes but i think when you have a mind like ocd it just makes everything worse

Hi there everyone. I'm a 22 year old male who was diagnosed with ocd when I was about 16. I've struggled greatly with ocd and even fainted once because of how bad it got. I've had many obsessions that have shifted from time to time. Right now I have a bit of pocd, hocd,health ocd, and my latest and currently most distressing obsessions, where I'm not sure where to categorize them. My symptoms are as follows. I was walking home from work with an employee one day, when I hit a wall so to speak, in my thoughts. Like, I kind of knew what I wanted to say, but trying to put it into words, or fetching the words felt exhausting, and difficult. This was very distressing and triggered a downward spiral of obsessing over dementia, aphasia, cognitive decline, forgetting how to read and speak, and obsessing over words I think, read, and speak and wether or not I understand them.i continually get anxiety feelimg the need to go over the original catalyst sentence in my head ,checking to make sure I can properly retrieve it and think it. I still have a teeny bit of difficulty thinking or speaking about it, and I'm not sure if it's just my ocd and anxiety. Following all of this, lately I have had a fogginess in my head when thinking complexly and my ocd has pounced on it. Im hoping it's just brain fog, and that I'm obsessing over nothing, as when I am not obsessing about it, I understand and read and speak words just fine . Anyone else going through this?

Hey there, just wondering if anyone has ways to overcome the challenges that ocd brings when reading a book. I constantly feel the need to reread to make sure I have not missed something and it gives me a great deal of anxiety. It has taken away from the enjoyment of reading. Thank you

I’ve never been under anesthesia, i’m 19 and I should be getting my wisdom teeth removed, I am supposed to call the oral surgeon, but I still haven’t called after two months of getting my referral, for a few reasons. 1. I think i will die or suffer from serious complications/ be able to feel everything but not be able to move, almost like sleep paralysis, because that type of thing has happened before, only in redheads… I am not a redhead. Just the impeding doom it feels like a possibility. 2. Who will take me/drive me home while i’m coming out of the anesthesia and possibly saying silly things. I don’t want anyone to see me in a state i’ve never been in before. I feel like i’m going to say horrible things that are either directed at the person who is caring for me, or just in general. Even sexually explicit/ morally wrong/ flat out disturbing. If my boyfriends take me what if I tell him I don’t love him ( I do). What if I say something sexual that could be offensive, like sexual acts with other people? (I’ve never done/Will never do). I can’t have my mom take me cause she would hold those things against me for however long it felt right to her. Etc. My teeth are suffering and the anxiety of the what ifs eat me alive every time I think about it. To me this feels extremely vulnerable and it makes me more uncomfortable than anything to not be in control of my words. My sister specifically is an example that makes me feel these things. She told me that our mother said to her when she was healed from getting her wisdom teeth out that my sister said something so bad that my mother said she would never repeat it. Which is very out of character for my mother. And my sister and I are almost positive what she said was a sexual connotation. Has anyone else had this experience?

18+ only read pls Yall what do I do if I’m M wording and an intrusive image comes up for a second?? I waited for the image to pass and continued but now I feel soooo guilty. Was that the wrong way to handle it? Should I have stopped all together? Like I know they’ll continue to pop up so am I just never supposed to M word or engage in intimacy? It’s so annoying. I feel so guilty like that I continued after an explicit image. Pls lmk

I’m getting these bubbles of negative thoughts/feelings. I think cuz I’ve unconsciously started ruminating and these stronger feelings/thoughts/impulses bubble up. It’s tough to ignore cuz it feels like a gut feeling. Anyone else get this?

Repost as I’d love to hear if this is normal :( Anyone else get doubt come in thoughts that aren’t ‘what if?’ Mine are and have always been more like ‘what about this?’ ‘What about that?’ ‘How do you explain this then?’ ‘But isn’t that the same as this?’ Never really what if. Almost like my mind is always wanting me to disprove or prove something. Is this just another way to say what if? Are all these doubt questions?

How can I get over the feeling of needing to confess everything? Even private thoughts & situations … nobody’s business but my own. But I feel like I’m doing something wrong and keeping big secrets. Thanks!

Hi! I have OCD and am thinking about starting a family. I have been married for a few years (through some pretty sever ROCD) and starting a family has come up more than once. Every time our “this is when we will start” time comes around I have a HUGE spike in OCD including ROCD and OCD around having sex with my husband. I have a history of sexual assault, but that’s another story. ANYWAY…I was wondering if there are any folks on here with OCD and thinking of having children, pregnant, or went through it all with OCD. Really just looking for community and any resources that might have helped you- books etc. I am in therapy and on medication so really looking for anything supplementary. Thanks for reading!

Does anybody else’s intrusive thoughts come in the form of “delusional thoughts”? I’ve been in a terrible episode of hypochondria or ocd for the past 6 months where I have FULLY convinced myself I am developing schizophrenia, it started with becoming really easily overstimulated and not being able to concentrate and now it has spiraled out of control to where I am constantly getting intrusive thoughts center around demonic stuff, which i have never ever believed before, I have always been a skeptic. But now i get these thoughts all the time like “what if this song has hidden demonic meanings?” “What if your wife is a demon” “what if nobody is real and your just in hell” “what if this political figure is being controlled by the devil”, the typical kind of delusional thoughts you would expect from a schizophrenic. Keep in mind I am a literal atheist and all about facts, science and evidence, I am a skeptic. Not only does the fact that I’m even having these thoughts in the first place scare the life out of me, but I have to constantly battle with these thoughts in my head if I believe them or not. I feel like I have to constantly hold myself back from fully going off the deep end, I feel like I have to constantly disprove these thoughts and stop myself from believing them, but they feel so real and it’s scaring me so much. One part of me is like “why can’t we just stop worrying about this, this is delusional” and another part of me is like “what if I actually do need to worry about if these things are true or not, they FEEL true” and I’m just like “wtffff I shouldn’t have to worry about if things like this are true at all in the first Place!” I feel like I have fully lost my mind, and in no time I’m going to lose this little bit of insight I have. I hate these thoughts so much, I don’t want to think about them, but now that they are here, I feel like I can’t forget them. My dpdr is already making everything feel so off and weird and unreal and I feel like it’s only giving these thoughts more credibility and realness. I feel like this could also be partly a terrible form of existential ocd that’s being thrown into the mix with all these “what if thoughts”. Ugh I just want to be normal again ): but I don’t even know what normal feels like anymore because I’m constantly on the lookout for symptoms that I can’t even be normal anymore. Btw: yes I am seeing 2 therapists and a psychiatrist and all of them do not believe I am developing schizophrenia.

does anyone ever struggle with intrusive thoughts and even feelings of your spouse or SO dying suddenly? it’s been a theme for me the past few weeks and i’m not sure what’s causing it. he’s perfectly healthy and fine but it’s been so intense that i’ll just sit there and cry and cry and feel such intense grief.

I really hate being forced to socialize with people, specifically family members who genuinely do nothing but gaslight you with their narcissistic behavior. My OCD comes with anxiety.. I never feel like I’m enough, I always have this need to prove I don’t need help because anytime I came across vulnerable, I was treated like I was a problem but I feel like I’m forced to baby feed my own MOTHER who refuses to get help with her OWN OCD. I just can’t rn. I don’t know if I’m venting or having ruminating thoughts about having to mask how I feel when I’m CONSTANTLY feeling like my feelings don’t matter to a person that thinks her feelings are the ONLY ones that are relevant. Someone please read this so I can get a better understanding of how to deal with being overstimulated by being FORCED to socialize in a FAKE environment.

I feel like giving up. I don’t want to but it’s so hard and the only person that can make it better is me. But I’ve given up so many things that are important to me because of my OCD. I’ve isolated myself so much and given up on my dreams because of all this fear. Sometimes I feel like I need to protect everyone else from me and my doubts and insecurities. I feel like I’m hurting everyone or have the potential to let everyone down. I hate this.

the obsession got so bad that i just cant tell if i am still ocd or just accepting my fate and becoming what i fear most. i cant tell whats going on anymore. im numb, i dont feel like this is a dire situation for my morals anymore, im just so apathetic now. i dont even know what im feeling, if i want these things or not, i dont know

Has anyone who started ERP therapy felt that your ocd or anxiety has gotten worse (at first) before it gets better?

Ive been struggling with keeping myself from not snowballing bad thoughts and memories since a night ago and rn i was having such a good time with my family :( i was playing games with my sibling and watching game play of a game we like i was talking with my other sibling i was having such a good time but then my brain reminded me “hey you cant have fun you’ve done so many bad things you shouldn’t be having a good time” and i felt so sad-i still feel sad-i feel gross and ugly and disgusting-why cant i just be happy? To the ppl that some how worked through this kinda thing how did you do it? How do you cope? how do you remind yourself to be happy?