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Why is reassurance a bad thing for OCD?

i feel like crying. i keep coming back here but it’s the only place that calms me down. i keep getting thoughts and feelings that i’m going to give into these thoughts today. all i get is images of me harming my family members and i’m panicking so bad. i don’t want to hurt them, and now it’s saying that i actually do want to. it feels inevitable. i feel like a terrible person. i know i don’t want to do these terrible things. i was just fine a few minutes ago but it all just came back like always.

this is probably the worst thing I've ever worried about just because everyone says "people don't give in to their intrusive thoughts if they did then they aren't intrusive' After I mostly seen that it has me freaking out because then it makes me think it was really me because in the moment it felt real and felt like something nasty took over me to make me keep looking and then the nasty thought I had with it it's like usually when I have a nasty thought I'm like nah but this time I can't believe I actually listened to the thought and went along with the thought not even thinking about it twice just went along with it like I said it was like something nasty took over me and I literally TURNED MY HEAD I turned my head! to look more because my thought you'd me too like I was almost into it and then the nasty thought appeared then I freaked out and have been since then What's crazy is I can't even Remember exactly what the thought was I had I just know it was nasty Me turning my head more and look more because my thought told me to and then the nasty thought that I had about what I was looking at it felt like me felt so real and it's scaring me I don't want it to really be me and I dont know if anyone can help me on that which scares me even more I just want to cry and go back to what I was before I'm just so scared it was actually me trying to get into it like Get INTO IT and turn my head to look more because it felt like me Please I hope someone can help i don't want it to be actually me because it was something a person shouldn't like and it's freaking me out

I'm depressed, sad, angry, fucking livid... For some context my OCD has gotten to the point of not making any noise or light in order to do prevent my parents from being distracted when opening or closing the freezer and potentially trapping a stray cat inside, which would be my fault since I'm the one who made the distraction. Since it was becoming impossible to live correctly, because I would stay in one position watching videos with my headphones for hours while they were making food, I decided that I would just check the freezer once a day, a tedious process involving me having to record the entrance of the freezer with my tablet while removing everything and recording the insides of the freezer with my phone. After two days, I had enough and decided to just be careful but two days ago I was pissed off because I was waiting for my parents to go to bed which they usually do at midnight but it was 2 am and my dad had been dozing on the couch for almost 2 hours with my mom telling him to go to bed every 5 minutes. In anger, I squeezed my phone and it slipped, the bright side was now facing the window and could've been a distraction. I took it upon myself to not check the freezer and I haven't since, but I feel super guilty because I don't know if I did squeeze my phone knowing it would potentially make a distraction or not. Since then I feel like I lost, I've been trying to be as careful not to hurt a cat for a year with compulsions, a failure to do so would "corrupt" my hobbies, rendering them "bad" to do (I can't explain that feeling, it's like when you try to play a RPG but you mess up and it feels off, especially with perfectionism OCD). I also have kind of the same thing with my windows where it takes 30 minutes to close them because I need to check if a cat isn't on the windowsill with the same tablet and phone setup. I told my mom she shouldn't open the window in my room because it takes me a while to close it but she doesn't care, and today while returning home I found my windows half-opened because she returned my plant I had left on the balcony, and it's driving me crazy because how dumb can she be, she knows not to open it bit she does it anyway, and it's not like it was an urgent matter to return it and she could have placed it on my desk but nooooooooo... I'd check the windowsill now but I can't, I'm afraid my tablet makes ultrasound or EM waves that will distract my cats in the kitchen and that they will brush against the freezer door which could cause it to open and trap a cat inside, and it would be my fault because I would have made some noise with my tablet... I feel like I'm losing no matter what...

My most obsessed thought is am I going to be like this for the rest of my life. I have no desire to do anything nothing is fun I'm serving a life sentence in my head. I've lost every friend I've ever had because fun doesn't exist in ky life its what if we get in trouble what if someone gets hurt how will that person feel will the think I'm a bad person and 200 more what ifs and by what if number 6 you've lost someone else u cherished. I've had countless relationships with some of the most amazing girls and every one of them always say I did not know it was this bad and they disappear. If theres some kinda help out there or any way I can help someone else that is living anything close to my life sign me up. I often feel like there's only one way out and that there is no help for me but I keep faith and hope that there is. Stay strong there's gotta be a cure for this. Thanks

so a few months ago i heard about “the lamp” story on reddit. it’s sent me into overdrive since and i’ve been struggling extremely bad since i heard about it. earlier today i was showing my friends my tattoo, i was telling them what it said off memory but they corrected me and said “no it’s says “until being strong is the only choice you have” and i can and have only remembered it said “strength is the only choice you have”. (that is not the full tattoo that is just the part that was mixed up). it instantly brought me back to the lamp story … in the story he saw a lamp was looking “odd” or “warping” and it caused him to wake up from a coma. in his dream he had a family and a whole life and a job and all and came to find out none of it was real. since then i have been struggling with nothing being real and convincing myself i am also in a situation similar. my brain instantly brought me into hyperdrive and has told me the tattoo is my “lamp” and it is going cause me to wake up from a coma because it’s not what i remember it being. please tell me someone understands. i am really not okay and in all honesty i feel like im going insane.

intrusive thoughts have gotten kinda bad again after a few months of control. i think i might spiral over something again, how do i prevent it? i can’t go through this again i won’t make it😭

So every-time I get intrusive thoughts It triggers automatic anxiety and then I feel so anxious. How do you guys just “sit with the feelings” the thoughts bring when it feels so uncomfortable and like something bad is about to happen?

I hate this OCD stuff. I have been out of work for over a year because OCD has taken over my life. I need to return to work in two weeks, and I don't think I'm going to be able to. I just started woth NOCD about 4 weeks ago, and I'm sure this will help me, but I'm just not there yet, and I'm stressing. And the more I feel stressed by this stuff, the more the little OCD stuff affects me too. My leg just bumped my computer keyboard, and now I want to change my pants. I intensely hate this. This sucks.

hi yall so my theme kinda jumped from harm to fear of schizophrenia. and i saw a scene from greys anatomy of a paranoid schizophrenic and ever since i feel like ive had intrusive thoughts pop up that sound like paranoia. last night i had “what if my parents aren’t actually my parents” and so then im like am i paranoid? am i experiencing psychosis or schizophrenia? do i believe that thought? then it combines with my harm theme and there’s this fear that i am going into some kind of psychosis thing and the paranoid thoughts are gonna make me harm someone. so i have intrusive images of that happening anyone have anything similar? please answer if you have and how to deal

Does anyone have trouble with anticipatory anxiety especially with physical sensations? I constantly find myself worried about “what if my heart palpitations happen again?”… It’s pretty consuming when I’m stuck ruminating about it and causes me to lose focus on the present.

anytime i describe how i’m feeling or who i am as a person, i physically feel like i’m lying. for example, i clearly am anxious over these thoughts, but saying that i’m scared feels like i’m lying. or when someone says “you are not your thoughts” it feels like i’m upset or don’t want that to be true because i want to act on them. like it’s making me feel like the only way out is to do them. but then i think back to when these began, the idea of actually committing such acts made me absolutely terrified as a child. i couldn’t even imagine why i was thinking those things. why does it feel like the opposite now? i just feel like my morals have completely flipped and no matter how much i try and find an answer to it, i never can.

I don’t know if I have OCD, but I’m in the verge of asking my mom to maybe go and get me checked. I will get a thought or several thoughts in my head and then think about them for HOURS and not be able to do anything else until I am satisfied. It is usually an agenda and I will go over it again and again in my head until it drives me crazy and I break down. I get thoughts in my head while out in public usually, ones that I am so ashamed of and make me feel disgusting. I also get unnecessarily angry and violent when certain sounds happen. Especially coughing. I don’t know if it is the repetitive part of it but when I say angry and violent I mean it. I think this might be misophonia, but I heard the two are related. Anyone with OCD, does any of this seem familiar? I’m hopeless at this point

Hi all, I’ve just increasing my Zoloft dosage to 150 mg, as my psychiatrist told me the dosage needs to be high to see results for OCD. Ever since increasing the dose, I’ve had intense physical anxiety throughout the day and my brain feels foggy. I can’t even go to class without trembling. I find myself overthinking and ruminating for entire days at a time, unable to get out of bed. I’m worried about these symptoms but also scared to try any other meds. Has anyone else had a similar experience?

I am not asking for reassurance I’m just freaking out about something that just never crossed my mind before. I’m helping to raise my nephew since he was a baby. I vaguely remember patting him on the bottom when he was one playfully. He was bouncing around the couch and I was also just making sure he didn’t fall. I never thought of that contact or interaction as inappropriate or weird. Why on earth 6 years later am I freaking out? I started having unwanted intrusive thoughts surrounding past events and my anxiety is through the roof. Is it normal to question yourself like this if you have ocd? Please know I love my family so much and this questioning is killing me.

hi. so i’ve been struggling with a schizophrenia/paranoia/psychosis theme this week. yesterday on accident i saw a scene from greys anatomy about a man with schizophrenia and he was saying “my mom was impregnated by an alien” and i was worried id get stuck on the thought which is exactly what happened. so now that thoughts in my head, and im like am i experiencing paranoia, am i schizophrenic, do i believe this thought to be true, i don’t know and i was trying to just relax and my mom was like im tired and my brain said “cause you’re alien pregnant” and now im really not sure if its an intrusive thought or paranoia and i dont get how to tell the difference and im really really struggling. someone please help

Not reassurance seeking but is it possible to feel so overwhelmed by your thoughts that you feel like you are going insane 🫠

I always put trigger warning just to be safe because honestly OCD will find ANYTHING to trigger itself. I used this app when I really needed people who had a similar experience and since I have ADHD and OCD my OCD meds are slowly not working because my ADHD meds were upped. Which stinks but I’m going to call and tell them I need the dosage upped. I wanted to come here and say that this road to recovery isn’t easy. It’s bumpy and it’s messy. I’m still confessing as a compulsion and giving any new friends an out so they can leave me. I just want you to know you aren’t alone and I know how it feels❤️we will get through this and we will be okay😊

Hi, I’ve always had OCD, but it was very manageable. I’d obsess over something not being clean or in the right place, but I’d be able to redirect quickly and move on from the thought. After my Mom died in 2015 and I had my first child, I started to have intreusive thoughts. I’d replay her death over and over and wonder where her soul was or if she was okay. It kept me up all night and turned into insomnia. I was put back on Lexapro at a high dose and a sleep med and anti anxiety med were added. It seemed to help for a while until til I started to get adverse side effects from all the drugs. About 16 months ago, I started to wean off. The tapering process has been horrendous and I have had every symptom in the book , the worst being bulletproof insomnia and extreme irritability. I feel like I’m reverting back to the intrusive thoughts, but ten times worse. I keep thinking that I will never sleep again and that my life is ruined because of the long term use of meds. I’m not even off all the meds yet, but I keep playing the worst case scores over and over in my head. How do I get through this tapering process especially the obsessing about sleep and health?

I hate how compulsions can just lead to more obessions. I have fears that I ended up on dark web sites and a video popped up on my feed about illegal websites. At first I didn't want to watch it but I hoped it would reduce my anxiety if I watched it and didn't remember being on any of the listed sites. The creator ended up listing dark web search engines, and thats where i stopped the video. While sort of relieving because I didn't recognize any of the things he listed, now I have a fear that since I know how to get to the dark web I want to and look for terrible things. I should have listened to myself and moved on from the video.