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About anxiety and ocd recovery? I swear if I hear yes that means we really can obssess over ANYTHING 😂

For context, these are online and I've been friends with them for a while (for a few months) and I decided it would be time to tell them about the intrusive thoughts. At this point I was very anxious and overwhelmed. It was on a call and I decided to give the two friends I've been friends with the thoughts I've been dealing with and the two seemed like they weren't understanding but trying to at the same time. The two seemed confused but they didn't say that they were uncomfortable and it made me uncomfortable talking more about it making me terrible and well I had to jump out of call (this was on discord). I deleted the app until I was ready. Cut to today which I log on only to be kicked out of the server without any warning. I didn't get a reason or anything. I'm a little upset but also wasn't surprised. I realised now that it may have been a bit too soon for me to open up about it and I should've given more time but I didn't know they how they would respond. I wish they could've just told me that they were uncomfortable instead of staying silent about it. I know it's a bit out of the ordinary for me to make this post. Although the writing was on the wall it just feels like a slap in the face.

Hi, I’ve been thinking about opening up to some of the people in my life who I am really close with about my ocd. There are two things that I’m worried about. One is that I feel like since my ocd and my anxiety in general to make so much to be happening in my head and it’s seems to be jumping from theme, thought, or worry to another that I won’t be able to clearly explain it in a way that they will understand. I’m also worried about this turning into a confessing compulsion, confessing was one of my worst compulsions and was super hard to get under control and I don’t want to lose the progress I’ve made. Does anyone have any tips for this?

I’m so nervous, and sick to my stomach. I don’t know if I accidentally said a slur out loud when answering a question in class, and I’m trying so hard to remember all of the details. I know that I thought it the same time I answered but I’m still not sure. I’m trying so hard not to email my teacher to ask him if I did say something inappropriate or not, but it’s so hard. I just need to know—for certain.

Good night from Armenia, I wish us to overcome our intrusive bad feelings. Please share with me with your experience, have you had the feeling that the cause of having OCD was the wrong attitude toward you in childhood, it maybe children from school, from yard or members of family? Are there people that think that if something had not been hapenned to them in the past, now they would not being sufferred from OCD problems. Please share with your experience. I wish you good night and sooner overcoming of OCD. I share with you with one picture of our capital of Armenia in January 28 night.

I’m 17F and have always had a huge problem biting my nails, ever since I was young from my anxiety and OCD. Ive been becoming very insecure of how my nails look and It’s extremely difficult not to chew my nails though I know it’s unhygienic and in healthy. Is there any advice on how to stop this?

How do you stop mental checking???? I dooooo this all day to the point I don’t even know when a normal intrusive thought happens becuse I check they are there that often I cause a lot myself. I don’t want these thoughts but feel like I’m making them happen all time because I check for the thought without even realising

Hello 👋 I'm new here and wanted to share my story. I'm 27 and struggle daily with OCD. I've had it for many years and got diagnosed 3 years ago. I have intrusive thoughts daily and constantly washing my hands because I feel contaminated. My hands are so sore they crack and bleed. When I get my food shop delivery I have to clean the kitchen floor where items have been and for days after I wash my hands after touching the food items because they are dirty to me. I wear PJ'S when I'm on my sofa but I have to change into different PJ'S when I get in bed, I cannot wear the same ones because I feel the sofa has germs on that I can't put in my bed. I clean my phone everyday when I get home from work because of the work germs. It's very rare if I use the toilets at work because of other colleagues using them. I get behind on jobs at work because I have to re read things a lot. I struggle very much leaving the house by myself. My last job I had to leave due to constantly being late because I had to check all the windows, doors, switches, cooker, ect. Luckily now my husband is at home when I leave for work. But times where I've had to leave by myself I've had panic attacks and cannot stop crying because I cannot leave the house. I think something bad will happen. I freeze at the door, I know I've locked it but the OCD bully in my head is saying I need to keep checking it until it feels right. And a lot of the time it never feels right. I have accidentally broken door/window handles because of checking them so many times. A few years ago I struggled that much to leave the house I had to film myself locking the door and I also wrote on paper "locked" "off" ect. Take a photo/video and send it to my husband who then stopped work to look and reply. A lot of the time it didn't help at all. At night I have to check everything is switched off and locked up, that can take a long time and a lot I ask my husband to do the checks either with me or by himself. This is so difficult. I have been having therapy for about 3 months, it's helped a little so that's something. Some days are ok and other days are horrible. I know I'm not alone but it does feel like that a lot. Thank you for reading :)

I realized recently my intrusive thoughts have been adapting to be “more realistic”. I’ve now become more obsessed with my life safety, work social environment, and first true love? (Apparently I’m demiromantic and he really feels like my soulmate. I’m the one not letting us be a couple for, I think a good reason, and he respects that decision.) Point is they’re getting harder to ID as OCD, which although never stopped the intrusive thoughts, it helped me apply personal tactics I’ve learned that have alleviated some distress and prevent thought spiraling in the past. Is it possible for the thoughts to adapt like this, I can’t ID them as quick this way and get in thought spirals way too far before I realize what’s happening. I even had a spout of my classical religious OCD thoughts, began repetitively praying “Jesus” to block them out which I’m sure is a compulsion. I ended up effectively distracting myself from it, so thank God. I don’t want to go down that road again. Avoidance has been the main compulsion for the ones listed before that side tangent above, I literally was not going to my apartment for months because a neighbor had creeped me out so bad. I sorta overcame avoidance with the relationship to truthfully talk to my love, but I worry my reason for staying apart has a secret reason in this… idk. It seemed reasonable to us both? The thoughts started targeting the guy I love even more yesterday, and I knew trying to fight them would make them worse, but I really didn’t want them anywhere near that. Somehow I got to a point where instead of the worries, I could literally feel nothing. Nothing bad but also nothing good and I thought I broke my brain and almost called a mental health hotline because I was concerned I lost my emotions forever and I wanted them all back. Even the negative ones. Luckily I had the awareness to at least try the emergency anxiety medicine my doctor gave me (even though I couldn’t feel anxiety), and I think this is what broke me out of that. But now I’m worried I’ll trigger that again. I hesitate to self diagnose, but given my experience and past, I definitely have primarily obsessional OCD (pure O). I couldn’t tell any of the mental health professionals I saw before because I thought I was the only one like this and that if I said anything about the worse thoughts they’d take me away from family or… well that they would do something, disgusted by my very existence. For a while my mom was the only one I let hear some of the worse thoughts and I swore her to secrecy about them. Luckily she had experienced some intrusive thoughts (not to my level but) with her GAD and she understood enough these were distressing things I didn’t want. But yea, I’ve been through a slew of the themes in my life. My biggest being religious OCD and OCD with sexual themes (I am aroace so the lack of sexual desire was very confusing, especially at first, and I didn’t know I was or that people could be that, so I guess my core worry became that my other forms of love ie familial, friend, etc had been secretly perverted and corrupted the whole time) Ugh.

I have been with my partner for over a year. I have a long history of abuse and pain, and he is my first healthy relationship. It truly feels this is the person I want to marry. Recently though, I made a new friend (male) and we’ve been talking almost daily over text. This friend is older than me and has two kids, but is single. I love our conversations, and I find myself looking forward to talking with him. I made it clear multiple times I have a boyfriend, I’ve also actively talked about my boyfriend to make sure he is super aware that I’m not being flirty, that I’m just a friendly person. He has never made a move on me or anything. Recently however, I’ve been plagued with these thoughts that I am emotionally cheating on my boyfriend, and I’ll also get intrusive thoughts about me cheating on him with this person. I don’t have any romantic or sexual feelings on this person, but then my brain is like “you sure? You do like talking to them a lot!” And then it spirals. At some points the image of us having sex has come to mind and it’s been seriously scary. I hate it so much because now I’m feeling disconnected from my own relationship because I’m too scared that I’m cheating. I of course talked about this with my partner and he was very supportive, even reassured me, but now the thoughts have gotten stronger and I am honestly scared. I’ve thought of just not texting this person anymore, or moving away (they are my neighbor), and I’ve actively avoided talking to them in person much. I’m so afraid. I’ve never cheated on anyone, and I don’t want to ever lose or hurt my partner. Sometimes I worry maybe I don’t have ocd, maybe I’m just a bad person. I don’t know. I’m just scared. Any advice?

There’s times where I just wanna escape from reality . So I tried smoking marijuana and I didn’t even smoke alot . And 4 days later after smoking , I feel very odd. Like something is wrong with me and I’m worried I’m going to be stuck like this forever . I don’t know what to do and I’m so scared . I can’t sleep , I can’t relax , my whole body is tensed up. I’m afraid . I don’t know what to do anymore

Does anyone else feel scared to be around item that interfere with your thoughts? like with my OCD when a thought like “what is i stab someone” comes into my head i can’t be around knives, if they are out i have to put them away and hide them. i get so scared if my thoughts becoming reality so i have to distance myself

I was Reading about pure ocd and It says that it Is not included in the dsm-5 and that the obsessive compulsive disorder in the dsm-5 has ALWAYS physical compulsions/actions. So what if this doesnt exist and I don't have ocd? I don't get It. I don't do ripetitive actions at all. I Just try to research things every second, ask for reassurance, try to solve my thoughts for hours, think about the past.

I started my OCD journey not long ago, yet for people with OCD or other forms of mental illness, not long can seem like an eternity. For me, OCD has been with me my whole life, but it wasn’t until September of 2023 that I let OCD begin running my life. I was in a constant state of fear, panic, and confusion. Thinking that every disturbing thought I had defined who I was. Thinking that every disturbing or terrifying thought meant I was going crazy or I was doomed to be this way forever. Thinking that, “there’s no medicine, no therapy, no remedy on Earth that could help me and that I was somehow different or worse than anyone else.” And you know what? I believed those thoughts….and I felt like no matter what I did, I couldn’t win. I have been an athlete my entire life. Played football for 17 years and was always competitive no matter what I was doing. So to me, I saw OCD and Mental Illness as something I could just…learn to beat and be rid of forever. Like the big scary boss you face at the end of a video game. But I was wrong… instead, thinking I could just be rid of OCD forever, actually spiraled into many different OCD types that made my life worse. Suicide OCD, Harm OCD, Existential OCD, and this would turn into full blown panic because I thought my mind was just going to break permanently and I’d be ruined forever. And with my competitive spirit, I constantly felt I was losing, and losing so bad you didn’t want to even try anymore. BUT! I decided that it was time to just… do something. I hated feeling this way, and for those of you that suffer alone i did or still do, you’d do literally ANYTHING to be rid of OCD. I took that statement and said, “I and going to do whatever I need to!” Now, everyone is different! And everyone will react differently to different medicines and different therapies. For me, I refused to take SSRI’s of any kind. Why? Because OCD made me believe that if I took them, only the negative side effects would take over and I would only get worse and worse. My thought pattern was, “ya, if I take this, it could change my life for the better, but what if it makes me want to commit suicide or become so depressed that it becomes my reality?” That alone, scared me so badly that I couldn’t take them because I couldn’t control how my body would react to them. If you currently take them and they work for you, I AM SO HAPPY AND GRATEFUL YOU HAVE FOUND SOMETHING THAT HELPS YOU!!! I also didn’t do therapy. Why? Not becuase I didn’t believe in the miracle of ERP or other talk therapies, it is something I wanted more than anything, but couldn’t because my insurance barely covered anything and I couldn’t afford it out of pocket. And my finances was already something that I constantly worried about enough. If you are in therapy, IM PROUD OF YOU AND I PRAY IT IS HELPING YOU OVERCOME YOUR STRUGGLES!! So? What did I do? I learned. I learned. I learned. I learned and studied what OCD is, what it does to you, and how it tricks you. I learned and read many stories of those who are affected by OCD daily and I saw that I was not in fact different or broken. Am I messy? Yes! But humans are messy, and I learned to come to peace with that fact. In addition to learning about others and their stories, I also talked to people about what they did and how they learned to manage. In other words, I sought wisdom of others because I wanted to learn I wasn’t alone! I learned what was making my thoughts worse, and what made my thoughts subside. I learned that OCD is not something I’ll ever be rid of, but rather, something I need to embrace as if it is another piece of me…because it is and always will be. I learned, that while OCD cannot be cured… it can be managed! It can become quieter and you can get your life back! For the past 9 months, all I have worried about is, “what will become of me because I have this incurable illness?” And I know how afraid you feel and how lost and hopeless it can seem. I know! And so does everyone here. I just want you all to know, that you can win! You can overcome! You are stronger than what your mind wants you to think! And in the end, you will become an even better version of yourself for having faced this journey head on.

I had my first real severe OCD flare up almost two weeks ago and it scared the living crap out of me (intrusive thoughts). At the time I had no idea what it was and it was causing insane anxiety and panic attacks. After a bit of research and reaching out to numerous professionals for help with anxiety, I then learned it was OCD. I had a pretty bad week and then started to feel better. The thoughts were still there but I felt like I was learning / understanding how to just not fall victim to them. Now today, I had what I felt like was a bad day. Had what I think was a derealization type episode. Horrified it was going to turn me into someone else. I can’t even explain. I calmed down, but ever since it happened I’ve had ocd on loop about how that specific event happened and what could happen next time if it does happen again. Im truly scared for it to happen again. I was stuck in a loop for hours. Then now just all of the sudden I feel ok. Like a moment of clarity that I know what all of it was. Like I know it was the ocd. And that I’ll handle it better next time. And that I’ll be ok. But then my brain tries to tell me I have more than ocd. That I’m actually losing it. Has anyone experienced these moments before? I know people have good days and bad days but has anyone wone had days where they feel like it’s unbearable but then a couple hours later feel like you have your mind and rational back? Or should I actually be concerned there’s something else going on here? I meet with my therapist on Friday and will fill her in on all this, even though it’s only my second session with her, but just wanted to see if anyone could relate.

Is there a correlation between a hormone imbalance and ocd? I have low testosterone and ocd and didn't know if there may be a link between the two. I'm just trying to figure out why I have ocd, how long I've had it, and when it might have started. I've been suffering for years now but was told it was bipolar disorder (early 2000s) since I was in high school (I'm 37 now). It wasn't until this last year that I was diagnosed with ocd and never was bipolar to begin with. I still can't believe I have ocd. I always thought that those were people who panicked about germs and washed their hands way to much. I've always had bizarre and intrusive thoughts but I just thought that's the way I was. I'm just trying to figure out a link or if it's something I've had since birth.

I used to love commentary youtube in the background but now I cant watch it because it always making me spiral into epsiodes of thinking that I am being talked about in the visdeo/have done all these things the people that are being talked about in the video. I get scared that they will mention me or talk about me in the video and say that Ive done all the things theyre talking about, even though I havent. Is the ocd related

I’ve been overthinking this for the last few days, me and the guy I’ve been seeing ended things a week and a bit ago, since then we’ve been talking like normal and I’m worried it’s not giving us the space we need to heal. Over and over again in my mind I’ve been calling myself pathetic, ridiculous, annoying. I see images of him laughing at me with his friends calling me a psycho (this has happened before and was a big rumour spread about me), the thing is neither of us are ending the talking, I’ve tried, I’ve said to him that I might need to stop talking to him as it’s not doing us any good and he said “you’ve gotta do what’s best for you” I then said if we could say goodbye in person so that when we see one another around town it’s not awkward and we don’t feel like we have to avoid one another or thing the other hates the other one. He agreed but since hasn’t said when he’s free. I wanna have the conversation so bad because my obsessive brain keeps saying I’m not giving him the space he asked for. Even though he’s messaging me back! He asked for space a couple months ago while I was off traveling and we both just keeps messaging the same way, nobody stopped or anything which I guess we should’ve done. Even when I went on an island with no service for 3 days he double messages me and told me about his day! So I guess I’m trying to figure out if I’m the issue, if I’ve not listened, if I’m a psycho. I’m really worried that I’ve done something wrong here. Even though the way we handle it is our own. I’m just so confused and it’s making me feel that I’m a problem

I’m not feeling too well today because these intrusive thoughts in my head keep cycling and cycling even though I don’t want to have these thoughts and I want them to go away. My girlfriend is getting so tired of having to hear what girl I thought abt and what situation i’m reflecting on even though I don’t even mean to be thinking those things. I feel so guilty and horrible these things come into my brain. I don’t want to think things about other women, my girlfriend is amazing and is very patient and has been so patient ever since i’ve been having obscure or other thoughts about women wether it be just a thought or even sexually. It’s not on purpose. It just keeps happening and I can’t explain how my brain keeps doing it. I just came across so much research about Pure O Ocd and I think I have that. I’m very new to this but my twin brother also has OCD and Bipolar and I feel as though i’m the same way. I’m so tired of having unwanted thoughts come into my head. I feel so upset and hurt knowing I have to tell my girlfriend exactly what it is that came into my head. I feel like a failure.

Do you just be like yeah this could happen? Do you just be like yeah this is possible?