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Does anyone have any advice for intrusive thoughts and "what ifs"? How can I try to care less?

For me it’s quick flashes of images and racing thoughts. It’s really scary and I feel alone

Hello! I’m Jen, and new to this app/community but definitely not new to OCD. I’ve been experiencing obsessive thoughts on and off for 30 years, since I was 8. My Pure O always flares up when I’m going through periods of intense stress. I’m currently in a really bad place with my OCD—I’ve been experiencing a resurgence of obsessive thoughts (I think “assaultive” is a more fitting description) for the past 2 months. My aunt, who was more like a mom and who I felt loved me more than my parents, died relatively suddenly February 5th. The first month after her passing I felt fine—I was just kind of numb and disbelieving. But the next month, I had a panic attack at work so severe I had to go to the ER. And since then, my OCD, anxiety, and panic disorder have all been working in conjunction to make my life as difficult as possible. It’s been so frustrating because before this, my mental health had been in a really good and stable place for EIGHT YEARS! And now, in the wake of my grief over my aunt, I feel I’ve been reduced to that frightened 8 year old girl I was when this started. I just want my life back! My current themes switch back and forth between fear of ki****g myself, fear of ki****g loved ones, and fear of going insane. Logically I KNOW that because these thoughts cause me this much distress and pain, I am not likely to act upon them. And I also KNOW that I’ve never acted upon any of my dozens and dozens of intrusive thoughts I’ve experienced over the years. But KNOWING is not the same as BELIEVING and I’m just constantly terrified that the worst things I can think of will happen. In the past, I found 150mg of clomipramine to be very helpful so as of Tuesday 5/7 I’m back up to that dosage. The problem is this medication takes 4-6 weeks to make any noticeable difference. So I’m here to try and find other ways to help myself in the meantime. I’ve been aware of ERP for a few years but I’ve never done it before because A) clomipramine has always been highly effective on its own, and B) honestly I’ve been too scared. But now I’m sort of at the end of my rope when it comes to dealing with this monster and I’m willing to try anything and everything that could help. Of course I’m also terrified I’m the most hopeless case and it won’t help me and I’m a lost cause, etc. etc. It would help me to hear about your experiences with this program, your success stories and coping mechanisms any of you have had success with. Thank you for reading this whole thing, and I hope to read some hopeful messages. 💛

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 :)

Hi everyone. I really want to go back to enjoying my life. I know its possible as i felt like this before 7 years ago but i am to much in my head to remember how i snapped out of it. I keep having panic attacks. I know there panic attacks. I know there is nothing seriously wrong with me. I know im not gonna just drop dead. Yet i keep getting anxious. I absolutely love my life. I have a job i enjoy. A loving husband and two beautiful children. Although we have normal life struggles i am still happy with my life. Yet 4 weeks ago my panic attacks started again. After being dormant for 7 years. Im afraid of death and leaving my family and life. I dont know why i am so afraid. I am a Christian (although i dont go to church) i believe in God and i believe my life is planned out for me. I believe whatever is gonna happen will happen and we are just along for the ride. I know whenever my times comes it will be my time. No amount of panicking will change that. I guess despite my faith i am human and the unknown of death and the fear if what i believe isnt real i could cease to exist and thats terrifying. I just want to be able to take on life not living in fear.

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've struggled for years thinking if I offend God, he'll unalive me in my sleep. I think every pain is a sign I've offended him. The issue is, I'm not religious. Not in that way. I was raised pagan. But my brain is like "God is gonna kill you" and I obsess over dying. Im terrified. Because i believethere is life after death but my brain wont let me believe it in bad obsessive times. Am I alone in this?

Is pushing away intrusive thoughts a compulsion?

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!!!

i am 2 years clean from self harm and im very proud of how far i've come. my intrusive thoughts attack my accomplishments and i struggle with false memory ocd. my brain takes instances where i accidentally get hurt and tells me i did it to myself. a couple months ago i noticed my wrist was itchy while i was just pacing around my room, when i looked at my wrist there was a scratch. i did NOT do it to myself, i must have accidentally scratched myself sometime throughout the day. but because i didn't remember what could have caused the scratch my brain told me i did it to myself even though i didn't. tonight i remembered when i got that accidental scratch and had a panic attack while arguing with my intrusive thoughts telling me i did. it hurts to be 2 years clean and have intrusive thoughts that attack my success in recovery. if you can relate to this or have advice, please let me know.

I was remembering something my therapist said about how sometimes SA victims feel things in their body when they’re being assaulted or can 0rgasm and stuff (it’s a physiological response, and it doesn’t mean they consented or enjoyed it) and my brain briefly imagined a fictional character I like and their SA story and imagined them 0rgasming during it. And my brain was like uncomfortable, and I didn’t even feel groinal response, but then like I didn’t feel uncomfortable for a few seconds? And I don’t know why, but my brain feels like I enjoyed it? Even tho immediately after I felt that lack of discomfort, I immediately felt fear and disgust over possibly being into the idea? I don’t know what to make of this and I have no idea how to tell what I just felt or not. I’m really scared because like… I absolutely despise SA and the idea of being into something to do with it. And this character I’m like heavily emotionally attached to (I have adhd and they’re my hyperfix and have been for almost a year) and this feels like a betrayal and really gross because what happened to them was awful. How am I meant to tell whether or not I felt arousal or not? What if my brain went into a weird headspace where I enjoy SA somehow? Is it possible my brain separated the action happening from the context for a split second? If that’s what happened, does that mean I’m into SA, or am a bad person?

i feel like im being crushed by the weight of deadlines and my thoughts. i have so much to do in the next 3 weeks and i feel so distracted by my brain. i just got diagnosed with OCD and it feels good to put a name to all these endless thoughts i have. i think so much and never get a break and on top of it im so overwhelmed by assignments i feel paralyzed (i have adhd, too). even when i do things i enjoy my brain still somehow thinks of something to ruin the moment. 🫠

Does anyone else feel like they’ve really just convinced themselves they have OCD just to feel better about the thoughts and feelings they have? Sometimes I feel like a liar or a fraud. I’m undiagnosed and sometimes I feel like an imposter on this app. I worry that I’ve just convinced myself of having OCD as an excuse for my thoughts and feelings, so I can feel better.

I just want my brain to stop. I feel like I can’t even talk to anyone about it anymore because I’m just bothering my boyfriend with my problems at this point. I have compulsively vented since elementary school about my intrusive thoughts, and that’s all I’ve ever known. I’m afraid of almost everything and can’t even get on an airplane. I don’t even have the money to afford specialized therapy for OCD. I keep thinking I might be God and everyone else is fake, getting scared at that thought and upset for even thinking it, but still continuing to think it. I’ve been stuck in bed all day. The worst part is nobody can give me reassurance because they could just be a figment of my imagination, so I’m just stuck in this loop.

How do people handle confessional compulsions? I feel like I have to confess everything all the time or else I'm a liar and a bad person and not confessing makes me feel sick to my stomach. Any advice for overcoming this? Ive tried to not confess but I just get so ill

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.

Over half a year ago, This girl wanted me to roleplay a CNC scene with her and to not ask the next time we chatted online I believe... (i cant remember if this happened or not) When we started doing that the next time we met, she suddenly left the chat. So Im scared on if consent wasnt given. I remember her saying that she got booted the next time I talked to her, and asking if she wanted to continue where we left off, but im not too sure and I cant recollect it... as a part of the roleplay, she would say things like "stop" and I think she roleplayed her movements but I dont remember if this was a part of the roleplay, or her genuinely telling me to stop... my friend on the explicit chat site says that since its been over 6 months, that I most likely didnt do anything to hurt her and that I should move on, but my intrusive thoughts keep saying that I violated this womans consent, when a womans consent is the most important thing to me... my harm ocd keeps saying I SA'ed the woman and intrusive thoughts of her saying this and I just throw up every time...

I've had mild pure OCD my whole life, always worrying about unlikely outcomes, despite being such a logical thinker. It wasn't consistent or disturbing, so I never saw it as an issue in my life, until 9 months ago. I felt a sudden overwhelm and OCD about many things I thought were unimaginable, things I could never imagine myself doing, or things I just could not bear potentially happening to me. I did so much research and suffered for months, crying, not knowing why this happened to me and why I am having these thoughts during every waking moment of my life. Eventually, through all my countless hours of research on how to stop intrusive thoughts (which was technically a compulsion), I came upon hearing about non responsive messages like saying "maybe, maybe not", etc, essentially doing ERP by myself. I tried these out and it would work for a bit, then I would lose hope or be unsure about how to respond to certain thoughts. Being unsure about whether this self-ERP effort is working on whether it's correct, or if I am doing it right made me lose hope. I was in a dark place, extremely depressed even though everything in my life from an outsiders view was perfect. This is when I decided to join NOCD, with an immense fear that I can't share my thoughts with my therapist because they're "crazy". Silvia, my therapist was an angel sent from heaven. She was so kind and made me feel understood. I was so sick of OCD and I needed a solution, so I opened up with everything to her and she immediately knew it was OCD taking over my life. Now, after 3-4 months of therapy, I can say I have finally regained control of my life and I feel like my old self again. I can finally feel happy! I know the goal of ERP isn't to stop thoughts, but ERP has led to the frequency of the thoughts diminishing by ten-fold. There is hope for everyone! If I had one piece of advice which worked for me, outside of your practice, you need to get creative with your day to day thoughts, and use non responsive messages in your every day life. That is like having way more practice, inadvertently. Keep practicing and keep going. You can never fully get rid of OCD, but it will be way better eventually.

I haven't seen many people talk about this but does OCD cause sadness? Like yes it causes me so much anxiety and discomfort and stress but also it makes me so sad and upset. I wake up every morning not wanting to wake up and get out of bed because I know what I will have to deal with. Every day is torture! That's why I love sleep so much. It calms my mind

Hey so I took 2 ocd test I know I probably shouldn't but I just couldn't take it anymore I've told my experience here to all of you twice and yall help seebthat yes it is ocd. The obsessive intrusive thoughts, images, urges. Not to mention my compulsions researching,ressurance,self reassurance, debating the thoughts, saying no out loud and rumination. And this takes up almost all day but my counselor says it's just severe anxiety but I think it's because I didn't answer correctly when he asked me a question about catastrophizing I barley do that anymore but these thoughts scare me not to mention when I took both ocd test online they both said I have ocd tendencies like high tendencies