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the NOCD Community

Hello, does anyone here want to talk about their day and how they use coping strategies to get through their day I’m curious to hear how you guys fight your compulsions and intrusive thoughts I like to get another perspective because that helps me

To people who think that "we know that reassurance seeking isn’t the way but being able to feel like your not crazy for two minutes is so relieving" - grow up and stop condoning it. It is so sad how sneaky your OCD is being - please talk to a therapist and/or read this article.: https://www.treatmyocd.com/blog/reassurance-seeking-ocd-anxiety-how-to-stop-cycle?utm_adgroup=&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=NOCD_PM_US&gclid=CjwKCAjw9cCyBhBzEiwAJTUWNRPQdMC3Qr_jIeP7TZs5Te3utQbOtiihwe2ppRvLh7qkG-6RCGF9vhoCX6wQAvD_BwE "To Anna, Taylor’s reassurance felt urgent. In the moment, it seemed like the only thing that would calm her down. Taylor, meanwhile, was strengthening Anna’s dependence on her response. “The hard thing about reassurance is that for most people, [reassurance] would help, but it feeds into the OCD,” David says. “You have an intrusive thought, you ask someone for reassurance, and you might feel better for some time, but then the OCD keeps cycling through. It comes back.”

It feels like OCD has taken everything good out of my life. I only feel free from anxiety, guilt, fear and lack of control when I'm sleeping and I'm lucky that my intrusive thoughts don't affect my night's sleep either. My therapist has already warned me about the dangers of not doing anything that is good for me as this can result in severe depression, but I feel so guilty about my thoughts and then carrying out a compulsion, that sometimes I don't even feel like eating, I feel truly sick to my stomach. I have suffered from undiagnosed OCD for as long as I can remember, I finally had a diagnosis at the beginning of this year and it was a relief at first, to have an answer as to why my whole life was the way it was, but now I continue the treatment and I don't know if one day I will be able to improve. I know that OCD has no cure and it hurts to think that I will have to live every day of my life fighting my own brain. Anyway, this has gone on too long, this app is one of the best things I've ever done for myself and my disorder, I hope this all passes soon, I'm tired.

Does anyone else find themselves identifying with their intrusive thoughts? Like you believe that it’s really you and not some mental illness ? It feels like it really is me cause it shouldn’t feel so NORMALIZED in my own mind. How do I reverse this?

DO YOU HAVE INTRUSIVE THOUGHTS ABOUT CERTAIN PEOPLE? Like, a specifical person that annoys you more than the others that show in your intrusive thoughts. Because of that, it feels as if I actually were attracted to that person, I can't take this.

So before ocd and thoughts i liked to pleasure myself jus like any person would do but now after i do anything my mind convinces me that i did to smth bad or like thought of smth that I wasn’t rly thinking off and it keeps me thinking after it for a while if i did do it with this thought even tho i did it for smth I actually like enjoyed please any tips cause this is so distressing

I realized recently that there is nothing I fear more than uncertainty. All my obsessions are that fear dressed up in different clothes. Accepting uncertainty desensitizes the brain to the fright of this, and therefore, the obsessions begin to dwindle because the brain is no longer fighting shadows to survive. It’s safe. You’re safe.

It genuinely feels like this disorder is taking away my whole life. I cant go outside and hangout with the people I love or even be around strangers because my thoughts will include them and I’ll just get really uncomfortable and anxious. It has made me distance myself from so many ppl in my life and made me have thoughts and feelings that I don’t want and that I hate making me feel like a monster and a disgusting person. Sometimes I’m genuinely so close to taking my life. It feels like there’s no hope for me at all and that I’ll be like this forever fighting my own brain till I’m old and on my death bed. I’m supposed to be enjoying my summer but I just can’t. I cant go outside, I can’t go on social media, hell I can’t do anything because there will be a child around that will trigger me into a spiral. I can’t stay all summer locked up in my room and constantly making excuses to not go out. It’s been feeling so real too like I’m really the type of person that I don’t want to be and it’s so scary.

I usually don’t write this much in the detail, but now I’m really scared, please help. So I had this “basic” intrusive thought if you don’t do that that will happen and of course I couldn’t resist and did it. But the problem is the thing I did is to put in mouth just a little (i mean really just a little) body lotion. In the past my I was really scared of getting anything like that in my mouth. Really scared. When I did put (really just a little lotion) in my mouth I immediately spit it out. But then my other side of ocd started acting up and I started to panick. Now i’m VERY scared i’ll get posioned and die. I researched a lot on google, and now I feel like I’m having some of the symthoms. I should go to sleep now, but I can’t forget this. Is there anything to worry about? (thank you for every answer, this is kind of embarrasing)

Firstly, congrats to all of you! It’s very inspiring to see so many of these badges and I hope to join you one day. I have 2 questions: 1. How long did it take for therapy to noticeably improve your symptoms? I know everyone is different, I’m just trying to get an estimate. 2. Do any of you have “Pure O?” I’m just terrified that my pure o will be too hard to treat.

Hello, today I feel that I will not be able to overcome my OCD, there are so many intrusive thoughts that are coming into my mind, and I don't know how to manage or leave them there without making compulsions. Can you recommend me what I can do? I have sessions with a therapist every week, but after 10 sessions the thoughts are still strong and I don't know how to manage them. Thank you!

I'm struggling really badly with terrible thoughts and urges. I feel I'm going crazy. Im a kind person and I can't cope with it.

Since the age of 11/12 i've struggled with OCD. It started when I was at secondary school. My compulsion was to constantly check my homework was packed for the next day, this would happen all too frequently. I never really knew what was happening and just accepted this is who I am without really speaking to my parents about it. OCD has continued and various sub types have appeared and disappeared over time, still at this point I just thought "this is me and everyone has their quirks" I'm now into my mid 30's and in particular the last 3/4 years have been incredibly difficult. I was definitely in a state of depression alongside with chronically bad OCD and anxiety. I'm thankfully past that stage without much external help or medication. Since the start of this year I've been doing mindfulness exercises and learning more about OCD. I live in the UK and have not seen a doctor about this and therefore never been diagnosed. The general advice seems to be to use telephone talking services? I'd be interested to know more from people living in the UK about what there experience has been with our public or private services?

I had an intrusive thought. It was sticky. It made my head buzz and my chest feel tight. I thought will this be all day? I haven’t felt so scared of a thought in a while. It was intense, and I was not sure what to do, other then check in with my body and not to give in to the fear or uncertainty! The time was 9:43 when I was terrified I may act on my thought and by 9:57 the thought went from…I will….i could….i may….it’s totally possible…..anyyyyyyyy minuteee noowwwww…to wow the moments passed!!? Give yourself 10 mins 😜

how do you all deal with intrusive thoughts and the false memories that come along with them?

I had an ocd episode late this morning and I can't keep living myself like this. I wrote on my journal I feel like s****** is the best option for me. What made everything worse is I requested time off on june 1st because I was going on a day trip to see my sister. My manager denied because other ppl request time offs that day and my request was already too late. It's so frustrating because it's a part time job and I'm only scheduled to work only 4 hours (I had times where I worked a 3 hour shift) twice or even once a week. Whenever a shift is available, I always take it because I need I need the money. The one day I take a day off, I get denied. I can't switch shifts with anybody because no one won't be available.I can't afford to quit because in today's climate, it's so hard to find another job. It's just everything has been so difficult lately. With ocd, my life does not matter anymore.

I need help or resources. I am having a terrible OCD episode since yesterday night! Anxiety was bad last night when going to bed. I just don’t know what to do!

I’m feeling so hopeless. Every aspect of my life has been affected by ocd. Every single part of it. Every action that I take, ocd. Every thought I have, ocd. I don’t know how much longer I can do this for. I’m really not seeing a way out of it. Every relationship is affected. The person I love the most in this world, ocd affected. I don’t have anything anymore. I hate myself so much. I hate that I let my ocd ruin my life.

From what I'm understanding with ERP, we aren't supposed to do any of our compulsions or anything to comfort ourselves when we have these thoughts. I just don't see how I'm ever going to feel better if I can't do anything to comfort myself so that I can feel better. I hope that makes sense. Anyone able to explain how this works?

Im really anxious , i feel like i have an attraction towards a cousin relative of mine , an i know ill never act on it but im freaking out . I try to jus forget it but whenever it pops up i feel disgusting like im so anxious , to make matters worse i have a partner and its giving me urges to tell my partner , an im freaking out. I dont like this , is there anything i can do to fix this or sooth my nerves