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I’ve been super stressed recently (stove fire beginning of the year which hasn’t been replaced by my stupid apartment 5 months later, working as a teacher, getting my masters simultaneously, and just mental health in the absolute gutter). And in the past week I’ve noticed my OCD symptoms suddenly jumping out the wazoo. Themes like “just right” OCD (and others) that I haven’t dealt with in about a year suddenly taking a major hold again. I’ve started my somatic compulsions again (snapping fingers repeatedly until it feels “just right” any time I get anxious, as well as spinning objects in repetitive motions, jerking my head repeatedly, picking at skin around my nails), all of which I thought I grew out of over a year ago. But I’ve also started my vocal compulsion again too, which can be closest compared to vocal tics like from a tic disorder. Not that those things are at all the same thing, and I probably shouldn’t call my compulsions tics but it gets the point across faster. I’d stopped doing it for about the same time (over a year) except for once in a blue moon, but now in the past few days it’s been happening more and more. Happened several times yesterday and happened maybe 15 times already today. Basically I’ll be saying something, and either randomly get stuck on a letter that I repeat OR I’ll have the fear pop into my head saying “you’re gonna mess up” which triggers the stutter compulsion and I get stuck repeating the letter. And then I can’t stop saying the sound over and over until either it feels right OR I physically have to stop talking and reset or just give up the sentence entirely and say something else instead. It always happens when I have heightened emotions and gets triggered even easier when I try to talk ABOUT the compulsion in the first place (three separate times today I’ve been taking to a friend about it and started to explain the compulsion, when suddenly it happened naturally immediately after trying to explain what it is). So the damn thing is pretty much triggering itself now lol. I was on a pretty long streak without it happening but now, like I said, it happened like 7 times in the span of a 30 min call with a friend earlier and another 4 or so in a 15 min call. So it’s just happening more and more frequently which is frustrating. Everyone is understanding and no one has made fun of me for it, but I just need to unlearn the shame I feel when it happens. And I also need to feel comfortable with my OCD compulsions becoming more visible, especially around the people in my life who have met me after these symptoms were all essentially nonexistent, and so don’t know me as a person with OCD since it hasn’t been visible this whole time. I play sports, which means so much to me and I have so many new friends, but I’m just nervous because I haven’t shown them any of the more vulnerable parts of myself (being the only femme/enby in a group of men is also nerve wracking as well), and so my OCD symptoms being more visible is especially making me nervous (which is honestly making it more likely to be triggered RIP). Anyways. I guess I was just curious if other people experience this too? Like the part about compulsively needing to repeat letters in a stutter until it feels right. And the struggle to have to take conscious control of your mouth and wrangle it until it stops moving and allows you to finally breathe. I have to physically fight to slow the muscles in my mouth and take control of my breathing when it happens, otherwise I’ll try to repeat until I quite literally run out of breath. I tried looking up some studies about this, and saw some things saying tic disorders and OCD can be comorbid, but not much saying that OCD can have vocal compulsions. I might just be looking in the wrong spot though.

Anyone else ever have OCD attack their motherhood? I’m a stay-at-home-mom with two beautiful little girls, and since I’ve had our second daughter, I’ve had terrible bouts of anxiety and depression, but I’m beginning to put the pieces together that it’s actually probably been OCD. This whole time I thought it was Postpartum Depression because this type of OCD began about two weeks after having my daughter. My OCD is always telling me that being a mom is what’s making me so anxious (having that feeling of urgency that OCD gives), taking care of my kids is what is making me so miserable, that I should just put them in daycare and get a job. And this is a constant loop in my head. It’s also constantly telling me where I’m messing up as a mom and filling me with fear there. “You said no to playing with your daughter, you’re a horrible mother, she’s going to be messed up forever.” And it just goes on and on and on. It also makes the daily tasks of being a mom FEEL so anxiety inducing (that feeling of urgency). The task of just packing the diaper bag or washing the dishes the girls just ate from brings on that feeling of urgency and anxiety. Idk..OCD seems to want to grab a hold of every area of my life…The areas that I hold so dear, like being a stay at home mom. It seems to want to make the areas of my life that I love the most into a miserable experience and it makes me question if it’s really the right life for me. (Even though when I’m not feeling attacked by OCD, I absolutely LOVE being a stay at home mom). My daughters are 3.5 and 1.5 now and I’ve been dealing with all of this since two weeks after my youngest was born, so for about 1.5 years now and I just want relief. So yah, anyone else ever been there?

I have ROCD. Not just romantic, but every single one of my relationships in my life I have a hard time checking if they are angry or how they are feeling. Sometimes I’ll definitely act on compulsions to smooth out any situation I believe is tense, and only feel the ritual is completed when they seem happy with me and the relationship seems just right. Especially my closest family members. My erp on that is sitting with the word maybe on how they feel about me or our relationship. As for my boyfriend, we’ve been together 8 months but about 4 months ago my sister added him on Snapchat and I didn’t know and she had made him uncomfortable at my parents and he told me he wasn’t comfortable snapping her and that he felt it was flirtation and didn’t like it. I spiraled. For months. Up until now. Brought him in on the compulsions and had him reassure me he isn’t cheating constantly. Going through every corner of his phone. It was true betrayal in my head. Like he cheated on me with my sister and my sister betrayed me. How do you overcome checking to make sure the people closest to you aren’t betraying you? I think that’s the intrusive thought I have the hardest time sitting with. Anyone else have this experience or something similar? I’d love some insight.

My ocd & anxiety is getting worse as the days are going by. Normally my ocd flared up lasts a couple weeks and it’s subsided and I can normally handle my anxiety quite well however now it’s there allllll the time. It’s really getting to me. I suffer the most from intrusive thoughts & im scared of trying medication. I’m looking at starting fluoxetine but I am terrified. I tried Sertraline last year I was only on it for 2/3 days & it blew my head off so as you can imagine I’m extremely nervous about trying anything else. I have seen fluoxetine is meant to be really good. I guess I’m just looking for someone who is in the same situation and has had a good outcome? Please help, I’m desperate at this point I don’t know how much more I can take 😞

I’ve had it for over a year and am stuck at home and even areas of the house creates anxiety 😭 how long can it take to overcome?

I had my first visit with my new psychiatrist today and was prescribed Clomipramine. Before taking any new medications I always do thorough research prior to taking them; as I have found myself particularly sensitive/prone to side effects. After reading through both the paper given to me by the pharmacy, as well as documents online, I’m not sure if I feel 100% comfortable trying this medication out. A couple of things in particular that stood out to me were majority of individuals experiencing weight gain (I have body image issues and weight issues already), sexual dysfunction, constipation, etc. (some other pretty severe symptoms) lasting through the entirety of their medication experience (2+ years) as well as some even still being affected after discontinuing the medication, or on the most severe cases, being affected for the rest of their lives. Many people have said that it has helped their OCD significantly, but it was not worth all of the side effects they had to endure while taking it. Some said it saved their life, while others said it ruined their life. Has anyone tried this medication before?? Thoughts? I have already reached out to their office but I am looking for more “real person” experiences before making any decisions. Thank you in advance for taking the time to give this a read, I know it is a long one.

I feel like my compulsions are different than everyone else. I say really bad things in my mind out of no where or get images and it freaks me out so I think I have to fix it. My way of fixing is trying to say the opposite of what my thought was. For example “I swear to never do that” but when I say the sentence I have to picture somebody. And if I keep doing it wrong, I have to keep doing it. Anyone else have similar compulsions?

I told my boyfriend about the intrusive thoughts I get about my exes etc, now my mind wants me to tell him the ones I got about me “wanting” his brother etc and stuff and it makes me feel guilty like I need to cry? Or something advice please do I also tell him those, he was understanding about the thoughts but this is something to do w his brother, and I feel like he wouldn’t be? And we had a mutual conversation like “oh we notice when ppl r attractive but don’t let it affect our relationship, or have crushes etc.) these thoughts were me just worrying if I was attracted to his brother, or if I had a crush on him etc. and I told my therapist about it, but all I felt was disgust and anxiety, and now it feels like I need to tell my boyfriend about it, because he was so understanding with the ex thing? But I don’t know. It’s his BROTHER. And the thoughts aren’t persistent anymore it happened because I got told he said my name during sex? Or asked abt me a lot and was super uncomfortable so my mind started running with random things.

I was very eager about someone I had a deep connection with. Long story short, the person seems to be pulling away after I was very intense (obsessing internally but didn’t say anything bad). I hope it’s salvageable if I lessen my intensity and be relaxed again. But it’s hard. I fear it’s irreversible and I ruined a good thing. But I know that thinking itself is also OCD. It’s hard. Anyone feel me on this?

I want to start out by saying that I think my case is rare and most people will not need what my psychiatrist is recommending. I have severe ocd that my therapist who is specialized in ocd and I have met two times a week from October to April (now it is once a week). My Y-BOCS scores are in the high 30s. I’ve tried almost every medication available for OCD including 80 mg of Prozac, 200 mg of Zoloft, 60 mg of buspirone, 10 mg of abilify, 20 mg of memantine, Xanax for anxiety spikes, Seroquel for anxiety spikes, and I am now on 100 mg of chlomipramine which I’ve been on since Thursday (before that I was on 50 for a week, then 25). I have had ZERO side effects to any medication including Xanax, and no medication has helped at all. I’ve tried doing ERP with my therapist and been unsuccessful. I had someone at my university’s counseling who was specialized in OCD center refer me to this other place cause of how bad it was. Now, the ocd treatment center I am going to is saying they won’t see me in the fall unless I do a residential or PHP program at Roger’s, which my parents have said is not happening. I’m at a dead end with treatment and nothing has worked so far. My psychiatrist is recommending either residential treatment (which my parents said I’m not doing) or deep TMS, if 100 mg of chlormipramine doesn’t do anything in 4 weeks. Honestly, I don’t expect it to. If that doesn’t work, he is recommending Deep Brain stimulation. I have thought I needed something like deep brain stimulation or brain surgery for ocd since October. I also thought I needed something like residential treatment for ocd before it got recommended. I talked to my parents about it, and they said “there is no surgery for ocd and it would be too expensive.” When I talked with my therapist about deep brain stimulation he had barely heard of it for ocd. Has anyone ever done deep TMS or Deep Brain stimulation for ocd?

At bedtime when I begin to settle down to sleep suddenly I need to pee every 15 min or so. As I get closer to sleeping I get up more I think it’s because I’m hoping for the feeling of an empty bladder. Sometimes I have relief for a while sometime I lay down feeling like I could still do more even though I barely go. I also wake up 1-3 times throughout the night to go. Camping is my favorite activity but I’m not sure I can do it anymore because of how much this is affecting me. :(

Have u ever felt like u have messed up so badly that u will never be the kind of person u want to be? Like how can I get over all this? It’s just too much. Handing it over to God isn’t easy. And why do I keep doing the same thing over and over knowing it’s not the right thing to do? I’m depressed over it all and just don’t care which makes me not want to do what’s the right thing . It’s like I’ll never get over all this. But I want to enjoy life again.

Basically, I was at my friends house like I mentioned in my previous post and there u tried a vape!!! When I tried it wasn’t too bad..just minty air and nothing that crazy. I’ve strong cigarettes (my parents let me try them) and specifically the red malboro ones when I was around 8-9 so I didn’t know it’s be so not bitter… that’s not the main pong tho A little bit after that I wanted to do it again (this was around the time I had to leave) and was testing hot chips and soda with it as well. Soon enough though I started to get a pain in the chest and also difficulties with breathing. I’m scared that it was because of the vape but since I’ve tried stronger ones when I was younger and nothing happened to me that cut off by respiratory system I think it was the soda and chips because my stomach was also bloated I’m still a teen though since I’m 13. I did my research and found out that vapes can give permanent damage to your lungs and I’m scared of that.. I drank a pill to help my stomach but it’s not working too much right now and I’m scared that the vape cut off my throat and now everything is stuck in my stomach…though I don’t feel my throat irritated..it burns very little. So that’s why I’m staying up all night because I’m scared of dying in my sleep from not getting enough air…here’s a picture of my Russia (iykyk🥹) with the vape that I made for fun at my friends house lolll

When I was in Jr high (ages ago, I'm 30 now lol) I developed an eating disorder. Had to see a nutritionist, doctors, sit out of PE, and more. It followed throughout my life but in stints. In my late teens, I didn't know I had OCD but I was super obsessive with the gym and weighing myself. I couldn't miss the gym or stay somewhere if it meant my gym day was the next day that would case me to miss it. I would hid myself on bathrooms to do sit ups, or weigh myself. I've shared my story on here before but eventually I was admitted into the hospital twice and after that I quit the gym..for a year. Gained over 100+ pounds in that time. Was super unhealthy. So many tasks were hard but I was scared to go back but a part of me enjoyed not needing to be obsessive about it anymore. From that time to now I put in a lot of work and lost over 130lbs and worked with trainer and changed my diet and lifestyle. But my eating disorder has shown face as of late and is even teaming up with my OCD. One thing I try to remind myself is that just because I've been on record for x amount years doesn't mean I have to be perfect every day. Because OCD loves sabotaging and coming for me when I'm doing better. I was loving being Healthy and enjoying the gym again. My personal trainer had me shake some things up with increasing my carbohydrate and fat intake due to our training, which that was a bit scary from my eating disorder background and of course OCD knew that. But I knew I had to eat to keep up with the training. Eventually I had to see a neurologist for consistent headaches I have been having for a couple years and they put me topiramate. To relieve the pressure that was around my brain. Well one of the side effects was weight loss due to it being an appetite suppressant. For a couple months it really didn't cause me any rumination at least anything extreme because I kept using the "maybe… Maybe not" tool. Because I kept having this fear of the medication being what's making me have success in my journey of fitness. I guess I was able to keep it at bay for a couple months until recently I was not able to anymore. I fell into rumination and looking up articles about the medication, about the side effects, about the dosage, messaging my trainer, etc. I started discrediting my entire training and work that I have been putting in for an entire year and put this migraine medication on this pedestal like it was the only possible way for me to have had the success I have had when it came to my health journey in the last four years. Not me working out 4 to 5 times a week and completely changing my diet. I looked back to my tools and I think I was just so lost in rumination that at that point in time nothing was working for me because usually my go to is the "shotgun tool". Where the shotgun tool that I've learned is an aid to help you distinguish between what you intellectually and logically know from the emotional feeling of certainty you want. So in this case I knew it was my OCD flooding me with all of these thoughts and I knew I was the one putting in all of this hard work not this migraine medication that was causing me to lose the weight that I did. With all of this I could be hard on myself and beat myself but one of my other tools is, how would I talk to a friend? And I know if my best friend was going through this...I would console him. So I hope for whoever reads this I don't want this come across as OCD is impossible or never ending. On the hard days we have to remember to keep being kind to ourselves and know there isn't time stamp on recovery. For me, I know I'll continue my therapy and we'll tackle this eating disorder and buckle down on some tools. I'm here along with yall! Love 💚

Hi everyone! Just looking for exposures or some support as I am not able to be in therapy at the moment. Recently my dad was diagnosed with cancer (glioblastoma) and since I’ve been insanely concerned and obsessive about my health. It started with being afraid I had a brain tumor, then it was skin cancer, and now it’s breast cancer. For about a month I’ve been obsessively giving myself self exams and poking around daily to the point where I irritated one so badly that it essentially lactated (lol) which then made me spiral more. It hasn’t happened since and lately I’ve been trying to stop checking but it is very hard. I fell back into poking and prodding my breasts and armpits and they are incredibly sore. I have a obgyn appointment in 3 weeks so I’m trying to stop beforehand but my brain is convinced if I stop checking I’m going to miss something important. I’m 24 years old and I know this is probably just a reaction to my dad’s diagnosis and coping with the fact that we are all vulnerable to illness but it all still feels very real and threatening. Anything asymmetrical or anything I haven’t noticed before on my breast sends me into a spiral. Does anyone have any words of wisdom or exposures that may help in the meantime before I see my gyno?

I have excoriation disorder but not OCD. Excoriation disorder and Obsessive-compulsive disorder are closely related, but not identical. How they’re alike: Both involve repetitive, hard-to-resist behaviors that reduce tension or distress. Both can have a strong urge → action → temporary relief → shame/regret cycle. Both are part of the broader obsessive-compulsive and related disorders category in the DSM-5. How they differ: In OCD, the behavior is usually driven by obsessions (intrusive thoughts, fears, “something bad will happen”). In excoriation disorder, the behavior is often driven more by sensory urges, tension, habit, or the need to “fix” a perceived skin imperfection, not always by a fear-based obsession. Treatment overlap: A lot overlaps, but it is not exactly the same. For OCD: ERP (Exposure and Response Prevention) is the gold standard. For excoriation disorder: Habit Reversal Training (HRT) is often first-line. Usually combined with CBT, stimulus control (changing the environment to reduce picking), and emotional regulation work. Unfortunately, this is not enough for some people including me. Frustrated. I like my therapist, but I’m starting to lose faith. My excoriation disorder causes so much pain.

Hello! I hope this post doesn’t come across as self involved or annoying lol but I really want to know if anyone else struggles with this. I think I’ve always been a really sensitive person. My therapist says I’m highly sensitive and my ocd just heightens that to the nth degree. I feel like I struggle with extending too much empathy to the wrong people. One of my first memories of this was when I was a kid, about 10 years old. I remember watching a movie which featured a character that wasn’t a good guy, he was a jerk and was clearly meant to be disliked, and at the end of the movie he kind of got punished for all his bad behavior. I remember my mom and older sister would make comments about how he “deserved” what happened to him, and I just couldn’t help but feel bad for him. I remember every time we watched that movie I would spiral in my head about it. I had thoughts like “ He’s mean so why do I feel bad for him? Am I bad like him? Why am I not reacting like how my mom and sister are?”. It got to the point where, every time we watched the movie, I would try not to watch that scene and would just turn my head or think of something else while it was happening. This has been a constant struggle throughout my life, and I feel like ocd has just taken complete hold of it. Today I saw a distressing video. An extremely religious mother denied her child chemo therapy because she believed her child would be healed by the grace of god or something. Obviously, I disagree with her actions, I think that’s an absolutely terrible thing for her to do to her child and I encourage professionals to get involved in the situation to literally save this child’s life. Despite this, idk I still felt a little sad for her? Like there’s a part of me that believes she truly doesn’t want to hurt her child but she is so stuck in her outdated beliefs that it is ironically doing the opposite she’s intending and she’s actively hurting her own child in the process, and that dichotomy just so overtly tragic? It made me think about how religion can completely fail people at times, how it can do the complete opposite of what it intends to, how the very people who use it as a crutch will be the first victims of their own manipulation of it. Now ocd is making me believe that because I feel this way, that must mean I’m a malicious person that would do this to my own children (I’m not a mother btw and definitely won’t be one anytime soon lol). Or I’m somehow excusing this mother’s actions, so that makes me equally as bad of a person as she is. I keep trying to remind myself that what I’m experiencing is ocd, but I constantly go through situations like this everyday of my life. Does anyone else struggle with this specific form of OCD and anxiety thought loops? Or has anyone else experienced this intense sensitivity or empathy for others? Sorry this is such a long post and I hope it made some sense and I just hope someone out there resonates with what I’m saying.

Hi everyone. I’ve been struggling a lot again and I’m dealing with a very specific fear about treatment. My doctor told me OCD is making my life really miserable, and I feel that too - but I’m scared of what “getting better” might mean. I only take short‑term anxiety meds. They help a bit, but not with OCD. I tried sertraline months ago and it felt like it was pushing me to feel better faster than I was ready for. I’d even be open to trying other medications instead of that one - but the fear is still the same. In my mind it feels like I have only two options: 1) take medication and become this “without OCD” version of myself that feels permanent because of long‑term effects, or 2) not take medication and stay the always‑struggling version. Both feel scary, and that’s why I feel stuck. If anyone has had this same fear - being scared of long‑term changes or of becoming a different version of yourself - I’d really appreciate hearing how you handled it. And if medication was the only thing that helped you personally, I’d like to understand why. I’m also wondering if anyone here managed to make progress without antidepressants - not because I’m against them, but because I’m trying to understand all possible paths. I’m scared of both directions and don’t know what makes more sense. Hearing from people who’ve been in this same conflict would mean a lot to me.

Fiberglass exposure anxiety at work - OCD or legitimate concern? Hi everyone. I work at a manufacturing facility that produces aerogel fiberglass insulation products containing fibrous glass (>50%). I work in office areas, not on the production floor, but I’ve noticed dust accumulating on my desk regularly and engineering staff have large air purifiers in their workspace. I’ve been experiencing dry nose, nosebleeds, chapped lips, and sneezing constantly. Not sure if that’s regular office HVAC air or fiberglass particles. I reviewed the official SDS for our product which confirms fibrous glass indeed causes mechanical irritation to mucous membranes. I have OCD and my therapist has been doing ERP with me on this fear - I’ve been working unmasked for several weeks as part of treatment. I brought air quality concerned to EHS & HR and they basically downplayed my request for air quality monitoring data, which has escalated my concern. I’m struggling to tell what’s legitimate occupational health concern versus OCD amplification. I’m very tempted to quit my job over this. I’m on a visa so quitting has catastrophic impact on my life but nothing is more important to me than my health. Has anyone navigated something similar - real workplace health concerns alongside OCD? How did you separate the two? Did ERP help? I’m very very scared and anxious and very close to quitting. I don’t want to quit but don’t see any other option.

I have hocd and when I was going through my old songs from 2020, I saw that I had this inappropriate song called slumber party by ashnikko in my likes and it’s making me worry because I was a child listening to that song and I didn’t even know what that song meant nor did I even know that wlw relationships existed until I got older. I recall only listening to that song because it was trending on tiktok at the time and i thought of it as a “confidence booster”. I looked this song up on tiktok and saw everyone saying how this song was their gay awakening and how the straight women are in denial if they listen to it. I’ve always been into boys and seeing those comments on tiktok confused me because does this mean that I am secretly gay and had no idea? I keep going back and trying to remember what I was thinking about in the exact moment and now I’ve scared myself into believing that I was thinking about me and another women and now I don’t know if it’s true or not. Is this also a sign of false memories?