Does anyone avoid their favorite music to listen to because of OCD? I've been dealing with strong intrusive thoughts from trauma and I tried listening to one of my favorite songs just to clear my mind only for it to remind me of the situation..now I've been avoiding not just music, but anything nostalgic that puts me at ease because I don't want it to be associated with the new memories. It's been eating me for months to be quite honest. I don't know if it's just me.

i’ve been having this theme pop up recently where if I see people either criticize or be a hater and spread misinformation or seeing old controversies about my current interests/hyper-fixations i find myself having a crazy anxiety attack about if it’s “morally okay” to be interested in my interests anymore. i feel really singled out and like im doing something wrong because im watching a youtuber or listening to a specific musical group. in all of these specific situations the people involved have talked about the situations and have changed accordingly but seeing it makes me feel like i shouldn’t be allowed to like my favorite things. to be clear none of these things are dramatically evil or bad. it’s either misinformation/uneducated people influencing someone opinion and then they learn and change. it just makes me feel like im not allowed to like my favorite things anymore because of people criticizing it??? if that makes sense??? also this is a little off topic but also not really because i’m 99.99% sure im autistic because of MANY things but with this specifically i have very strong interests and i feel very deep feelings about them and any and all criticism or hateful comments towards my favorite things trigger me deeply and make my ocd act up and make me feel uncomfortable and uncertain and anxious and it causes physical discomfort to me. i really don’t know how to calm myself down about this specific theme it’s brand new and makes me feel really anxious. not trying to look for reassurance but does anyone else understand what i mean??? does anyone have any advice on how to not give into the negative comments??? any suggestions on how to ease this specific anxiety???

Curious.... the news has been terribly distressing for me and has stirred up OCD. Compulsive rumination and checking (news stories) are my go-to when OCD is triggered. Today, I purposely did not listen to my news podcast as I do every morning. I feel better-ish. Is this avoidance, or is this self care? Would continuing to listen to a podcast be exposure with response prevention applied to the compulsions that go with it? Thanks in advance!

Earlier today I did some pretty high-level contamination exposure, inspired by my therapist, and now I'm listening to a triggering song on repeat — the very song that kicked off my first serious bout of OCD in high school. There is a part of my brain that is telling me I can't handle the song and that I should find a compulsion to do, but my goal is to have it in the background while I go about my self-care tasks. I'm already starting to get used to it 💪 How are y'all challenging your OCD today?