- Date posted
- 3y
- Date posted
- 3y
I understand you completely. I also had some lesbian dreams and when I woke up I was like: it looked like you were actually enjoying it. That thought distressed me so much. Besides, I’m also feeling numb to men. I know when they’re attractive, but I don’t feel the same way towards them. I don’t have any advice, since this is a new topic for me, but I just wanted to say that you’re not alone. Hope it gets better!
- Date posted
- 3y
I understand that feeling all to well, when I was struggling with SOOCD or HOCD when I slept that was the only time I was free from my thoughts. Literally my only escape from them, and then I started having dreams about it and I killed me. But I got through it, ERP really really helps. It's super scary at first, but I promise you it's worth it.
- Date posted
- 3y
I’ve had them for years which makes me think it’s just denial :/ I really should practice ERP but I’m so scared it’ll just make me realise I need to come out and have to leave my boyfriend :( Sorry, I know I’m just complaining but today is hard
- Date posted
- 3y
I also really appreciate your reply, thank you :)
- Date posted
- 3y
@milliemoo No problem, and I had the same fear. I no longer have HOCD as badly as I did before, but I still have little episodes here and there. Now they don't bring me to my knees like they used too, but I just do ERP exercises whenever I have them. I struggled for two years with really really bad HOCD, my chest was always tight cause I was so anxious about it. I stopped hanging/talking with my friends it really took over my life. So I promise you, ERP really helped me and I highly highly recommend it. Also I'm really sorry today is harder then usual, I wish I could give you some encouraging words without giving you reassurance ❤.
- Date posted
- 3y
@milliemoo You’ve had lesbian dreams for years?
- Date posted
- 3y
@lennygirl On and off yes. I’ve also had this extreme anxiety for 7 years. Why do you ask? This question has made me anxious..
- Date posted
- 3y
@milliemoo I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to make you anxious! I’m asking because I have suffered with hocd on and off for 8 years. I was asking because I sometimes have dreams too.
- Date posted
- 3y
@lennygirl Sorry! I just panicked cos I assumed that you thought I was actually just a lesbian 🙃 you don’t need to apologise! I was just having a particularly hard day with it I hope you’re ok :)
- Date posted
- 3y
Hi there. I have this same problem going on right now. I am starting ERP with a therapist next week but am terrified that it is going to make me realize that this is not OCD and that my thoughts are true. I have only ever been with men and only want to be with men in the future, but these thoughts are starting to feel so real that it’s making me lose sight of that. Have you ever struggled with feeling like you are losing attraction to the opposite sex? That’s what is scaring me the most lately is that I have spent so much time focusing on these thoughts and ruminating over past experiences trying to analyze how I behaved/felt that I now feel like I don’t have that same natural attraction to men that I always had.
- Date posted
- 3y
Yeah I can relate to all of that:/
- Date posted
- 3y
Yes actually, when I was going through HOCD I felt numb to men. All my attraction to them was gone, at the time I had never been with anyone, I am now dating the love of my life who is a man. But I remember the day when HOCD set in, it was like a light switch my normal attraction to men was gone. I did ERP on my own cause at the time I couldn't afford therapy of any kind. But I promise you it helps! ❤
- Date posted
- 3y
@tinyTROLL13 Thank you for that, that is so helpful. I’ve always been boy crazy and have loved my past boyfriends, but I haven’t been in a relationship in awhile so I feel like I am forgetting how happy I was when I was in them. If you don’t mind me asking, how did you do your own ERP? I can only afford one or two sessions because my insurance will not cover it but I am too scared to not do it.
- Date posted
- 3y
@tinyTROLL13 I have that same feeling of numbness right now as well and it’s making the HOCD thoughts 100x scarier to me. Since these thoughts set in, I feel like when I see an attractive man I know he is attractive but I have lost the desire/ambition to pursue him if that makes any sense. I think I have spent so much time reflecting on my past to see how I felt with women since these thoughts started that my brain won’t even let me remember the fact that I have never been with, nor do I ever want to be with women. It is just starting to get to the point where the thoughts feel so real that I starting to freak out that I actually have lost my attraction to men and will never have the future family with a husband and kids that I have always wanted.
- Date posted
- 3y
@cf05 I did my own ERP by (as terrifying as it seems) accepting the thoughts when I had them. I would have a thought and acknowledge that they might be true, and if they are it's not the end of the world. When I started working a new job, my boss was very very gay, (now I have never been homophobic but it distressed me given my current situation) I actually befriended him and through him I realized it wouldn't be a huge deal if I was in fact gay. Something else I did was when I was on my phone if I came across something gay I wouldn't immediately swipe away from it, I would acknowledge it and move on to the best of my ability. Basically you have to force yourself to face your fear just by acknowledging things. I know it sucks but I hope that helps. ❤
- Date posted
- 3y
@tinyTROLL13 I appreciate that. My biggest problem lately has been ruminating on past experiences and convincing myself that my thoughts are 100% true and I am just going to be stuck feeling this way forever. I am so anxious and distraught that I feel this way when I was completely fine two months ago and I would literally give anything to be able to feel normal again.
- Date posted
- 3y
@cf05 I delt with that too, I would think back to things that happened and would think stuff like, "Well maybe that's why I reacted that way, because I was gay and just didn't know it yet." So I completely understand, and unfortunately it's acknowledgement that it may have been the case to move past it. OCD it sees this stuff as a threat so it attacks it, if you show your brain that it's not a threat ot won't attack it as severely. It will come back at times but if you treat it properly, it won't bring you to your knees like it's doing now.
- Date posted
- 3y
@tinyTROLL13 Thank you so much for your help, it has been more that comforting to know that I am not alone in this. Being gay is not something that aligns with my values whatsoever, so the fact that I have to “accept the thoughts” in order to move past them scares the hell out of me. If you don’t mind me asking, how did you get your attraction to men back and be able to start seeing your future with a man again? I’m terrified that I’ll never get it back and never be able to find a husband because of these horrible thoughts in my head. This is so isolating.
- Date posted
- 3y
@cf05 That just comes back with time. So basically see your brain as a office, when your brain sees something alarming it starts to search, and when it can't find any solid info it starts throwing papers everywhere. At that point you've lost more things in the mess then you originally started with, but once you started to accept the uncertainty that you may never know for sure about the topic that you were originally looking for, it'll start to no longer see it as a threat and start to clean up, and while cleaning up you start to find things you'd lost in the process of destroying your office in the first place. I hope that makes sense.
Related posts
- Date posted
- 24w
I have no idea to what extent the new medication I am on is affecting me positively or negatively. The past two days and Monday have been awful. I feel close to walking around in a daze in the mornings. For whatever reason Tuesday was actually like a 3 on a 5 star scale whereas average had been below 2.5. I know the OCD is pissed off but it’s so bad and interfering with my life so much. It just hammers at me basically nonstop. I know I can watch YouTube and read books/comics and sometimes play with Legos but exercise, video games, consistency, feeling like I have a choice when I want to do these things is so difficult. I’m starting to lash out with anger at things and am going back down the path of self harm and suicidal thoughts. I just despise all of these thoughts like nothing I’ve ever experienced before.
- Date posted
- 16w
Hi all it’s been a bit since I’ve posted. I’ve been doing ok ish Today has been weird, idk if it’s cuz I upped my vyvanse to 20mg and it’s making me anxious or if everything is just colliding rn It feels like idk myself anymore. I’ve been flipping between ROCD, soocd and tocd the last couple of days/weeks. Rn I just feel horrible and idk why but I’ve been on my period for 11 days now. My period usually lasts 7. When I’m not on birth control. I’ve been on birth control since October of last year and hadn’t had a period till coming home end of April/early may and now it’s back again. I’ve been ranting to chat gpt (Ik it’s bad, I just didn’t know who to turn to) Rn I’m just really in my head about my gender and I’m anxious and crying and I just don’t feel good. Context for tonight’s thought I was doing my skincare, I’ve been trying to develop a routine cuz I’m bothered by the texture on my face and how it makes my makeup look. I’ve always felt less pretty than other girls tbh. Anywyas. As I was doing my skincare I had this thought just happen across my mind of “what if I dislike my skin and face so much cuz I’m trans? What if the reason I’ve been depressed lately is cuz I’m slowly becoming dysphoric and hating myself?” When in fact I think the issue is: I haven’t seen my bf in a month and a bjt. I’ve been bleeding for 11 days. I’m in summer classes and stressed about the comjng semester and how much work I have to do to catch up cuz I’m in pre med and I’ve been fucking slacking lately and I truly hate myself for it. I miss being hugged by my bf. I’ll admit I need a good dicking down tbh. My brother is a whole other story while I’m home. I just feel. Gross and bad. And I’m worried I’m trans. I’m worried I’m a lesbian or smthn. I’m worried I don’t love my bf deeply enough and it’s all just circling in my head a lot and I just feel like curling into a ball. I’ve always been a tomboy, I mostly hung out with boys cuz the girls never liked me. I was weird. I loved dragons. I had imaginary friends. At one point as a kid I tried a different name, I think it just didn’t fit and I grew out of that and just went back to my normal name. But now I’m worried I just repressed that. But I see a lot of girls who also went through the same thing and are also just women. But I’m so scared that I’m “not letting the TV glow” like that trend (that shit made me so anxious. I have trans friends and I love them but im scared of it for myself) I feel still sorta tomboyish but dress feminine, once in a blue moon ill dress semi masculine and now I’m worried that means im either trans or a lesbian who wants to be masc. but I’m not. I don’t think I am Idk who I am anymore. Idk if it’s just ocd or if im actually discovering smthn Im just anxious as hell tbh. So I don’t think that’s the case. I’m just sitting here. Looping in my head. My typical “drown out the noise” tv shows won’t load properly cuz of our new wifi and it’s really irritating me. What if I’ve been lying every time I try to do a “are you trans/genderfluid/non binary?” quiz. What if I’ve been lying to my bf. My friends? My family? I keep thinking to myself, if I wasn’t with my bf would I dress the same? Yes I would. I’d still wear my cardigans. My sweaters. My dresses. I’d try out new styles like I want to rn with him. I’m just worried that teying smthn would make me realize smthn about myself but I don’t think it would. Idk. I’m just in all these irrational thoughts. Jumping to conclusions Any advice would be appreciated. I mostly just needed to vent about this.
- Relationship OCD
- OCD newbies
- Sexual Orientation OCD
- LGBTQ+ with OCD
- False Memory OCD
- Young adults with OCD
- Students with OCD
- Date posted
- 10w
Every time I say smthn I like about my body or ask myself questions (likley a compulsion) or even just being around my bf I feel like this frog in my throat/nausea feeling. Why?? I never used to feel that before all of this. I love my body and I love being a woman I have no desire to be a man, maybe to try out semi masculine/tomboyish styles for funsies but that’s it. Ex- I was saying just now I do like having smaller boobs even tho they’re not super big or visible when I wear baggy clothes (that’s been bothering me lately. I’m wearing a sweater rn and I can’t see them ;-;). Then I end up in a loop of “if there was a button in front of you to turn you into a man would you press it” my brain jumps to yes but I don’t want that I don’t think. Idk. I’m just confused. I don’t feel like myself anymore. Certain nicknames my bf gives me make me anxious or nauseous but if I didn’t have this I don’t think they would. He reused a nickname I haven’t heard since I last saw my half siblings so maybe that’s where it’s coming from? I like the nickname it’s cute, especially when he says it out loud. I think I’m just weird with nicknames tbh. I like calling him nicknames but I haven’t really been called anything till we started dating. It started with honey, meu amor, meu anjo, and habibi/habibti (he’s Arab, I’m Brazilian. Banger food combo. We’ve joked about opening a fusion restaurant lol) and it’s kinda evolved from there. Idk the nauseous feeling has been persistent lately. Especially cuz his parents hate my guts rn 😀and likely will forever should be and I get married. Which I do want. But then my SOOCD comes in screaming NO YOU DONT YOURE GONNA LEAVE HIM AR THE ALTAR FOR *insert friend I have a false attraction to* (I’m pretty sure it is false attraction. I don’t like her in that way. But every time there’s a joke I get a groinal response and panic internally. We’re not close and I don’t get excited to see her or want to be closer to her the way I do with my bf/before he and I started dating. I know what a crush feels like. But I feel like I’m going insane and that it isn’t ocd and I’m just losing my mind and I don’t love y bf). I love being back at university but also hate it at the same time cuz I live in an all girls dorm. Which is. Great. When my ocd makes me think I’m a lesbian. And all my friends are queer so this kinda doesn’t help. The friend that is specifically being targeted atm is a lesbian. Lately it’s been her for a while. How long does it take for it to jump false attractions? Cuz I’m worried that if it lasts a certain amount of time it’s a real feeling. I also just get groinal responses around my friends a lot and it bugs me. Why am I feeling a twitch and feeling wet? We’re playing cards? Oh god am I turned on by an entirely different friend than the usual target cuz she’s wearing shorts? Like😃😃😃I’m losing it lol I also feel generally numb? Like idc if this happens with him, idc if he can’t see me. But then when I can’t see him or if I even imagine smthn happening I start sobbing. There’s currently restrictions on guests in the dorm so we can’t even cuddle or hang out in silence. He came to pick me up the other night to go for a drive and it was nice and wonderful but I did feel a tad bit anxious. Maybe it’s cuz it’s been 2 months, I’m worried about meeting his parents, he has 2 jobs and has classes, I have classes and a club presidency to deal with, I’m on vyvanse, etc. multitude of reasons but once we eased into it I felt better. We kissed a little and all I could think of was “I love his eyes and his smile” I was worried I would hate kissing him. But I loved it (idk it’s like my brain wipes the memory and is like “lol do you even like kissing him or having sex with him??” And it’s putting in memories of me being uncomfortable and annoyed by his kissing which I never am. Sometimes his mustache and beard are pokey but I think that’s normal lol) even when I enjoy things my brain is like “nah you’re GAYYYY🫵AND on top of that! You’re likely a man who is denying that he is trans. Here’s a name for you that you never asked for or conjured up!” Idk if anyone else’s ocd does that. I like being a woman, love it some days. Neutral most days, whcih I did read is normal, cuz you’re just going about your day as you are. Not thinking about it. Not feeling anything wrong. I never did till this shit. I don’t think about it often but one night it just hit me like a freight train “what if I am trans and suppressed it? I mean I was a tomboy as a kid.” But I know plenty of tomboys grow into cool girls so. ??? Idk. Ramble over. I have class🫡
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