- Date posted
- 3y
- Date posted
- 3y
Hey! I’m on the same page. Two weeks ago I finally had a meeting with a therapist and I talked about the thoughts and doubts. It was the first time I mentioned them out loud - I was scared and filled with shame. Let me tell you that since then I’ve been feeling much better and relieved. I really hope your meeting brings you some relief. Besides, I just wanted to say that you’re not alone. Wishing you the best! If you need to talk, I’m here 😊
- Date posted
- 3y
Hi!! Thank you so much. I literally don’t know where these thoughts came from but they are making me feel like I can’t even recognize myself when I look in the mirror:( I fully support those who are gay but it just isn’t for me, so the fact that I am having these thoughts all of the sudden is making me feel like I’m going absolutely insane. I am so afraid of becoming something/someone that I do not want to be. Have you dealt with this at all and how have you made the thoughts quiet down?
- Date posted
- 3y
I’ve just started therapy (I had only three meetings), so I haven’t dealt at all. It distresses me every day. What has helped me is trying to do some exposure - I’m trying by myself, following some tips I found here. It’s hard, but I can see the benefits. I don’t know what triggers you, but I will tell you a little about mine and maybe you can relate to something. For example, I like to watch videos about books. Every time a YouTuber mentioned the word gay/homossexual, I would just skip that part. I’ve stopped doing that. I listen every word, even though I won’t read the book (I’m actually preparing to read one that has a bisexual character just as an exposure, but I’m not ready yet). Besides, I’m trying to mention something during a conversation that relates to homosexuality and actually hearing the word without panicking. When I’m feeling more confident, I try to embrace the thought and actually think the ultimate result: me being a lesbian or bisexual. It’s funny that when I give the thought the “motivation”, it usually fades away, because I stop seeing it as a threat. I don’t if this can help you at all. But I hope it does. ❤️
- Date posted
- 3y
I appreciate that, thank you so much! I guess what I struggle with the most is that I do not want the thoughts to be true at all so I know it will be difficult to try to accept the fact that they can be there and not mean anything
- Date posted
- 3y
I know the feeling. In the beginning accepting them in your mind is hard, but it gets easier. Try to focus that you don’t want to accomplish any of them and that’s enough.
- Date posted
- 3y
Do you ever get scared that accepting them means they will come true and that you will never get your old self back? That part of the anxiety is crippling to me.
- Date posted
- 3y
Yes, all the time!! I was just thinking about that. When I try to be cool with them, I instantly think about this. But it’s a pattern, you know? So when I get this feeling and this thought (and everything else, like a groinal - which is the worst for me), I see that they’re just part of the ocd pattern. It doesn’t mean I stop feeling distressed, to be honest.
Related posts
- Date posted
- 24w
Here are some things that make me feel alone and isolated in my journey with sexual orientation OCD: 1. This feels like a complete identity crisis. I think that is what makes it so hard. It seems to go against everything I believe myself to be and who I always have identified as. 2. My compulsions, thoughts, triggers, and everything else that comes along with this disease feels and seems like I’m the only one that struggles with those things. My thoughts and images in my head often seems so real that it can only be me in denial. 3. Because this sub type of OCD is so sexual in nature, it has made my sex life with my husband, a really hard situation. Because I always get afraid and sex that I will think of these thoughts, I subconsciously then think of those thoughts, and if I have any type of feeling associated with those thoughts, it feels like proof that those thoughts are real and that makes it even harder. 4. Because a lot of the pleasure that comes with sex is on hot for me while I’m figuring out in this journey with OCD, my mind has convinced me that it is because I will only feel those things if I were with someone at the same sex (I am a straight female. I have a fear of being homosexual.). Well, all those things have made it really hard for me to function daily, I am doing a lot better at finding ways to combat those. I wanted to offer some of the things that I find that help me move past these thoughts and while it’s not always a perfect fix, it’s really helped. 1. I tried to remind myself daily that while love is a feeling it’s also choice. I have to remind myself to get up every single day and choose my husband not because I always feel like choosing him because that is who I choose. That is who I want. That is who I want to grow a relationship with to have a child with Thus why I always don’t feel that love, I always choose it. And while this can be really hard because just society as a whole has made us have these unrealistic ideas about what love is and made us think that love is just this huge with butterflies and sparks, it’s not always that. 2. I try to remind myself that these are just thoughts. And thoughts are not who I am. I don’t have to become the thoughts. I’m not a bad person for thinking of thoughts, and I don’t have to believe the thoughts. 3. When I get, like I often do, groinal responses to the things that I am thinking or seeing in my mind I just remind myself that those are responses to the anxiety I have. I’m not thinking those because I want to think those, but it’s in a response too The fear that I will think those and that I will get that response and then in turn I get the response. 4. I tried to remind myself that this isn’t a fear of coming out like if I was gay, this is a fear associated with a thought that I would be because that’s not who I am. If I really was gay, I would like the thought I would like the pleasure and I would be afraid of coming out. But in this situation, I don’t want any of the thoughts not because I’m afraid of coming out of this because it’s not who I am. If that makes sense.
- Date posted
- 22w
If I ever experience myself happy in life, my relationship, or friendships, OCD just finds a way to ruin it for me. As soon as life’s going good, it pops up into my head with all these intrusive thoughts that make it impossible to just relax and enjoy myself. My relationship has been improving, along with my mental health, and I have been feeling so in love and present with my partner. Everytime that happens OCD pops back up, with all these thoughts in my head like “What if I don’t really love my partner” “What if I’m not actually attracted to him” then it spirals to “What if I’m gay” “What if I don’t even like men” and it keeps going and going. Now, I can’t even hang around women friends without OCD popping up and saying “What if I’m attracted to them” “You have a crush on them”. I have always identified as straight, and I have always been boy obsessed growing up. I don’t want to be gay and lose everything I have with my boyfriend. That’s a huge fear that OCD is putting into my head. That I’m gay and I don’t actually love my partner and am attracted to him. I’m so upset. I just want to be happy in my relationship and at peace. And I want to be able to make female friends without OCD ruining it for me. :/ It’s like if I’m really stressed, my OCD gets really bad. And if I’m happy my OCD gets really bad. Unfortunately NOCD doesn’t accept my insurance, but I am meeting with a therapist I found on Rula who treats OCD, so I’m hoping that helps. I am also considering meds, because I can’t keep living like this. It’s been 25 years.
- Date posted
- 20w
So pretty much I’ve been dealing with intrusive thoughts my entire life, I had no idea could’ve been symptom of OCD until maybe a year ago , I have this fear right now that I don’t actually love my fiancé and I’m not attracted to men. I am attracted to men. Let me be clear. I’m not attracted to females. I never have been and I never will be. But it’s one of the scariest thoughts I’ve ever had that I don’t actually care about the person that I would sacrifice anything for that I would do anything for. He’s pretty much the closest family that I have and I just wanna be with him for the rest of my life. A couple months ago was that I just didn’t care at all, and I didn’t have any feelings and everything that I felt was me being fake in that nothing was real. But I eventually got over that and the new thought is that I’m actually gay even though I know I’m not. And in the world we live in now where it’s be yourself be you if it comes across your mind. That’s the obvious truth. Be yourself… It’s kind of scary to think about. I just want it to leave me alone. I’m actually so scared that eventually I’ll believe it because some thoughts that I’ve learned were intrusive. I ended up starting to believe and it turned into a whole catastrophe for my life. I met this girl and she felt a certain way about her husband and then she told me that eventually I’ll feel that way and ever since then I just I haven’t gotten over this fear that I’m gonna end up feeling the same way she is. Also, I recently got over a few themes. I’m not ready to share, but I’m so proud that I got over those and I just I’m waiting for this one to leave me alone and it’s not and I’m starting to get really scared that it’s true and I don’t want it to be true. and just to be very clear I don’t care who you love what you love who you like what you identify as because you can in fact be yourself but this just doesn’t feel like me. I’m genuinely reaching out to try to get help for this because now it’s messing with our personal life. We’ve never argued so much in our entire relationship and now I realize that it’s mainly my fault because I’m detaching myself from all emotion just so that I can get over this thought I’m detaching myself from all intimacy and that’s even scarier because what if it’s not me detaching myself and it’s me just not being attracted that’s another thought I’ve hadI’ve gone all long enough so thanks.
Be a part of the largest OCD Community
Share your thoughts so the Community can respond