Hi everyone, I really, really could use some support and encouragement today. I had the same thought stuck in my head for the last 3 months. Literally thought about it while I was giving birth 2 months ago. I ended up confessing it today because I didn’t know how else to explain to my partner what was going on. He struggles to understand why I obsess if there isn’t something bigger going on. It’s so hard that others don’t understand. It’s so hard that the thoughts feel so real even when we don’t have evidence for them. It’s so hard that I resisted confessing for three months and still had the same thought. It’s so hard that I confessed, and as predicted, another thought took its place. Now he goes back to work next week from his paternity leave and I will be home with a 2 month old all day every day. I’m so scared I won’t be able to handle this.

I began struggling with pocd about 3 months ago. I’m the mom of two boys ages 3 and 7. Soon after that theme started for me, I discovered I was pregnant which was a surprise. At some point I latched on the the “what if I acted on my pocd fears and that is how this pregnancy came to be.” This led to me exerting all my energy to figure out if that was true, checking my memories ect. I began feeling like I had a “memory” even though that memory is very vague and details of it sometimes change when I try to recall it. Anyway, I’m struggling a great deal by now thinking I’ve acted on my pocd fears and now I’m carrying a child of incest. I get thoughts such as “what if I was half asleep?” Ect. And maybe that’s why I can’t remember it clearly. I’ve even gotten to the point of contemplating terminating this pregnancy because I just don’t know how to make it through with these thoughts. I feel like I will have the baby and something will be majorly wrong with it. Eventually tests will be run ect and all of my fears will turn out to be true. Then I will be separated from everyone and everything that I love and have to live out the rest of my life in a prison cell.

I just want to be normal and enjoy this time in my life. There I times I feel strong and like I have it under control and then in a split second I’m lost in thoughts and anxiety. Trying hard not to seek reassurance, avoidance or complete ERP but it’s hard. I feel alone because I feel like no one understands what it is to be scared of yourself to not trust yourself.

my whole life ive been like. mildly concerned about becoming pregnant. but in the past several months since meeting my current boyfriend it has gotten so. bad. realistically i understand that the chances are unlikely if not impossible, yet the thought of being pregnant DESTROYS ME time and time again. i get sent into such awful spirals about it. i get stuck in bed, i waste so much money atp on tests and levonorgestrel for literally no reason, i plan ways to abort any potential pregnancy myseld in case i cant access a medical abortion, up to and including hurting or killing myself, my eating disorder pays a nice visit and i convince myself that i cant eat or ill feed a fetus, i spend hours googling the smallest symptoms or "researching" the topic (ignoring anything that refutes my idea of being pregnant of course), im in an out of the bathroom checking to see if my period started, excessive exercise to get it to start. i cant do ANY tasks without these thoughts and compulsions. i always thought i could handle how i am but more and more im realizing its so hard. i talk to my boyfriend about it but he doesnt fully understand or know what to do. i opened up to 2 friends about it and one of them found it too tmi and got upset and now wont speak to me which makes me even more afraid to seek help. i thought she would get it but i feel so awful and stupid now. im not sure why im writing all of this. i guess i just need someone to understand. to reassure? but i know you arent really supposed to do that with people with ocd. so im not sure what i need. just to talk and feel heard i guess. i wish there were a way out of this.