THINGS TO NEVER FORGET ABOUT OCD: (This will not cause distress but may or may not offer relief depending on the person, so read at your own risk) •No matter how small the matter may logically appear, if it causes doubt followed by intense distress, it's ocd. No matter what it is. It could be "why the cheese has three holes and not four?", as long as this causes you distress, it's something you value and therebefore prey for the 'ocd monster'. •The emotional distress followed by the possibility of this thought being real is what makes you believe it actually is. You should let it and once you manage to control this intense distress by constant exposure, you'll be able to think clearly again and recognize yourself as you know deep down that you are, not as the extremely convincing and awful way the ocd presents you. By accepting these thoughts as possible you WON'T become what you fear, you will just grow as a person, you will become STRONGER. •Ocd will do ANYTHING to stop you from accepting these thoughts and try to manipulate you into trying to logically attack it via physical or not ways that will only reinforce it instead. It will use you like a puppet by giving you, a much needed for the vulnerable you, false sense of security. This false sense of security will make you used to a calm, fragile state which will make you easier to break once it decides to also use its "special" moves for a final attack. And then this futile circle will keep on repeating and repeating and repeating until it sucks the life out of you. •You ARE capable of beating this, even if you don't see it now because it's hidden. Hidden doesn't mean it doesn't exist. You are the only one that can fight your own self and win.You will feel futile, you will want to give up, you will lose but you will get up again and that is a NATURAL normal process. Don't EVER let it stop you. Remember, you may NOT be in control of your thoughts but you ARE in control of your actions. Not your ocd, not your insecuties and certainly not your fears. Only you.

Don't panic, you're still the same girl, your OC gives you a lot of intrusive thoughts that aren't you and that disgust you and scare you and that you don't want and that you don't think are true, and your OC gives you the false feelings.Also, don't forget that whatever comes to mind, whatever intrusive thoughts you have and whatever you feel, is all yours.

Looking back, I realize I’ve had OCD since I was 7. though I wasn’t diagnosed until I was 30. As a kid, I was consumed by fears I couldn’t explain: "What if God isn’t real? What happens when we die? How do I know I’m real?" These existential thoughts terrified me, and while everyone has them from time to time, I felt like they were consuming my life. By 12, I was having daily panic attacks about death and war, feeling untethered from reality as depersonalization and derealization set in. At 15, I turned to drinking, spending the next 15 years drunk, trying to escape my mind. I hated myself, struggled with my body, and my intrusive thoughts. Sobriety forced me to face it all head-on. In May 2022, I finally learned I had OCD. I remember the exact date: May 10th. Reading about it, I thought, "Oh my God, this is it. This explains everything." My main themes were existential OCD and self-harm intrusive thoughts. The self-harm fears were the hardest: "What if I kill myself? What if I lose control?" These thoughts terrified me because I didn’t want to die. ERP changed everything. At first, I thought, "You want me to confront my worst fears? Are you kidding me?" But ERP is gradual and done at your pace. My therapist taught me to lean into uncertainty instead of fighting it. She’d say, "Maybe you’ll kill yourself—who knows?" At first, it felt scary, but for OCD, it was freeing. Slowly, I realized my thoughts were just thoughts. ERP gave me my life back. I’m working again, I’m sober, and for the first time, I can imagine a future. If you’re scared to try ERP, I get it. But if you’re already living in fear, why not try a set of tools that can give you hope?

I’ve been thinking a lot about how OCD changes the way we see ourselves, but I recently realized that I am not my thoughts. Just because a thought pops up doesn’t mean it’s true or that it defines me. I’ve started learning how to see OCD for what it is—just a disorder trying to trick me—and I’ve become stronger in dealing with it. Has anyone else here had a similar realization? How do you handle these thoughts when they show up?