I fear of hurting my loved ones i obsess over the what ifs every single day from the minute i open my eyes to the minute i shut them. It wont stop i try to distract myself i work a full time job and try to work over time as much as they will let me yo keep me ditracted an i feel like the thoughts, worries, fear & doubt i am obsessing over are getting worse. Please help me i dont want anything to happen! Ill try anything that will give me a postive outcome please im begging anyone and everyone to lend a helping supportive hand.

Hey! I struggle with something similar, I obsess over the fear of having a violent thought. I understand how horrible this can be. Think of it this way: people who ACTUALLY hurt others do not worry about it or feel fear about it. Your fear and obsessions are because to hurt anyone is not in your nature. Don’t try to shut the thoughts out; thoughts are only thoughts, and it does not reflect on you. It’s the opposite—you’re a good person. Here’s what has helped and is currently helping me: 1. Find a good therapist who can help with CBT/ERP/ACT. Talk therapy is not helpful for OCD 2. I highly recommend the book “Overcoming Unwanted Intrusive Thoughts” by Sally Winston and Martin Seif. This book is amazing. Please give it a chance. 3. Commit to ERP. If you feel scared, pinpoint where the fear is coming from and embrace that fear—it WILL start feeling less scary. Follow the app as if you’re training for a race—little by little every day. 4. My first step before this app was to monitor when I was seeking reassurance and give myself a goal of not seeking that outside reassurance and just living through the anxious feeling. I want you to know you are not alone. I want you to know that the fact you are on here means that you are a sweet and loving person who has OCD centered around something important to you. Please please know the only reason these thoughts come back is because you’re looking for them, hoping they don’t come back, which is how they DO come back. You are strong. Don’t give up.

Yeah, we gotta dream of the thoughts not bothering us

Oh friend:( First off, you should to sit down and breathe really deeply and really slowly. No one who wanted to hurt their loved ones would EVER stress about it this much before hand. The only reason that you have concluded that you’re gonna loose control and hurt someone you love is because of this equation- meaningless thought+extremely intense anxiety NONE of the above is cause for an action. You aren’t gonna do anything, and you don’t have to make sure that you aren’t gonna do anything either. The only person that you should be worried about, sadly, is yourself:( You are the one that deserves your vigilance and protection. I’m so sorry you are struggling with this, and I hope you can get some peace soon.

I second everything @EmmaleighH said!!!❤️

@EmilyRose The thing is it’s very tempting to say “yes I’d definitely want to shut them off”, but having occasional intrusive thoughts—as heinous or gruesome or disturbing as they may be—is completely normal. It’s why everyone you reach out to for reassurance says that yes, they have also experienced these random, weird thoughts. So I wouldn’t want a to shut them off entirely; I’d want a lever I could pull that would give me more CONFIDENCE to accept them for what they are, simply a part of being human, and not a reflection of something wrong with me.

I think that’s a problem I’ve faced—I always wanted any thoughts I deemed bad to be gone forever, which set me up for failure when one inevitably pops up every now and again.

You’re right Emmaleigh. Kayd, please ignore what I wrote.

Don’t worry about it EmilyRose- we are ALL doing our best to navigate this. And it’s so damn tricky!

Lol yeah sometimes (ok most times) I feel like ocd is just this little tricky jerk and I just want to be like “excuse me could you not for ONE SECOND”...but EmilyRose I completely know what you mean...believe me, the idea of just turning intrusive thoughts off completely used to be a total dream scenario to me...it’s just that it’s a dream that can’t be reached for anybody:/

YES exactly. It’s changing you’re relationship with the thoughts that needs to happen. You cannot extinguish them- and get this- you don’t need to!! ACT and mindfulness will help so much with that.

Thanks..yeah, OCD tricks me every day?

Every second of every damn day??‍♀️