HOCD people. I am doing more exposure therapy. Its been over a decade and only now am I really dealing with this in a meaningful way. I actually went to a massage center and they only had a male masseuse available. I usually would say no. I was able to get through the whole thing with almost no discomfort. I would have been a wreck before. I'm really happy for you others who share your story. I always doubted if I really had OCD or not, and having a community makes it so much easier. Thank you guys for making treatment possible

I went to my therapist last monday and... wow I feel so good these last days. The more I talk with her about hocd, the best I feel. And the less Im thinking about this. I mean. Is still there, but it doesn't disturb me like before. I don't need to make a compulsion about it. And sometimes I have relapses and I'm going to have them in the future too because Im not perfect, but I really feel less anxiety than before. Im starting to feel like before, like who I am. Like the world is not ending and even if I am angry or frustrated sometimes because I have doubts or I don't know what is going to happen... you know, I'll be okay.

Good morning OCD users and welcome to our NOCD community platform. I’m a therapist here at NOCD and I had a wonderful conversation today with a client I’ve been working with. They told me they didn’t feel the need to monitor their thoughts any longer because they are not feeling anxious all day, everyday! They were so grateful for the peace in their days, the easy laughter, the connection to their family members - all these things were missing from their lives because of HOCD. But not anymore. We went through the NOCD treatment plan, we did self monitoring worksheets and built a hierarchy and they worked very hard and it paid off. I’m not going to say they will never have another HOCD thought, but today they feel in remission and for that we will shout from the roof top in joy and hope for more days of remission. For that client and any other who is feeling hope today, continue to do your ERP and continue to break that cycle! It is a good Tuesday!

Hello everyone, I don’t know if any of you follow Florence given on Instagram but she is a feminist illustrator and author and she has recently shed some light on a topic which I feel has greatly influenced my HOCD and I hope by sharing this, this makes someone feel less alone. She asked her followers to write in to her about their earliest memories of pleasure - and thousands of predominantly women wrote in saying that at sleepovers when they were young they use to kiss their friends and “hump” one another or watch babystation or what not - the women reported feeling so ashamed of it and could not believe how many people had also done it! I myself am included in the thousands of young girls that did this before they even knew what sex or sexuality even was! She highlighted that these responses were not just from gay or bisexual women but a large majority of the women were heterosexual and they reported being very ashamed of these memories (myself included) however didn’t really bother them. This highlighted to me that I am not alone and loads of kids did this because we were kids and we “practicing” and didn’t really understand?. Unfortunately I suffer with anxiety on a very high scale and I found that my OCD presents itself when my anxiety is very high and my OCD is often centred around this! For so long I felt so alone in this experience and thought it must mean I’m gay despite not romanticising about women at all and online finding men attractive when I reached a sexually mature age - but it DOESN’T MAKE ME ANYTHING! Today I say no to OCD. I’m sure some of you have had an experience with someone of the same sex whether that be when you were a child or adult but it doesn’t define our sexuality. Sex contact, sexual attraction and sexuality are very different things. I’m proud to say yeah I find girls attractive but that doesn’t make me gay - Today I say fuck you to my HOCD.