Going through a really stressful time right now. I am looking for a job, dealing with financial stress, I was in a minor car accident a week ago (no one was hurt), and I really haven’t been doing great emotionally or mentally since my grandpa passed away the end of last year. Does anyone have any tips for managing stress when you are dealing with a lot of life changes? I feel like it is sending my OCD into hyper drive, I fixate on every little thing, think about all the what ifs, and worry about every perceived mistake I make and how it is going to affect my situation. I feel like this is caused by all the stress and pressure that is on me right now. If anyone has any tips or forms of stress relief they find particularly effective that would be amazing.

Hey all! I just joined this app and wanted to ask for your thoughts and encouragement on something I’ve been experiencing lately. (*long post ahead*) I’ve had an OCD diagnosis for about 2 years now, along with generalized anxiety, depersonalization symptoms, and depression diagnoses since my teens (I’m 24). Been lucky to have great family and healthcare that have helped me get out of some very dark places. I’m currently on a very high dose of Prozac, a smaller dose of Wellbutrin, and have been in therapy pretty consistently since my late teens. Life is pretty good....I’m in grad school and am doing well socially and academically. I am moving out to another part of the country to do an internship for 10 weeks, starting this Friday. But with all of this great and wonderful stuff in life, I have definitely noticed my OCD getting worse, despite my meds and self care. I’ve been having more obsessive fears and doing the rituals and compulsions to soothe those fears. It’s taking up much more of my mental space than it had for the past 2 years or so. I think part of it is the big change of moving to a new place temporarily, finishing my first year of grad school, and going from being insanely busy to having a month of downtime that is just now wrapping up. I’m getting scared that things are going to get really bad again — so far I’ve been managing with mindfulness and acceptance, and reading up on tactics for managing intrusive thoughts and accompanying compulsions. But I am so afraid that things will get to be into the dark and horrible place they were in 2 years ago. My OCD has been really mild the past few years, since I started the meds, and to feel it flare up again is really REALLY distressing. It makes me scared that the meds aren’t working, or that all the thoughts and fears are real. I know this isn’t the truth, logically, but my OCD and anxiety are running with it. I’m just wondering if anyone else has experienced this (change-related flare ups and the fears accompanied by them) and has tools to manage relapse or flare ups. Thanks in advance :) :)

For a while now I’ve been having trouble with accepting things have changed. Ever since I started struggling with my OCD in 2021 I’ve been wanting to go back to the past. Many things have changed since that happened and I absolutely hate change. What I mean by change is old routines even if they aren’t my own, but also other peoples I was used to seeing, furniture being rearranged or thrown out so it doesn’t “look” the same etc. me myself has also changed. I’m always wishing I could go back in time and relive or wish things would go back to how they used to be or feel those certain feelings again. I always tell myself maybe if all this never changed my OCD wouldn’t have troubled me. Even though I know that’s totally not true. It’s getting annoying and I wanted to ask if any of you have any tips on how I can just accept things are NOT how they used to be and won’t stay the same forever. I just feel sorta stuck rn.

I began struggling with my intrusive thoughts last March and after 5-6 months finally got to a place of more so peace and not thinking they mean something. But I work two jobs and have school and have to commute an hour for one of them and have felt pretty burnt out lately. I started to feel just tired and low mood which then made me I think get stuck on now a 3 week hamster wheel of checking, stuck on thoughts of what if it’s real this time? What if I can’t handle it, etc. my question I guess is any advice on how to bring myself to place of not listening to every podcast, looking up everything on google I possibly can, Instagram accounts, reassurance seeking, etc. Have trouble reminding myself of truth when in it