"Does anyone else does X or Y?" "Has anyone else ...?" "Can OCD make you ..."? ---- All those may be covert forms of reassurance seeking.

That is precisely the "secret" to recovery, friend. Do NOTHING. When you leave the waters alone, they calm down on their own. When you are panicking, if you literally sit and wait without mental compulsions, just observing the pain, it will still be painful and it will grow but it will come a point where when it reaches its max will start do dwindle and you are going to feel a lot of peace. Anxiety cannot kill you - how you respond to it might.

Oof. I have to admit I do this, like search around on the net and see if other people do the same sht I do because if I don't, I think my thoughts are actually true, and that this isn't OCD. But if I didn't realize that it was actually OCD, I would not have learned of how I should have tackled my worries, i.e. I wouldn't have learned about ERP. I guess, to some extent, these questions are helpful, but when done repetitively that's when it becomes a form of reassurance seeking and compulsion

I feel though like asking if anyone else does something can also be a form of community seeking. Like ocd can be so lonely and I have no one else to talk to about it and I just want to know if people can relate.

Here to support this message. Reassurance seeking is a cunning foe.

I definitely do this! But it’s just nice to know you’re not alone

When you ask once, that is support. When you ask more than once in different ways - that's a compulsion.

Very true. You’ve made me realise that now! It’s so hard to sit and not find a way to deal with your overwhelming fear though :(

Very true and helpful words!!! Please let me know any other tips you have. Especially when it’s based on real events.

I don’t know how to explain it, but I’ll try. I see faces and shapes in random places or patterns, like when you see shapes in clouds, but I find them everywhere, I believe it’s called pareidolia. The sh*tty part, is that if I’m currently obsessing with let’s say death, my mind tricks me into seeing skulls, or when I was struggling with scrupulosity, I saw crosses, or the face of Jesus even on the pattern of bathroom tiles, or shadows or stains. I don’t know if that makes sense lol, but it really really sucks.

I have asked this type of questions in the past, but only cause I have a form of ocd (or at least I hope it’s also a part of ocd), that I’ve never heard of before. And actually when I post them, no one seems to relate with it ?

What form of ocd is that tqh?

Wow I’ve never heard of that! It sounds super difficult though, I can imagine how stressful that is every day :( hope you find help x