i’m new here. can someone help me out here?

i was “diagnosed” with OCD less than a year ago. the reason i use quotation marks is because my psychiatrist isn’t very thorough, although i’ve only ever had one psychiatrist so maybe this is the norm. essentially, i went in to tell him i’d been struggling with intrusive thoughts, and he just said “that sounds like OCD” and wrote me a prescription for medication to treat it. when i went in to talk to him about it, i’d already had the suspicion i’d been dealing with OCD after learning about it in my college psych 101 class. ever since i was 8 years old, i’ve had awful intrusive thoughts regarding my faith, and i’d combat them through repeating prayers or little sayings over and over again in my head. i’ve been doing this for over ten years now. i have other intrusive thoughts and related compulsions (if i really have OCD) , too, but that’s the bulk of it. here’s the reason i’m writing this, though: the medications i’ve been taking haven’t helped much, so i think i need therapy, but therapy makes me nervous. i’ve been taking anti anxiety medication for roughly 5 years, so when i told my psychiatrist i was dealing with intrusive thoughts, he was really surprised because the medication i was on is used to treat OCD all the time. he’s tried a couple different changes to my medication, but none have worked, which leads me to believe i might need therapy to bridge the gap. therapy terrifies me, though, because i have this sinking feeling that if i seek out therapy, my therapist will discover i’ve been lying about my symptoms without me even knowing that i’ve been lying, if that makes any sense. i’m sorry this is so long. i guess i’m looking for some encouragement.

Username: hopefulsunnyhopefulsunny

Date posted: 1y ago

OCD is a result of both learned behavior (the compulsions) and imbalances in our brain so that’s probably why the medication alone isn’t helping. Jonathan Grayson explains it really well in his book “Freedom from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.” I obviously can’t say if you do or don’t have ocd but a lot of people with formal diagnoses at some point doubt if they really do have OCD. I would say therapy is a good idea regardless because you’ll learn how to deal with intrusive thoughts whether they stem from OCD or not.

Username: AnonymousAnonymous

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 1y ago

The BEST thing you can do is start therapy with somewhere here at NOCD. The model and approach is made to help you reach recovery. I had the same battle with meds. I was on 5 different ones over the course of 4 years and they didn’t do anything for me.

Username: WrappedinIvyWrappedinIvy

Date posted: 1y ago

Are you still taking them? Because I am thinking of getting off them

Username: AnonymousAnonymous

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 1y ago

@Anonymous I am not!

Username: HarlanW25HarlanW25

Date posted: 1y ago

I’ve been battling with OCD for 24 years and just recently started seeing an exrp therapist. I’ve been on all kinds of meds and none of them seem to help. From what I’ve seen and heard, exrp is the best. From the research I’ve done, therapy seems to be the best treatment. I’ve seen a lot of therapists and not all are trained or equipped to deal with OCD. It really comes down to finding someone who specializes in OCD related therapies. As far as being nervous about it, that’s normal. I was extremely worried about starting it. To quote my therapist she said “I’m going to ask you to do and face some of the hardest things you’ve ever had to in your life and I deal with people that have been physically and emotionally abused”. That honestly that scared the crap out of me, but it’s worth it to get your life back.

Username: wishingstar

Date posted: 4y ago

Hi, this is my first time posting here, though I have been looking at the app for support for a while already. I have pretty bad social anxiety which unfortunately extends to even being in forums online as well, so I have been putting off sharing on here. I am in my early 40s and have struggled with OCD in various forms since I was a child. In my mid-teens it exploded into very tormenting Pure O. It is complicated by some comorbidity with other diagnoses — social and generalized anxiety, depression, and CPTSD. The sad thing is that I’ve actually experienced so much harm over the years at the hands of uneducated mental health professionals who didn’t have a clue about OCD or how to work with it, and i feel like I carry this extra burden of shame and trauma from those bad experiences on top of the grueling daily struggle I have with my mental health diagnoses. I am set up to have an initial consultation appointment soon with a therapist who is a psychologist in private practice. They seem kind and very knowledgeable, and so I am very hopeful that we will be a good fit for working together. But I am still haunted by those past bad experiences, and so the whole process of starting with someone new is nerve wracking. Has anyone else had bad experiences with therapists who didn’t understand OCD or who had only a superficial understanding of it? Thanks for reading!

"Pure" OCD

Username: LG93

Date posted: 4y ago

My thoughts and compulsive behaviors were terrible last week, but now it’s like they’ve almost disappeared. I have my first 90-minute session scheduled with my NOCD therapist for next week but now I’m wondering if I even have ocd or if it’s even worth it for me to meet with my NOCD therapist. Does anyone else have experience with this? Did it affect how long it took for you to seek treatment? I know myself and that most likely if I cancel my upcoming session my brain will latch on to some other thoughts and the circular thinking will probably return. But now I’m second guessing myself because with help on the horizon it’s like my brain has pushed all the anxiety to the side and I feel more “normal” than I’ve felt in a while. I also had a brief last meeting with an intern that I was doing telehealth sessions with through a counseling center and when I told her what my anxiety is like and that I suspect that I may have ocd, she basically questioned me and was like “are you sure?” She said “ocd has two components — obsessions AND compulsions, are you sure you have both of them?” And so since that conversation and since some of my recent thoughts have quieted down, I’m wondering if I’m silly for even being here. I also felt really down after my conversation with her because it made me wonder if there was just no one who can help me. I’ve tried talk therapy and I don’t feel like it helped. But maybe I’m just not trying hard enough. Interested to hear if anyone else has had similar experiences in the process of looking for help or if I’m the only one.

Username: lor

Date posted: 3y ago

This is half a vent session, half me asking for advice but: My OCD symptoms started on april 2020, one month after the pandemic. that has led me to constantly question whether it’s OCD or anxiety and of course i can’t really diagnose myself but it behaves very differently from anxiety. i’ve also been doing research and reading about OCD for over a year and i honestly honestly think i have OCD because i fit basically all the symptoms? anyways, I finally brought it up to my therapist a few appointments ago and i felt like they kind of dismissed me? not sure if that’s normal. they told me it’s could be because of heightened anxiety and to practice “thought stopping”. that has made me feel sooo bad about myself because i start spiraling and believing my intrusive thoughts MUST be true because of what they said, and because it makes me feel like I’m just using the OCD label for “attention”. i’m not sure if i should bring it up again in a future appointment? or maybe find a new therapist? or maybe I don’t have OCD at all? I don’t know what to do

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i’m new here. can someone help me out here?

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