I don’t have ocd but love someone who does. I need advice. My SO had leg pain once and a coworker said it sounded like thrombosis. So now his leg constantly hurts and he thinks it’s that. He’s seen the doctor several times (doctor can’t find anything) and went to see a nerve specialist (who also didn’t find anything). Can this be part of his ocd? If so, how do I tell him that? (Also I added the trigger warning because since I don’t have ocd, I don’t know what could trigger someone)

Hello everyone! I am not the one having OCD, but my boyfriend does, and it is combined with depression. He hides it pretty well (he doesn't want to make me or any other person sad) and acts like everything is normal most of the time (makes everyone laugh etc. - like many other depressed people) even though I know he suffers a lot. We know each other on a very deep level and I am the only person who he has told about having OCD and depression, and I just want to help him as much as I can. The thing is that he has a lot of negative thoughts most of the time and if he doesn't do something, for example, claps his hands 8 times, he believes 100% something bad is going to happen to me, like I'm gonna get hurt or something. At the moment it is not possible for him to talk to specialized OCD therapist as there is not one in the area where we live in, but I am confident that I can help him or, even better, guide him, so he helps himself, so that he, at least, suffers less from this. What advice would you give me? I know that I shouldn't be too pushy or telling him what I think he should do. I just want him to know that I'm there for him and that, even though I cannot understand what he's going through, I can at least educate myself about OCD (I've seen some self-help books you posted here) and talk to him about what I've read, because I think it is better to talk about it rather than him hiding it and suffering in silence.. This is how I thought I could help him: When I see or when he tells me that compulsions are happening or going to happen, I'm gonna let him know that he is not going through this alone and that he can trust me. Then I will ask him to tell me what kind of thoughts are going through his mind at the moment, and if he, for example, tells me that he thinks something bad is gonna happen to me I'm gonna tell him to try not to do any compulsive behaviour and try to, no matter how hard it is at the moment, accept that thought and repeat after me: You are safe. I am safe. We are always going to be safe. Only good things happen to us and always will. I believe that if this is done constantly that it will make his OCD more managenable (and depression as well). I would really appreciate any comment, expert or from a person having a similar experience that my boyfriend has. I really want to help him. Thank you! ❤

Health OCD: I suffer with health OCD. I’m constantly worried about getting sick and I always convince myself that the smallest hint of something could be cancer. That being said, when something really does go wrong, I completely spiral. Something has gone wrong: I have had an irregular period and intense abdomen pain for over a month. I went to various OBGYNs who failed to diagnose me with anything. I felt like either the doctors were wrong or I was blowing it out of proportion, but my gut told me I needed to figure it out because of how bad the pain was. Yesterday morning I went to a new obgyn who told me I probably had a pelvic infection. He was angered that no one has diagnosed me and I’d gone over a month with it. He put me on antibiotics and asked me to take them immediately. I am waiting on test results. My biggest fear is infertility. I’m terrified that I will either be diagnosed with cancer or that the infection has made me infertile. I can’t stop googling and reading about how pelvic infections can cause infertility. My obsessions are out of control and my fiancé doesn’t know how to react to my panic attacks. I feel very alone and would appreciate some advice on how to handle this. Thank you

I often convince myself I have some kinda of life threatening illness… currently colon/ rectal cancer is what I’m obsessing over… anyways I struggle on when seek medical attention because I don’t know when there’s a real medical issue or if it’s just ocd telling me there’s something wrong. Does anyone else struggle with this, and if so how to decide when so see a doctor or when to ignore it