please someone answer i’m panicking

@space girl 🪐 i know right now it probably feels like the world is ending and that there is no coming back from this, but i promise there is. keep telling yourself that you will get over this because positive thinking really does help. remember you do have ocd, and this is what ocd does. you cannot control everything, especially your thoughts, but try to control what you can. what you can do is you can stop engaging with it right now and i know that is so hard to do but it really is the best thing you can do for yourself in this moment. give yourself time and distract yourself and eventually your mind will feel more clear. you dont need mine or anyone elses reassurance to feel better, you can get through this like i said you just need to give yourself a little bit of time because right now your mind is being taken over by this anxiety, and it will eventually pass.

@anonymous12783927 i just need to know what it means, i’m so scared it’ll mean im a p. before all of this when i found someone attractive if they were younger i wouldn’t interact and just go on with my day. now it’s like when i see someone who’s attractive and i look and they’re my age my head tells me am i still attracted to them? or am i less attracted to them bc they’re my age? and it’s so confusing im sorry im ranting i just don’t know what this means

@space girl 🪐 i know how you feel and what happens is everything feels way more urgent in your head than it really is. i can assume youre probably having some physical symptoms of anxiety as well and that may also make you feel like this is urgent, but dont trust those feelings. you need to stop trying to figure this all out and like i said i know that is the hardest thing to do but there is absolutely no harm in trying. im really encouraging you to get outside, maybe listen to music or something that makes you happy. i know you dont want to and you probably feel like you need to sit here until you figure it out but you cant do that. im really urging you to stop trying to find an answer to all this and go clear your mind. youre not going to find an answer. you decide who you are not your thoughts!!! you know the person you want to be and i know that you dont agree with these thoughts. so dont let all of this define you. please end the compulsive behavior because you will look back and be so thankful that you got yourself out of this cycle youre in. you will feel better i promise

@Malisimo i can’t sit with the anxiety, i need to know what it means. being one of them is one of the worst things a person can be in my opinion, if im like them i don’t want to live

@space girl 🪐 Ok so it means you would be a bad person, what does being a bad person mean? Really break this down more. You need to get to the real underlying fear. Don’t oversimplify this, what are you really afraid of? Think about it, you are very anxious about being a pedophile. Use your rational mind and ask yourself are pedophiles very anxious about being pedophiles? Once you understand this more you will sit with the anxiety with reassurance.

@Malisimo *without reassurance, sorry typo

@Malisimo did you comment again? if you did i can’t see your other comment 😭

@space girl 🪐 @space girl 🪐 Ok so it means you would be a bad person, what does being a bad person mean? Really break this down more. You need to get to the real underlying fear. Don’t oversimplify this, what are you really afraid of? Think about it, you are very anxious about being a pedophile. Use your rational mind and ask yourself are pedophiles very anxious about being pedophiles? Once you understand this more you will sit with the anxiety without reassurance.

@Stephennh no. i’ve only just started therapy

@space girl 🪐 I’m happy that you’ve initiated therapy. POCD is something I’ve been dealing with the last 3 weeks. As you mentioned in your post, you’ve always checked a person’s age before interacting with a post. Fortunately, OCD will never change your core values or beliefs. ERP will teach you to slowly learn to live with the uncertainty - I know it’s hard. I still struggle everyday with the thought. But the more you give into your mental compulsions (i.e., reassurance, neutralization, excessive praying, etc) the more you feed into your POCD. I’ve compiled a list free resources that help me in my healing. I can send them to you if you’d like.

@anonymous12783927 is this normal with ocd or am i genuinely one of them?