- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 41w ago
1. Constantly researching symptoms and medical conditions to try to figure out if I’m dying. 2. Avoiding all T.V. shows with potentially good-looking people out of fear that my partner will find them attractive. 3. Constantly checking to see if I have chemistry with my partner and assuming our relationship is doomed every time I didn’t feel “excited”.
- User type
- Staff
- Date posted
- 41w ago
Keep it up!! Awesome!
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 41w ago
@Brenna - NOCD Team Member Thanks so much. 😁
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 41w ago
Reassurance and avoidance, giving up those compulsions greatly reduced my ocd.
- User type
- Staff
- Date posted
- 41w ago
Incredible!! Keep it up!
- Date posted
- 41w ago
Ruminating and going on message boards for reassurance! Focusing more on living then getting caught up in the thoughts!
- User type
- Staff
- Date posted
- 41w ago
YES! Nice!
- Date posted
- 41w ago
I’ve reduced trying to figure out my existential OCD thoughts.
- User type
- Staff
- Date posted
- 41w ago
Nice!!
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 41w ago
seeking reassurance, constantly checking my camera at home thinking my cats are in danger, googling anything health related!
- User type
- Staff
- Date posted
- 41w ago
Nice job!
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 41w ago
After successful therapy and being in recovery I have reduced if not totally discontinued all of my compulsion, I never after over 20 years of suffering thought it was possible but it is and can be for anyone as long as you put the effort in and stick with the ick, especially on days you're sure your not gonna make it to tomorrow ♥️
- User type
- Staff
- Date posted
- 41w ago
Beautiful words!!
- Date posted
- 41w ago
Checking that the stove is off relentlessly.
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 41w ago
@J9tBjTm6HVqiNvu I’ve conquered other, more fearful and triggering symptoms. But this one hangs around for me. Lol. Congrats to you!
- Date posted
- 41w ago
@jonnyfive I check it once and take a pic if I have to. My husband and I both have ADHD and we have left the stove on plenty of times, so I do feel the responsibility to not burn the house down. 😂
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 41w ago
@J9tBjTm6HVqiNvu I feel this… for me it was a couple times somebody ran into the stove and gas was pouring into the house before I caught it. All these triggers are based on real world fears for sure. I’ve personally allowed myself to check once a night and then I do my RPM on it. If I didn’t have it under control, I might check 10 times. We’ve got this friend!
- Date posted
- 41w ago
@jonnyfive Exactly! I am newly diagnosed so I’m still working through this and trying to figure it out. I have gotten better in some ways just being able to notice my thoughts and what I’m doing. Your badge says OCD Conquerer so it sounds like you’re doing great!
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 41w ago
@J9tBjTm6HVqiNvu That’s a huge first step! Self monitoring and becoming more self aware. Keep up the work. It can be hard, but it’s worth it. I’d say on an average day my anxiety was a 6-7 before. Not it’s like a 2-3. I still have bad days but my bad days not look like my average days before. There is hope.
- User type
- Staff
- Date posted
- 41w ago
Awesome job!
- Date posted
- 41w ago
@jonnyfive Thank you! I feel hopeful.
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 41w ago
Checking that the front door is locked before bed endlessly 😅
- User type
- Staff
- Date posted
- 41w ago
Woohoo!!!
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 41w ago
Googling symptoms! I used to spend hours a day down the Google rabbit hole; now I hardly ever google a symptom.
- User type
- Staff
- Date posted
- 41w ago
So awesome to hear. Never forget how far you've come!!
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 41w ago
Avoidance has been the biggest one. I found I couldn't face my other compulsions until I stopped avoiding triggers and having my therapist as an accountability partner goes keep me moving towards my goals instead of my life continuing to shrink.
- User type
- Staff
- Date posted
- 41w ago
Avoidance can be tricky to spot sometimes - nice job!! Keep it up!!
- Date posted
- 41w ago
Avoidance is one of my biggest ones, but as I've just started ERP, I'm currently wanting to avoid confronting avoiding lmfaooo
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 41w ago
@monarchy-in-my-brain I hope that my experience can give you hope that it's possible ❤️❤️
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 41w ago
Physical - Googling. I had to google everything to figure out the answer each time something new popped up. Mentally - Ruminating - I am definitely an overanalyzer and while it can help me professionally since most of those things have a solution, trying to figure out if there was a new answer for personal things kept me stuck
- User type
- Staff
- Date posted
- 41w ago
Spot on. Thanks for sharing!
- Date posted
- 41w ago
Googling anything health related. This has helped my health ocd a fair bit.
- User type
- Staff
- Date posted
- 41w ago
Congrats! You got this!!
- Date posted
- 41w ago
@Brenna - NOCD Team Member Thank you! Im trying for sure
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 41w ago
Asking for reassurance from others that xyz didn’t happen or couldn’t have happened. Stopping this compulsion has been a huge weight off my shoulders. Now my response is, “maybe or maybe not, I don’t need to figure it out this moment”. I may still have anxiety but I do my best to let it be while I do whatever it is I need to do.
- User type
- Staff
- Date posted
- 41w ago
Incredible - keep it up!
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 41w ago
Constantly going to the ER!
- User type
- Staff
- Date posted
- 41w ago
Congrats!!! Nice job.
- Date posted
- 41w ago
Hand washing. Even when I have bad days, I don't go to compulsions as much as I used to. ❤️
- User type
- Staff
- Date posted
- 41w ago
Amazing progress!
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 41w ago
Googling for every weird sensation or thought I had. Avoiding people and places attached to intrusive thoughts. Isolating and spending hours trying to figure out the source of thoughts and sensations.
- User type
- Staff
- Date posted
- 41w ago
Incredible!!!
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 41w ago
Arguing with the thoughts and mental ping pong.
- User type
- Staff
- Date posted
- 41w ago
Keep it up!!
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 41w ago
I no longer care if things line up or match.
- User type
- Staff
- Date posted
- 41w ago
Yay!!
- Date posted
- 41w ago
Googling
- User type
- Staff
- Date posted
- 41w ago
Googling is such a common compulsion! Keep it up!
- Date posted
- 41w ago
Obsessive thinking
- User type
- Staff
- Date posted
- 41w ago
Nice!!
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 41w ago
Googling and reassurance-seeking.
- User type
- Staff
- Date posted
- 41w ago
Amazing!
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 41w ago
Avoidance!! I start and complete a task even with a little anxiety.
- User type
- Staff
- Date posted
- 41w ago
Never forget how far you've come!!
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 41w ago
Rumination 😊
- User type
- Staff
- Date posted
- 41w ago
Excellent work!!
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 41w ago
All of them. 😁 (listing them out would take too long since ocd always finds a way to try and introduce a new compulsion in the mix).
- User type
- Staff
- Date posted
- 41w ago
Woohooo! Thanks for sharing!
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 41w ago
Reassurance. It is tricky and sometimes you don’t even know you are doing it.
- User type
- Staff
- Date posted
- 41w ago
Exactly! Nice job!!
- Date posted
- 41w ago
Ruminating
- User type
- Staff
- Date posted
- 41w ago
Nice!!
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 41w ago
Checking & rechecking & rechecking ad nauseum. Ocd BOB still says hi (cause god forbid i move on) & I'm like "yeah, yeah, yeah, heard it all before." But oh no, I need to go & check my garage, front door, back door, other back door, toaster, the oven, the fucking toilet, lights, & the puppy gate. The worse one was my parking brake/stick shift & id check it who knows how many times cause if I don't then MAYBE the car will slide down the "hill" (theres no fucking hill) & kill someone. Ocd BOB kindly distracts me each time im checking so i have to keep going back. Only a monster wouldn't go back & check, OCD BOB says. Im really surprised noone videotaped me going back & forth. I may even be a meme & not know it. Ocd BOBs been in time out for months & I give myself 1 check. As I'm walking away ocd Bob's like "hey, hey, HEY, GO CHECK!" I'm like "thanks for the lovely reminder BOB, I'll worry about the people I may have killed later." OCD BOB I'd a big bully.
- User type
- Staff
- Date posted
- 41w ago
Nice job!!!
- Date posted
- 41w ago
Mental compulsions have significantly reduced! I have also reduced the amount I google symptoms or things related to OCD which was a big one when I first started my journey as I was searching for reassurance/reasoning.
- Date posted
- 41w ago
@Anonymous Me too!!! I used to google a lot.
- User type
- Staff
- Date posted
- 41w ago
Nice job!!
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 41w ago
I canceled an unnecessary doctor’s appointment that I scheduled compulsively!
- User type
- Staff
- Date posted
- 41w ago
INCREDIBLE!
- Date posted
- 41w ago
Rumination for sure.
- User type
- Staff
- Date posted
- 41w ago
Yes! Love it!
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 41w ago
Reassurance!
- User type
- Staff
- Date posted
- 41w ago
This is a big one! Congrats!
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 41w ago
Worrying about sickness or my kids becoming sick. Also family and self harm. All of those things don’t even register on the scale for me anymore. That’s all thanks to therapy. Therefore, I think I can deal with checking the stove one in a while 🤣🤣
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 41w ago
I’ve stopped googling symptoms and reading about diseases and diagnoses. I cook meat now! I use plastic. I don’t align, straighten, or count. I don’t open every link or notification announcing a sale and then scroll through every item on the site and then purchase things I don’t need or want out of fear of missing something. Therapy has significantly changed my life. I have so much more time. 😆
- User type
- Staff
- Date posted
- 41w ago
Thanks for sharing this! Nice work!
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 41w ago
Reassurance seeking. Awareness of mental compulsions
- User type
- Staff
- Date posted
- 41w ago
Yay!!!
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 41w ago
Rumination, realizing that I actually DONT have to buy into OCD’s sneaky traps
- User type
- Staff
- Date posted
- 41w ago
YES!
- Date posted
- 41w ago
ERT has greatly reduced my tendency to problem solve my religious intrusive thoughts!
- User type
- Staff
- Date posted
- 41w ago
Awesome to hear!
- Date posted
- 40w ago
Years ago I was able to face the dreaded door handle and reduced how often I opened doors w/my sleeve pulled over my hand
- Date posted
- 41w ago
Reassurance seeking!
- User type
- Staff
- Date posted
- 41w ago
Keep it up!
- Date posted
- 41w ago
Well I just started so none yet. I hope to decrease perfectionistic compulsions: for example, being I want to be able to do things without having a meltdown because I'm not able to do it to a ridiculously high standard. And I also hope to decrease checking and adjusting/fixing
- User type
- Staff
- Date posted
- 41w ago
You're so much stronger than your OCD!
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 41w ago
Checking google for medical Issues
- User type
- Staff
- Date posted
- 41w ago
Keep it up!!
- Date posted
- 41w ago
@Brenna - NOCD Team Member Hi is there anyway i can have a free talk with someone on nocd through texting and not call?
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 40w ago
@Anonymous7779 Why?
- Date posted
- 40w ago
@Anonymous wdym why- cause i need help
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 40w ago
@Anonymous7779 Sorry I misunderstood the context.. sorry about that
- Date posted
- 40w ago
@Anonymous No sorry that was my bad. i just meant cause i already have a therapist and i just wanted someone else to answer some other questions i had that my therapist isn’t understanding
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 40w ago
@Anonymous7779 Oh if it's a nocd therapist you can text with member services..hope you got what you needed.
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 41w ago
Reassurance seeking & excess showering! 🫶🏼
- User type
- Staff
- Date posted
- 41w ago
Woohoo!!
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 41w ago
Testing to see if my worries are real. Today was the first day!
- User type
- Staff
- Date posted
- 41w ago
Keep it up!!
- Date posted
- 41w ago
Not being able to have my hair tied. I was afraid my face was distorted when I wore a pony tail. Now I’m still afraid but it’s less painful and I can do it!!!
- User type
- Staff
- Date posted
- 41w ago
Yay! Congrats!
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 41w ago
Confessing Over sharing Hair pulling
- User type
- Staff
- Date posted
- 41w ago
Keep it up!
- Date posted
- 41w ago
reassurance seeking
- Date posted
- 41w ago
I almost have no trouble at all anymore leaving the house without reassuring myself multiple times that everything is turned off. In general, my ocd is so much better in my private live. Where I still struggle a lot is at work, I hope I will get better at it soon
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 41w ago
Taking pictures of all my outlets before leaving the house
- Date posted
- 41w ago
Reassurance and avoidance, learned how to slowly stop trying to figure out my thoughts and just feel them neutrally
- Date posted
- 40w ago
Hello everyone, I am new to this and haven’t received therapy as of today, but I am glad to see that my thoughts are share among so many because for a while I thought I was the only one in the world feeling like this. I hope to received treatment soon so I can benefit and stop feeling and thinking this way.
- Date posted
- 41w ago
My easiest compulsion to work on and be aware of when I started NOC were my magical thinking compulsions
- Date posted
- 41w ago
@FJustRightOCD I mean NOCD not NOC lol
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 41w ago
Looking up relationship articles. Looking for signs that it was or was not the right relationship. Learning how to keep prayer in my life, but not as a compulsion.
- Date posted
- 41w ago
Skipping showers
- Date posted
- 40w ago
Reduced some perfectionists cleaning
- Date posted
- 38w ago
Turning the volume, timer, etc to an odd number. I can sit with odd numbers now! Still working on many other compulsions in my hierarchy though.
Related posts
- Date posted
- 22w ago
Those of you who have overcome at least a bit, if not all, of your OCD. When you went through the CBT and ERP, did it feel like the end of the world? And how did you face the fact that your fears and uncertainties might actually come to life?
- Date posted
- 11w ago
I want to beat OCD because I have seen and felt the benefits of clearing my brain from unnecessary, pointless, thoughts. OCD is like 0 calorie food. It’s pointless. No nutrition or benefits come from my obsessions or compulsions. I don’t care to have answers to everything anymore. I catch myself just trying to stress myself out so that I have some worry to feed on. But like I said, it’s a 0 calorie food. I get nothing from it but wasted time and energy. My brain feels more spacious when I’m not consumed by OCD. I’m present. My personality has room to be herself without making space for bullshit. I tell myself now that worry is poison. I think Willie Nelson was the person I got that quote from? Anyways, that imagery of worries being poison for the mind has been transformative for me. I’m evolving. 💖 Thanks NOCD community.
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 11w ago
December 14, 2024, marked two years since my first ERP therapy session with my NOCD therapist, Mixi. And October 2024 marked a year of being free from OCD. It was not an easy journey, confronting my fears face to face. Exposing myself to the images and thoughts my brain kept throwing at me, accepting that I might be the worst mother, that my daughter wouldn’t love me, and that I deserved to be considered a bad person. It was challenging having to say, “Yes, I am those things,” feeling the desire to run, but realizing the thoughts followed me. At the start of my therapy, I remember feeling like I couldn’t do this anymore. Life felt unbearable, and I felt so weak. I longed for a time before the OCD, before the flare-ups, before the anxiety, the daily panic attacks. I thought I’d never be myself again. But I now know that ERP saved my life. The first couple of sessions were tough. I wasn’t fully present. I lied to my therapist about what my actual thoughts were, fearing judgment. I pretended that the exposures were working, but when the sessions ended, I went back to not sleeping, constantly overwhelmed by fear and anxiety. But my therapist never judged me. She made me feel safe to be honest with her. She understood OCD and never faltered in supporting me, even when I admitted I had been lying and still continued my compulsions. My biggest milestone in therapy was being 100% transparent with my therapist. That was when real change began. At first, I started small—simply reading the words that terrified me: "bad mom," "hated," "unloved." Then, I worked on listening to those words while doing dishes—not completely stopping my rumination, but noticing it. Just 15 minutes, my therapist said. It wasn’t easy. At one point, I found myself thinking, “Will I ever feel like myself again?” But I kept pushing through. Slowly, I built tolerance and moved to face-to-face exposures—sitting alone with my daughter, leaning into the thought that my siblings might die, reading articles about my worst fears, and calling myself the things I feared. Each session was challenging, but with time, the thoughts started to lose their grip. By my eleventh session, I started to realize: OCD was here, and it wasn’t going away, but I could keep living my life despite it. I didn’t need to wait for it to be quiet or go away to move on. Slowly, it began to quiet down, and I started to feel like myself again. In fact, I am not my old self anymore—I’m a better version. OCD hasn’t completely disappeared, but it’s quieter now. Most of the time, it doesn’t speak, and when it does, I know how to handle it. The last session with my therapist was emotional. I cried because I was finishing therapy. I remember how, in the beginning, I cried because I thought it was just starting—because I was overwhelmed and terrified. But at the end, I cried because I was sad it was ending. It felt like I had come so far, and part of me wasn’t ready to say goodbye, even though I had already learned so much. It was a bittersweet moment, but I knew I was walking away stronger, equipped with the tools to handle OCD on my own. If I could change anything about my journey, it would be being open and honest from the beginning. It was the key to finding true healing. The transparency, the honesty—it opened the door to lasting change. I’m no longer that person who was stuck in constant panic. I’m someone who has fought and survived, and while OCD still appears from time to time, I know it doesn’t define me. I'd love to hear your thoughts and comments. Have you started therapy, is something holding you back? Is there something you want to know about ERP therapy? I'll be live in the app answering each and every one today from 6-7pm EST. Please drop them below!
Be a part of the largest OCD Community
Share your thoughts so the Community can respond