Anyone else experienced something like this? You’re doing something normal, and you start thinking, what if my ocd attaches to this? And then you make it. Or you’re thinking, what if I can’t do this normally? And that inhibts you from doing so.

Yeah, the avoidance is getting pretty bad for me too. I’d stopped taking walks for a while and recently started again, and the thought hit me that maybe I will have to compulse in some way. So I almost felt like avoiding it completely. But today I went for a long walk, with some bad stumbles on the way, but felt better in general.

Yes! It’s like it grows exponentially, attaching itself not only to concepts, but also to situations, places, time of the day. I can’t stand one cafe now just because I had an OCD episode there. I’m trying not to avoid anything, but it’s exhausting:(

Haha! Yeah I agree, when I feel normal it gives me this positive confidence which helps against the OCD. Recently I’m also doing Buteyko breathing too, which seems to be helping relieve anxiety. Accoring to some practitioners symptoms of OCD can be completely gone after 6 months of doing the breathing.

Yes. OCD will indeed latch onto anything you care about most in life. However, avoiding situations, people, and places that you have triggers built within will only hurt or hinder you in the long run. It’s one of those things in OCD like any exposure: Initially, you are bringing on the anxiety. You are welcoming it. Only with the sole goal to weaken the pathway or thought process in your brain every time. I struggled and still struggle with HOCD. Through practice and working with a specialist and facing the fear, I took what was bothering me 98% of the time and weakened those thoughts to honestly below 10%. An amazing feeling. Just to put it in perspective, that took about a year and a half. And that was my strongest OCD content I have ever experienced. Remember, the content is irrelevant. I’m here to tell you all through experience that OCD will morph and latch onto things that you may never see coming. So rather than attacking what the content is year to year, go after the core of OCD.

Thanks a lot for sharing Ty! I’m envious of your success. If I may ask, can you give a simple example of how you went about the treatment for your HOCD. Even though I don’t have a lot of HOCD at the moment, I’m very scared to get treatment for it. I’m finally calling to book a meeting with a psychiatrist tomorrow, so would be good to know something.

I’ve recently started to take walks too! Allegedly, that should help with anxiety. But right now it’s just an exercise in willpower and ‘being normal’ for me, which helps already. I’m using this app for counting steps and everything. I’ve noticed that being busy and acting normal makes a huge difference for ocd. But when I’m too tired to go on or when I have a head cold, I get lots of free time and OCD is like missed me?

Yes all the time

Wow great insight @Ty94. The ‘welcoming anxiety’ part sounds powerful. I’ve used this approach out of spite when I was having intrusive dreams. I was so sick of them that I actually said to myself some evening: okay bring it on dreams! Let’s see the worst you can do! I dare you! And of course the dreams happened at some point, and I was like: it’s the best you can do?? So my attitude totally changed and now I don’t get these dreams, or maybe I still get them, but don’t remember them since they are not disturbing me anymore. But to tell the truth I felt totally confident that dreams don’t mean anything to begin with, and with other concepts of HOCD I am not so sure.

Ejgh, That’s awesome that you are seeking treatment. I’m telling you man, you will reap the benefits. Just go in very open minded is all I can tell you. Don’t be afraid. Dig deep and talk about what is really going on. OCD is real and if you have a specialist working with you, nothing you tell them will be new news. Like all OCD themes, HOCD is hard to talk about (especially for a man I think haha, no offense ladies). But I’ll tell you one thing, I did my homework and studying on OCD along with the practice, CBT, exposure therapy, etc. So, I encourage you to learn up on what you deal with, in a way for me I use that as a form of exposure/facing the fear. Remember, OCD is so much more than the content it presents in each of us. It’s a mental disorder. Goodluck, and keep updated on here ✊?

Scaredbunny, Hell yeah. Sometimes the best thing to say to this stuff is bring it. That’s interesting, I’ve never really dealt with the dreams part of OCD.