I want to get this off my chest... I'm not sure which OCD type I have. It started with fears of being gay but now I don't have as much gay thoughts (but still enormous amounts of anxiety, and no feelings for girls) but I'm doubting about recovery. I have been in treatment for two years but every time I fully decide to accept the OCD, then OCD finds a new way to doubt about this recovery tip. After OCD has latched a doubting thought about the recovery tip, it doesn't work any more and the more I try to use the tool (e.g. Notice the thoughts and return to present moment, meditation, mindfulness) the stronger the OCD gets. I try to remain positive but OCD pulls me into negativity. I feel like every thought I have is illogical and even the sentences I wrote here in the post feel like not real. I get so many questions in my head (that I know are OCD questions) but the more I try to resist answering them, the stronger they get. Basically like I want to recover but the more I want to come out of OCD the stronger it gets. I'm so confused and don't know what to do... I tried to confront the anxiety and I started liking the feeling but then OCD told me you hate the anxiety and it overtook me .. so so illogical and I'm really sick of it. 6 months of this back and forth between OCD and recovery and it's tiring me... Being so inadequate all the time and exhausted.. it seems like it's impossible to overcome the OCD when you just have no energy and you have the feeling as if you can't distinguish yourself from the thoughts. What to do when you are so overtaken by OCD and every decision you make, is actually OCD telling things in my head? Like my deciding part of my brain would be broken...

hateocd123

Date posted: 5y

I relate to this so hard. No matter what tool I used to try to help myself, the ocd eats it and turns it against me. I know reassurance isn't good, but I think some reassurance can be used for grounding. Not for me anymore, my brain will find any loop hole in any logic that other people try to give me and tear the whole idea to shreds. My brain is set on the idea that I'm a lesbian now, my past means nothing to my hocd.

tttamme

Date posted: 5y

It's really illogical. Well I am sure I'm straight but I get the gay thoughts still. But no interest in girls. But the OCD is rather like "recovery OCD". When I tell my thoughts that they are OCD (it was a part of the treatment to tell that to the thoughts), my brain takes this as compulsion. Like I would be reassuring myself by saying "it is just OCD". Sometimes I don't get the idea of distinguishing the recovery tools and compulsions

hateocd123

Date posted: 5y

Me too. I get confused between what are compulsions, what is reassurance, and what can actually help me.

tttamme

Date posted: 5y

@hateocd123 Yeah, I find it weird. My mind is constantly looking for ways to overcome OCD and sometimes I accidentally start accepting the thoughts and OCD loses its power. It's weird

hateocd123

Date posted: 5y

@tttamme I've accepted the thoughts, but it doesn't make the ocd lose its power for me. Maybe I'm in an in between phase, but I've accepted the idea of being a lesbian and I'm not any less stressed than I was before.

Ty94

Date posted: 5y

Yeah, OCD definitely correlates directly with life changes, anxiety etc. Think of it as our brain’s way of coping with stress. That’s literally all it is. Let me know the next time your OCD is bad when everything in life is going good work, family etc. That’s why we have to be ready to accept that’s the way we are built so that when things happen and change throughout life (and they most definitely will as we all know) we get better and better at managing our coping mechanism of whatever OCD has latched on to at that time. Embrace your OCD, get to know it up close and in person so it’s not so big and bad anymore. You’ll weaken it. Another tip from me is when you are in the midst of a life change, high anxiety etc and your OCD is full throttle, try not to practice exposure therapy during that time. Resists compulsions, but don’t necessarily go looking and checking. OCD wants you to do that at that time because it knows you’re in a weak state. Better yet, practice exposure, CBT etc with your psychologist or when anxiety is low. Stay positive ✊?

Luke_McElwee

Date posted: 21w

Losing my shit, freaking out

Idk if this post is even worth it but it seemed like a normal day for me, called off work due to the weather so I get to just stay home and play games all day. Easy day besides dealing with the constant and unbearable battle with my intrusive thoughts/feelings. Took a shower and I just had constant thoughts, (heart palpitations are pretty constant) ended up breaking down and bawling my eyes out. I was diagnosed with HOCD and ROCD about 2 months ago and since it's just gotten worse. It feels as real as it can get and after talking to my girlfriend about the anxiety attack, it feels even more real. I have no desire or enjoyment from what comes from my brain, and at this point I'm on my knees begging the big man upstairs for my old life back, how do I go from being obsessed with women (sexually and emotionally) to pretty much doing a 180 overnight (with the obvious anxiety and worry behind it. No real desire obviously). I'm just at a loss, I've done a little ERP and it seemed to help with the brain fog but besides that, everything that it does to someone, I have. And again there's the doubt I even have OCD and I'm in straight denial. It just sucks.

geodrimilis

Date posted: 15w

I need this to end.

I’ve completely lost myself. I can’t focus on my studies, I can’t go to the gym. Dang it I can’t even be around my male friends normally anymore. I got no idea why or how this happened but the only thing I know for sure is that I never questioned my sexuality neither doubted it. I never cared in general. I just liked girls. I keep testing and keep testing and keep testing my arousal but no matter how many times I see but I don’t feel the same way for guys that I do with girls my mind will always try to make me believe that I am gay. It’s like it’s forcing me into an identity I never asked for. But at the end of the day like my psychologist told me. Sexuality doesn’t change. So since I never felt anything for guys in my life it’s ocd. I’ve been up and down for 5 months now and while the last week I was feeling way better. Monday now and I’m back to zero. I just want to go back when everything was normal. I can’t keep living with this.

Sexual Orientation OCD

vaiiolyn

Date posted: 15w

feeling helpless

As a lesbian with SO-OCD, I feel so helpless. It's truly exhausting because no one I know understands what I'm going through. The first response is always, "You're just confused" or "You don't have to know yet." But that's not the issue, I do know. I just never see any lesbians with SO-OCD so I feel so invalidated. These thoughts flood my brain constantly, forcing me to analyze my reactions to every man I see. I feel trapped in an endless cycle of "testing" myself, trying to prove that I don't like them. But my brain fights back, telling me I do want to love a man, making it feel real even though don't want it. It's terrifying. At this point, it's hard to even hold onto my identity as a lesbian because I'm so overwhelmed. I don't know if this is what real attraction is supposed to feel like, and that fear eats away at me. The truth is, when I think about being with a man, all I feel is disgust and fear-but my brain twists that into doubt. I hate it. I'm at the point where I'm scared I'm going to have to accept something I don't want because I don't know if this will ever go away. I miss who I was before all this.

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