- Date posted
- 5y
- Date posted
- 5y
We can power through together. I know we’re not alone, does feel like it sometimes though. If I can get myself to eat something I’d like to find the energy to spend the day baking. Baking is all I really enjoy doing and I haven’t been able to for a while since I’ve had such low energy
- Date posted
- 5y
Me too. I was doing fine for a bit but tonight really hit me in my soul. Please don’t give up. I felt like giving up tonight too but I’m trying my best to power through it. I’m right there with you ?
- Date posted
- 5y
JBird88, hope you can spend today doing something you enjoy. Hopefully that helps bring you up out of the dark a little.
- Date posted
- 5y
Can you find some ‘safe’ foods? Mine was rice, although I’m back to a semi-normal diet now. Even if the only thing you can get yourself to eat is rice or crackers or something, it’s still energy for your body, which means it’s a victory. Any food in the world is going to be a win if it’s food that you’ll eat- Jello, Twinkies, Cocoa Puffs, whatever it is you can get yourself to think of as ‘safe’. Once you’ve got some kind of food you can eat, you will have the energy to work on expanding that list to include more foods.
- Date posted
- 5y
For the hand washing- gloves? A box of nitrile exam gloves might help- then you can just put on new gloves rather than washing your hands. That way, they’ll be protected until the knuckles can heal and the skin can recover from the frequent washings. This is only a short-term, crisis-mode suggestion, of course, but might help you keep from causing actual physical harm to yourself while you work on breaking the compulsions. You could also maybe try switching some hand washing to hand sanitizer- that’s what I’ve done and it’s been really good for me in terms of my hands being less dry and having less cracking and bleeding. I try to use hand sanitizer rather than washing my hands at least once a day, usually more.
- Date posted
- 5y
For me, safe foods come and go. A food that was safe yesterday isn’t safe today. It’s really frustrating cause I’ll think I finally found something safe to eat then I find a reason why it’s not safe. Lately packaged foods have been ok but I get anxious if I touch the outside of the package then touch the food.
- Date posted
- 5y
I work at a bakery so when my hands start bleeding I have to use gloves. I play it off as having dry skin and hating lotion. But it does help my hands heal cause then I’m washing gloves and not my hands. I really hate things being on my hands like lotion or sanitizer. I feel like I lose control over where I spread the substance that’s on my hands.
- Date posted
- 5y
Yeah, that sounds familiar. Opening the package, going to wash hands, coming back and then eating was my process for a long time. Then I’d get anxious about the package having been open while I washed my hands. It’s truly a vicious cycle, isn’t it?
- Date posted
- 5y
It’s miserable. I just really want it to go away. ?
Related posts
- Date posted
- 25w
Something I haven’t shared on here is that when I get anxious and my OCD is really bad, I end up spending a lot of time in the bathroom. My family isn’t supportive when it comes to mental health, and I don’t have any privacy at home. So, when I realize my butt is numb for the I don’t even know how many times today, I know I’m not doing okay. :( All my panic attacks happen in the bathroom. Even when I’m out shopping or doing something, I run to the bathroom. It’s like I have an emotional support toilet instead of a support system. I’m crying, feeling so anxious, and I can’t stop doing compulsions that I thought I had gotten past more than a month ago. My streaks are broken, and I feel broken. I want to get out of this bathroom, be normal, and be productive, but I just can’t. I can’t stop crying, and I can’t even breathe properly. I didn’t even realize what time it is, the day is nearly over and I’m still in here :(
- Real Events OCD
- Relationship OCD
- Students with OCD
- Mid-life adults with OCD
- POCD
- Older adults with OCD
- Young adults with OCD
- Harm OCD
- Date posted
- 11w
(Long post warning) Hi, I’ve been struggling with severe OCD for six years now. it started in 2019 with my theme being getting sick/emetophobia. it devastated my life. I almost didn’t graduate high school from it. I remember washing my hands for three hours one day until they were nearly bloody while crying and asking why I could not stop doing it. I remember id have to write and rewrite sentences when I did my English homework and that’s why I nearly failed that class. I remember how I would spend up to thirty minutes to an hour pacing the halls of my apartment while my mom was asleep until I neutralized the thoughts about throwing up and I could finally go to bed. I don’t know when it happened, but my theme switched. Sometimes in late 2020 or early 2021, it switched to POCD. It started with a single thought, and I focused on it and it’s been my theme since then for four years. It has been absolutely destroying me. I feel so disgusted and lost and just tired. My compulsions are severe now. I thought they were bad before, but now they’re ten times worse. I can’t eat, drink, change my clothes, walk, or even do things on my phone normally. I’ve developed so many mental compulsions that it’s so intricate and complicated yet at the same time I’ve done them so much that they’ve become normal. An example I have is if im putting on a shirt and I have a “bad” thought, I have to take it off and put it back on two more times (that’ll make it 3 times I put the shirt back on - odd numbers are my safe number). I have to have a good thought on the third time otherwise I have to take it off and put it on two more times to make it five times I put on that shirt. If not that then I just put on a different shirt because the original is now tainted with my bad thought. I can’t open apps on my phone. It’s with the numbers again. If I open TikTok once while having a bad thought - I have to close it and open it two more times and so on. Sometimes I do it up to 30 times. So I just don’t do things usually. I don’t turn on the TV because I know I’ll redo it. I don’t open a book or grab it off my shelf because I’ll have to repeat the action. I can’t even lay in bed without getting up and redoing it even if im exhausted. I just feel so helpless. I don’t know what to do. I feel disgusting and even now my minds screaming at me that I am dirty and what I think is true. I just wish I was free of this, I wish I could just live my life. I’ve wasted hours and days because of my compulsions. I mask it so well around my friends. I don’t do them in front of anyone or I’ve learned to hide it well. But when im back home alone, it goes haywire. I just want to live again.
- Date posted
- 9w
I can’t function. Everything I do is avoiding setting off my ocd. I stay up til like 5am everyday so I get time to myself where I know that my family is not doing anything, (I am severely set off by food and smells). Then I will wake up and straight away get up to go downstairs (after shifting towels that I use to block the gap from underneath my bedroom door and using my shirt to open and close my bedroom door). When going downstairs I have to leave my phone in my room or it will get contaminated. Once downstairs I can let my fam get food out and do anything that they need (breakfast/lunch), and the second they’re finished I must set a timer for 30min-2hrs before I can even consider going in my room. I can’t touch my drinks, opting for straws that I don’t touch once drank through. I can only sit on one couch cushion in my entire house, except bathroom and bedroom. I can’t touch food, I can’t touch cutlery (wrapping kitchen roll around the handle (eating burgers and pizza with a fork is hell)). I can’t touch the tv remote, or any family members except my dog. I can’t touch any door handles, usually using my foot or getting help from a family member. Every time I go into my bedroom I need to wash my hands at least 3 times before I even consider entering. If my parents cut the grass, I have to semi-suffocate under my bed comforter for the entirety of it and 2hrs after, then spray my room with disinfectant. If my door is open for a second too long or more than a crack, I need to spray (literally squeezing myself through the door every time) and must always block the door with towels. I can’t touch anything on my desk/sides/storage furniture except my mattress, blanket, clothes, and a single notebook that I disinfect every now and then. Multiple times a week I have to wash my phone (I know it’s really bad and I’m already on my second phone because of this, and broke my Nintendo trying to do the same). I have to do my makeup with a t shirt or smth separating my hands from the bottle. I can’t touch my cars seatbelt or anything in the car (had to forgo driving entirely for the past 4 months). I hate this so much and thankfully started Prozac last week, hoping it does something.
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