Guys I'm scared. It was finals week this last week, so I've had to do a lot of studying and preparing for tests. This has kept my mind busy and my ocd hasn't been nearly as bad as it's been. Now that the week is over, I fear my ocd will get exponential worse, as it tends to do when I get bored or have nothing to do. Any tips? I feel like forcing myself to be busy will just make it worse, because then I'd be using it as a compulsion.

Aw I’ve been there too. I’ve basically had ocd my whole life but only discovered that I had it about a year ago and it completely changed my life. I bawled for 2 hours when I figured it out. I had hocd at the time so I was compulsively searching on the internet for evidence that “I was gay” and came across a bunch of articles describing it as a symptom of ocd. Absolutely changed my life. I don’t know how yours manifests and you might not know everything yet either but I promise it can only get better from here. I hope you have a supportive family who will understand—but if that’s not the case the people on this forum understand. My biggest piece of advice is just to never submit to it, know who you are deep inside, and look your fears in the face even when you’re scared. People with ocd are the bravest people I’ve met simply because we look fear in the face ever single day and keep going regardless. You made it here. We can get through this ❤️

@Jordyn ? This really helped me- I just posted something about how I have obsessive thoughts and dreams that essentially feel like I have imposter syndrome in the OCD community. I feel like when I read about people with different or more intense types of OCD that I don’t really have it because mine seems small and new. Thank you for your support- I need all of it that I can get going into this holiday season ??

@Rylieraz No problem! And it’s super common for people with ocd to doubt they even have ocd, it’s a weird thing that happens but I’ve definitely been there too. You got it!