I'm new to nocd

Hey, I am also undiagnosed. I had a reqlly bad phase with checking and I had to force myself to not be so thorough in a way. Its gonna be hard and while mine hasn't conpeltly went away it had helped immensely

Welcome! I’m diagnosed and have had an OCD therapist for some time but I started exploring NOCD undiagnosed. Getting an OCD trained therapist is the best thing you could do if you are able to (I know healthcare costs/insurance is a pain in many cases). They would assess you and could work on ERP (exposure response prevention) exercises for your specific compulsions. A big thing we learn as OCD folks is that all compulsions, no matter how different all revolve around the same discomfort of uncertainty. I’m not a therapist but if checking the door is a big compulsion for you, I’m confident a therapist would have you practice different ways to work on accepting the discomfort. One example would be you could try checking just once and going about your regular plans. If your fear is worrying that “if the door is unlocked, someone will break in and steal my things while I’m gone” or whatever your thoughts are, you could do something like check once and when you get the urge (compulsion) to check again, resist it and do what you would have done if OCD wasn’t a factor (go to work, read a book, go for a walk, etc)

Hiiiii! Me too! I've been diagnosed with depression, ADHD, and maybe I do still have those, but... OCD was only suggested to me a couple months ago. So much fits. Like I assumed the "brain fog" and "lack of motivation" were depression. But it turns out that a type of intrusive thought in OCD is "thought stopping", where your brain just switches off, and that really fits what I've been experiencing. And the ERP I'm on for the thought stoppung actually makes sense and seems doable if I push myself a little, rather than solutions for depression and ADHD, which don't work. Now everywhere I look, I see people who I think might have undiagnosed OCD... I'm probably projecting, but also, now that I see how subtle it can be, and how it explains the behavior of so many people I know, it's hard to not see it. As for not checking the door... That's up to you and your therapist, but my guess is it's going to be: Do something else instead. Urge to check the door? Drink water instead. Even if you check the door afterwards, you've at least noticed and interrupted the compulsion. So it's not so automatic, and you start to build mindfulness and control around making the *choice* to do it. That's step one. As far as I understand it anyway... cuz I'm new too!

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