Hi, my name is Rebecca. I dowloaded this app a while ago but this is my first time on here. I've had OCD since I was 8 but didn't know it was OCD until I was 22. I have pure OCD so no compulsions, but I've had just about every thought type you could imagine. They tend to trade out in terms of subject matter. I dont really know what I'm looking for exactly, I just think it would be nice to hear from some other people with pure OCD, and not feel so isolated.

Pure O here! I consider it the tenth circle of hell. This app is a place where we can all feebly tell each other "way to go" while our pure O throws shame-bricks and doubt-rocks at our heads. I didn't know I had it until this year when I saw a Chrissy Hodges video but I've had it at least since I was 9 and am 26 now. My pure O tends to focus on things I did wrong or might have done wrong or things which could have hurt others and tell me I'm going to be publicly shamed, misunderstood, kicked out of school, sent to jail or, occasionally, killed. There's a lot of responsibility and real event OCD in there, so I worry about whether something I did or didn't do which caused or is going to cause bad things to happen for other people. If I can take even a snippet of responsibility, I'll take the whole responsibility cake thanks. For coping I do meditation/emotional processing in the face of triggers using a book called Letting Go by David R Hawkins whenever I feel up to it. Uncomfortable but worth it. It helps me to do less avoidance. I've only just started OCD-trauma therapy so EMDR and ERP including scripting are on the horizon. The gold standard on this app is embracing uncertainty. The only real rule is to try not to give or ask for reassurance about the thoughts as part of seeking an answer to them, as we know it only gives OCD-doubt more fuel. Everyone here is pretty accepting of taboo OCDs, I've never seen any shaming for any themes yet, so don't be afraid to be explicit. We all have checking habits which make us ashamed and embarrassed etc. It's late so I've got to get back to trying to figure out whether coronavirus can live on ice cream and then throwing out the ice cream just in case someone else eats it and then worrying whether I really threw it out or just thought I did.

Oh, I also try to make a habit of telling myself that even if all my fears came true, I could still handle it. There's a decent audiobook called "feel the fear and do it anyway". Stoicism and Buddhism also help with that, my favourites are Siddhartha and Pliny the Younger's letters to Lucius. "Is this the condition I so feared?"

Welcome ☺

LouW thank you! You're insight really helped. I find that the root of all my thoughts often center around guilt and generalized negative feelings about myself. Then those feelings get redirected as intrusive thoughts that further confirm those feelings. Its hard because I find myself often asking "Why?", why do I feel so bad/guilty/horrible about myself all the time but I guess that's a pretty common theme among people with pure O. I know the best thing is to not seek answers even when I feel like I desperately need them. I am going to look into the Letting Go book, and the audio book! Thanks for taking the time to write your thoughts here :)

Wow that is a lot to handle, and it sounds like you have really worked hard to recognize everything contributing to your feelings and thoughts, and that you're working hard to overcome them regardless of your previous life experiences that generated it. That is something to be really proud of, and I hope I can achieve that as well. I'm not sure why I have generated such negative feelings about myself. I cant pick out anything in particular about my life that lead me to feel the way I do. Sometimes that in and of itself makes me feel bad, because there are people who actually have traumatic or other life experiences which generates their feelings and OCD, while here I am with no reason at all but still feeling this way.

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Thank you, that is the first time I've ever really talked to anyone else who feels the same way I do. And for you to take so much time and detail to talk things out with me, it really means more than I could say. Especially about being flexible, and developing new ways of thinking.

I was hoping people could share a little bit about what works best for them in terms of coping with/releasing thoughts?

Welcome I have ocd very bad and it’s really hard for me to get through each day I must avoid 6 and number twos and I also can’t keep movies in very long in DVD player I’m the only one out of my sisters that has this my mother had it as well as my grandma ? anyway if u ever feel like to chat just drop me a line God bless