I never thought I would say this but this app triggers me so much and brings me a new theme. My OCD themes are usually religious and ROCD but since yesterday, I found a lot of post about HOCD, i began to fear that what if this will be my next theme/problem. And then this morning when I woke up, I felt so scared that I may be not as straight woman I thought I am. This is frightening as I do not want to be gay nor my ocd to morp into something else. OCD really sucks.

Telling yourself "it's OCD/intrusive thoughts, it's not real or true" is also a compulsion. Don't respond to anxiety with compulsions.

@Scoggy Yeah I guess your right. How would you suggest doing ERP in this early stage? What should I think

@Merri No thinky. Only feely. Feely feelings in body. When thinky come, no thinky. Back to body.

@Scoggy Is that how to do the ERP? Its sounds mindfulness, I am trying to relax my mind right now but the urge is strong

@Merri Yep, pretty similar to mindfulness. You can't force the mind to relax, it relaxes when it feels safe to. Go somewhere safe and just feel all the feelings in your body. Take deep breaths. Notice where the unpleasant feelings are, often chest or stomach or shoulders. Try to describe the feelings: ache? Squeeze? Heavy? Lean into the feelings. See how they don't hurt you. Keep leaning against them with calm breathing. When thoughts come, go back to parts of the body and feel the sensations. Stay away from the mind. The feelings become less over time as you focus on them and feel them. Don't flinch away from them, feel them intensely as purely physical experiences. Do this until the different feelings of nervousness, fear, guilt, agitation etc in your body have been completely felt and ebbed away and disappear. All you have left is peace :)

@Scoggy While you do this, the mind relaxes on its own and gives fewer urges to do compulsions. You can't force the mind to relax by focusing on the mind. You can let the mind feel safe to relax by focusing on the body and processing emotions in your body, so then the mind has no job left to do :) then your mind can just smile and go swimming.

@Scoggy Thank u @Scoggy. Hope things get better.

But I never had HOCD thought before. Even when reading how people struggle with Hocd on this app, i felt bad for them although I was struggling to different themes. And now I am starting to have fear about Hocd which not even the tiniest bit was my problem before

@Merri I’ve had that same issue from this app; used to sympathise with people then started getting alarming intrusive thoughts myself about a theme I’d never had before. Sometimes it helps to dispense with the labelling of themes and see everything as OCD - the themes are just branches but OCD is the trunk and the roots - you have to treat all intrusive thoughts the same no matter what their content

@Soph Its comforting that I am not alone in this. Thanks. I am scared, because I never been bothered by my sexuality. I do not want another theme to arise. Ok I will try to think it as OCD in general just like I always have.