Message of love and hope for you teenagers! I had such bad OCD as a teenager, especially ages 13-16. I felt soo alone, like there was no way that anyone else was worrying about these “crazy” things. Now I’m a middle school teacher (I also teach some high school) and it blows my mind how many teenagers do have OCD. Just this past year I had 5 students who shared with me (or their parents shared) that they had an OCD diagnosis. Did you know that OCD about homosexuality and relationships is super common for teenagers? You need to know that it is VERY unlikely that you are the only student at your school with OCD. In fact, there’s a good chance that someone at your school has the same OCD theme as you. I’m telling you this so that you know you are NOT alone. When you’re obsessing about something during lunch, there’s a good chance someone else in the cafeteria is struggling with their OCD too. It’s so tough dealing with OCD as a teenager. So this is me sending you a huge hug and telling you that you are STRONG and BRAVE and NOT ALONE in this struggle.

Yeah it is so tough and a difficult thing to deal with when you’re so young.

@Yayfortherapy did u go through it before ? if so, can you please give me some advice and tips on how to overcome it? I would really appreciate it:)

@princess??‍♀️ Yes! I definitely really struggled with that at your age (I’m 26 now.) I really think the key is ERP. Are you trying ERP? If your parents aren’t willing to send you to a therapist, another option could be to get an ERP workbook on Amazon. Basically, the idea with ERP is to do an exposure to the fear, then resist doing any type of compulsion to make the fear go away. For example, if you’re afraid that you’re attracted to girls, you could do something to really trigger that OCD. You could pull up a picture of an attractive woman, then look at it and think, “maybe I’m attracted to her.” Then just sit with that anxiety and uncertainty without doing any compulsions (compulsions would be anything to make yourself feel better, like thinking, “no, I like guys.”) the anxiety will eventually come down on its own, so just wait for that. That’s the basis of how to do it! But it’s really best if you can get a therapist that does ERP.

@Yayfortherapy omg thank you so much for taking the time to help !! :) I can’t go to a therapist so I will make sure to check out the ERP workbook ! I found a video about it on youtube, I will start doing it, hopefully I will get over it soon :)

Can you explain what you mean by urges? Is it like OCD telling you that you want to do something?

@Yayfortherapy Yes. I’m dealing with pocd and my urges were making me feel like it’s what I really wanted to do...

@dmuhnyyy Oh, I know what you mean. Yes I had that, especially when I was probably about 14. I always was afraid that I was going to grab other girl’s boobs. It made me feel so ashamed, like no one should be friends with me. It’s just another part of OCD that you can do ERP with. So the exposure might be to say “yeah, I might actually hurt a child, I have no way to know for sure what my future actions will be.” Then let yourself get anxious about it without doing anything to stop the anxiety (compulsions.) eventually the anxiety will come down on its own. I’m sorry you’re dealing with this!

@Yayfortherapy And you felt an actual urge to do so? Wow that can be so scary can’t it? I saw a pic of this cute little girl and I felt like I wanted to master *^%# to her. It felt so real. Like I wanted to go into the bathroom and do it. It was so excruciating. I panicked so much. And I know we’re not supposed panic but it was just so scary. But I am going to do some exposures today!! Thank you for this

@dmuhnyyy Have you read about the groinal response? You can look up Chrissy Hodges’ videos about it. It sounds like what you’re describing! It also happens to me.