does anyone have any tips to get over HOCD? it’s driving me crazy and it’s taking over my life

I’m still trying to figure it out! But what has helped me is to not analyze the unwanted thoughts/feelings of attraction. I know they do not give me joy, and so I just try my best to not analyze them or ruminate over them. It’s obviously easier said than done, but I’ve noticed my HOCD not being as strong when I don’t practice any of my mental compulsions.

this sounds easier said than done but just don’t give a f***. these thoughts have caused you suffering for so long that you shouldn’t continue it by allowing them to bother you. become more busy, social and active and you’ll notice how your mind starts to forget about it. i still have thoughts everyday, but I thank God for allowing them to not make me feel as awful as they used to. reach out to me if you need any help I wish you the best of luck.

First, know you aren’t alone. The most common form of OCD is intrusive thoughts. Second, know there is help out there, although sometimes hard to find. As a community we can help you find that help. Beating intrusive thoughts is all about being able to accept uncertainty and prevent doing compulsions. Often, they will be asking others for reassurance, mentally checking past events/memories, and more. Third, stay positive. OCD sucks, but you don’t. It’s important to realize that.

@jen22 how can you identify mental compulsion? I mean, it’s not obvious as behavior compulsion.

@serena I have struggled with mental compulsions more than physical compulsions throughout my life. For me, mental compulsions could be reassuring myself that these thoughts aren’t true, analyzing my unwanted thoughts/ feelings until I feel “okay” again, repeating phrases in my head a certain number of time, etc. It’s definitely not as obvious as physical compulsions, but I would say that it is anything that you mentally do whether rumination, repeating phrases in your head, etc in order to lower your anxiety or remove the intrusive thoughts and feelings

@Jen22 thank you for reply. I didn’t really think of self-assurance as a compulsion before. I thought it as self-encouragement or self-comforting. Now, I realize I do mental compulsion a lot. It did bring me some kind of relief when I tell myself that thoughts are not true. However, I get a bit confused. Lots of therapists say thoughts are just thoughts and tell us not to believe thoughts. So, our goal is to not believe thoughts and don’t care about thoughts. Then, why is telling ourselves thoughts are not true a compulsion, instead of rational thinking or trying to establish a correct belief? What do you find helpful to cut out mental compulsion?

I think self-assurance is good! But only to a point. What I have found is that self-assurance becomes a mental compulsions when I do it constantly or in a repetitive way where I know “Okay I’ve told myself this before. Now I’m just arguing with my thoughts and giving them more power than I should.” I’m still working on cutting out mental compulsions but what has helped me is just letting the intrusive thoughts and feelings flow through me without giving them any attention. So for instance, I struggle with HOCD. This manifests itself a lot as unwanted intrusive feelings or body sensations that try to convince me that I’m attracted to the same sex. However, these feelings bring me no joy. In fact, one of my biggest dreams is to have a husband. Instead of analyzing the intrusive feelings and wondering why they are there, I try to just let them pass through me without analyzing them. It can be painful and create anxiety, but I try not to give them any attention. Please know I don’t have this all figured out. In fact, I’ve struggled with giving in to mental compulsions a lot today. But, it’s a journey and we are definitely going to have bad days and good days.