Has anyone experienced OCD being passed along from a parent who has an undiagnosed issue? I’m realizing I probably have OCD because my mother has untreated anxiety that she continues to pass along to me. I’m in therapy working on contamination/responsibility OCD, and it was going so well until my mother told me I’m getting “too relaxed” with COVID going on. For context, my OCD since the pandemic started has been absolutely crippling. I live alone and I didn’t leave the house for months. Not for walks, not for groceries, not for anything. I was absolutely miserable and at my wit’s end. Now that I’m in therapy, I’ve been doing so much better. I’ve been talking walks and even seeing friends (6 feet apart, outdoors, with masks on). Now my mother is unraveling all my progress. She saw my dad and I sitting outside in the backyard, about 10 feet apart. My dad wasn’t wearing a mask because he was eating. I was wearing my mask and keeping my distance. My mother went berserk and told me I’m “too lax” and that I should have scolded my dad, and that I shouldn’t have been “so close.” This is the kind of thinking that kept me in the house, questioning the point of life. I just don’t know what to do anymore. I was making so much progress and I feel like it’s all totally undone and I never want to leave the house again. And my parents are the only people I see regularly at this point so to avoid my mother would be difficult, not to mention hard on my dad. Just wondering if anyone can relate to anything like this, or if anyone has any advice. Thank you.

TW: death This is my first time posting, but I don’t know what to do. My husband who has never exhibited mental health symptoms before has been showing some OCD symptoms like ruminating (to the point where he can’t fall asleep for hours), asking for reassurance repeatedly, and overthinking in a way that it’s like he’s trying to solve problems by thinking about them a lot, but…they’re not actually real problems?? Far-fetched possibilities? We talk through his anxieties to what I think is resolution, just for him to bring it up again 30 min later. I’ve been in NOCD therapy for a month-ish now, and I’ve improved a lot—especially with the exact things my husband has begun to struggle with. I have not asked for reassurance in weeks. I feel like I infected him. I don’t know what to do because I don’t want to be his therapist or tell him what to do. He is in therapy for anxiety about starting a new job, but honestly, his therapist sucks, and he’s decided to find another one, hopefully, that is trained in ACT. I just feel guilty and helpless. Oh also to make it scarier, before I dated my husband, I was in a relationship with someone who had verrryyy severe OCD, to the point where my OCD seemed inconsequential. I was able to help him a lot, but being with him made my OCD worse because a lot of ocs were normalized. My precious parter ended up taking his own life. I’m just really on edge about this. I don’t want my husband to develop OCD and die.

Anyone else raised by a parent who has undiagnosed OCPD? I just discovered what the diagnosis is, and I am certain I had a caregiver as a child with it. It greatly shaped my OCD and why I have OCD in the first place. I’d love to hear your story and relationship to that person as a child and adult.

Life has been so tough for me lately. I’ve been stuck in an OCD spiral since last December. Most of my fears come from incidentally causing harm to my family or others. I feel like every action is a moral conflict, or that any time I make a bad decision, act out of frustration, or self indulge in anything, I’m debating about whether I’m an awful person who doesn’t care about my kids, my wife, or other people. I’m a stay at home parent currently, and all three of my kids are neurodivergent, with my youngest being on the spectrum. My youngest is nonverbal, so my OCD loves to manipulate that, making it hard to know if my son is happy, sad, upset, etc. Always feeling like I’m worried I’ll make too many mistakes as a parent. That any time I lose my cool, it means I’m just this awful person and parent. I’m burnt out from the stress currently, so I always feel on edge, which makes it harder to have the mental power to resist compulsions. I am in OCD therapy, which has helped. But every time I feel like I’m taking steps in the right direction I get sucked back in. Every time I resist compulsions, I’m triggered almost immediately after. Because I’m a stay at home parent, and a lot of my triggers and themes involve harm to others, particularly my family, it’s just trigger after trigger after trigger. My wife is exhausted from my mental health, which just adds to the guilt I already feel. I hate that my mental health is affecting everyone, and it only reinforces the idea that I’m causing harm or suffering to those around me. I just need a break. I cannot keep living my life this way. This is the worst my OCD has been, and I feel so traumatized from all the days and hours I’ve spent feeling like I’m at my limit. Thanks for reading. Feel free to respond if you can relate. Just needed to vent.