So I was walking on Christmas Eve and slipped on some ice. I fell backwards and smashed the back of my head into the pavement, resulting in a pretty bad concussion. I have horrible contamination OCD and an awful, endless fear of dying from an injury/illness. I’ve forced myself to stop googling symptoms every time I don’t feel well, which has helped slightly. This concussion is making me extremely irritable and I don’t feel like myself. My compulsions are out of control, I’m not sure if it’s because of the head injury, or the constant fear that my brain is bleeding and the fear that I’ll never feel normal again. I can’t tell my actual symptoms apart from my OCD. My anxiety has been so bad that I’m sleepwalking during the night, it feels like I am never going to snap out of this. I’m having constant panic attacks because of how overwhelming the symptoms are and how nervous I am of having a seizure/dying. Has anyone on here ever had a concussion that triggered their OCD? If so, what did you do to overcome it and about how long did it take to feel okay again?

Does anyone else think they have messed up their brain to the point of no return after onset of ocd symptoms? I was in constant battle with my brain for 5 months since I had a very bad habit of giving too much attention to my thoughts. A couple of months have passed since I left my brain alone but I still have brain fog as well as depersonalization/derealization. it sucks :(. I would love to hear from you.

I am 36 years old with no history of mental illness. I had a stressful event at work about 6 months ago and slowly started getting intrusive thoughts about harming myself or my kids, but am at a point where it’s all I can think about. I was diagnosed with OCD officially this week. I’m distraught and finding it hard to cope since. I’ve never had to deal with anything like this before. I just started ERP therapy. I am hoping it helps but am terrified that it won’t. I just want my old self back! Please, if there is anyone out there who has gone through a similar situation, what helped you continue to function? Will I get to a point that I can function without being tormented by my thoughts?

Have any of you been stuck in what feels like an OCD loop? It’s like being held hostage by OCD. It’s like everything becomes a trigger. Like there isn’t a part of the day where I’m not having intrusive thoughts because it’s the only thing my brain can think about. So every conversation I’m thinking of horrible things I could say, every time I pet my dog think of things I could do to hurt her, anytime I drive I think of hitting pedestrians, every time I’m alone I think of ways I could hurt myself. It honestly feels like my brains on fire I’m starting to think I might have some kind of destructive brain tumour because I can’t comprehend how this can all be mental illness. It’s the ‘urge’ I can’t deal with it feels so real. I’ve had mental illness and likely OCD my whole life but nothing has ever made me feel as scared and hopeless as this. I’ve been having horrible migraine attacks daily for months and I think the trigger is the stress and anxiety these thoughts cause. I feel like I can never rest. It’s like my head is caught in a vice and my eye sight is constant flashes and static. Blood tests normal and two eye tests back normal. I can barely work as my whole job is computer based. I don’t even know how I would begin to do ERP because it feels like I’d have to tackle EVERYTHING about being alive! I also don’t think I have any compulsions. If I do none of them provide any relief so it’s basically just me feeling like I’m going insane every single day since October. It’s impossible to relax when my brain thinks we’re either going to die of a brain tumour or going insane and hurting myself against my will or doing something to someone else that would mean I would have to kill myself. My brain honestly believes it’s inevitable I won’t be along for much longer and it’s petrifying. I don’t know how to get better until I can reset my body to get out of this cycle. How am I supposed to move forward when my brain and body is in constant fight and flight? Does anybody relate? My brain doesn’t even believe this is OCD anymore… I guess this is reassurance but I’m having such a terrible time.