Not sure whether I really have OCD? I’m 22 and have only considered the possibility I suffer from OCD in the past few months. I know I have had obsessive inappropriate thoughts and compulsions to confess to them that were so intense I felt sick all the time until I told my parents since I was a really young child, and in all my relationships have been worried I am gay and do not love my boyfriends / I do not love them anymore and have to dump them / intense paranoia they are cheating on me and will not tell me. In recent years I have had flare ups of thoughts that fit POCD and IOCD but when I told a friend I was worried about having OCD after looking into incest nightmares online, she told me she did not think I had it because another of our friends has OCD with counting compulsions (door locking, oven buttons, etc) and I believed I was just really messed up and that maybe it was just my anxiety. My boyfriend (not knowing about my POCD or IOCD thoughts at all) linked me to an article about a woman with OCD and suggested I research it more, and the behaviours and fears seem to fit me very well and make me feel so much less sick and alone. Does this sound like I may have it or might this just be my anxiety clinging onto something? (I have a tendency to cling to diagnoses then be disproved)

Everyone's experience of OCD is very different. Just because one of your friends has a more 'traditional' type, such as counting and checking it doesn't mean the type you're suffering with is not OCD. Of course we cannot diagnose you, but I do think it sounds like you're definitely experiencing OCD. The best thing to do is to speak to your parents and try to get in touch with a therapist for some CBT. If you're embarrassed you don't have to go into depth about the content of your thoughts, but the fact you're finding it so distressing is a sign that this is OCD. Keep your chin up, accept the uncertainty, and speak to someone xxxxx

Although this sounds like it very well could be OCD, you should book an appointment with a psychiatrist to confirm that the symptoms you are having are related to OCD. Just because you’ve heard that OCD is more common for counting and hand washing, there are many different subtypes with mental compulsions as well. It is unique to the individual, and I do advise you see someone about this.

From the description, you do have obsessions, despite in a form different from the others. It depends on how much these obsessions interfere with your life.

These sexual fear themes are really, really common for OCD (this is how my OCD presents itself when it’s rearing its head—and when it first started happening, I thought I was going nuts and didn’t believe I had OCD because I’d only ever heard of it as cleaning or checking rituals). If you want to look into it more, try looking into Pure O OCD. Like everyone suggested though, you should go to a therapist or psychiatrist to get diagnosed, but I suggest going to one that specializes in OCD so that you can be as open as possible about your thoughts—they’ve heard it all many times before. Unfortunately with the sexual fears theme, there are a lot of therapists out there unfamiliar with OCD who can make you feel worse because they don’t understand. The International OCD Foundation is a really good resource for finding help: https://iocdf.org/. Hang in there! (Also, if you are offered medication, know that medication can help a lot with OCD, even sexual ocd, and it’s really common to combine medication with CBT. It took me a long time to accept that too—so if you feel you need that extra relief/extra help, don’t buy into the stigma against medication).

I completely get how you're feeling. I constantly feel like I'm just being a hypochondriac, looking for the symptoms so that I have something. It's so difficult to figure out whether the doubt is OCD or whether it's just a more realistic side of me telling me to stop being dramatic. Definitely agree that it's worth trying to see someone (more than a GP, because they can make you feel even more like a hypochondriac in my opinion) and hopefully get a better understanding of what's going on. I know with me I think I'd find it easier if I could just put a label to whatevers going on inside my head.