How do you deal with obsessions when you know the thing you obsess about will happen and there’s nothing you can do about it? I try to be rational but it doesn’t work.

I’m glad you overcame your fear. What do the 12 steps mean?

@LM3 It’s from the original program of Alcoholics Anonymous only applied to OCD. Called Obsessive Compulsive Anonymous (OCA). 12 steps to recovery from OCD

Aging and losing my looks. I hate how shallow it is but my brain can’t help it.

I’m guess not looking the same and looking older. Honestly I think if I had a family of my own I don’t think I’d care as much. I’m 31.

@LM3 Might be getting somewhere. Why would having a family of your own make a difference in this situation?

@Ben84 Sorry for answering late. I fell asleep think maybe because I’d have a husband who cared about me regardless of how I look. I know our thoughts sometimes don’t make sense.

@LM3 Is it perhaps more a fear of always being "alone"? I'm 36 and have never even been on a date due to a variety of reasons. So I can relate to projecting into the future and imagining worst case scenarios.

@Ben84 I’ve had the fear of being alone before. While this current obsession isn’t the same it might be related. It’s hard to put into words or know why our brain focuses on something. It’s nice to meet someone with similar concerns 😊

@LM3 Good luck 🙂!

@Ben84 Thank you @Ben84! You too 🙂

Is ERP helping you? I know the notion it will absolutely happen makes it very hard. This obsession is just something that just came up two weeks ago. Before that my ocd was about different things

@LM3 My obsession also came after I thought I was starting to conquer a different then I had. Mine started about 3 months ago. Sometimes the ERP helps, other times it does nothing. It comes in waves. Sometimes I’ll watch movies that have people who have Alzheimer’s or dementia in them and then I’ll just say to myself “yeah. That might happen to me one day. I might forget everything about my life. I can’t stop it.” And I sit with the thought until my brain is like okay there’s no point worrying about this. And other times, no matter what I do I can’t stop freaking out about it. Same thing with death. Sometimes I’m totally fine with the fact that I’m gonna die and I can’t do anything about it. But about 75% of the time, every single aspect of death gives me intense, crippling anxiety. So long story short lol, sometimes I think the ERP is helping. Other times it does nothing, it not make it worse. Which is very common and normal.

@Anonymous I’m sorry you have to go through this. I know it’s terrible. The anxiety gets so bad. What aspect troubles you about death?

@Anonymous I totally relate to your ocd theme