Does anyone else see a spike in their OCD and anxiety when stressed out or worried? When work picks up and I have more responsibility, I notice a heightened sense of anxiety and OCD themes pick up. HOCD has always been a battle this year, but it’s been much less as magnified when I’m not stressed. How do others not allow their work to cause so much stress? How do you deal with trying to be perfect or fear you’re a failure?

Totally. I highly recommend reading “overcoming intrusive thoughts” by Martin Seif and Sally Winston. It explains the things we’re feeling to a T! They refer to this as sticky thoughts and thoughts tend to be more sticky when stressed, tired, etc.

My OCD absolutely gets worse when I'm stressed out. I'm currently a uni student, and the stressed caused me to have two suicide attempts. It wasnt the stress of school, but it was bc of how bad my OCD got. Always remember to resch out to loved ones and/or professionals. You arent alone, and we all cheering you on!!!

For me when my work is really busy I find that OCD decreases as I find that prioritizing the work leaves no time to think about the obsessions and carry out compulsions. For example, if there is a major deadline and I want to carry out compulsions, I simply just cannot do this until I’m done.

That’s rough. Hang in there. My job is customer service so leaves me no choice but to sweep it under the rug. Of course at the end of the day when all catches up to me I’m exhausted and stil have to deal with all the delayed ocd obsessions and compulsions.

It’s my dream job, but the pressure I put on myself is just so unrealistic and I put too much pressure on being perfect. With the OCD this past year I’ve done probably bare minimum, and while I’m not entirely proud of it, I’ve been trying to get my life back in order. Things were going in a more positive direction till the last few days somewhat of a deadline came up that I wasn’t prepared for.

Don’t let the little setback bum you out. Keep pushing forward and hopefully you will see some major improvements! It’s great that you have your dream job so that is a positive to look forward to!

I feel you - I have a big deadline Monday and my stress is throwing ocd into overdrive...I’m going to a yoga class tonight which really helps me. Exercise and mindful meditation can be good stress relievers...have you tried the insight timer app? I agree w the posts above - keep going and good luck!

I appreciate the feedback. @lark - Due to the nature of my job the only compulsion I have is ruminating about said job or ruminating about being in denial or is it HOCD. Very few compulsions right now. It’s tough as I don’t work a typical 9-5 and kind of set my own hours. So that messes with my sleep cycle and everything. I’ve got typical anxiety traits of wanting perfection and putting too much pressure on myself to be perfect which is unrealistic.

It is, now I just wish I could learn to control my stress and anxiety and not get stuck with the BS HOCD. It was a pretty bad flair up today of stress and anxiety, one I hadn’t experienced in a long time. Just one step at a time.