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My boyfriend knows how deeply I struggle with OCD. But yesterday I was hanging out with him and I told him how I feel really overwhelmed because I’m hanging out with him and I can’t be alone with my thoughts to make myself “feel right.” And he turned to me and said “wow, that sounds really hard, I’m sorry that you are going through that” I felt so heard. I thanked him. Idk if anyone else also has that problem but I feel like when I’m around people or in public and I’m having all these intrusive thoughts my OCD brain tells me to go be alone so I can compulsively make myself feel better. It causes me to be very overwhelmed to where my head hurts. I can’t explain the feeling.

I feel like i’m drowning. I’m screaming on the inside and no one can hear me. No one I know understands the pain I go through every day. I feel like my OCD is making decisions for me that I don’t want. I feel it is ripping things away things that I love and care about. Its ripping away my identity from me. I honestly can’t tell whats real and whats not anymore. I feel so broken down. If ANYONE can offer any kind of support i’d be over the moon appreciative. I feel so unbelievably alone. I just want to feel heard from people who understand

Yup

Hey guys so you maybe have seen my precious post about weight loss. Ok so I genuinely wanted to get real advice as to how I can accurately and correltyl lose weight . I like cardio and am considering going to the gym 3-4 days a week . Cutting food and only eating healthy . I actually tend not to eat alor ever since I had Covid it’s Changed my appetite so it’s no biggy for me. Although I do snack around a lot but that’s aboht it . So like I said I am currntly 5’5 and weigh 150 pounds . So I want to get slimmer body and lose burn fat . I want a pretty straight forward suggestions . Like for example - what kind of breakfast should I eat ? What time during day should I go workout ? How much water should I drink a day? My goal pretty much is to lose 15-20 pounds . I read online that it is realistically possible to lose 8-10 a month of course ik this depends on lifestyle . So I am doing the bare minimum I can and aiming to 4-6 pounds a month . So please can anyone just tell me what i should do? I don’t mean to sound annoying . I am consulting my doctor about this so I know I won’t be overdoing it and doing it rightly .

Literally such bullshit. These thoughts make me feel absolutely terrible and I feel so alone because I’m too ashamed to share them with my loved ones. I know I am straight and want to be straight, but my mind keeps telling me I have to be and always have been gay. I can’t keep living like this. How did I go so many years without these thoughts/being able to easily dismiss them without freaking out. I now feel like they are so real and that I am just gay and need to admit it to everyone around me. I don’t want to live a gay life, so why do I feel like I am something that I don’t want to be? Why don’t I just get to choose my destiny. I’m so scared that I am too far gone and am just going to come out as gay and that will be it. I can’t live with that though.

This isn’t OCD related I just need to rant for a moment because I’m frustrated and need to talk about it. I’ve wanted to get my nose pierced for the longest time. Just a little stud (even though I would have to start with a ring but that’s fine) nothing too major or crazy. I told my friend and she said she would go get it done with me. I was excited and I know from past conversations with my mom and grandma that they don’t like that stuff and don’t think I should ever get one. Well today I decided I wanted to do it for myself and not worry about what other people think but I’m also that kind of person who doesn’t like to disappoint people and I’ve been setback so many times when my mom doesn’t support me with things. So when I told her about getting the piercing, she looked away with an attitude and had a disgusted look on her face and said “it’s your nose” so I just left the room. When I told her a while back I wanted to go back to college (because I quit) she was acting like I shouldn’t go. But I wanted to do it for myself. Whenever I mention moving out, she gives me a guilt trip or makes me feel bad or guilt if I left. My grandma is the same way. I mentioned to my grandma once just joking that I might get another tattoo and she said to “wait until I’m gone first” but yet my brother had tattoos. My mom was supportive of my tattoo that’s permanent but not a freaking nose piercing?! How does that even make sense? I get tattoos are easy to cover but still she was fine with me getting a tattoo. I wanted to play violin when I was a kid and she literally yelled at me saying it was a waste of money because I would give it up, jokes on her I played it for 9 years and she would always be on her phone during my concerts and would never encourage me or say things like good job or good concert like everyone else would. It’s not right to me. I get it I’m now 22 almost 23 years old and I can do things if I want to but it seems like whenever I try to do anything for myself, I get discouraged because I don’t want them to be upset with me or judge me like I have been my entire life. She doesn’t support anything I do. She makes me feel so small sometimes. I love my mom but it just doesn’t seem right to me. I so badly wish I could move out. And get this she wouldn’t let me move out but when I mentioned going across the country to California to visit a friend she said “you’re an adult you can do what you want”. But I can’t get a freaking piercing without it being a problem?! I’m trying to gain confidence and love myself and do things to benefit me but I can’t do that because I keep getting discouraged. I’m over it…

Hey guys. So the ex romantic partner i had in my life has returned and when he left my ocd was terrible. Now he’s back after a year and a half and he told me when/if he came back into my life it would mean that he’s over me. Now he’s saying and doing things/ hinting that he’s still interested in me at least sexually. I feel like he doesn’t respect me and sees me as a object rn. It completely put me off of him. Im now torn on how direct i should be about not wanting anything romantic to happen. Cause every time i shy away from flirty jokes it seems like he becomes distant. I still think of him as one of my closest friends and i want it to remain that way… but if i tell him I’m not interested in that way I’m afraid to lose him. I don’t have any friends rn but 1 person (besides this app) and him and it is pretty lonely. He smothers me in attention and im ngl i love it. I tried reconnecting with other friends but honestly i think I might’ve cringed them out by how much i wanted to hang out with them idk. I just don’t want to be alone, but i don’t like this ex-romantic partner like that. I don’t want to lose him again though. Help?

To start off I am a female, I have been dealing with HOCD since I was 14 years old in late 2015. My HOCD has been on and off the past few years but late December of 2021 it came back. I feel that the start of My HOCD came from childhood same-sex experimentation and p*rn*graphy. I occasionally watched porn but not all of the time. Sometimes I would watch lesbian p*rn and straight p*rn and I would be aroused to both. I stopped watching porn after I turned 14. Even though the experiences that I’ve had led me to having HOCD, I have always been a straight female. I am attracted to males, have feelings and have only been in relationships with males. I start therapy in two weeks I’m ready but I’m also afraid. I’m scared that it won’t help and I’ll feel like this for the rest of my life. Right now im scared because I feel that the same-sex childhood experimentation and p*rn*graphy makes me feel that I am lesbian, but I am not nor do I want to be.

Compulsions are at a minimum but my brain is driving me insane. I overthink everything, I don't think I'll ever be in a normal relationship with a brain like this I hate it I hate it I love my girlfriend but I don't even know my sexuality and I don't know why it's even a big deal I feel like it's going to take over one day all over again. The weeks drag by as I crave not being sober so I don't have to think so much about anything I can just have a good time and be happy with my girlfriend.

Please help me guys 🥺 My last post from 10 mins ago is killing me. The sensations omg I don’t want to be here.

Please help. I cannot sit with these thoughts anymore. I really think I may like them and I feel like I want to act on them and won’t be happy until I do. It’s almost like the graphic intrusive images in my head are getting louder and louder until I come out. I have always identified as a straight female and don’t know what to do now because I feel like I am attracted to ever girl I see and not attracted to guys, even though I never want to actually date a woman. I have had absolutely no relief from these thoughts and they are making me want to die because if they are true I will not live a gay life.

Sometimes I feel like my good days are symptoms of bi polar depression. I guess it’s a mild ocd theme for me. But on my good days when my primary themes aren’t bothering me, my depression is lifted, I’m not dealing with headaches from my ocd and I’m a lot more productive at work and happy in general. I feel like maybe I’m experiencing mania of some sort. I don’t really think that’s what’s going on though, but I start second guessing. It’s like I can’t even enjoy feeling better. *sigh*

I feel very distressed right now and haven't been able to find anyone who feel the same way i do. I've have SOCD for a while but the last couple of days i feel i have developed TOCD ( transgender ocd ). However i also feel like it may be depersonalisation, i feel disconnected from my body and specifically my female areas which is very scary as i do not want to be trans. It feels like they don't belong to me and feel foreign on my body. I've never experienced this before and feel scared as i like being a woman and don't want my life to change. I'm not looking for reassurance just for someone to share their experiences with depersonalisation and if they have ever felt the same.

Why am I suddenly now wondering if I am transgender? Like I look in the mirror and do not feel pretty at all anymore and when I talk I feel like I worry about sounding masculine, as well as if people think I look masculine, etc. I am a straight woman and have been battling with intrusive thoughts about my sexuality for some time now, and I am now suddenly questioning my gender identity too. Has anyone else with SOOCD experienced this, where you develop TOCD as a result of endless rumination cycles surrounding your SOOCD? Like I look into the future and know that I want to be a wife and mother and I want to have a husband and kids, but my OCD is telling me that I will be and act like a man and that will never happen. This is literally 10000x more distressing to me than my SOOCD was because I have honestly never understood the concept of being transgender but now I fear that that is who I am and who I have to be. Please help I cannot be the only one suddenly feeling like this. I want to feel confident and pretty and feminine again and I feel like I am never going to be able to. How do I know that this isn’t gender dysphoria/that I really want to become a man

Woke up at 4am last night with the memory of hitting a curb while driving 5 years ago and thinking “what if it was actually a person and what if you killed them and just never got caught” .. Fighting the compulsion to look back at police reports from 5 years ago to see if there was any “hit and runs” ☹️

TW Does anyone else have this, I’ve come to a stage where I feel I’m at my worst (even though it’s probably not true). I really feel like I’m turning into the person I have feared to be for the most part of a year now. Every thought that comes in to my head I don’t feel any anxiety nor disgust anymore, if I think about anything that is disgusting I feel nothing whatsoever. My compulsions are at the worst they have ever been but most days I’ll think “what’s the point in even doing the compulsions” because I don’t feel anything towards them. I haven’t masterbated in weeks because I just feel weird every time I think about sex. Every time I say to myself “I don’t want these thoughts anymore” my mind will say yes you do and I get this urge or feeling as if I do. I’ve tried to look up some of these symptoms but every-time I look, most articles just say “someone is stressed all the time” or “debilitated by these feelings”, I use to feel like that but I feel like my mind has been warped over time and it’s as if my body and mind have given up and said “You do like these thoughts so you might as well act on them”. Sorry for the long winded paragraph but I just feel so uncomfortable at the moment and I just don’t know who I am at the moment.

All ocd is horrible to go through but there’s something about hocd that’s really difficult. It feels like your lying to yourself when u know your not. I know I’m straight because when I don’t have these intrusive thoughts I feel myself again. Does anyone else with hocd like panic if they see like another woman in say like lingerie or something on say Instagram ? Sounds stupid but I’ll see a girl like that on Instagram and it’s like a part of my brain that I don’t want saying you are attracted to that you want a woman you are gay. I know it’s ocd but then does anyone else have moments were they panic and just think shall I just give up maybe I’m just in denial? But then if I say okay I’m by that’s fine I just feel like I’m lying to myself cause I know I’m not. It’s like you can’t win. If I see like a woman’s chest like I can appreciate that boobs are pretty which I do think they are but I’m not attracted to them the same way I am with male body parts if you get me. But it’s like a part of your brain that’s convincing you you do. Like I’m scared

Does anyone else feel like when they say their identity out loud it is a lie? Like I am a straight woman and have been straight my whole life and have been in two relationships—both with men who I was happily in love with. I can draw my intrusive thoughts back to childhood, but it was always a very brief experience where I would be like “oh I finally have nothing to worry about” and then my brain would be like “wait nevermind you have to worry about the fact that you are gay and in denial.” But every time, these thoughts would go away and I would never have them when I was actually in my relationships or talking to someone. These fears are now back and more real than ever, making me feel like I am actually physically attracted to women and losing my natural biological attitude to men. I do not want to be gay at all and the thought of being that has been making me physically I’ll because it is just now who I am and want to be. I think what makes this all worse is that it’s been awhile since I’ve been in a relationship, so having these thoughts and feelings feels like reality because I have no recent experience with being in a relationship with a man and because of that, my self esteem is extremely low. I now feel triggered by every little thing in life, from hearing the word “gay”/“lesbian”/“lgbt”/“coming out”, to seeing any women of literally any age or appearance out in public, thinking I must be attracted to them. I keep checking my attraction to both males and females and am fearful because I feel like I am losing my attraction to men, which is something that never happened when these thoughts appeared in my life before this most recent flare up. I don’t know if any other people who identify as straight have similar experiences to this, but I cannot help but feel like I am the exception because I did have these thoughts before now (even though they went away for years). I would appreciate any help/insight because the longer I struggle with these thoughts, the farther and farther I feel my old, true self drifting away. I was always able to hang onto the fact that I want a future with a man and want a husband and kids, but now it’s like even that is gone and even though I never want to be with a woman, it’s like these thoughts have convinced me that I will never be with a man. Please help.

Hi there. I'm unsure of what I'm allowed to post here. I guess this is just an attempt to find out how alone I really am. I am aware that I'm not allowed to ask for reassurance so I guess I'm just asking if there is anyone who can relate. I think I understand how intrusive thoughts operate in those with OCD. I get them too. Violent, sexual, inappropriate. Where I feel I might differ is that I'm even unsure of whether or not those intrusive thoughts are real. Basically, whether they only happened in my mind or actually happened in real life. Just an example. A violent or sexual or whatever thought would come up. VERY vivid. Then I would have to check over and over again for proof that it didn't happen. The big issue is when it's absolutely impossible to be sure. How do you know if you harmed a child? Do I ask them? If it isn't mine, do I ask their parents? This is only one example of many "themes" I guess? I can doubt some of the (apparently very obvious) things. My mind won't stop. The same goes for driving, writing/speaking (did I just say/write that) , did I just put bleach in the food? Again, these images are extremely vivid. Could this be something other than OCD? Is it just poor insight? This type of doubt can also latch on anything in the distant past. "Did I kill/rape/harm someone and then forgot?" "What did that person mean by that?" "Do I have HIV/ an STD or cancer?" "Is my son really mine?" "Did I just do something inappropriate", whatever most shocking in the moment. Did I walk around with my pants down? This list really is endless and can attach itself to anything. Guess I can also add that I'm obsessed with my appearance (btw I'm male). Not obsessed in a vain way, rather obsessed with every single flaw in every part of my body. Almost like everyone is part of this massive puzzle and I'm the piece that just doesn't fit. Like a factory defect. This might seem like I'm just looking for attention and maybe it's the case. I think I just want to know that I'm not completely alone. It's very isolating and takes away everything and everyone I care about. Don't know why I'm like this. Yes, I've considered ending everything. Would love to say I haven't because I'm just such a good person and so selfless. Truth is, I'm just terrified. Honestly, I'm not sure what I want anyone to say about what I'm sharing. As far as I can remember, it all started as a very young child with religious fears and obsessions. This was around the time my parents were seperating if that matters at all. I'm South African and as far as I can understand users here are mostly from the USA and UK? Maybe Australia too? So I'm not sure if my way of communicating here translates well? People mostly don't understand this condition and guess that's how I ended up here. I'm sorry for bringing my negativity here. Not the intention. Just desperate. It's like falling down a tree and grabbing for branches, this might be one of those branches. Just to add. I am on medication but it feels like it's only making this worse. Constant anxiety, constant fear and constant doubt. I hate myself and I hate this. This is not a life.

this thought just broke my heart. i was so happy thinking about how my sister & i are going to design my graduation cap then ocd decided to snap at me and a bring on the disgusting most disturbing thoughts. i wish it would please just stop attacking the people i love and care about. has anyone else experienced thoughts about their family members bfs?😞 im so fed up. i wish i could just laugh at my thoughts and let them pass. but i cant because it literally involves the people i value the most.