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When Sarah finally got access to exposure and response prevention (ERP) therapy, she wasn’t scared to face her fears and recover from OCD. What she was scared about was how ERP would work with her autism: what if ERP wasn’t as effective for her? What if her therapist didn't know much about autism? Fortunately, her fears didn’t come true, and ERP ended up changing her life. However, ERP did look a bit different, as Sarah and her OCD specialist tailored her treatment to work with her neurotype, not against it. Here’s what she learned about doing ERP as an autistic person.

Does anyone drink? I used to binge drink a lot but started realizing my anxiety would be a lot worse the next day so I’ve been trying to cut back but last night had some drinks and I’m kinda upset at myself . I think I just need to go sober but it’s hard. Has anyone dealt With this

I think I am very self centered. I can't feel love or sadness anymore. I genuinely don't care if o hurt someone's feelings a lot of times except that I will be punished in eternal life for being a jerk and I have grandiose fantasies and later at times will feel uncomfortable with it but it makes my self esteem very high. I do believe OCD is a component of this.... I don't want to overdiagnose but I also I don't want to continue this pattern and I'd like help that I need. I'm not asking to prober or disprove just if it is a possibility as most people I meet with OCD are NOT narcissistic AT ALL.

I always wonder “what if I’m not attracted to my partner” “what if I still have feelings for other people” “what if I cheated on my partner” “what if my partner cheats on me” “what If my partner annoys me and I don’t actually want to be with him” and I’ll do this so much over and over that I get so worked up I’ll criticize him, over analyze him, feel as though I don’t like him. But then an hour later after I find relief ( from telling him, looking things up, talking to my sisters about it) I’ll be in love with him but I won’t fully feel it because I’ll just be thinking about how I just felt before and how bad it was or anticipate it again for the future. So I’m constantly ruining it for myself, and it hurts so bad because he’s so perfect for me and so kind to me and everything about our relationship is right but my mind tries to convince me of other things and it feels so real.

What do you do to "sit" with the thoughts? Struggling with it a bit.

I saw an Instagram live of people talking about ocd/anxiety and one person said that sometimes we need antipsychotic medication and that really scared me so yesterday when I was having racing/intrusive thoughts I got super scared thinking “what if I can’t calm this down on my own and my Brain has snapped and I need to go to the hospital for antipsychotics” , I did sit with it and breathe it calmed down eventually but it’s still bothering me . I just imagine myself needing to be injected with an antipsychotic or tranquilizer to calm my brain down

For anyone struggling right now, I’m here to talk. I’ve been doing significantly better these past couple months and am ready to help others through their recovery process with tips and advice ♥️

Ok open to hearing anyones experiences with Pure O and ROCD/Relationship themes

What kind of thongs do you do to take your mind off of OCD? Not avoidence, just things that stop you ruminating? I find myself ruminating too much in a evening from 7pm onwards, any ideas on what I could do to take my mind elsewhere?

I faced many fears yesterday, POCD, MT OCD, anxiety to leave the house, fear to catch Covid, fear of meeting a friend after not having met her to many months. I had been very scared and wanted to leave the restaurant right away, but I didn't. I would have loved to share that victory with the people who mean the most to me, but all of them cut me out... It's so hard to face one's demons and to know, that even if I win against them one day, I won't get them back...

I suffer from many forms of OCD, but P and Z are by far the worst. What makes me wonder though, is my high libido. It might have to do with my biological clock ticking, or with me focusing on feelings in my groinal area to check, if I get aroused by children and/or animals, and/or me getting aroused through tensing my muscles there, whenever I have a P/Z OCD thought, or urge. I don't know and I try to not think about it too much, in order to not feet the OCD monster. What strikes me as odd, is that the slightest thought about sex seems to turn me on, like not false OCD arousal, but real, not that I'm in to children, or animals, or elderly, or family members, but as I said anything slightly sexual seems to turn me on. When I hear moans of pain, that's bad, too. There is nothing sexy about it. This "everything turns me on" feeling had never been there before P/Z OCD started and it didn't start right away, but developed later, I think after I got the pacemaker for deep brain stimulation for people with treatment resistant OCD. The pacemaker made me more aggressive, causes me to talk much more (too much for most) and might be also responsible for the higher libido. Can anyone with POCD and/or ZOCD related to what I am experiencing? Does anyone on here also has a pacemaker for DBS?

I cant identify what am I feeling rn. Idk if I'm happy or sad or bored or anything. I've been feeling like this for more than a month now. Feels like I'm not living my life, I'm just surviving. I'm not being productive. When someone shouts at me,i only feel bad for 10 minutes then I'm again in the no feeling phase. Nothing gets me excited. Idk if its depression cuz I'm not sad. I have ocd but anxiety has gone completely. Can someone help. I'm 16

I know there’s so much research out there on exercise for mental health, but has anyone here really tried and saw benefits ? I can’t find an exercise I enjoy usually just walking or yoga or jump rope. I don’t like the gym. It’s just hard to get started and motivated like have to force myself.. any tips on experience or getting started is appreciated

I haven’t done a Q&A for quite some time, so let’s go for it! My background before you ask why I’m doing a Q&A: I’ve been in recovery and healed from all 5 of my mental illnesses for almost 4 years now. I was intense therapy for 6 years. I’m one of the new people on this app that’s recovered and I stay on to help whenever I can. Without further ado, please comment your questions and I’ll answer them to the best of my ability 👏🏻❤️

Is it necessary to go back and heal childhood trauma issues in order to fully heal from anxiety and depression? My therapist (not thru nocd) always wants to go back and address this stuff and idk

Dear all, as real chat here is not possible and a fluent conversation would make me feel more connected and part of a group, I'd like to ask, if anyone is interested in an online support group via chat? If yes, I'd try to find a platform for it. I know on here are minors who suffer from OCD, but as I suffer from POCD and want to be able to freely discuss it (and of course, as discussing that topic with minors triggers my POCD, as I found out on here), I would like to start an online support group only for people who are 18 years of age, or older. Anyone who is interested, please let me know.

this felt like a intrusive thought/image and i don’t know if i intentionally thought of it or just felt really real, and i’m scared right now, i just need someone to talk too

So I wanted to come onto here to share this story of mine to keep people aware. So about 5 months ago my guy friend Introduced me and my friends to a friend of his, we shall call him apple. When I met apple he seems familiar. Turns out I used to be friends with him like 4 years ago when I moved to this area. In December he became good friends with my friend, let’s call her carrot. He ended up liking carrot and asked her out but she had a bf so she said no. He then said something to carrot that she didn’t like and carrot decided not to be friends with him. Me and apple still talked because we were family friends and we had no bad blood. Everything was acquaintances and very mutual. Then in about mid February he told me he liked me. I didn’t like him and I told him that I didn’t have feeling for him and wasn’t ok going out with him after he liked my friend. He would not let up about dating but I didn’t mind and got over it after a while. He then became very suffocating and I told him he needed to give me a little space. He said that he respected that. I take the bus home and when doing so I started to notice a van near my stop all the time. I never saw who was in it because I was always so focused on something else l, but I live in a good neighbourhood so I never thought much about it, I figured someone had a family or friend over because it was parked in front of a house. I never knew that apple drove a white van until I saw him leave the parking lot in that exact white van. Then in my head it clicked that it was the same van that has been there for AT LEAST 8 days. So when I was on the bus I decided to see who was in the drivers spot when I got off the bus. He parked outside of the entrance to my street which was also where my stop was. When I came around the corner I saw the van. It was turned off. I got off the bus and the van wasn’t there, instead it was closer and almost behind the bus. It was apple. I was shocked. He slowly encroached down the road as I stood there watching him in shock. I started to shake and ran home to figure this out. I called him and played dumb and called and acted like I didn’t know anything. We talked, he straight up lied to me and I was pissed. He said the reason why he was watching me outside my stop was because he “missed me”. (Btw my stop was like right by my house. Like only 2-3 houses separated my stop from my house)So I dropped all contact and went to school the next day. He hasn’t showed up to the class we have with each other in 2 days. I’m 16. Like I never thought something like that would happen to me, and I’m like astonished.

I've been doing pretty well with ignoring my body's sensations and and ignoring Google when it comes to symptoms that my anxiety has manifested but I've been dealing with weird neck tension and jaw tension on the left side for a while now. Couple weeks off and on and while I know I've been down that road before I can't help but think it is something terrible like throat or oral cancer. I've never smoked in my life and my doctor has told me I am healthy and good to go but the thought of something I'm possibly ignoring or something that had been overlooked overwhelms my mind at times. Anxiety has a Bible list of symptoms and they can happen even when your not anxious or stressed. Any words of wisdom or similar experiences to gain perspective.l?

i have a crush on this guy and we’re getting closer and it’s amazing. it makes me super happy and i’m very attracted to him physically. i think he’s amazing! but when i think about us having sex, i don’t enjoy it. i find it perverted and weird. something happened to me once that i don’t really want to get into but essentially it’s probably a safety thing that’s turning me off. like sex has become this source of fear now and i find it gross… yet i’m also one to think A LOT about sexual stuff. i fantasise all the time about it. so it’s really confusing! i spoke to my therapist about it and it made a lot of sense that this is rooted in fear over what happened to me and all of that. but when i think of me having sex with a girl, i don’t feel as put off. logically i think it’s because i feel safe with women so it’s less scary. the thing that happened to me was done by a man and not a woman. but then part of me is nervous i’m simply not sexually attracted to men and i’m in denial. i’ve never had a romantic crush on a woman, and any sexual attraction i’ve felt has been purely anatomical (like very sexualised women in porn etc). i think i just feel a bit deflated because i honestly really really like this guy and now i’m questioning it all. i want to feel sexually attracted to him, and if i’m not, i don’t want the reason to be because i’m not sexually attracted to men! any insight would be appreciated :)