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If so could you let me know how it’s worked for you? I might be prescribed that by my psychiatrist soon and I’m a little anxious about taking it, but if it helps with the intrusive thoughts then I’m all for it.

I’ve been posting on here the last few days about how I haven’t been able to sleep. My fight or flight took over and now I get anxious about going to sleep. I’m on vacation so I’m away from my doctor and therapist. I called my doctor to get something sent in to help me while I’m away. Bc I’m running on 3 days of 0 to little sleep. She called in Xanax and I’m terrified of Xanax but it’s 0.5 a night. I am very scared of benzos but I’m so exhausted and I want to sleep so badly. And I’m too scared to not do anything about it. But ocd doesn’t do well with medication and it’s already telling me that the Xanax won’t work and if it does work I’ll get addicted. It’s a double edged sword but it must be done bc insomnia is scarier to me at the moment and I’m tired of feeling panicked

I need help!!!!!!! My daughter continues to come to me at all hours of the talking about her obsessions. It is destroying our family😢. Please help!

Hey guys. I’ve been dealing with Harm OCD for around 3 and 1/2 months now, and it’s been extremely difficult to experience. I’ve had OCD my whole life and some of my family members do as well, one of my cousins actually has the same main subtype as me, but he was diagnosed almost a year ago when I didn’t have it myself. I’ve been going to an OCD & Anxiety Treatment Center the past week and I’m really struggling with the exposures we do there, as well as the ones we do at home. I constantly feel like I’m judging myself and I genuinely feel worthless, like I’m a horrible person to have unwanted intrusive thoughts like these. I feel like it’s so difficult to stay mindful and to not judge any of the thoughts that surface. Those with Harm OCD, have any of you here gone from debilitating OCD to living fulfilling lives? If so, what was the process like for you, if you’d like to share? Thanks and I hope you’re all doing well, or are continuing to improve.

I feel like when I’m afraid of something with my OCD I see it EVERYWHERE. Does anyone else have this happen? Like once it was fear of going blind and I saw the word blind everywhere and the next day a blind man crossing the street. It’s happened with other fears but I get so scared they’re signs. When it happens so many times I can’t help it.

Im currently working but I wish I could take some time to focus on my mental health and not have financial worries

So I am 32 weeks pregnant, and am thinking about checking myself into the physch ward, as my intrusive thoughts and false memories have gotten uncontrollable. I checked myself into the physch ward I believe when I was 22 weeks, and thought the medications were helping but I'm in another spiral now. I have a 7 year old daughter at home who deserves so much more from as well as my husband, but I feel as my husband has gotten so tired of trying to help me through this that our marriage is now failing. Any advice to keep me in good spirits would be great, because I am scared of being alone but I am now scared of my own mind.

I'm hating my life and the fact that I'm always unconfortable in my parents' house. I hate the fact that I am not normal like anybody else. I just want to live in peace.

Whatever it is that we are unwilling to tolerate uncertainty about, that's likely what OCD will latch onto. Remember that the content of OCD thoughts say nothing about your character other than what it is that you love most. ⁠What are some things that OCD has latched onto in your experience?⁠

I haven’t google disease’s in a while… but today my oh my I’ve spend the last few hours googling & googling. It just sucks being so paranoid all the time. I wish I was normal. I miss who I use to be. I never use to worry & I just lived my life. Now I pay attention to every little detail & have to replay every single thing in my head… Even if I have a ok day with low anxiety my brain feels like it’s forgetting something & will scan my whole day to find something to be paranoid about. I’m sooo tired of this.

Can an OCD thought like "this time something must have happened" arise while totally drunk? I remember having that thought while drunk and since then I am totally in panic mode

Nsfw. But it’s bothering me a lot. I believe I had/have an addiction to p word. I tried to stop watching it because my thoughts about hocd would be worse when watching it. So I stopped for like a week and I had the urge to use it on a good day and I didn’t because I was scared of the hocd thoughts I’d get. Someone said that’s avoidance and a compulsion. So next time I had the urge I watched it. Now I think I’m back into the addiction. But like I feared. When watching it the thoughts are so prominent. And I doubt the attraction afterwards and over analyse what I did. Im scared I focused on the female not the male. Im really scared now. Not sure what to do. I tried the ‘maybe, maybe not’ and the uncertainty but it’s made me feel worse and more thoughts are coming I’m really scared…

I've been pretty bad about the relationship ocd, I know the fears of those who are going through it, and I still have my difficult moments, but now I want to advise those who are going through it! It's simple things I did, but that helped me a lot! 1- Talk to your partner. This is very important, even if you are not very intimate, it is necessary for the other to know that your behavior has a reason! Gradually explain your fears, and what ROCD is, at first it may be difficult for your partner to understand, but this is for the best of both parties. 2- Face your fears! It was one of the hardest things to do! But do you know everything that causes you anxiety? And what makes you create imaginary scenarios? I was afraid to talk to people and listen to music that gave me thoughts! Everything that you avoid, try to start doing, of course, little by little! 3- Compulsions. If your head says you need to do it one more time to be sure, be strong! And don't! Show your brain that you are in control! And try to do the things you avoid even having the thoughts! You need to be really strong to deal with anxiety, and it will feel really bad at first, but try it for yourself! 4- You don't need to confession. You don't have to tell your partner all your thoughts for this to give you temporary relief. Learn to separate what is really important, only tell if you really do something very wrong and that harms your partner. 5- Be kind to yourself. Learn that we all make mistakes, you don't have to condemn yourself for it! But don't think that just because it's okay to fail that you shouldn't try to improve. 6- You are in control of your actions. Things don't happen magically, there are mistakes that can be avoided, you just need to be aware, always think if it were the other way around, if it were your partner doing what you are thinking of doing, such as giving intimacy to other people, flirting with others people and make jokes about. This is not cool, take responsibility for your actions, because your partner is not obliged to forgive you. 7- Feel butterflies... Understand that it's normal not to feel totally attracted or in love with your partner all the time, and that's completely normal. There are times we feel more in love, there are times we miss our partner so much, and there are times we don't, and that's okay! That's it, I'll be answering comments if you have any questions, I'll try to help! Good luck 💗

TW: taking human rights away, people misunderstanding your OCD - - Note: this wasn’t anyone at NOCD It was very hard and I’m worried that they’ll do something like lock me away just in case my thoughts are real or something like that. They did reassure me that they’ve heard thoughts like that from people before and they made it clear they understood what OCD and intrusive thoughts are… but they also ‘had to’ (their words) ask if I have ever acted on my thoughts etc (which I of course said no) but it still triggered me to feel doubt and like maybe I was lying to them. And also, since I’ve got to this stage of telling professionals, I feel a diagnosis may come soon and I’m worried about what if I’m not actually OCD. If I’m not I don’t know what I’d do (do as in figuratively, I’m not saying I might do something)… Can the intrusive thoughts still be not real if they’re not OCD? Also though, I told them about my mental compulsions but after they still asked if I do anything like have a physical routine I have to do (no) which makes me worried maybe they’re not familiar with mental compulsions being a thing.

Friday I had a panic attack after a really stressful event and was unable to sleep. I got maybe 2 hours, if that. Saturday I had another stressful day and was unable to sleep. I was anxious about it all day long and then night came. Didn’t touch my phone. Ate something. Took a warm shower. Did sleep meditations. Nothing worked. Maybe slept four hours. Here is night 3. I traveled all day long with my family to a condo we are staying at for thanksgiving. So that’s 3 days of stressful things so far. I didn’t look at my phone for two hours tonight when we arrived to prepare for bed. I was beginning to feel exhausted. I even have an exhaustion headache. I tried reading for a wind down before bed. Went to bed at 10. It’s now 11:42 and I’ve tossed and turned. I’m crying in frustration. Ocd is telling me I’m never going to sleep again. I don’t know what to do. I’m away from my therapist. I’m away from my doctor. I’m going to try otc sleep aides tomorrow. I’m supposed to work from home tomorrow. And I can’t even fall asleep. It’s like I forgot how to do it in just 72 hours. I’m so frustrated and tired and anxious. Sleep is super important to me bc it helps keep ocd and ptsd in check. I don’t know what else to do and I’m supposed to be with family for a week. I’m 8 hours away from my home :(

It feels like I’m just in denial. Like I just need to accept it. I don’t want to. I want to have a husband and a babies. I don’t want this. I’m scared. It feels so. Real.

I found myself looking at a girls legs most days for a while. She's 15, I'm 36 now, maybe I was 35 then as it was a few months ago or less. It started 1 day as I thought nice legs, then went on and on. However I felt bad about it as she's 15! It kind of latched onto me and I remember thinking I won't look today but then I did anyway? Now my problem is why. Did I think they are a good set of legs and is that normal regardless if she's 15 but then that's that or am I a perv or is it OCD making it an obsession, as I used to feel bad about it! Then came looking at her butt one day as she was wearing tight leggings, I even said to myself how could a male not find that attractive (as a way to rationalise maybe it's a normal biological thing?)as I think it was an attractive image? but felt bad again because of her age! Then 2 different days came the feelings of arousal (which I tried to halt straight away) and a few sexual thoughts which I also did not want and was feeling crap about straight away. This is something that is bothering me considerably now and I even remember feeling bad and thinking I never want to see her again (not in a bad way, just a normal way) cos I'm feeling guilty about this! I do have OCD and it's latching onto all sorts of stuff, so is my anxiety and ocd on this girl making this all seem out of proportion?

*My vent here, and my question below* I’m having a very hard day. I’ve relapsed and have spent the past month STRUGGLING. I’ve recently been diagnosed. However, I realise now the signs were always there through my whole life - Conscious blinking and swallowing, air writing, hair pulling, rewriting things until they felt just right. I developed health anxiety in 2019. Things got better. But now, it’s outrageous. I’m ocd about my infant son. I see any type of mark, splotch of darkened pigmentation, bruise, freckle, anyyyything and I freak out. It’s started when the baby was 4mo and I when a read about a tumour causing condition of which a symptom is specific birthmarks. I’ve seen a dermatologist who says he’s fine. Thing is this condition can come to light even up to 6yo. Therefore, anything even very light coloured or small, I freak out that it might develop into these birthmarks. It extended to include checking his eyes and even his hair (I saw one strand on white/light caramel hair amongst his blackish coloured hair and freaked out thinking his hair was turning white, another symptom). I realise I simply can or will not accept uncertainty or in other words, the possibility my son could have this condition or anything serious like that really. I look at him and feel sadness and worry - He doesn’t deserve it. I know that until I can or will accept this uncertainty, I won’t be able to recover. I 100% feel that my checking him, I’m remaining vigilant. My greatest fear is being blindsided. *My question about ERP* My obsession is that my son is healthy and ok - that he doesn’t have the above condition. My compulsions involve checking his skin, comparing any marks I’ve seen by looking at photos or checking my own skin or that of others, and tonnes of ruminating. Therefore I feel that my triggers involve the thought he could have this condition and seeing his skin/a mark on him. I am exposed 24/7 with things like changing his nappy or clothes, showering/bath time, swim time, etc. I get anticipatory anxiety and my distress escalates if anything catches my eye during these scenarios, which it does 9/10 times. So then how would I go about doing ERP when I’m flooded with my triggers day in day out? I feel that if I go out of my way to expose his skin to trigger myself, particularly during a time that doesn’t call for it such as playing or sleeping, then I’m giving in to a compulsion. I know I can practice using my own thoughts to trigger me, and this is best done when he’s asleep at night so I can actually focus. I don’t know, it’s all too hard. I’m pretty much going at it alone because I can’t afford a nocd therapist (I’m in Australia) and because my counselor just diagnosed me, we haven’t done any ERP together yet. I’m waiting to see if I can get into an ocd group program in March next year.

I thought it would be great to share some comforting Bible verses with each. Feel free to comment your favorite Bible verse or just one thats really comforting to you.😇❤️ Here's one, Fear not, for I am with you. Be not dismayed. For I am your God. I will strengthen you. I will help you. I will up hold you with my righteous right hand. Isaiah 41:13.

Does anyone else experience perfectionism around their hair? I have dysmorphia about it and am obsessive over the placement of each hair. This seems tied to an obsession with being attractive- or not being "ugly" I guess. I feel shitty saying that out loud, but I'm curious if anyone else has had their vanity be a theme their OCD latches onto? It feels like a big fear. Like I'm afraid I wont be able to look at myself if I percieve myself as "unattractive". I feel like I've heard a lot people emphasize that OCD has nothing to do with vanity and I'm struggling to identify this as OCD because of that.