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working to conquer OCD
I went looking for information and reassurances š¤¦āāļø to taper off Ativan. Now I'm scared. Has anyone taken Ativan for less than 4 months and tapered that can give me some feedback? I was on .5 I dropped dose to .25 for past few weeks. Unsure of what dosage to jump off at. I read so many horror stories. I was prescribed it for nocturnal panic attacks. Now scared to stop taking it and scared to stay on it š I know lack of sleep and ocd isn't fun.
I will have a sexually intrusive thought while eating a granola bar for example, and I can't throw the wrapper away because I feel like that thought will be "stuck" with it forever. And these thoughts do not fit with my values whatsoever. So I hold onto it until I throw it away and make sure I am not having any intrusive thoughts while throwing it away. Same thing goes if I have an intrusive thought when I throw literally anything away, I will literally take it out of the trash and throw it away later taking very cautious actions to make sure I do not have that thought while throwing it away. I mean it sounds ridiculous now that I am writing this out, but I know OCD likes to make something not very logical mean something to you. I do not know what to do. Should I just throw it away despite what I am thinking? It is really hard for me to do and it makes me extremely anxious because I know I will never see that thing again most likely. I fear if I throw something away while having an intrusive thought, in the future if I throw away the same thing Iāll think about āoh remember when you threw this away last time and you had an intrusive thought about X and itās gone forever and you canāt change it or fix itā. I also get these thoughts while eating and drinking, and have to keep taking sips/bites of food until I donāt have the thought, but now that Iām stuck in this cycle, every time I eat I get these thoughts. Iām not sure what to do. If anyone has any advice to help me progress through this OCD it would be greatly appreciated. I have had success in the past with Self-ERP and no longer suffer from counting OCD and am a lot better from my perfectionism OCD, but the intrusive thoughts associated with throwing stuff away is so disturbing to me and itās so hard for me to let it go. But, now every time I throw something away that thought comes back so OCD is doing itās thing and coming back stronger. Thanks in advance for any help, I appreciate it greatly.
I feel like my guilt and confession ocd is driving me away from my partner. I am so tired of years of guilt, and only getting relief from confessing. Iāve associated him with my ocd, and I become angry and randomly start arguments him, itās like Iām seeking a way out. Iām so lost. This is the person I want to spend the rest of my life with, but I canāt handle the anxiety and depression. The guilt and anxiety of just finding other people attractive is too much for me. I feel so stuck. I want to get better, and want to be with him forever. If anyone has advice Iād really appreciate anything.
I just wanted to ask a quick question. I love my partner and have ocd but whenever I feel pretty or try to dress nice, an instant image pops in my head of another guy at work. This makes me feel like itās proof I like that guy but I have no interest what so ever, I love and am obsessed with my partner. What is happening, and is this normal?
I just dont trust myself enough to make a decision on my relationship. Today i did ERP and i couldnt stop hyperfocusing on his looks and how hes not my type. But it doesnt feel like enough to leave. But staying it affects me so much I feel like fleabag in that scene where she says i want someone to tell me what to eat what to wear what to think. I dont trust myself to know the difference between a normal level of being bothered by someone or not. And i hate myself. I wish i didnt have to do any work to be a normal person
I may sound crazy but on Saturday I choked on a bit of my drink and then my anxiety began Sunday night. Iāve had this unrealistic fear that I have some type of pneumonia and the liquid went into my lungs. I woke up at 3:30AM on Monday morning with a huge panic attack and then was anxious the entire day with chest pain. Iām still worried about it today but donāt wanna succumb to going to urgent care - is this a crazy thing to do just to calm me down? ugh!
I feel hopeless I feel like Iāve been living a lie my whole life or repressed it I donāt want to be gay I donāt want to be a lesbian I feel like Iāve lost all attraction to men and now only focus on women :(( I get so anxious that I canāt eat, I canāt sleep, I canāt focus And now when I see social media posts about couples i automatically see myself as the guy and the girl being a girl :( But I feel like itās now my reality and I donāt want it :( I hyper focus on lesbian couples when Iām out in public or on social media or in movies I stare at pretty girls and get intrusive thoughts I just wanna be happy again with my boyfriend :( He makes me so happy and he makes me feel so loved I hate that I get anxious when he texts me sometimes even though I know he loves me with all his heart and I with him I want to marry this man but with all of this, I can barely imagine it I miss not having these flare ups :( I wanna give up so bad
Has anyone been fired from a job because of OCD? Were you able to get another job?
Hi guys, Has anyones rOCD been caused/gotten worse because of how complicated in the past your relationship has been with your current partner? Sometimes I feel so lonely and isolated because I think itās only me thatās had a rough start to my relationship with my current partner - rOCD and RA stories online usually talk about how itās usually people with stable relationships from the beginning that experience this type of anxiety and obsession
I think Iām spiraling and hitting a low point. I started ERP a few days ago. Now that Iām finally in therapy, all I think about is how i wonāt be able to do it or itās not going to work and I feel like Iāll never get better and Iām going to be stuck with this for the rest of my life and be miserable forever.
To those with Harm OCD. Do you see triggers in like every situation even the ones that donāt really have a link with the Harm obsession. My latest obsession, the one Iāve been struggling with for the past 6 months, is of killing my wife. I am afraid I want to do it. I am afraid I might do it. Iām afraid Iām a psychopath. Etc. What I find weird and distressing is that Iāll be reading about going on vacation and then I might think āyouāll kill her on vacationā. Then I might watch the news and the reporter says a new breakthrough in neuroscience shows we have no free will and all we do is based on biology, memories, education, etc. And then Iāll think āSee, youāre gonna kill her, it aināt your fault, might as well admit the inevitableā. Then I might be doing an activity with her, like jogging, and she accidentally hurts herself tripping and the thought might come of āwell, sheās hurt, might as well go all the way and finish herā. All of this makes me stress out and I spiral out of control countering these thoughts by saying āneverā. āI love my babyā. āSheās my sweet peaā. āI will never hurt familyā. And it goes on and on all day. Does your harm OCD adapt and modulate with so much variety to so many events?
I'm so tired of not being able to just enjoy my relationship without worrying and doubting. I never pictured my love story to look like this and to bring about these emotions. I feel robbed of my experience.
Tell me about the silly things OCD is bothering you about!
Hi! Iām new here and have trichotillomania. Iāve had it since I was about 6 but in the last two years itās become a huge problem. It used to just be a stupid habit that I did here and there and now I have full on bald spots and canāt wear my hair down or only up in one style. Iāve shaved my head before for different reasons and donāt want to do it again. My pulling got worse when I started taking antidepressants for the first time and it tickled that part of my brain just right and helped so much with my Major Depression disorder but my pulling was put into overdrive. I started doing it without realizing it until I looked and there was a huge pile of hair next to me. Iām in traditional therapy and I speak to a psychiatrist regularly, but I found this site through a google search so Iām hoping this will be different. Most of my therapy is me trying to teach the therapist and psychiatrist about the disorder rather than getting real assistance with it. Does anyone else here have trich? Theyāve also done research that suggests it is more closely related to Touretteās syndrome than OCD but itās different for every person.
I searched about this, but all i found about religious ocd is questions like "did i commited a sin?", "do i go to hell?" , but not questioning God's existence. Do i struggle with my faith or this is ocd? How should i deal with this cause "maybe God exist, maybe not" will not work, it just makes it worse. I dont know if this is ocd or i actually realized that maybe believing God is just a choice,its imagination, and i feel bad... What should i do?
Itās annoying, how come when Iām having a good time and enjoying myself it has to act up?
Anyone else get a racing heart feeling when they try to sleep? I feel like I'm hyper focused on my breathing and it's been preventing me to go to sleep tonight. Now I'm scared that it'll come up and bother me if I try again. I have a bad headache due to this happening for 3 days straight. I know it's my anxiety disorder, but I don't know what to do.
Hello NOCD members, it's nice to meet a humble people like you, my post may be long but it's talking about the time line of my life with the OCD and it's gonna b, First of all my name is Ali now I'm 17 years old "gonna reach the 18 by the fourth of July" "NOT A NATIVE ENGLISH SPEAKER SO, SORRY FOR ANY MISTAKES" First, let me talk about my childhood, i was born in 2005, my childhood wasn't terrible but it was tough, you know families problem, and due to the community i was living at, i was getting abuse "hit š¤" if i did something wrong, and I've lived with my family and i saw many problems and many things happend to me and affected me (mentality& psychologity), "in my opinion my childhood is one of the reasons that caused me psychologist problems" Anyway, months ago i really got sick of the OCD, what happend? Basically there's a sentence came in my mind, and i didn't know if i said it, or it was only q bothering sentence in my mind, i was suffering for weeks, i was sleeping only 4 hours a day and still thinking about that sentence, did i say? Or it was only a OCD, anyway my mom really took care of me, she paid a lot to get me fine, she prayed to me and alhamdulilah, after weeks i went to a psychologist and i told him what I'm suffering from and he told me that I have OCD, imagine all that i had a weird energy only sleeping for a few hours and thinking about the sentence for the entire day, i was about to lose my mind, even there was a new sentences come to my mind i was about to literally lose my mind "i even in that time had a fuzzy memory too i couldn't remember" anyway i went to the doctor, he gave me some drugs for OCD and alhamdulilah i got better, but not for long! What happened? The symptoms decreased, but the mental illness did not go away! As i mentioned before my ocd got decreased, but then it raised again! How? My head teacher slapped me in my face, And that's because I forgot to wear my tie, he slapped me in front of the other students!! and in that time i pushed his hand away after he hits me, then he pushed me in front of the students out of the class and as i remember he asked me to go to his office,and then he started talking "while I'm writing there's something in my chest really makes me sad," anyway he started talking to me in his office about what i did, then after that the school time ends i went home and then the OCD started!! Did i pushed his hand? Why couldn't I talk in confidence in front of him? It's all because my family didn't build me a confidence personality and then I started blaming my family, "And I really regret that" anyway then i went to the phycologist doctor and actually he wasn't helpful He began to justify and told my mother that he or they "my mom's and the doctor's generation was always beaten, insted of telling me that what the head teacher did was wrong he started saying the excuses š¤¦š½, and then i said that my certification is better than the head teacher's certification then he asked me what certification do i have and i told him i got certifications from the internet and then we got into discussion about my certification "okay i admit it my certification isn't better than the head teacher's certification but he must understand my situation and don't discuss me", i really hated him! i didnt go to him again, and i took the OCD drugs and then i Left them, and could live without them for a short period "i was experiencing some of the same problem, such as the not welcome thoughts "i even was hitting my head to stop thinking" anyway there's something new happen" The last stage I'm currently at "stuck at it now" Four years ago i was only 13 years old, and i was fat i was 135kg, My mom advised me to lose weight.ā And in that time i also was suffering from the OCD and it was tough i was even crying alone midnight, anyway i lost my previous weight and I reached the 71.5kg, that's Cool isn't? Then why I'm uncomfortable? Because in that time i was not adult, I wasn't aware of what I was doing, what was i doing? I'm ashamed of what I'm going to say, but this is what happened, I was taking a picture of my genitals, and I was taking pictures of myself, not for some impolite purpose, I just wanted to compare the two pictures when I was fat and when I lost weight, And that must have been the most wrong thing I've ever done in my life. I uploaded a picture of my genitals and a picture of my naked body on the site. The problem is that I lost access to that site, and I cannot log into my account in order to see the pictures. But I could not, because my phone that had the account in it had deleted the account from it āI deleted it from the phone only and not a final deletionā and then my phone broke down and I bought another phone, and I donāt remember the link to my account on that site There is no link to the images even, which raises my concern. Only the person who has the link to the image can access the image. In short, my problem is that I do not remember the links to the pictures or the link to the account. I contacted the technical support of the site and they did not respond to me, and now I am worried about whether someone will be able to see my pictures? Was my face visible or just my body in the naked picture? When I think, I get the feeling that I am not so smart as to post a picture on a website with my naked body showing my face Until now, I am afraid and worried, and the thought does not leave my mind, did I show my face or not! And is someone going to see this picture and be digitally shamed? i even feel ashamed to talk to a online psychologist about the current stage. "PLEASE IF YOU HAVE ANY COMMENT TELL ME IN COMMENT SECTION" Thanks for reading
I had a phone call today and got told Iām extremely low on vitamin d. (No puns please) Itās been making me feel ill and constantly sleepy. Not only am I mentally ill and exhausted, I am physically as well. Great.
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