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My thoughts are getting way intense and feel real. Idk what to do

i don’t even know if this is OCD because it’s not even over an obsession. every second im reminded of anxiety and it causes me to get anxiety and my brain makes me panic. everything i do im reminded that i can just panic right now over everything and anything. nothing is helping at all. ive like lost control of my thoughts completely. idk if i have a panic disorder or what. i’m reminded i have a brain and it scares me. i just want my brain turned off i feel horrible. just feel like there’s something seriously wrong with me and i’ll never get out of this. does anyone else experience this🥺

As parents, we are very distressed. Our daughter is studying law. She puts in 100% and is one of the star students with very high marks throughout he degree. But she has OCD with perfection. This started a few years back but it is getting worse. She knows all the work in great detail but cannot put her knowledge and thoughts onto paper for her assignments. This causes such stress that she feels her life is ruined and she is useless. She sobs everyday saying she cannot believe this is happening to her. She has delayed various courses to help alleviate the stress but it is not helping. Have any of your therapists encountered this before and can you urgently help. She must finish her qualification for her own benefit. Thanks in advance.

So I'm going through an Academic Crisis & i have no idea when this will end, this is ongoing for a long time & the Main Culprit is my Brain. I have Executive Dysfunction so i can't start task, can't complete task, can't be productive no matter what. My every task is incomplete or i couldn't even start the task. Upon that Intrusive Thoughts Eat My Mind & then My brain hurts and it gets messed up & i can't study..... Final Exam in 5 days & i don't know anything anymore I don't know where i will end up at last because of this Crisis...

Does anyone have experience with ADHD and OCD? I find that my medication helps with my ADHD and makes me feel calm, but it seems as if the underlying fears, thoughts and feelings that come with OCD are still there. Or maybe I’m just looking for them instead of letting them disappear because I’m feeling relaxed? Has anyone experienced something similar?

TW: SA Sorry for the long post I’ve tried to narrow it down as much as I could while still saying everything I feel is important. This morning I was talking to my dad about my ROCD stuff and he was just trying to be helpful but he told me I don’t have to stay in my relationship and it’s okay to break up and stuff which made me cry. My therapist doesn’t even really believe I have OCD he thinks it’s just relationship anxiety even though I feel like the definition of ROCD fits me perfectly and I’ve been struggling with various ROCD themes since at least last September. P.S. this is my first relationship and sexual partner. After that I started obsessing about the stuff I have been obsessing about the most for the last couple months, which is worrying what if my boyfriend is toxic because I have a hard time letting go of all the times he has made dark jokes (that I see as morally wrong) or the times that he has hurt me (never intentionally). The thing is our political views and morals overall align and he’s so sweet and loving to me. Also, he apologizes about these things and makes the effort to change his behavior whenever I bring them up. Then later in the day (skip this part if you don’t want tmi about sexual stuff) I was watching a YouTube video that describes an SA and I started obsessing even more because sometimes I get abdominal cramps during sex and I ask him to go more gently and he does for a little bit but then goes back to what he was doing before I asked and says he tries but he “can’t help it” (Ik it sounds bad) and also I have mentioned to him before that I want us to ask for consent and idk if he forgot because he has forgotten things I’ve asked him to change a couple times before but it hasn’t changed so I think I should bring it up again. Anyways now I’m freaking out about the possibility that he’s SA’d me because of these things. I know I’m reassurance seeking but I’m so scared because this could potentially be a serious issue. I love him so much and I don’t want to have to break up with him. At the same time I feel bad for even thinking such horrible things about him. 😕

I just keep thinking that I am and that I always revisit bad things I've done to myself or others people in the past. Maybe it's too late to redeem myself and maybe the good things don't matter as much as the other ones. Maybe I just can't move on from these things because they're true. I'm tired. I want a way out

IF I WANTED TO DO THAT SHIT ON PURPOSE I WOULDN'T SIT HERE WORRYING ABOUT IT EVERY SINGLE DAY I'M TIRED OF THINKING ABOUT THIS SCENARIO OVER AND OVER AGAIN JUST BECAUSE I GET THOUGHTS SAYING WHAT IF YOU MEANT TO DO IT OR NOT I'm sometimes able to get over this event but then I can't even fucking function on days like these. I DON'T WANT DO COMMIT ANY CRIMES TO ANYONE I HATE THAT THIS DAY EVEN HAPPENED AND I WISH I COULD TAKE IT BACK AND NEVER EVER THINK OF IT AGAIN

Does anyone ever struggle with the idea of accepting uncertainty? It’s like, is accepting the uncertainty accepting the outcome? And if it’s accepting the outcome, is it saying you actually want those things to happen? The thing is, OCD can attach to anything right? So I could think about murdering my wife or having sex with kids or sex with animals, all really bad things. I wouldn’t want those things to happen. So how do I teach my brain the thoughts are irrelevant and also teach my brain that accepting uncertainty isn’t saying you want it?

every so often i wonder if i should pursue looking into an autism diagnosis until i manage to convince myself out of it but here i am wondering again (not in the frantic ocd spiral way, but in the “it would really make sense” way). now the points against it are that no one in my family really wants to admit that i can have it because i’m pretty high-functioning and adept at navigating most social situations, but i think that’s because of their biases or misconceptions about autism. my sister is the only one who thinks i have it and she’s the one who got me seriously considering it. however, if i did have it, i think it would be pretty mild, even if it would explain a lot. if anyone reading this has autism, please let me know what you think i should do or if it’s something worth pursuing: reasons i think i have it: 1. i was extremely hyper-sensitive and overstimulated as a child. my mom says that i constantly cried myself hoarse as a baby, despite her not understanding why. 2. i walked on my tiptoes until i was 6 years old. i don’t know why but i had to train myself out of it. my mom actually got me tested for autism because of this but the doctor said that because i was meeting my milestones there was no way i could be. 3. to this day, i have a hard time maintaining eye contact. my natural instinct is to look away when speaking to people, but i know it’s rude so i force myself to look into their eyes. my hyper-awareness of this can get pretty exhausting so i hate it. making eye contact is never natural for me though. i have to actively do it but i slip a lot. 4. i prefer being alone. i have friends but i can go days or even a week without speaking to anyone. my favorite person to be with is myself, which everyone thinks is very weird. i wouldn’t call myself a recluse, but other people would. my family hates it and calls it unhealthy even though i feel fine. 5. i can navigate social situations but it’s exhausting for me. i constantly have to think of things to add to the conversation to sound “natural” and if i can’t think of anything, i stay silent, which i know is uncomfortable but i don’t know what else to do in the moment. my social battery also runs out quickly and i can be mute for the rest of the day if i get tired enough. my family also hates this because it’s rude. 6. i’m called rude a lot even though i don’t know why. i try to be very polite and most of the time i’m successful, but sometimes i say things in a conversation that makes my family lecture me after. it’s very draining and it makes me not want to speak. i usually cry after these moments because i don’t know what i’m doing wrong or how to avoid it. keep in mind, i never insult people, i never name-call or point out any flaws in what someone is saying or how they look. it’s just things i say that are considered “weird” or rough which are then interpreted as rude. 7. i hyperfixate. i don’t know if it’s the ocd brain or the possible autism but i’m typically very bored if i’m not hyperfixated on anything. i remember learning to tone this down when i got obsessed with star wars and constantly talked about it to my dad which caused him to say “you know we can talk about other things right?” i never talked to him about star wars again. 8. i’m very very routine oriented. i eat the same breakfast everyday, which can go on for years until i get tired of it and choose something else. it’s a running joke in my family. 9. if my routine is disrupted, i don’t get emotionally upset, but i’ll avoid doing whatever i should do because i don’t have what i normally want. in the breakfast case, if i don’t have the usual butter to cook with my eggs, i won’t eat because it doesn’t taste the same. i don’t do it to be stubborn. i just can’t find it in myself to eat. i think that’s everything! sorry for the long post i’m just very curious and this has been weighing on my mind. lmk what you guys think! also i want to be clear that i’m NOT self-diagnosing just as i didn’t self-diagnose when i thought i could have ocd (which i did), i just wanted to gather these facts to gain possible insight if it could be true so i could be diagnosed. thanks!

Does anybody else have auditory hallucinations while falling asleep? I’m not really sure what brings this on but I have them from time to time. Tonight I came home stressed out from work so maybe stress is a factor but sometimes when I’m extremely tired or about to doze off I hear voices or noises when falling asleep. They are very random kind of like just hearing noise when you’re walking down a busy street and hear peoples conversations. When it first started I was going through postpartum anxiety and OCD and I thought I was going “crazy” or schizophrenic and it caused me a huge amount of stress. I had a therapist explain to me that it was just auditory hallucinations and I should be fine. Just wondering if anyone else experiences this?

I was having a good couple of days then my harm ocd came back. But it was more of self harm instead this time 😭 it feels real, I don’t want it to be but I’ve been doing erp and the anxiety is down with it and I almost don’t have that panic anxiety about it just kind of a deep bothersome feeling when I have the those thoughts. Is this OCD? Or is it normal what’s the next steps?

I can’t just enjoy my life. I’m seeing this guy who is younger than me. I’m a 21 yo female and he’s an 18 yo male. He’s 19 in a month not that that matters in anyway. So, we’ve been talking a couple months, only recently started seeing wa Ito her in person and we haven’t had sex yet. I didn’t want to rush it because usually I do with guys I’m seeing and then it falls apart. But, my main issue is I can’t stop thinking that it’s wrong of me to be seeing him because of our age. Everyone keeps saying to me “no there’s nothing wrong with that” and I even have 2 friends (one who is older than me) who have both been with an 18 yo and who is with one now. I just can’t stop thinking about people going “that’s a hit paedophilic” or “he’s literally a child” when he’s not and it’s not! He’s not a child he’s an adult, right? I know he’s younger but it’s only 3 years it’s not like I’m 35! Idk I just I want to like him and start something with him but all I see are people who I want in my life judging me. Even though idk if they would. But, idk I’m scared. We are also both on very similar paths. He’s got a full time job and I’m finishing uni about to start my full time job. We both live at home but want to move. He doesn’t fancy uni at all so never went, if he did though he’d be first year so we are on the same path! He’s also one of the most mature guys I’ve been with. Everything about him is mature enough to me, I’ve known guys who just fuck around and think it’s okay to act certain ways towards women, he has nothing but respect for me. So really, is there anything wrong with it? I’m scared for people’s answers but idk I’m thinking there isn’t everyone I know has said there isn’t

Does anyone else experience arguments in their head when it comes to their thoughts? I find that I'm constantly going back and forth when I have compulsions, where two sides of my brain will argue with each other. I may argue "logically" against the fears I may have, but then I'll remember some past event or something I've done in the past that will lead me to believe otherwise. It's a chaotic cycle I'm trying to deal with, but I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced this/has ideas pertaining to getting out of it? It really messes with my head after a while, because I feel like the side of my brain that is telling me I'm a bad person almost always wins. Every time I try to reassure myself by addressing the fact that my thoughts are unwanted and irrational, I feel like more rational proof of me being a terrible person comes rushing into my head.

Lately I have been dealing with what I think is relationship OCD and I’m feeling so confused and scared. I was diagnosed with OCD about 2 years ago and I’m taking Prozac for it which I recently went up in dose with about 2 weeks ago. I have been with my fiancé for about 6 years and she has been my biggest supporter, especially with OCD. We have both had a rough 2023 so far for separate reasons outside of our relationship and have had some relationship challenges because of this. I know some, if not most is my own struggles with OCD. This year I have also met a girl in my grad school program and we’ve become quick and close friends. We’re very similar and I do find her attractive. I’ve been struggling with obsessions related to her (my friend) for a while now and the last few weeks it has become crippling. It’s all I think about and I even dream about it. The questions that are constantly circling around my head are: Do I connect more with her than my fiancé? Am I unhappy in my relationship? Will I be happier in a relationship with her? Am I a bad person for sometimes enjoying hanging out with her more than my fiancé? I have been so confused whether I actually have feelings for her past friendship or if I’m just being convinced by my OCD. What if I convince myself that it is the OCD and I lose the opportunity at being truly happy? I don’t know what I actually feel and I feel so scared and confused. I’m not sure if someone has had a similar experience or not but I wanted to try and post here because I’m very unsure what to do.

Is anyone else sick of people invalidating mental illness? My husband and my parents keep telling me to be positive. My friends say to take walks. As if it were that easy. I feel like I am trying everything I can and I’m not getting better. I can’t just decide not to feel this way anymore, and comments like that don’t feel supportive. They only make me feel worse.

My boyfriend and I have been together for almost a year coming this May. I have never had feelings for someone like this and I genuinely see myself living the rest of my life with him. Talking to him comes effortlessly. He sees me for all that I am and works with me. My family has already begun developing a connection with him as well as I have with his family. I’ve never felt so at home until meeting him. Lately my ROCD symptoms have been playing on the narrative of him either finding a new girl that interests him and is somehow “better” than me OR me ruining our relationship because of potential cheating I have absolutely no actual interest in cheating because I know he’s my person and so am his. I know I’m going to marry him and I know that I want him to be the father of my kids. I want to see him grow and I want to build a foundation of unconditional love with him. So why do I shame myself? There’s this shop that him and I go to quite frequently, and the last time we went an employer that we typically see every-time we come began talking to me personally. We were all just talking about movies but my boyfriend mentioned that he felt like he was flirting with me. I begun feeling bad like I was doing something wrong. My mind started telling me that I liked having him “flirt” with me and that it made me feel desirable and confident in knowing that I was still considered attractive. I’m scared because now everytime we go the employee seems to be staring at me and when I went today he actually gave me something for free which led to me thinking I was playing into the flirting narrative and that this would lead to something worse (Though I still have no interest in doing so, just anxiety about that happening is the best way to put it) Has anyone else experienced something similar? Is there any advice that can be given? I don’t think anything’s going to happen, but what If I do like knowing someone likes me even if it’s not reciprocated? Does that make me a cheater? Or is that the product of unresolved self worth issues?

Does anyone go through almost an anxiety attack when the person doesn’t text you? He got out an hour ago but hasn’t texted me and yes we’re new to seeing each other but I hate that my brain goes crazy. I have abandonment issues and also I think the worst if they’re ok or not. It almost makes me not want to date at all. Maybe I need to communicate this to my partner

I feel like for every and any treatment they want me to be in a better place or be more stable to handle to stress to get the help I need. To move back in with my parents and stop living in my car my parents need me to just stop doing OCDs. Bc “ we can’t feed your OCD “. But letting me live in a car in there driveway at 21 isn’t feeding it? Doctors demand to see me in person when I haven’t been in the same room as another person in almost a year out of fear of there germs. I’ve tried ERP, I’ve done all the therapy’s, all it seems to do is put me in a worse place when they tell me that they can’t help me or that there’s no hope and quit on me. It’s been 14 years. Everything I do is a compulsion or reaction to my OCD. Everyday I form a new habit or thought habit to make it feel safe. I only eat one thing and just stop functioning when I hit this last wall the hardest. Everyone says when you hit rock bottom you can only go up, but I bring a damn shove with me. I guess my point is what is the point? Why do I keep trying and keep failing? Why can’t everyone just except that is it for me? I’ll never have a job or function, just let me be able to live outside a car. Or try to help me were I’m at rather then fighting me and making me feel like shit for not being in a better place for “ except “ the “ help” . I’m just defeated.

Hi guys Does anyone get intrusive thought like “you’re going to get intrusive thought every time you see this” and then it happens but not all the time.