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So whenever i sleep less or Study more than usual (usually i don't study at all i have EFD so i can't study even if i want, i only study before the exam night) So now my exam going on so i slept less and studied more than most of the days of the year... Now my brain acting like weird.. I can't even explain... Feels like it will shut down... I have a lot of exams left i have to study no matter what i will end up at nothing with this damaged brain actually...

Since just before lockdown, my ocd moved to clothes. I’ve spent a lot, thousands on new clothes , I got in my head that I needed the perfect wardrobe. I spent a lot of time and money trying to perfect this. Never getting it right, I still feel like I bought the wrong sizes/styles The crazy thing is I feel more comfortable wearing my gym clothes , which I don’t obsess over I’ve put away the clothing that I obsess over. A part of me says just wear gym clothes and sell the rest. For now I’m doing nothing, I want to get better from ocd So I figure just wear gym clothes until I can get some clarity It’s really painful, I get all the stress and bad feelings like I’m stupid, and selfish, and that I’m ugly And advice, I don’t want reassurance

Sorry lately I’ve been asking a lot of questions I get worried asking questions Incase im using it as reassurance this sort of links into my questions. How do I know if I’m doing ERP correctly? Why does OCD feel so real? Why do my OCD thoughts feel so natural?

I just was diagnosed with OCD and I’m still learning about it.. how do you stop from googling your symptoms and convincing yourself that there is something wrong with you? I’ve been doing this a lot recently.. in the past month I’ve convinced myself I’m having a heart attack, a stroke, and a pulmonary embolism. How do I stop this?

Before I get into it feel free to comment on this thread if you want to talk or need advice. This will be kind of long so grab a snack and buckle up. First of all i’m a 14m who has never thought of myself as a “lady’s man.” Sure I’ve had crushes on girls and thought girls were pretty but that was about it. Never being attracted to the same sex in any way shape or form and never thought of myself as gay or anything like that. I was for the most part a pretty normal kid. But that all changed. It all started during thanksgiving break and I was just playing video games on my Xbox like I normally do and I guess I took a break to look on social media and I saw a attractive guy and my mind was like “dang he’s an attractive looking man” or something like that and my mind just went crazy. “Does this make me gay” “have I been gay all my life and is just now noticing” “what does this mean” was all that was on my mind and I was scared to death. After that I pretty much spent all day looking for answers and looking for reassurance on this but nothing helped. I was miserable to say the least. I would talk to my parents about it (preferably my dad since he gave me the answers I wanted to hear) and they would both reassure me and say something like “oh it’s just part of puberty you’ll get over it” or “it’s just a phase” but nothing seemed to work for more than a few minutes and I didn’t know what was going on and I was horrified that I might be gay. It got so bad that I was boarder line depressed and didn’t want to get out of bed. All I wanted to do was research what this was or look for reassurance and not do the things I used to like to do like play video games or play basketball. All that I could think of was “what if I’m gay” and it killed me inside. One day during one of my daily researching I went on google and searched “the fear of being gay” and the first thing that popped up was HOCD. I then searched it up further and realized that I matched almost all the symptoms and thought “this sound like me.” Of course my OCD was trying to deny it but I was sure this was what it was. From then on I watched HOCD videos on YouTube and every video I watched, the more it related to me. Now the thoughts are kind of off and on. Don’t get me wrong there hasn’t been a day that has gone by that I haven’t had thoughts but there’s days or weeks even that the thought don’t bother me that much. But there are days where it’s terrible. I’m still struggling with it to this day and if you can relate to this at all please comment. Here are some of my most common thoughts: “What if you’re gay?” (Most common) “What if you’ve always been gay and are just now finding out” “What if you are not really attracted to girls” “What if you want to have s*x with a man” “What if you enjoy the thoughts” “What if your parents think your gay and aren’t telling you” “What if your attracted to your friend” Those are just a few of them and I think you see a trend with the “what ifs” but yeah your not alone in this battle. We are in this together.

Hey every body, I'm looking for some advice specific to pure O ocd. 1. My therapist has given me some response phrases to practice for my intrusive thoughts, the ones I'm using are mainly "maybe maybe not", " sure whatever", "your probably right" and "I don't have to figure this out right now". My main concern is using these phrases two often or so broadly that they become compulsive. 2. Since most of my compulsions are mental I find it difficult to control them. Sometimes my brain will automatically reassure itself or reflexibly perform a compulsion without me even wanting to engage with it. If anyone who struggles with/has struggled with this has any tips or advice I'd really appreciate it

So the past few months, especially the past few days. My brain has just been hit with a machine gun of intrusive thoughts about things I’ve done in the past - long long before I met my boyfriend. Some of these things include drinking games with my friends getting a little out of hand and kissing people in these games that are in a relationship, friends seeing my nudes on my phone etc. Mainly thoughts about drunken nights with friends which went a little overboard. My friend group have been friends for 14 years since we were young teenagers and over the years and still remain close. My problem is with this is that my boyfriend has been around my friends, and will be in the future. I have told him about big things like if anyone including me had sex in the past etc and he is fine with it, just doesn’t really want to know, but now my brain is telling me he needs to know absolutely everything that I’ve done that I feel guilty or ashamed of because if he knew he would leave so he needs to know. I have confessed many times and each time he has not cared. Please help. I’m afraid to even see him this week because of these thoughts.

For those of you who also believe/have believed in law of attraction, how do you go about it with ocd? I don’t want to put so much weight on my thoughts because that’s what got me in this mess, but I also believe I create my own reality. It feels like a catch 22. Would love some thoughts on it ❤️‍🩹 Hope everyone has a decent day!

In past few days, it looks like I'm getting better but still have intrusive thoughts

Who has multiple diagnosis besides OCD here? And how did it affect your Therapy? I have OCD, Generalized Anxiety, and Depression. I would like to listen to how other people have dealt with their multiple diagnosis on this platform.

i have this uncontrollable urge to say terrible, disgusting things out loud. now i can’t remember the way i said something out loud and i think i may have said something disgusting. i talk to myself out loud constantly to distract from my intrusive thoughts and i feel like i can’t even think anymore without mumbling. the talking out loud makes me feel contaminated and as if i must brush my teeth and wash my mouth out right after. my lips are so chapped and my mouth hurts so bad. i just triggered myself by saying something and im not home and i just want to cry. i feel like my whole world is crumbling i can’t do this

Been in a relationship and taking steps to get engaged, but still having anxiety and obsessions. I'm doing exposures, but feel like it's not enough for where we're at. I'm doing a poor job of instigating conversations about engagement, and that is leading to my girlfriend not feeling wanted/desired. I don't feel deep excitement and love, yet I am trying to move forward. I know deep down I do feel it, but my actions are communicating something different..I don't know what to do other than do more exposures and push myself harder...

I’m 25 years old. Never have been in a relationship with a female. When I think about it, it makes me very sad. I have an extremely low self esteem. It was brought to my attention by a couple of OCD specialists about the correlation between OCD and my fear of rejection. For example, if I get rejected, it would mean that that person is confirming that I am indeed worthless and should go kill myself, etc. This sick all or nothing thinking is probably a big reason why I haven’t been in a relationship. My therapist at the moment from NOCD is pushing me to interact with more women by initiating conversation but I am nervous about this. I keep telling myself I’m going to say something to someone but I always freeze up and make excuses.

Hello family. I am currently confused on how to do my recovery more effectively. I am accepting the thoughts and feelings and letting it be there and to not engage with them and I’ve done ERP to the point where I have little to no more anxiety when I have these thoughts . I know thought suppressing is bad, but I don’t suppress the thoughts at all, but i do suppress trying to compulse or argue against it or even ruminate. I then feel pressure on my head more and more after that and then I’m good without no thoughts and I move on. I’ve been doing really good lately but today I’ve been doing ERP saying ” you’re gay or you’re Bi” and i let it be without reacting to it and it brings me barely anymore anxiety but then a few seconds later I feel like the pressure on my head makes me need to say that phrase again to relieve the pressure even though I’m not suppressing anything about that thought but just me compulsive or arguing against it and then I feel like the certain thought like “ you’re gay or you’re bi” come up and then I do the same thing and allow it to happen and pass by but then it’s like it’s a whole cycle of it being the same phrase over again even though I’m not reacting to it.It’s like my brain is forcing me to have it on repeat even though I truly am not engaging in it or even if I don’t feel anymore anxiety. I just get confused if that’s ruminating and I just want to know what to do to stop it and engage in it, but wouldn’t that just be thought suppressing ?I just don’t want to do the wrong thing and thought suppress and make it stronger.it’s like my brain is confused if I’m thought suppressing the rumination or the actual thought. My brain just wants to keep saying anything over and over again just to release the pressure on my brain and I don’t it makes me feel like I’m thought suppressing the thought even though I’m just suppressing the arguing back to it. I’ve got good with not responding to the thoughts and letting them leave but something that distracts me from trying to feel the anxiety sometimes is that I get ear worm sometimes and then I have to worry about not giving that power too but also don’t want me having ear worm to become a compulsion to my thoughts and not engaging to it as well and trying to move on from both is hard and it’s distracting my progress. Anyone got any tips? I’m okay with feeling the thought and the anxiety but I just don’t know if my brain is on autopilot sending the same thing over and over again because It’s used to doing ERP sometimes all day but not for reassurance purposes to relive the anxiety or if it’s an actual intrusive thought and that’s why I don’t want to thought repress it but also don’t want to ruminate so I’m confused on what it is and how to handle this situation. I’m all about uncertainty because I’ve had suffered this for 4 years now and it went away for a year my second year having it and it goes away for a couple of months at times after that. Recently I’ve been trying to get closer to God and i noticed it got bad again at the same time for the last month and a half. I’m good with handling the anxiety and pressure because I’ve got used to dealing with it and it’s tried to go to different themes but I’m able to handle them and not react to it but I’m just struggling with my main one which is HOCD. I tell myself it’s worth the risk of it to get better than to get worst and worst and it’s true. I don’t need reassurance at all just tips please. God bless you all.Stay strong guys.

To start, I’ve had off and on chest pains on my left side for months now, I’ve had literally 6-8 EKG’s, 6-8 Triponin blood tests (checks your heart enzymes) and a chest X-ray and everything has been perfect. I’ve been very very anxious the last 3 days and this morning I woke up and was immediately anxious, then my chest started the aching again. I’ve been to the ER for this literally 7 times since march. They keep telling me I’m fine. They keep telling me it’s anxiety. I know anxiety can cause chest pain. The logical side of me knows this isn’t a heart attack, it’s been happening for so long, if it was imminent, I would be dead by now. But the ocd side keeps saying “what if this time is actually your heart?” It’s been on and off aching for 6 hours and my anxiety has been really high all morning, I’ve already had 2-3 anxiety attacks since I woke up. My pulse and blood pressure have been normal all day, I check them constantly. I keep telling myself “maybe it is, maybe it isn’t.” I’ll feel calm for a few minutes until the ache comes back and it starts the cycle all over again. I’m so tired of somatic symptoms. I’m so tired of living like this and constantly thinking today is the day it all ends for me. I’m so exhausted and sad and want to give up

Hello everyone, I have just downloaded the app so I am very new here. I have some things to get off my chest and I really hope someone could help me. I have had OCD since I can remember. The first panic attack I have ever had was when I was 4. I hate that it will never go away. It strips away my happyness and will to live. I feel like such a failure. I have so much potantial but this OCD always manages to destroy me when I am at my happiest. I have every OCD one could get but mostly I have existential and religious OCD right now. Couple of weeks ago I have learned about the concept of reincarnation and the "studies" that have been made on this subject. And I had a thought what if this were true, typical OCD behavior. And I had a full on mental breakdown. I went to the bathroom and locked myself in so know one can see me like this, as my family are familiar with this happening to me so I didn't want to worry them again. And then my mind wanted to plant these images of me being in a "past life". Basically telling me hey look these are your "past life" memories. Now I know that these are intrusive images but at that moment I felt like I was gonna faint from the symptoms. And then I looked up the mirror and my brain flashed an image of me in a "past life" also being infront of the mirror. It really freaked me out. I don't want anyone to tell me that it's true please I am not trying to be rude. I can't talk to anyone about it cuz I feel so ashamed and I also haven't found a therpist. So that's why I am writing here so you guys could maybe help me. Thank you for reading all if this. I just feel so close to ending it I can't take it anymore.

I’m new here! I just started, and I wanted to ask if anyone has any helpful ways to cope or take your mind off of the intrusive thoughts. I couldn’t sleep last night because of what I’ve been thinking about. (The following could be a trigger for anyone, especially anyone with existential OCD/death OCD) I can’t get my mind off of the inevitability of death and what comes after. I thought talking to my boyfriend this time would help like it usually does, but for some reason it really has a hold on me. I did manage to fall asleep, but the second I woke up, I got the intrusive thoughts again.

I have dealt with ocd confessing for quite a few years now but I have the urge to confess everything bad I’ve ever done to my partner and I’m scared if we get married that I’m not being honest if I don’t tell him about my past - (sleeping around) there was also a cross over where I was speaking to another guy whilst me and my current partner were getting to know each other. I have also spoke to a few guys in the club or pub (only friendly conversations, no flirting) whilst we have been in a relationship which I didn’t think was a big deal at the time but I feel like I’m going to end up loosing him by confessing everything I’ve ever done when I know it’s not a big deal in hindsight, I feel physically sick about this. Does anyone have advise or similar experience?

Anyone else get enraged at how much easier women can meet a partner than a man? A woman who is decently attractive has many men in her inbox on social media, while a man must stand out amongst all the other men who approach her.. does anyone else have a serious problem with accepting this, or maybe there is a different solution? I’m losing my patience.