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I would be overjoyed to hear some positive experiences of people who have successful romantic relationships despite their OCD.

I’m on day 6 of Joyous’s Ketamine treatment. It doesn’t make me feel weird or loopy, just a little tired which is great for bed. I have noticed an increase in my mood. My anxiety did feel worse the first couple days but I think it’s gotten a little better. One thing is I never realized how much I ruminate till I started this. I have had Covid for the last week and I return today. If you’ve read any of my old posts you know I HATE my job. Going back today is giving my anxiety however I noticed I’m having a better time talking myself down. I always feel anxiety before going to work in the morning, I thought I’d feel worse about going back today cause I haven’t been in a week but lucky me, it’s not as bad as I thought. I’m up to 45 mg with the K treatments, I’m thinking today I’ll split it up into a couple doses today to see how I feel at work, I’m hoping it makes me happier and less miserable through the day. My depression seems to have gotten better, I’ve had a better outlook and have been in a better mood than usual, but ofc I haven’t been at work so that probably helps but I’m hoping it will help me in work life as well. I’ll update my journey with K treatments, so far I don’t see a dramatic increase, but something is better than nothing!

Does everyone have the same problem with not being able to designate whats a real memory and what is fake and constantly worries that the memory u think is fake is actually real and your OCD is just suppressing it? Ley me know if people have had an experience with this and if u can designate between real and fake?

it has been almost 9 or so months for me with my theme, i just recently started seeing a ocd therapist so i dont expect to see major changes yet, but still. i struggle with SO-OCD and R-OCD mostly right now. how long has it taken you to get better and feel semi back to normal ?

Hi guys, been awhile since I posted on here as I’ve been doing extremely well in my recovery. Yesterday I had a horrible setback. I currently take lexapro and Valium for panic attacks and has been working well, very rarely have I gone into panic. My doctor took me off Valium and wanted to try medical marajuanna, within 10 minutes of taking it I was frantic, total ocd panic set in. To the point I had to call a ambulance. It’s totally upset me today looking back on it. It definitely makes you go through all the motions again, trying to lean back on my therapy tactics. Has anyone else been through this in recovery? forgot just how real and debilitating it can be when that moment sets in. And then the rumination starts up. I can’t help but feel angry and let down my the health department for this happening when I was doing so well. As I’ve learnt not one thing works for everyone. Hope you all have a great day 🤗🤗

I was recently recovering from my OCD centered around my online friends and it was in regards to intrusive urges, but shortly after I started trying to recover, I noticed an old theme reering its head out and soon it was triggered by what if you liked this family member in a romantic way? It absolutely scared the shit out of me and made me feel absolutely disgusted ☹️ I feel ashamed already writing this out, but I notice I'm always triggered by my them, and I feel absolutely awful. What makes this worse is that this was an old theme I had dealt with before, but it feels so real now! Please give me some advice! No reassurance!

I remember one day waking up from what I thought was my worst nightmare or bad dream I remember feeling scared and anxious and so sad I didn’t have a clue why and just out of the blue I had intrusive horrible thoughts of harming my daughter who’s just 1 years old it scared the life out of me as I’m writing this today I still can’t believe I’m here I feel like I’m a failure to my daughter I’m a single mother and it’s hard doing it all along I’m not asking for pity but support my mental health is not good right now I’m scared I’m really scared sometimes my intrusive thoughts will turn into intrusive bad urges like I need to act now and just get it over with and just hurt my daughter it tries to confuse me into believing I wanna actually hurt the person I love the most but I know deep down I don’t want too that’s why it’s called the “doubting disorder right it makes you doubt everything you value and love even about yourself I know I love ky daughter I’m sick and tired of OCD trying to target her like she’s my worst enemy it really sucks feeling this way I wish I had thoughts about just harming myself but I know I can’t think like that I’ll just make things worse I know I need learn and sit with this discomfort and go thru it I wish there was a magic potion or cure to make it all go away but right now I feel weak like I can’t just sit with the discomfort like I wanna give up and go to a hospital forever but I know I wouldn’t belong there because I done nothing wrong and boom My OCD will say you done nothing wrong just yet every time I try a positive outcome positive words it’s like I’m forcing myself to turn it into something negative again or ocd is trying ti make everything in my life that’s suppose to be positive, negative ocd got me on a tight hook I’m so confused on what ny thoughts might mean I’m terrified that this is all me I just hope sharing my experience with you all dosent land me in the hands of someone who’s gonna criticize me I don’t know who else can relate to this but I hope you know as well if you do your not alone

I'm sorry because my English is not good. My social life is not good enough because of the conditions in my country and residence. Symptoms of OCD (many types of ocd) began to appear at the age of 18, 6 years ago. At that time, I was in a relationship and it lasted for 4 years. I became attached to the girl so much that I was about to hurt myself when we broke up. But after several months, we talked again a little, but since the symptom appeared, I have become very sexually jealous. I keep thinking with fear that she will not be with me in the future. Any word has a meaning, whether a sexual meaning or a meaning that reminds me of her, for example in a song or an article. I think that I am with her and then re-read or repeat a part of the song, literally anything I do, especially in the last days. I went to several psychiatrists and psychotherapists, but in my country there is not enough interest in this, and no one knows what to do, not even psychiatrists. what can i do ? Because I can't stand it anymore. Thank you all

Guys, you never answer posts. Like you all like to ask for reassurance here, or to share/vent and be listened, but very few of you listen back. You care about your posts only... Some months ago wasn't like that. We all tryied our best to make this like a family, a one of people that can really understand. We ask with our posts and we answer other posts. Why it can't be like that anymore?

So, health concern OCD is a big subtype that I struggle with. I’m barely ever in really bad shape in my health but it doesn’t stop me from worrying about having everything under the sun. I have a pretty gnarly gum abscess near my wisdom tooth and am FINALLY pulling the trigger on getting all 4 wisdom teeth ripped out next month. I have never been under anesthesia before. And I can’t tell you how terrified I am. I have been crying and having panic attacks every single day since the decision made by me and my dentist. I’m nervous about the unknown and not being able to have control over my body when I go under, during the surgery, and when I wake up. Also terrified of something going wrong in recovery. So I come to ask! What was your wisdom tooth surgery like? Were you as worried as me? Did it all turn out okay. I need some big help.

How am I meant to tell what’s false memory & what’s real when intoxicated I feel so guilty about a night 10 months ago. I need help

Hey everyone! Sending love and support for all of you managing your OCD (We’ve got this!!). I’ve had a very rough week— I just tried out Prozac and had an AWFUL physical + mental response to it, so I am going off of it after about 9 days. My spirals have taken an intense physical toll on me and it’s been extremely hard to eat properly/stomach anything. I am curious about the holistic health end of things. Does anyone have experience with taking magnesium supplements and/or multivitamins to help deal with stress and anxiety? How have they made you feel, and have they helped ease your mind a little? Any recommendations? How do you deal with the physical effects of your OCD?

Like youre in a bad dream that you will wake up from at some soon? Of course I know I am not in a dream and that this is my reality and has been for 4 years. It's just so frustrating because I desperately want my life back. I've had 3 different councellors spread over this 4 year period which I've realised has just made the OCD worse and I had 10 sessions of ERP with a nocd therapist which helped a little bit but unfortunately I can't afford anymore right now. Does anyone have any solid advice other than ERP to overcome this horrible mental illness?

Today has been a rough one. I’ve been having Face Pareidolia (seeing faces in everyday objects) for the past week and it hasn’t bugged me much. But today I was driving and saw a car that made me see a face in the object. I broke down with awful anxiety and have been ruminating and scrolling all day. I feel like it is never going to end. Everything I’ve been seeing today I feel like I can make a face out of it. One of my OCD themes has been psychosis… this on top has made me feel like I am going into psychosis. Has anyone else dealt with this and what kind of ERP did you do to help? I have also recently had a time of high stress. My OCD wasn’t to bad the past few months and it all the sudden had been heightened today. It almost felt like the first day I got it. Any tips, experiences with Pareidolia and psychosis OCD is greatly appreciated.

I have realized I have severe “Apeirophobia” I’m terrified of an infinite afterlife. Suddenly I can’t do anything without the whisper in my mind that I’m going to die one day. Every time I find myself doing something I find my mind asking why am I doing anything at all if I’m going to die someday. Things like showering, eating, drinking water. It makes me wish I didn’t even exist. Oddly breathing happens automatically. The only reason I fear death is because I fear an eternal afterlife and I can’t imagine going there and suffering the pain of all of my loved ones if I’d died of anything other than natural causes. Yet, at the same time I can’t seem to find joy in anything with the constant realization I’m going to die someday. Loving my family seems foreign and futile. If there isn’t an eternal afterlife then life seems even more pointless. Eternal life vs eternal nothingness. If eternal nothingness is reality then consciously existing is silly. My brain is frying between the two possibilities. Both of which I hate the idea of in my brain. Has anyone concurred this?

Today I found myself questioning the thing that started my soocd. After my best friend at the time (female) gave me care and support (after being cold and distant for a long time) I got something like butterflies in my stomach. And then the soocd thought came and everything went down. I've never been in love and couldn't diffrenciate this from having a crush, I never loved or understood myself. I wasn't sure what just happened so my mind went to ocd mode. Now I also fear that because I haven't been in love that I may be asexual which I don't want. But I'm so socially anxious and doubtful that I'm convinced that I'll never find somebody, and ocd tells me that I'd just do that to pretend/fake it. I heard that some people can recover from ocd in 6 months if they put work into it. I was doing so much for the past 8 months and I don't know what else can I do

So I saw this video on TikTok of this family doing an ad for a football team and they had the video in slow motion and one of the daughters who's in high school looked down and then up and I thought she looked attractive. I can feel myself wanting to ruminate and start catastrophizing but I have this feeling of not caring. What I mean is not caring to the point of ruminating, or where I have to start trying to figure out which tools. It's almost like, "man I don't even care, I'm just going to move on". Basically like "I thought she was attractive, so what. Now let's move on because it's tiring playing the what if game. It'd be much easier just moving on. Idk if what I'm saying makes sense because it's not forgetting about it the sense of directing attention away from it but more so not directing attention towards it. Sitting here, I'm just line man...I'm tired of ruminating. I'm tired of feeling like I have to catastrophize JUST because I thought someone was attractive. I'm tired of letting my OCD turn what is natural and human as far as having eyes and finding people attractive into shaming me as a monster who should be locked away in a cage. It's just tiring battling with the OCD and playing tug of war to try and prevent rumination. But I read this article that to not ruminate should be effortless. Meaning, the practice in itself. Obviously it's hard to not feel the need to ruminate but if we catch ourselves, stopping rumination should be like someone telling us to stop solving a math problem. We don't think about why, we just stop solving it. It's like the metaphor of "fighting off the fish". Imagine you're in a lake and surrounded by fish and instead of using all your energy to fight them off, you just float and let them be. It's much less tiring. My OCD loves to shame me and shun me for finding people attractive. My OCD has forced me to feel that I cannot find anyone attractive that isn't over 18. That if I do, I must be a pedophile. I'm not trying to give myself reassurance but to hell with that! I know myself and I'm not going to let the OCD make me into something I'm not. I know the difference between a pedophile and finding people attractive. I would explain the difference but I feel that would be reassurance. My whole point is, I feel I've gotten to the point of where I'm like, "man...this ruminating thing is so exhausting. Why don't I just move on? Why sit here and let the OCD run wild?" 💚

I suffer from endometriosis and migraines. And I’ve tried everything! I was even given morphine and other opioids by my er doctor and it turns out that not only am I allergic to them but it doesn’t help. I’ve tried everything else. Over the counter, natural, and prescribed. But I’ve heard a lot of people say that weed/edibles is terrible for ocd and ptsd. Should I risk it???

So I have a confession to make. I was raised very strictly so I had barely any access to social media, no friends, no social interaction. I was smart, but it really made me lag behind when it comes to social situations. When I was 18, I befriended a 14 year old that became one of my closest friends as we were in the same sports club. We hung out together everyday and he was my first ever friend that made me feel special. I was raised with an abusive dad so he made me feel very safe. One day, I ended up kissing him. (He has kissed multiple people and been in Relationships before but because I was a man child this was my very first kiss) it was like those first kisses you see in movies. Pretty brief like 4 pecs. I just loved him as he saved me from my depression. At that time, I had no idea that a 4 year age gap was weird and inappropriate. We only kissed that one time and we never talked about it until I remembered after 3 years. I was essentially a person with no access to social media no idea about relationships I just assumed it was ok because he was my friend. Around 3 years after the incident, I got access to social media and hear people saying people like me are pedophiles. I regret kissing him very much and even asked him if I hurt him, and he says he loves me as a friend and that I never did.(he is still very close to me). I still feel like a predator that I kissed someone that was 14 and I was 18, I attempted suicide multiple times, racked up over 100k in emergency and medical bills and therapy, but I feel like the only way is to end my life. I asked multiple lawyers if the kiss was legal, they all say it’s legal but I still don’t think I deserve to live. I’m mad that I was raised as this socially isolated loser. If I wasn’t, maybe this would never have happened. I want to hear the opinion of Reddit, am I unforgivable ? By I didn’t know the 4 year age gap was weird, I was complete socially isolated never even knew how relationships work, didn’t know about age of consent and stuff nothing. I essentially came out from the jungle. My worst fear is that I will go on the sex offender registry and my life ruined. I think I would rather die before that happens.

I watched videos that helps you learn to interpret your thoughts differently and change your thought interpreter(how you relate to your thoughts). I can't find videos about emotional interpretation, everyone talks about emotional pain but that makes us rumminate more. And i dont talk just about ocd feelings like in harm ocd that you feel like you want to do it. I have struggles sometimes that i feel bad about things normally i wouldnt, and then i deal with trying to figure out if its a real probpem or not, then i get worked out and i feel bad, shame so i say lets try to ignore it cause i know i have ocd and it can attack everything, even make you feel that you have a problem when in reality you dont have. I recently wrote 2 posts about trauma and this includes that. Its a really hard battle cause you feel like you have a problem what you should work on but if you start to work with it you get more deeply into that till you get stuck or you get angry and decide to ignore it. Then 2 things can happen, one that you start to feel good cause you dont feed this or what I always deal with,you get hit with shame and fear cause you avoid dealing with a problem, like trauma or depression or any problem that aplies to your personality. I know trying to figure out isnt the answer, but what you should do then? If its ocd and not a real problem/trauma/depression then how you can see that and decide to not work on it? I feel like alot of ocd videos deals with how to react to your thoughts but not about your emotions. Sometimes i dont even have or see my thoughts, i just feel bad about something or have a bad reaction and i just react with "something is wrong here, something needs to change, i have to do something about this, what is the problem?" And when you are sensitive and struggle with ocd, and someone tells you something that triggers you then you get hit with strong anger and desperation or victimhood and you feel like this is a trauma that you have to work on cause the reactions are the same... but it can even be ocd cause youre just sensitive right now and youre already worked up. But saying this doesnt help cause you feel like you avoid the real problem. So then how should we interpret our emotions? How to know what is real problem?