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how to not develop the mindset that if you slip up and do a compulsion you are set back in your progress and all of your hard work is gone?

I just wanted to tell you that I feel much calmer when I feel something identified with most of you, knowing that I wasn't going crazy or something similar gives me that hope I wanted to feel :3 I keep working on my soocd because I don't like at all the idea of becoming someone I don't want to be, you know? Never before did I come to doubt my sexual orientation, I even came to think that it would be cool to be bisexual so I could enjoy my sexuality more, but it was just like a comment because it wasn't really something I wanted. I usually feel bad when I see a woman and I don't feel attracted to her as I used to, it's like it makes me feel less like a man or something like that, and this strengthens my ocd with my sexual orientation, I've changed too much because of my ocd in general, it's hard to ignore something you feel real, more because by pretending that nothing happens, it feels like you realize the fact that you are what you overthink, shall I explain?? I hope so because I'm writing this with the help of a translator hehe I worry that I don't like women anymore, I worry about losing myself or something, I worry about that feeling of being attracted (?? For a man, I sometimes avoid using social media because it bothers me that my mind makes me believe those things. I know I'm not gay because I've proved it to myself, but as much as I remember me that it's like my mind doesn't have enough proof for it :( I've even come to think that I'm making up all this ocd stuff to keep "pretending" that I'm not gay, even that sounds illogical, but that's the problem, that even knowing it's illogical, sometimes it feels like it's logical. Thank you for taking the trouble to read it, I needed to vent even a little of one of my most recurrent thoughts If you have something to comment on, do so!

Where shall I go therapist or police, I’m convinced I raped somebody but nothings came of it

Hi there everyone. I'm a 22 year old male who was diagnosed with ocd when I was about 16. I've struggled greatly with ocd and even fainted once because of how bad it got. I've had many obsessions that have shifted from time to time. Right now I have a bit of pocd, hocd,health ocd, and my latest and currently most distressing obsessions, where I'm not sure where to categorize them. My symptoms are as follows. I was walking home from work with an employee one day, when I hit a wall so to speak, in my thoughts. Like, I kind of knew what I wanted to say, but trying to put it into words, or fetching the words felt exhausting, and difficult. This was very distressing and triggered a downward spiral of obsessing over dementia, aphasia, cognitive decline, forgetting how to read and speak, and obsessing over words I think, read, and speak and wether or not I understand them.i continually get anxiety feelimg the need to go over the original catalyst sentence in my head ,checking to make sure I can properly retrieve it and think it. I still have a teeny bit of difficulty thinking or speaking about it, and I'm not sure if it's just my ocd and anxiety. Following all of this, lately I have had a fogginess in my head when thinking complexly and my ocd has pounced on it. Im hoping it's just brain fog, and that I'm obsessing over nothing, as when I am not obsessing about it, I understand and read and speak words just fine . Anyone else going through this?

Again i had a suicidal thought and why i feels so real is because it came with so strong emotions. I felt hopeless and panicking that i want a way out ans then i was hit by a huge shame and sadness cause i dont want to die... its so hard, what do i do with all those emotions... it feels like its true, expecially when im in a hard situation, like actually something bad happens. I dont see the difference between my thoughts and emotions and someone who is sttuggling with suicidal thoughts. I know personally someone who had self harm problems and wbat helped him was the "thoughs are not you", and we use the same thing, and whenever i think about that my mind says maybe it works cause i have the same thing as people with suicidal feelings and emotions. Its a lie that everyone wants to die cause i heard about people who doesnt like their suicidal rhoughts and feelings, they feel shame about it and are afraid of it... well its the same we go through... and the usual ocd method is to say "maybe maybe not" but it gives me feeling of shame, shame that maybe i was close to end my life. We dont know the answer but im tired that it comes back always with this strong feeling, like hopelessness, sadness, anger. I give an exenple lets say i lose someone, ans then i experience a thought that i have noone, i lost someone who is important to me, the world is unsafe, i want to get out of here, this comes with the feeling of despair, sadness, anger and hopelessnes cause i have a real problem, i lost someone so i can say i feel this becauee of that and even therapists would say im experiencing suicidal feelings. Yet some say its ocd. How? I just want to understand how its ocd when poeple with the same experience get diagnosed with suicidal thoughts and feelings?

Hey there, just wondering if anyone has ways to overcome the challenges that ocd brings when reading a book. I constantly feel the need to reread to make sure I have not missed something and it gives me a great deal of anxiety. It has taken away from the enjoyment of reading. Thank you

Every single time I am dealing with a flare up the mornings are the worst. By the evening I am ok and think I conquered my OCD. Then here we go again all over again. WTH! I find it hard especially having Harm OCD because I am the first one to get up and my Husband and Daughter are sleeping at their most vulnerable state. I feel Frozen, I pant, my heart races and my stomach is doing roller coasters. Anyone in the same boat? any tips and what worked for you?

Im feeling so panicked right now and i keep having dark thoughts. I cant even breathe with how panicked i am, idk what to do. I feel like everything is hopeless. I was talking to my friend about feeling really lonely and even she doesnt know what to tell me anymore. I feel like dying, whats the point of suffering even more if its never going to get better. I cant even think straight from the panic please anyone help me

I’m too tired to write but, I’m stressing over the fact I will be alone forever and my ocd with ruin everything. My mind is a wreck! I want to be happy and have a good future but idk if that’s possible. I want a husband and kids but I’m so confused!!!!!!! I don’t know what to do! I’m having the worst anxiety. Plus since Valentine’s Day is coming up I’m getting more and more upset. Because I want a boyfriend but I just can’t imagine myself in a relationship!

Does anybody else feel like there are a lot of resources to deal with our OCD during a relationship, but not after a break up?

I’ve never been under anesthesia, i’m 19 and I should be getting my wisdom teeth removed, I am supposed to call the oral surgeon, but I still haven’t called after two months of getting my referral, for a few reasons. 1. I think i will die or suffer from serious complications/ be able to feel everything but not be able to move, almost like sleep paralysis, because that type of thing has happened before, only in redheads… I am not a redhead. Just the impeding doom it feels like a possibility. 2. Who will take me/drive me home while i’m coming out of the anesthesia and possibly saying silly things. I don’t want anyone to see me in a state i’ve never been in before. I feel like i’m going to say horrible things that are either directed at the person who is caring for me, or just in general. Even sexually explicit/ morally wrong/ flat out disturbing. If my boyfriends take me what if I tell him I don’t love him ( I do). What if I say something sexual that could be offensive, like sexual acts with other people? (I’ve never done/Will never do). I can’t have my mom take me cause she would hold those things against me for however long it felt right to her. Etc. My teeth are suffering and the anxiety of the what ifs eat me alive every time I think about it. To me this feels extremely vulnerable and it makes me more uncomfortable than anything to not be in control of my words. My sister specifically is an example that makes me feel these things. She told me that our mother said to her when she was healed from getting her wisdom teeth out that my sister said something so bad that my mother said she would never repeat it. Which is very out of character for my mother. And my sister and I are almost positive what she said was a sexual connotation. Has anyone else had this experience?

I have been dealing with my OCD around politics and it has completely taken over my life. I can’t stop see the cruelty, infighting and controversy that circulates in the news everyday. I am unable to do my work or even take naps without having panic attacks. My mother yells at me and calls me insane. She says I am choosing to suffer and I am going to lose everything. I bought my girlfriend a ring and I was going to propose to her in our Norway trip next month, but she keeps crying when she sees me spiral. She has seen me hit myself and say I want to die. She can’t take anymore. I’m losing my mind and will to survive with each passing day. I can’t see the love of my life suffer when I am losing control of myself. I want to kill myself to free her from the pain. I know she will hurt from this, but I am putting her through this suffering every day. I don’t have many friends left and I have no one else to turn to. My own family turns their back on me because they don’t want the negativity and I can’t be completely honest with my girlfriend on my feelings.

I’m not sure if I have OCD, but recently I’ve been feeling uncomfortable/uneasy when things don’t go as planned or when someone breaks the rules or if things needed to be a certain way. It would be the littlest thing that goes differently then what I thought would happen it brings out a lot of anxiety and the feeling of being uncomfortable also I feel very overwhelmed/stimulated. I’ve also developed a constant thought of death and how we are all going to die one day feels like an obsession at this point and it keeps me up, drives me crazy. Is this ocd?

So I’m trying really hard to grow and learn how to deal with my insecurities but it’s starting to get really difficult. I’m away traveling and I’m finding myself and my confidence, but while the guy I’m seeing is at home it’s just all fallen apart with him. He’s recently dealt with a really difficult thing in his life which I’ve been there for him through, but during it he realised he needs to find himself and figure things out, he doesn’t know what he feels towards anything and has told me he doesn’t know what the future holds, or where he stands with me. I’ve come to terms with the fact we may not be together anymore, but I fell in love with him so this is taking a bit of a toll on me emotionally. He said that with me feeling the way I do he didn’t want to hurt me, he doesn’t have feelings for me anymore (at least that’s what I’m assuming from it all) but he’s saying he just wants to take it chill until I’m home and we can talk it through which I’ve agreed on. But I said to him in gonna be going a bit silent, that I’m gonna give him some space now and need some space which I think made him realise that I’m not playing around anymore. I’m really upset about it all, because seeing him with another girl will kill me inside, but I also don’t wanna hold him back from being happy. I’ve asked previously if we’re seeing other people because I don’t want to and he said he isn’t, but that was a couple weeks ago, so I’ve asked again and idk what his response is going to be. I’m worried I’ve lost him, for good, but I can wait to find out. I’m just gonna miss him, I feel like I’ve done everything wrong in trying to keep him. I said that I can’t force him to like me, and he can’t force himself to have feelings for me that he doesn’t have anymore. What stung most is that he didn’t say he doesn’t have feelings for me, and he didn’t say he does. He just doesn’t know what we wants and he’s confused. I keep giving my heart to people who don’t want it. I just want someone to want me

Is anyone else a small business owner/freelancer with OCD? It’s really hard I always have intrusive thoughts about what will bring me clients or what will make people run away. I struggle to make deadlines because I am way too stuck in a perfectionism loop that I procrastinate until I have almost no time to do the project. I love the work I do and I really want to enjoy the whole business side of it but having myself as my boss is horrible bc I’m so hard on myself and need everything to always be perfect before I can exhale which is never so I’m always holding my breath D: can anyone relate?

This has been the worst pocd day of my entire life... i just constantly get intrusive thoughts of having unknowingly explicitly texted minors on NSFW discord servers and explicit chat sites when i only explicitly chatted with women who had their ID's and selfies verified and I only chatted with women who were older than me on the explicit chat site... The ones I found suspicious were those who were unverified or suddenly left the server... this one girl gave me her birthday, so that wasnt that suspicious... but then when i asked this one girl what date she was born on, she just said "13😭" before reiterating that she was 18 later on and many times beforehand... im just honestly so scared and anxious rn... idk if they were lying or not... thats whats scaring me... ive only talked to verified women as far as i know... and i get so scared about minors online lying about their age, and it makes me ruminate on whether or not this happened to me... Ive seen so many horror stories of minors lying about their age and it just terrifies me to no end...

I’m getting these bubbles of negative thoughts/feelings. I think cuz I’ve unconsciously started ruminating and these stronger feelings/thoughts/impulses bubble up. It’s tough to ignore cuz it feels like a gut feeling. Anyone else get this?

I feel my heart break when I think of losing my bf, I still feel a small part of me want him but now everything is pointing me just being lesbian. I’m convinced now that I only like being w him because of the male attention😭thinking of being lesbian and being w women doesn’t feel like desire at all like how lesbians describe it, but it feels so real and part of me just wants to give up and break up with him and just give in to this :( I get a lot of anxiety now thinking about being w men and feels like there’s no other way to explain this. I know it’s seeking for reassurance but it feels so hard to bring myself back from this to even say “maybe maybe not”. I just need some advice :(

I’m due to give birth to my first child this month, and I’ve been able to control my thoughts up to this point. But lately I’ve been having this intrusive thought where my baby is not actually my husband’s, even though I’ve never been unfaithful. I keep thinking, “What if I cheated and am blocking out the memory?” Or, “What if my daughter is a different race than ours because I slept with someone else?” I’ve been trying to work through this thought but have been failing miserably. I just want to enjoy these last few weeks of pregnancy… thoughts or opinions?

Does anybody else’s intrusive thoughts come in the form of “delusional thoughts”? I’ve been in a terrible episode of hypochondria or ocd for the past 6 months where I have FULLY convinced myself I am developing schizophrenia, it started with becoming really easily overstimulated and not being able to concentrate and now it has spiraled out of control to where I am constantly getting intrusive thoughts center around demonic stuff, which i have never ever believed before, I have always been a skeptic. But now i get these thoughts all the time like “what if this song has hidden demonic meanings?” “What if your wife is a demon” “what if nobody is real and your just in hell” “what if this political figure is being controlled by the devil”, the typical kind of delusional thoughts you would expect from a schizophrenic. Keep in mind I am a literal atheist and all about facts, science and evidence, I am a skeptic. Not only does the fact that I’m even having these thoughts in the first place scare the life out of me, but I have to constantly battle with these thoughts in my head if I believe them or not. I feel like I have to constantly hold myself back from fully going off the deep end, I feel like I have to constantly disprove these thoughts and stop myself from believing them, but they feel so real and it’s scaring me so much. One part of me is like “why can’t we just stop worrying about this, this is delusional” and another part of me is like “what if I actually do need to worry about if these things are true or not, they FEEL true” and I’m just like “wtffff I shouldn’t have to worry about if things like this are true at all in the first Place!” I feel like I have fully lost my mind, and in no time I’m going to lose this little bit of insight I have. I hate these thoughts so much, I don’t want to think about them, but now that they are here, I feel like I can’t forget them. My dpdr is already making everything feel so off and weird and unreal and I feel like it’s only giving these thoughts more credibility and realness. I feel like this could also be partly a terrible form of existential ocd that’s being thrown into the mix with all these “what if thoughts”. Ugh I just want to be normal again ): but I don’t even know what normal feels like anymore because I’m constantly on the lookout for symptoms that I can’t even be normal anymore. Btw: yes I am seeing 2 therapists and a psychiatrist and all of them do not believe I am developing schizophrenia.