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working to conquer OCD
Does anyone else think of their ocd as like, a separate entity? I do, and I think it’s helped me a lot. I feel like it kind of is a parasite sometimes, especially with intrusive thoughts. What do you guys think?
Hi everyone, My therapist is not a fan of ERP, we are doing a compassionate based therapy and she really wants to get to the bottom of what is behind my OCD and core fears. However, we have been trying CFT for over a year and I am still struggling with CFT and day to day life. I am really keen to try ERP and she has said yes if I come up with suggestions. Would be very grateful for some ideas of good first ERP exercises for someone with SOCD and ROCD. Thanks in advance!
the past week has been one of the hardest weeks of my life i tried to kms a couple times and i just cut myself really bad but what caused this all is my mind saying ive done something wrong even though i haven’t. I’ve asked many people they said i haven’t done anything wrong i even asked my parents and i know the answer but my body can’t seem to accept it. There’s genuinely something so wrong with me and i’m so tired of living.
In the past few months, I've been worried about the body proportions of women I imagine. I'm confused, and I don't know what ERP for my niche case looks like. It might sound silly, but I appreciate your advice. I've had HOCD symptoms since 2020 though I didn't know much about what OCD was or that my condition was OCD until 2023. My main compulsion has been to "correct" intrusive homosexual images by replacing them with a heterosexual one. However, as I learned about OCD and realized themes such as ZOCD and POCD exist, these themes eventually began my main OCD content. Lately I've been worrying about the incorrect, too small body proportions of the images of adult women, sexual orsexualthat instantly come to my mind. That's especially distressing when I build these images during wanted sexual fantasies or, admittedly, when doing other OCD compulsions. Sometimes it feels like a bully in my brain is making these images small or makes it tiring for my brain to maintain a more realistic (at least as I precieve it) body proportion, although my aim is to imagine adult women. Sorry for the long text. My question is, how does ERP look like in my case? Am I to let these images go on, including in the middle of my fantasies? How about when these images are themselves OCD compulsions? What if I let them go on and they become smaller and smaller, and I begin enjoying and preferring those smaller proportions? I've been avoiding (and also not much interested in) my sexual imaginations mainly due to this. Is not engaging in these imaginations avoidance? Again, thanks for reading this and advice.
I found out my mom was molested by her dad when she was little. My parents got a divorce when I was a teen and my grandpa became like my dad. He was a well respected man and he was a little weird but I chalked it up to him just being a dirty old man (when he would joke about things). My mom started having flash backs later in life and blocked them out. I was so sad to know this happened to her and that it happened at the hands of some I loved and trusted. Now I want to be a mom but I am afraid of someone hurting my kids. My grandpa has passed away but I have OCD and my intrusive thoughts are: what if someone I love and trust does this to my kids? I love and trust my husband and he is an amazing guy for an example but I over analyze things like the dog sitting on his lap and stuff like that. We talked about me going to therapy and my husband said hell come with me but I keep having bad experiences with therapists so I was wondering if anyone has any advice for me? I want to be a good mom and let the past go but im worried im going to overanayalze everything and that scares me because my friends, family, and husband don’t deserve me thinking horrible things
Would quitting my porn addiction help with hocd? I believe it's becoming a reassurance compulsion, as I go on to prove to myself I am straight by watching straight porn. But then I find myself noticing the dude and checking to see if I find him attractive. Which continues the cycle of continuing to try to prove I am not attracted. I've been struggling with hocd for about a year and a half, it's been Hell every second of it. I never had questioned my sexuality before this, not once and I had been obsessed with girls every since I started to notice them. I so badly want to find a nice lady and have a big family and the thought of being gay scares me so much. I just can't beat this thing. Maybe quitting porn is the answer? I am so drained from this fucking thing, I miss me before hocd, I'd give anything to go back to before this.
Hello, I'm new here. I went through a really intense and traumatic breakup about a year ago and I'm currently working with my university for a SA/Title IX case against him as he was abusive in varying ways and very manipulative. I have the need to check and search the parking lots, the spaces around me, etc.. for him and his very distinct car frequently. It's been getting a lot better as I'm seeking therapy and back on medications. But some days I still have frequent urges to check, I feel like if I don't check, then something bad is going to happen. Aka, I'll run into him, and I fear he'll hurt me or say something to purposefully distress me. I get incredibly nauseous, panicked, obsessive overthinking if I don't which doesn't allow me to be present and learn in classes. Something that has helped me cope is having headphones and sticking to a strict routine and limiting my time on campus.
I just remembered that at school we have swimming class every couple of months. But now I suddenly started questioning „what if during swimming clash I had touched another classmate inappropriately?“ and now I keep trying to remember when I had swimming class. I know that up until 2021 I was always around my sister and like the years before that too and there I was quite damn young so I wouldn’t say anything like this would just cross my mind. I also remember that, due to covid, we didn’t have swimming class until idk, maybe 2022. I also just now remembered I had sth on my foot that I was really embarrassed abt and I didn’t want to get bullied so I skipped as often as I could back then and even had sth from my doctor so I could skip. Basically I was at swimming class maybe 2-4 times that entire year. Then, the same in 2023. I also was around one of my friends at the time then so there wasn’t a lot that could’ve possibly happened either. But now that I remembered the time in 2022 that I skipped so often that I had to show up on some Friday for a few minutes after school to get a grade and now I’m worried sth might’ve happened there. And like, back then there were some children in that pool too bc the teacher had some children’s swimming training for like 5th graders or sth. And now I keep thinking „what if I had touched one of them inappropriately?“ and like the thing is that from my memories I remember that I didn’t even get close to them bc I was in the 3 meters deep part of the pool and they in the 1,50 meters deep one. So basically there was no way for me to get close to them at all. I also only was in that part of the pool for like 1-1,5 minutes, I then switched to another part in which there was some kind of border thing to the other part of the pool. I also of course was only swimming normally and I remember I still had the thing on my foot so all I thought abt was trying to have nobody see it and there were two swimming teachers, they probably would’ve seen if I had actually done anything, right? I know this all just doesn’t make sense but I keep thinking „but what if?“ even tho I have no memory to doing that at all.
I have been struggling with insomnia for the past 2 years. It started after several months of intense focus on a reflux condition that was not there. I may have had some reflux at the start but it must have went away bc I had an endoscopy performed and they found no signs of reflux. It was all nerves. I focused on all my symptoms. I watched every bit of food I ate. I could sleep during it but I still had the reflux feeling. It was all mental. I had a stressful job that I should have left. After several months of struggling with this I finally gave in and went on Temp Disability for 3 months. Just after I left my job the reflux went away and I was relieved BUT then came the insomnia. I was so hyper vigilant of my body that it seeped into my subconscious and bam I couldn’t sleep. I think the lack of sleep was worse than the reflux. Now here I am on sleep meds and more anxiety meds to keep calm and sleep through the night. I would like nothing more than to sleep at night naturally. It’s difficult for me to work esp if shift work. I’m hoping I can find the right help/therapy for me to get back to living.
I’m looking for an exposure to do when I see my partner and don’t feel physically attracted to him. I used to use photos when I was picking up on particular features on his face. They were very useful, but now they are no longer as distressing for me. I am now getting more distressed as a whole seeing his face rather than particular features. Any suggestions?
I try it but it makes me feel overwhelmed and the i feel like im starting to believe the thoughts. I also realized i need to let myself fall into full blown up panic, bacause some of the thoughts come with the panic and i dont like that i have to let myself go into paniking cause there i just believe the thoughts or im avoiding and make it worse. Also i dont like that i have to accept and let every emotion to be, im a sensitive person or im am now cause i have anxiety, but i could cry for anything, even my dog makes me cry cause im so happy for him, i see something on the tv or i think about something that its wonderful and beautiful and it make me cry. If i let myself feel everything i become an emotional baggage, and i eill be lead by my emotions. In that state i just feel like the thoughts are real and then i have to get out which is avodiance... i don not understand
Has anyone heard of and used the AI app unstuck OCD therapy tools?
*Edit: I didn't realize that support groups are only available if you are actively in therapy at NOCD. I truly apologize because I realize that things like support groups can be so important to people, and I didn't realize it was part of what you get with therapy, and not separate. I'm very sorry for the confusion I created. With that said, I hope this at least helps people navigate to the support groups if you are actively in therapy. I had a hard time finding them when I first started with NOCD! Hey everyone! I realized today that I'm probably not the only one who had this problem and I don't want people to miss out on the support groups here because believe me, they added a level of support I didn't realize I needed and it has really helped me with my OCD. In the App: To find and join support groups in the app, go to the Therapy tab at the bottom of the NOCD application. Scroll down and click the section that says "Find a Support Group". It will take you to the Support Groups page. Then click on a support group that looks interesting to you. It will take you to the details page of that group. Then, to sign up one time for the upcoming Support Group, click "sign up" OR if you want to be signed up for all of the upcoming meetings for that Support Group, you can choose the checkbox that says "Sign up for all...". On the Website: To find and join support groups in the website, go to the Community tab at the top of the NOCD website. At the top you'll see a section that says "Support Groups". You can choose from the list of support groups that are at the top of this page, or you can click the link that says "See all groups" . If you choose "See all groups" it will take you to the Support Groups page. When you click on a support group that looks interesting to you, it will take you to the details page of that group. Then, to sign up one time for the upcoming Support Group, click "sign up" OR if you want to be signed up for all of the upcoming meetings for that Support Group, you can choose the checkbox that says "Sign up for all...". Joining a Support Group: Once you've signed up for a single support group or have signed up for all of the upcoming support group meetings, you will get an email an hour before the support group starts. The email will contain a link that you can use to join the support group when it's time to start. When you realize that it's time for the support group, go to your email, and click the link and it will open the zoom meeting for you. I hope this helps to find the support groups! I know that in my journey through managing OCD and doing OCD therapy, I put off going to support groups for a really long time. I realize now that I was just procrastinating and was losing out on a really important part of my therapy and recovery. I encourage everyone who has OCD and is in therapy to take advantage of this additional resource. It gives you good information, helps you to feel like you're not alone, helps you to feel like you're not the only one with your types of fears, and will help you process your emotions while you're dealing with the stress of managing OCD. I hope to see you there!
I always feel like my fears are coming true. I’m so scared of reality
my thoughts are based on real events that i remember so when i have what ifs it's that what keeps me reeled in, i'm trying to push through the intense feelings it's just so hard
I'm having a bit of a crisis tonight. I didn't have many clean clothes so I figured I'd do laundry when I woke up (my sleeping schedule is all messed up). I'm weird about touching the laundry soap, I have to shower immediately afterwards so I started laundry and showered. I got out and put on my last pair of underwear and a T-shirt. I didn't have any clean shorts or pants, not a big deal but I feel weird. Whatever. The washer gets done and I go to put the stuff in the dryer and I didn't notice my partners hoodie was in with the dirty clothes. The same hoodie they were wearing a few months ago when our cat had worms and it jumped on their shoulder, leaning something on it. I don't know if it was dirt or poop but my biggest fear is worms/getting worms so I've avoided that hoodie like the plague. I tried ignoring having touched it or that it was mixed in with all of my clothes so I hung up the hoodie but I also had to touch a hanger that isn't ours, I don't know who touched it last or how long it's been sitting there collecting dust. At this point I started panicking so I threw the clothes in the dryer and took a second shower. When I got out I couldn't stop thinking about my clothes being contaminated so I had to rewash them, which means a third shower. But before that I dug around in my dresser for some old clothes to wear that I might of forgot about and sure enough I found a pair of shorts at least so I put them on the bed on my blanket, put the clothes back in the washer and took a third shower, it was mostly cold this time. But when I got out I realized I had touched the shorts on my blanket with my contaminated hand and that they touched my blanket so I threw both off in the floor with my feet and dug through my dresser again except with my foot this time and found a really old pair of shorts that are two sizes too big. At some point, too, I knocked off my 2DS charger onto the floor so I can't use that anymore until I clean it. All of my outside pants are now in my floor, the clothes are washing for a second time and at some point tonight I'm gonna have to wash my blanket and take a fourth shower. I'm so exhausted, I can't take this anymore. I want to cry.
I deal with false memories, I’ve had a few that have been pretty bad, but normally I’ve been able to tell myself “hey, this is false.” I remembered something a few months ago, and a genuinely don’t know if it’s false? When I first remembered it, it never crossed my mind at all that it could be false. I just assumed it was entirely true. But now that I’ve been thinking about it, there is a possibility that it could be false. It supposedly took place last year during the fall or winter, I remembered it last august. It’s an extremely extremely specific scenario, and the memory is kinda complex. I also vaguely remember remembering it earlier, but it now affecting me that much? Although that could have just been having intrusive thoughts related to the subject. With my confusion on whether or not this memory is false of course comes my ocd shoving it’s way into everything. Something my brain has been telling me recently is “if the memory could be false then maybe only parts of it are and you’re actually just a terrible person” (that would make more sense if I explained the memory). And now I have to keep reminding myself that it’s either all true or it’s all fake, because our ocd would not produce the “better part” of the memory without producing the “worse part”.
If you are in crisis, please use these emergency resources to find immediate help.
OCD doesn't have to
rule your life
