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I often hear the advice “your emotions are valid” from therapists. What does this mean exactly? Also, isn’t the whole point of OCD therapy to learn to ignore and invalidate your feelings? Because it means you need to disengage mentally with OCD and thus ignore the feelings. That’s what I understand. But now I have comorbid BPD and Bipolar 2, so now my therapist for that tells me to acknowledge my feelings and that it’s perfectly valid to be angry/upset/sad/happy etc… It contradicts my OCD therapy or so it seems. Anyone able to chime in?

I've been shutting myself away lately because I'm so fu^king sick of this cycle of me turning into a g0ddamned baby and then hysterically crying for hours on end and having my family helplessly watch and not know how to help. Nobody knows how to help. I don't even know what I need. I want to give up and just stare at the wall until somebody can save me. If my brain isn't constantly distracted and numbed I'm spiraling. I switch minute to minute from being super depressed to hyper and talkative yet somehow I manage to hold it all inside. It's getting very hard to communicate/mask. Every night I feel fine. I feel scared and sad, but I feel the most normal at this time. When I wake up, it starts all over again. I wake up in panic attack mode and drag myself to work. I swear to god I can't help myself anymore. Nothing I do helps and it's too exhausting. I think I'm just gonna keep letting myself suffer because I'm so sick of trying to get help and then have it not help. I know this is just an episode but jesus christ it's so f^cking scary. I believe everything my brain tells me but I don't even know what it's telling me. All I know is there's this extreme PUSH to be flooded with extreme sadness and anxiety, and it's very REAL. I feel like I need to be locked up and studied. I truly feel alone in this condition because I genuinely believe there is no one in this world who has been having these symptoms the way I do. Four years of this, several mental health professionals, and I still don't have an answer. When will I be able to rest? Even reading this message makes me think "that's not me. where did I go?" There's not even a specific reason why i'm feeling so extremely horrible. It starts as a pure OCD attack about something and then before I know it I spend a week crying. Anyway I have work in the morning I don't know how I keep going and getting out of bed every day knowing that ending up like this is definitely a possibility. I really don't know how I'm still alive. Something is extremely wrong with me and no one seems to understand just how bad it is. What do I need to do in order to get someone to understand the severity of it all? I wish nothing but healing and peace and permanent remission for all of you tough souls ❤️

What if you did something extremely horrible as a child that you didn’t know how horrible the events were that your POCD and real events OCD targets? Does it make the intrusive thoughts true? I'm getting anxious from my POCD and real event OCD based on real events (3 times) from when I was 13…… I don't ever want to ever be a P at all… I don't ever want to ever be a Chomo at all... i don’t ever want to ever be a rapist at all… I was 13 when these real events happened and now I'm 22... I've asked my mom about this so many times and every time she tells me that it's not serious anymore, that the person is okay, and that I'm not a rapist or a P or a chomo...  I didn’t realize how horrible the real events actually were… I was 13 at the time… now I’m 20… my POCD and real event OCD call me a P or a chomo because of the real events… while my mom reassures me all the time that it’s all over, that it’s not serious anymore, that the person is okay, and that I’m not a P or a rapist or a chomo, but when I was doing compulsive research, I remember when I saw a post on a non OCD forum about someone’s similar situation to mine and two people said to the person that they m*lested and that they needed  to turn themselves in… I don’t ever want to ever be a P or a chomo in any way shape or form… i didn’t know how horrible the real events were when I was 13… I really didn’t… and after the real events I never did anything like that ever again, and I never once ever thought (before, and after) about doing stuff with kids in any way shape or form... I never once fantasized about kids or wanted to do anything with kids… I was 13 and didn’t realize how horrible the actions were at the time and I never did it ever again… I never once fantasized about kids before or after the real event… I don't ever want to ever harm a child in any way shape or form... I seriously don't ever want to do that to any child in any way shape or form and I seriously don't ever want to do anything like that to any kid now or in the future… I never have had any fantasies about kids and I don't ever want to... I don't ever want to ever be a P or a chomo in any way shape or form... I was 13….. and after the real events I never did anything like that ever again, and I never once ever thought (before, and after) about doing stuff with kids in any way shape or form... I never once fantasized about kids or wanted to do anything with kids…  I was 13 and didn’t realize how horrible the actions were at the time and I never did it ever again… I never once fantasized about kids before or after the real event… And it’s comparing me to actual P’s and chomo’s who did stuff from 12-15… and making me think I’m a P and a Chomo because of it… I don’t ever want to ever be a P or a chomo in any way… 😭😭😭

I disclosed my disgusting intrusive images to my husband and he's used it against me. We've been fighting and if we get divorced I'm afraid he's going to tell people. If people knew they would be horrified and I would lose all the people in my life. I shouldn't have told him. I'm so scared and angry at myself that I told him.

Is anyone else so exhausted of OCD being a joke? I’m wondering when laughing about mental illness became funny.

It’s not going well with my boyfriend and I (we’re long distance and he travels for work) and we’ve been arguing a lot - half of them cuz of my anxiety and half cuz of … both of us? My ROCD feels high but also I ask for things like - where is this going over the next two years? When can we meet each others family? So that I can feel secure and tell me ROCD to shove it. But his answers are that he isn’t ready yet especially cuz we’ve been arguing so much. My brain is telling me to cut and run. My ocd is telling me the same. Everything is yelling at me to leave. I’m so tired of this.

I pick my face as a coping mechanism for anxiety. I worry constantly. What r some things I can do to work through this?

Does anybody else ever purposefully try to create a false memory to see if your other false memories are not true? lol it sounds weird but I’m currently dealing with a false memory that I said something horrible during a conversation.. so I try to see if my ocd does that with other conversations. That would validate that it is in fact my ocd and not real memories. I hope that makes sense 😭

Hi everyone.! My name is Nick. I’m 29 and was diagnosed with ocd about a month ago and a half ago. Ever since 16, I helped my cousin who is diagnosed with schizophrenia. Also, I managed a psychology office/ clinic near my house up until 2 months ago. I get intrusive thoughts about me believing in one of the delusions that I heard while helping my cousin and with the patients I worked with. I heard everything from people thinking they needed to urgently flee to another area in the world to thinking the government is controlling the weather, air supply etc. I heard so much and my intrusive thoughts of me believing these things and losing control feels so real. Has anyone else ever had fear of psychosis? Thanks 😊

I just keep on having this feeling that « deep down I know I don’t genuinely love him » and I hate it because I want to love him and I want to stay with him I’m happy in this relationship and it has been three years

I'm trying to get a general idea of what the community believes. Yes or no answers only please. Once I get a good number of replies I'll follow up with info. Is your brain who you are?

So I was recently diagnosed with ocd and I have always been told since I was little that I have ocd tendencies but I worry that I am not ocd enough. Like what if I don’t have enough like things to address. Sometimes I worry that I’m faking it but I can’t tell the difference between what’s fake and what real

There is an exposure that I have been avoding because I'm so scared. Part of the avoidance was actually because there was no chance to do the ERP. Now that there is a chance I do not know if I'm ready. I have been feeling a lot of anxiety lately and feeling a little bit numb in terms of having a big anxiety attack but the sadness and worry is still there I just do not have the energy to react. That scares me too because when I have intrusive thoughts I'm just too mentally and emotionally exhausted to react but I'm still feeling sad, irritated, afraid, worried.... I'm worried about the ERP that will take place I'm worried that I'm not ready and it will make the intrusive thoughts and anxiety worse. Just writing about this is a little bit of an exposure. I wish I can explain better but you can see from the OCD theme what this post is about. I'm feeling calm and anxious at the same time (if that makes sense). How do I deal with this in the moment?

Does anyone constantly feel like they have to think about who they are and even who they used to be or it seems like you’re going to lose yourself. I’m also dealing with depersonalization so I feel like I’m going to just slip away

I don’t even know how to start but this is the worst type of intrusive thoughts i’ve had and it’s breaking me down.I really need to find comfort in this but have no idea how.I have intrusive thoughts about my religion and God which I can’t even describe in detail because I feel horrible about it.Its thoughts about death,contradicting my beliefs and saying i don’t like my religion and what I believe in,terrifying thoughts about afterlife. really need help with this It’s literally tearing me down and it’s sickening to me.I’ll try going into more detail if anyone needs it,if I don’t feel too uncomfortable.

When my sister told me she slept with our cousin I could not handle it and whenever I feel an intense emotion I feel lien I need to talk to other people about it in order to move past it and feel validated that my reactions are okay. I never thought of me doing that for superiority being a possibility until I learned about NPD and now I am confused about my intentions because I do think I am morally more correct than my sister and I do tell people things that bother me or things that happen for validations that my reactions are okay and justified. When I think of people disliking my sister because of that I get anxious and I feel guilty because I don’t want people to dislike my sister but what if I do and I just am in denial?

I've been thinking about this stuff for a few days, it'll go away for a little but something always reminds me or I will think it myself to see if it affects me. im so tired, i feel like its always there. I know if it's distressing me this much i clearly don't like the thoughts but then i think to myself 'then why am i thinking it?' 'you're just trying to convince yourself'. I feel fucking disgusting. I cant even sleep to escape it, it'll show up in my dreams. it makes me physically ill. I just want it to end.

I have been on ssri since i was 19 i am 37 now... i never really noticed a true improvement, of course much less anxiety etc, but never got to the root of the problem, im thinking about maybe stopping the medication and really facing anxiety to get to the root? What do you think about that?

I restarted my 100mg of sertraline about 2 weeks ago now and tbh i feel worse now being on them then i was off of them, for context I have horrible memory on them and i genuinely forgot to take them in fear of double dosing and was basically off of them for 3 months. I'm restarting them now and i feel worse??? I'm seeing my doctor on monday but the first week was fine, stomach issues but nothing i couldn't handle, wasn't super hungry in the morning but could eat at night, little anxiety but i could handle it. Then i had a huuuuuge anxiety attack at work on tuesday and ever since then its basically been i'm sleeping all the time, no appetite, severe social anxiety, and i hate being alone (my mom is my safe person.) like i'm very tempted to just do cold turkey because this is awful. I know it's my own fault i forgot to take them and now I have the medication reminder on...but i feel awful.

how do you accept uncertainty I find it impossible and so distressing? It’s ruining my life😔