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Poetry has the profound power to convey emotions, foster awareness, and bridge experiences—making us feel seen, comforted, and strengthened.🫶 Submit your poems for a chance to see your work featured on our platforms, reaching many who may be experiencing the same thing. YOUR words matter more than you might think. Here’s how to apply ⬇️ 1️⃣ Write a poem about OCD! You don’t have to be a poet to participate, maybe it’s even an exposure outside your comfort zone! No rules on how it’s formatted. 2️⃣ Share it to your social media with the hashtag #NOCDpoetrycontest OR submit an entry by posting a comment to this post in the app by April 24. That simple! We believe your words have the power to inspire and resonate deeply, so we invite you to share them with our community. Your perspective is invaluable, and it's time it's heard. 📄Terms and conditions: Participants are responsible for ensuring their entries are respectful and appropriate. By participating, you agree to grant NOCD a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to use, display, and distribute your poem in all media for contest-related activities, while you retain ownership. Your poem and social media handle may be shared publicly on our platforms. Personal information will be used solely for contest administration and in accordance with our privacy policy. We retain the right to disqualify for any reason.

So I am new to this app but I was wondering if anyone had any tips and tricks to deal with skin picking. I tend to pick at my eyebrows and I have before and it got bad and then I had it under control but now I feel I can’t control it. What should I do?

Like I am so used to expecting the worst and this will help

I've struggled with emetophobia my entire life, and when I was in 4th grade I got the stomach flu and was sick one night. It caused me to have severe intrusive thoughts around eating, being around other people, traveling, not being clean enough, and more. Over 16 years I got so much better, and thought I was basically "recovered". I was wrong 🙃 about 2 weeks ago, I got another stomach bug and was sick (threw up) for the first time since 4th grade and I relapsed back to that point. I've lost more than 10 pounds in less than 2 weeks because I have barely been eating, I've been struggling to go back to work, and I can't go 12 hours without having an anxiety attack.

Yesterday i noticed the bad habbit in my family what made me suffer throughout my life. Im struggling with being kind and relating with love to myself, i dont say i hate myself, but i dont know what is actually loving yourself feels, or being kind. I always interpret it as a feeling, cause love is a feeling, but when im down i cant feel the love cause either im sad or im angry, and its impossible to feel love when you feel anger. So its been weeks now that something has slowly building up in me, and the last drop to it was when i was talking with my brother and he said i dont do nothing, i never do this i never do that, and this shit makes me angry cause no matter how many times you do something, one time you say no, you never did anything, you never helped them, that one time i didnt do something erases the other times i did it, and this happens alot of times in my family. Its always that i dont do nothing, i just lay in bed, yet i have i job, i have my own money and its been years that my parents doesnt have to give me any money, yet i dont do anything and i dont deserve any praise. Whats funny is that last week we bought a car and I paid almost half of the price of the car and i didnt even heard a "thank you" from my dad. But i heard today "you dont do anything" again. And when i tell them what i do, its always "this is normal this doesnt deserve praise". Yesterday was the time i realized that im not actually loved. Im only good if i do something really big, me having a job and having my own money is normal, i dont deserve love for that... it was so traumatizing, when i hit me that im not actually loved, and this made me so sad and since than it feels like im overreacted cause im keep spinning about it and i dont have alot of energy, it really stressed me out.i even thought about moving but im hesitant with it cause i dont have anyone to move with, i would live alone which is a bad idea. Loneliness would make things worse. But i think this is just an overreaction, not the sadness, but the thinking about moving and all that. And that i feel really bad for a long time now, its just makes me powerless, i know that this means i dont process these feelings in the right way. Im really grumpy and i dont want to talk with anyone, expecially with my family. Can you give me advicea what should help me go through this and not overreact it, just move through it soberly? Also i want to learn how to love myself, what it means and how to be kind with myself without cringing or feeling like im avoiding the problem, im just being nice with myself...

how do u deal with guilt caused by intrusive thoughts during sexual activities?

Im scared and sad. Have had this obsession about something happening with my eyes for years, and this weekend I got sand in my eye with contact lenses in and could not get it out. Kept wearing lenses bc I thought maybe my eyes were just really dry and my family didnt take me seriously bc I always worry about my eyes. Went to doctor today and it was still there so they flushed my eye but I need to come back tomorrow and cannot wear these lenses anymore Now scared for the future and not sure whether all the sand got out bc my eyes still feel bad :(

This sounds insane bc ocd causes so much pain in my life, but it's almost like I'm scared to let it go?? Idk if that's ocd trying to cling on for dear life or if it's me. Logically I don't want to feel horrible bc of ocd forever but what kind of weird thought of "what if you actually want ocd forever?" ?!

i’m struggling so much with things that have happened in my past, especially in my childhood, things that i’ve done, the guilt and shame is too much and i’ve told my mum and she just thinks it was normal childhood things and part of growing up but i can’t let any of it go, my mind feels so messy, and some of the memories are blurry and it’s making me feel horrible and i’m so distressed i just want this to be over and im worried to talk to a therapist because of what they might say or think, can anyone relate?

I just want to be happy with my boyfriend and I genuinely don’t know what to do. How will I get over this… every time I find some peace something from my past comes to haunt me and I always find a reason as to why that means I’m gay. Every time I think well I’ve liked guys my whole life I convince myself that it was all fake. This sucks and I’m so tired of this. I want 100% certainty and I don’t know how to be okay without it. It wouldn’t be fair to him if I’m gay and I hurt him down the road. The last thing I would ever want to do it hurt him that’s why I want to figure this out and be done with it once and for all

I've probably been worse than this before, but there are times at the moment I fear for my sanity. I calm myself down, but it's so easy to get myself in state that I'm constantly on edge and can't relax. I recently had a routine cancer test come back negative, and I actually wish at times it had been positive so I could just say goodbye to loved ones and then die quietly - whilst still myself. I know the reality would be nothing like that, as I've seen first-hand what cancer does, but I'm tired and emotional. Still on waiting list for counselling at local practice. Just want to feel normal again.

My partner and I have not been having much s*x lately, and when it seems like something is about to happen I start to feel uncomfortable and nervous instead of excited. Is this normal?

I started with 25mg at first, then bumped it up to 50mg the second month. I've noticed some positive shifts in my mood. It seems like my brain is finally getting used to it, and I can feel a positive difference. Honestly I’m up and down with this medication and depending on what intrusive thought OCD wants to throw my way is uncertain , and two days again I wanted to switch to a different med completely but now I don’t know. We’ll cross that bridge when we get there. Anyway , my OCD has been throwing me the most disturbing thought. It involves a knife and someone’s eye (you paint the picture) I’ve noticed the more you don’t engage with OCD the more the thoughts decrease but then it’ll rev up and send you and even more violent thought just to trip you up and make you feel all those horrible feelings again. I still pushed through , and I also wanna say exposure has helped. I was so afraid to start my new job at Starbucks because I had to be around people and the fear of possibly hurting them , and I had so much anxiety leading up to the job that I almost didn’t go in and was gonna quit before I even started , and I’m so dead set on a sleep schedule that going into work with sporadic hours freaks me out because what if I get tired and the thoughts get worse. I had to push all of that to the side for this job and it was so scary , but it’s my second week and I’m doing it. I’m finally working , laughing and talking to people. Yeah the thoughts come , but an hour will go by and I’ll think to myself “wow , I don’t even remember a violent thought popping up” and also keeping a knife on my nightstand has helped too. Trust me I’m still scared , but I got hit with so many exposures that my OCD sort of calmed down , because after a while I realized I have nothing to worry about. Exposure therapy really does work , especially when the exposure isn’t planned , because let’s face it I have to work. I have to make a living. What I felt was a nightmare turned out to set me free in a way. Ain’t that crazy

I wish I was a normal teenager with normal feelings and normal emotions why do I have to feel every emotional so ugly why is my brain broken I just want to be normal and laugh about stupid crap go travel do good in college whatever I’m gonna be at my last year of being a teenager soon and. Feel like I wasted what could’ve been good years of my life What stories of me being a teenager am I going to tell my kids in the future when it’s all filled with horrible sad things sorry just needed to vent

Anyone ever journaled or wrote down their intrusive thoughts? How did they do it so it doesn’t seem like writing the thoughts down on a piece of paper make it seem like they are more real or true

I have a fear of losing control, and a fear of schizophrenia. so when I feel tired or fatigue or just any emotion really I think it’s a sign I’m going to lose control and then it makes me so anxious to the point I have a panic attack over the feeling of feeling tired. Anytime I feel a change in my body I take that as a sign I’m going to go insane? which makes me feel more anxious and makes it feel more real! Does anyone else feel like this or have any advice:( currently feeling weird and so anxious all cause I feel sleepy/ tired. It’s exhausting

feels extra real today, like i’m actually going to do it. i want to cry

Has caffeine made your OCD worse?

I saw a TikTok of this really cute black baby and I had a really racist intrusive thought and now I’m worried I’m a really racist awful person. I’m convinced I commented something racist and I keep looking back at the comments to make sure I didn’t. I’m in college and I have to go down and get food at the dining hall soon because it’s going to close in not too long and the majority of people who work there are black and i‘m really worried if I do go get food I’m going to say something really awful and racist to them. I need to get food but I’m sooooo scared I’m going to call them the n word or something

im still worried that a two year age gap 16 and 18 is bad and that is a warning sign im a “p” or im grooming the person