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To the HOCD people please name some compulsions and obsessions you all get/do

I missed a lecture this morning because my alarm didn’t go off. However I would have only been about 20 minutes late if (funnily enough) I didn’t have a panic attack due to me panicking about missing the lecture. I haven’t had a panic attack in weeks because I’ve been on medication for my OCD and anxiety but I feel like I’ve been sent back weeks.

Does anyone have advice for magical thinking OCD? For instance i can’t have an intrusive thought while doing something because then i have to go back and do it while having a good / safe thought to counteract the bad one. Anyone else struggle with this? Some input would be great.

Does anyone have a way of overcoming fear of going crazy. This has been a fear of mine for 6 years ever since my first panic attack. It eventually developed into schiz ocd. I just have the strongest imagination and such deep thoughts. I used to love this about myself before I knew what schizophrenia was. Now I just associate every bizarre thought I have as a sign or delusion. It’s been such torture that I get the most abstract intrusive thoughts. Like one that kept me up was “isn’t it weird how were always in this reality.” I started to think like everything we see is always part of this reality. Just weird stuff like that. How do I just not let these thoughts affect me. How do I overcome my fear of insanity? It’s so hard. I literally research all day of organic causes of psychosis like low blood sugar or vitamin deficiency just to reassure myself if it’s happening to me at least it could be a physical cause and it will never happen again. I just want to be okay with the worst possibility in my mind. Which would be schizophrenia. I just want to not be afraid of this illness already. My heart skips a beat every time I see that word.

Does harm/serial killer thoughts actually go away?

Hi, I’m new here. I am a checker. I need to check the stove and other household appliances before I leave the house. I think I am afraid that I will burn the house down with my dog In it. I know this is not rational and the chances of it happening are incredibly low but I worry. I get stuck In loops while I’m checking things over and over. Sometimes things are better and I can get out of my house relatively easy. Other times it takes me 10-30 minutes to leave. I am seeing a therapist but I am not taking medication. Does anyone deal with similar issues? Has anyone found any strategies that help them cope?

I’ve just spent the past 30minutes researching does God watch us have sex, read our minds and know our sexual thoughts. :( I don’t want him to but clearly he does. I feel so embarrassed and disgusted. I have suppressed everything for months. Don’t know how I’ll ever be comfortable with sexuality again

Its been about four months since I decided to actually take charge of my OCD & DP/DR and take serious steps towards recovery, other than complaining to my therapist and googling symptoms online. I’m gonna be honest, its been hard going. Recovery has rarely been easy or pleasant, and sometimes still isn’t. But its no more unpleasant than the two and a half years I spent gripped with worry, consumed by doubt and my need for certainty, terrified to change my routine in case the important things in my life slipped away and I was consumed by unreality. In the past few months, I’ve made some amazing discoveries about myself, things I didn’t know before I made my first hesitant attempts to get well. I can be likeable and well liked, friendly and approachable. I’ve learned that kindness and positivity are important, and kindness to others is the greatest gift you can give. I’ve learned that I have the ability to make friends easily and smoothly, simply by being polite. I’ve learned that writing is the only thing I’ve ever wanted to do with my life, a hobby pursued but not seriously considered as a genuine option until I stopped taking myself so seriously. I’ve learned that patience and acceptance are virtues that can be obtained through gradual practise, and sometimes all you can do is make yourself a cup of tea and wait for the pain to pass. It does, if you let it. I’ve learned that the world is a wide and wonderful place, and I want to see all of it. And I learned that Im worth more than the harsh expectations I place on myself. Worth more than the way the toxic people in my life have made me feel. And sometimes, if I’m swept up in other things and able to focus on something beyond my anxious mental state, I feel moments of peace. Where I’m real, present, and unconcerned by the thoughts passing through my mind. Sometimes I wonder if I’d be able to appreciate those moments so deeply if they were a given, a sure thing. I doubt it. And I’m sure that once I’m entirely recovered I won’t be able to appreciate them with the same intensity. Its like a blocked nose. When you’re offered a brief relief from it you’re incredibly grateful, and swear you’ll never take breathing from your nose for granted again. But then it unblocks for good and you take it for granted almost instantly. Maybe part of me will miss those moments of intense belonging and certainty, and my profound gratitude to be nothing more than alive and normal and okay. What I’m trying to say is that with effort and work, self love and positivity, you will see improvements. Slow at first, maybe. Riddled with setbacks and frustrations. You’ll have nights of ERP where you stare desperately at the clock, wondering how much longer you can resist a compulsion that you know will give you instant relief, like a small hit of heroin to an addict whose been trying to quit cold turkey. Be kind. Your brain’s been trained into patterns that are hard to break first try. You need to teach it all over again. But there will one day be a morning when you wake up, climb out of bed, and the OCD isn’t your first thought the second you open your eyes. It might occur to you in the shower, while eating breakfast, or on the way to work or school. You’ll be surprised at this brief period of time where you were present and unconcerned. You might obsess for the rest of the day, keep yourself up with the worry. But it won’t matter because you’ll be able to remember that morning, how it felt to be free. You’ll have a goal to work towards, a piece of encouragement during an impossible journey. It will be the breakthrough that leads to your eventual recovery. But chances are you won’t notice when you recover, and this is true for OCD and DP/DR. You just will. And it won’t occur to you until a few days or weeks or months later. A thought will occur to you and you’ll brace yourself for panic that never arrives. You’ll realise it doesn’t bother you anymore. You’ll tempt fate, think it again, just to see if you can. And it won’t bother you then either. You’re free. This is possible for all of you, I promise. If you haven’t tried ERP yet, try it. If you are, keep at it. Be kind to yourself and be patient and reward yourself whenever you can. You’re in a strange, crappy part of your life that probably won’t be over tomorrow, or even the day after. Treat it as a journey. Life is short - you know that better than anyone. Listen to your heart, stop caring about what others think and figure out what YOU want. Give yourself a goal, a focus point, a purpose. It can be as simple and unimportant as learning a card trick or finishing a jigsaw puzzle. It doesn’t have to matter to anyone but you. Give yourself something to do that means you have to get out of bed in the morning. Something so you can look back on this time in your life and see more than an empty hole. You can see strength, determination, and a slight glimmer of the person you were destined to be come. Be brave, be persistent. I believe in you all ❤️

Everytime before I used to masturbate or when i have sex my compulsion is telling God that if anything crosses my mind he knows its not me so I ask for forgiveness in case intrusive thoughts pop in but even then I end up feeling so guilty when they do because I confuse the fact that I'm trying to ignore the thoughts coming at me with encouraging ?

I have contamination OCD. Any ideas on exposures I could do? Maybe some easier and harder ones? Thanks!

Any one have any examples of ERP with health ocd / hypochondria?

i am a waste of time is a waste of time try anything around here or wherever i just have a little hope inside that i will get it but i need someone else help me but i am invisible and i dont get it?...A lot of?

I have a hard time adapting to change in the most insignificant things like perfumes accessories or colors when I do my nails. The few times I do I've gotten an urge to go right back to the old thing. Sometimes I can't even sleep because of so much debating in my head ?

I know I shouldn’t, but is there any chance I can get some reassurance or some talking to. I just had the scariest thought and it sent me into panic

Hey so I have a question. Maybe I should already know this but can somebody explain the different types of OCD people talk about on here? Like I've seen HOCD and Pure O and other things like that but what do all of them mean? Thank you

This girl I talk with at school, she’s a friend of a friend... she’s been arguing with her ex boyfriend because she recently discovered she was a lesbian.. and that gave me anxiety and made me overthink and now I’m convinced I’m one too... I tried so hard to avoid it... just today I was getting those good little feelings over a guy in my history... now it feels fake :(

I feel so weird these days. Like I feel blank empty person with no emotions. I mean i still do get anxiety here and there but like no emotions or guilt. I see scary movies and feel no reaction, I imagine hurting other and don’t feel any guilt more like the idgaf typa feeling, before I would be in mental torture crying and depressed about being scared I was a serial killer. I would break down but no I feel urges still by no anxiety or anything. I feel mental and crazy. I would be so excited to wear makeup and excited about impressing guys and dating, but now they don’t seem real to me. Before I would care about OCD and now I’m more like idgaf anymore or what I do. What is going on ?! Am I the only one experiencing this.?

So Im doing Harm EPR. To expose the scariest thing im afraid of. I keep telling my self i would do it again and again and again. And my anxiety sparks. Fear arose. And im just gonna sit with it. Is this normal?

so im suffering from suicidal OCD. its so exhausting just to let them sit in my mind wondering around. it made me depressed. i use to to so afraid, confused, panic and so much anxiety spike. today im feeling numb to all those feelings. its getting into my core believe..there is still resistance thats why im so tired. not 1sec i could distract my self. everywhere i go i feel like its the last place that i will ever visit.

Been a long time since I’ve been on here. But OCD is really kicking my butt tonight. I failed miserably at my exposure hw because my anxiety was too high and had to take an anti anxiety med. I really don’t know how I can keep doing this. My OCD has me convinced I’m a horrible liar and faking medical conditions and if it’s really true, idk, I can’t live with it. Could just use some words of encouragement, anything really...