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Any tips for dealing with brain fog/derealization at work? I was feeling not too anxious this morning but I’ve got to work and finding it really hard to concentrate and get my words out

I know people with religious ocd are obsessing about their salvation, i would throw the "mine is different"card in, let me tell you my story. So I learned that salvation is a free gift, you cant lose it and God forgives all of our sins if we accept Christ as our saviour, and we cant lose our salvation, i kept myself feeling good with this information, but then i got attacked by ocd thoughts, two of my worst obsessions, harm ocd and suicidal ocd, and there were times when these thoughts came up that its okay if i act on them cause God will forgive me. Even got me into a cycle where i was searching on the net about other people opinion about if people dying by suicide goes to heaven or hell, i know this is a sensitive topic. Then i realized this whole thing has to start from a bad belief that i have,a distortion, and that distortion is that once you turn to Christ, all of your sins are forgiven cause we are humans and we will never stop sinning. And i started to realize this isnt true, turning to Christ doesnt mean we are still turning to sin. Paul talks about this, but he doesnt says if turning back to sinful life will make you lose your salvation, but i dont feel like thats fair... I used to watch videos about prison life, and in one of those videos there was a maffia member who used to kill people, he turned to Christ and beliefs in Christ,but when he was asked what he will do when he gets out he said he will go back killing people cause he cant imagine another life. Does that mean that he is saved? I dont think so, Christ death is not a free card for sin, and as much as im really judging right now,im sinful of this too, cause i have sexual sin and many times i said its okay cause God forgives me, and i used it so i can still act on the sin. Its not fair against non believers to say that we get away with this cause we believe in Christ and his sacrifice. I think accepting his sacfrice also means that we live a life that is acceptable for that,we wont stop sinning, but it doesnt mean we can kill people, do bad things cause we are saved... Im sorry this is really long but now i want to talk about how this realization, that im using the gift of God to still sin might mean that im not really saved and the Holly Spirit it might not be in me cause many times i struggle to see my sexual sins and other sins like joking/ swearing as a sin, even when people explain it i dont understand. So the first point might be true that accepting Christ doesnt mean we live in sin cause that will make us lose the meaning, I get obsession that its okay to act on the ocd thoughts cause im saved, but now im wondering if im actually saved, and im feeling really guilty.

​​​​I'm traveling in a few days and I'm worried that my health concerns will make me more anxious when I'm on the plane and when I reach my destination as well. I'm very sad and stressed about my health concerns and although I always have been worried, with this upcoming short vacation it has made me feel like I might not be able to handle the thoughts/worries etc. It has also been making me feel more self-conscious about how I look and feel. I know that travel plans have added extra stress (although I'm excited for this short vacation, I'm worried about my mental and overall health which is making me have more intrusive thoughts that I might not handle while I'm on vacation). There is also the added stress of feeling self-conscious and not feeling confident. I have been avoiding going to the doctor because that is a whole other set of intrusive thoughts (fear of going to a doctor appointment). I just have been feeling really sad lately feeling ugly and struggling with mental health and struggling with life in general. It is interesting how after a long time of struggling with intrusive thoughts I still get a little bit surprised by how intrusive thoughts evolve and change and sometimes I don't think or feel like it is an intrusive thought but it is? (especially when it concerns my health and self-esteem). For the most part I have been managing a bit better with intrusive thoughts. But I have been feeling strange sometimes I feel numb/I don't know if it is depersonalization or derealization. I feel worried/stressed/sad etc but at the same time I'm trying to enjoy life. I really want to feel better when I'm on this vacation but I worry that traveling will only trigger more stress and intrusive thoughts. I've been wanting to travel for a long time and now that the chance is here I don't want to feel stressed/sad. I want to enjoy my trip regardless of my struggles. *Some of my health concerns are real but I have a fear of going to doctors because I struggle with intrusive thoughts and I find myself wanting to book a doctor's app a few days before traveling but at the same time, I feel this will trigger more intrusive thoughts and just before traveling

So I have episodes at night where I can’t sleep. Like it’ll feel like hours have passed and that I slept fully through the might. When in reality maybe an hour has passed. And most of these nights I have bad dreams. My bad dreams are bad lucid dreams… They’re not uncontrollable…because I have a conscious and am aware. But they’re bad because of the situations I’m in. It’s like living in an alternate world Anyways, In my dream I was up north. It was a school night. Actually Sunday, like it was when I went to bed. In my dream all these animals were walking to this side on the street near the woods and dying. In my dream I concluded they had a disease that made them all travel there. But then my dog started to walk over there. Across the street at night. I was sobbing because this dog means more than anything ever could to me. I would do anything for this dog. I mean it. And she was what I concluded as “infected” I had to go to her because it was a school night. And I walked into this house that was the place I was staying. It was a friend of my mom’s boyfriends. But when I walked inside my room in the hours was destroyed like people were trashing it and rearranging it. Which is horrible….. like I irl, panic over people Rearranging small things of mine…. But this was crazy. My stuff was ruined and everywhere. And there were like ten people in there just chilling after doing this. When this happens irl I do compulsions, and I did. I found a sink. I washed my hands a lot. But then I had to eat dinner and as I was eating my sandwich I remembered how all those animals were dying of a brainwashing diessease. So I started panicking and sobbing that I was now infected and was going to die. Like eating my sandwich was going to cause me death. I started counting yo my safe numbers like I usually do. But it wouldn’t help. So I ran to the bathroom in my dream and started to vomit up everything I could and LITERALLY wash the inside of my mouth. I woke up thinking I was about to get ready for school, but maybe an hour had passed…. I can’t fall asleep again, It’s 00:48 I went to bed at 11:30-something Or tried It took me so long of feeling out of place. I can’t do this anymore. The worst part was - actually two. My compulsions weren’t working in my dream which was very upsetting because I needed something to calm me down…. And two, WHY DID MY DOG GET INFECTED- The nerve wracking thing is, my dog is up north with my grandma right now. My brain keeps telling me to text my grandma and ask how my dog is…. But what if I text her and that CAUSES something bad to happen….. I don’t know what to do- I need sleep- I wake up at four.. (4:00 am) I can’t- Sleep- I don’t want to dream again, being tapped in my own head. Sorry for any typos, or if this makes no sense. I’m half asleep. Very tired. Scared and just got done crying.

I found out i was gay after being groomed at 14, and thats haunted me forever. As if my sexuality is illegitimate. I have memories that after all of that happened and i distanced myself from it, i remember i was in a depressive stupor, and I had to figure out for certain if i was really gay or if it was the grooming. I remember being constantly tested every day for months, feeling like theres this voice in my head tearing away at me. The memories were repressed, but slowly discovering them again, i cant help but wonder if that was also OCD. Ive come to understand this is something ive struggled with for a very long time, but I didnt re-experience until my 20s.

So I just downloaded this app to see if it could help. For the past few years I’ve been wondering if I have OCD. I know I should ask to talk to a therapist about it but I’m too scared to ask my parents because I don’t want them to think I’m broken. I got put in school therapy a few months ago for my depression and anxiety but I was too scared to tell her about my intrusive thoughts because I didn’t want to be told that I’m insane pretty much. Forgive me, I don’t know the names of the different ocd types, but pretty much this is what I experience: constantly throughout the day I have thought that I’m secretly a pedophile and these might be the worst ones. I have had really bad thoughts I’ve had for months now is that there’s a person or an entity under my bed so I physically will not stand within a foot of my bed because I seriously believe that a hand will come out and grab my ankle or that I’ll see eyes. This thought has been affecting my sleep for weeks now too because if I don’t have my sleep mask I think I’ll look up and see a person. The reason I don’t know if it’s OCD or not is because I don’t really have any physical compulsion. It’s mostly I just have to scream over the thoughts in my head and tell myself to please stfu. A big thing I struggle with is I think really bad thoughts and I can’t stop no matter how much I want and I get so so so scared that I’m going to manifest it by thinking about it too much and then I can’t stop thinking about it even more. Another thing is that I’ve had a few different periods throughout my life where I was so scared to be near my dad because what if he was a pedo??? I’d heard so many crime stories about that but the thing is I love my dad and I know that it’s not true, like I know it for 100% that it’s not right or true but I still think it and dwell on it for no reason. I also have a really bad thought because I have almost no memory of my childhood for no reason, like I can’t remember anything specifically traumatizing that would cause it but because I don’t remember it i get really caught up on the idea that I could’ve been m0lested or something by a family member and I just can’t remember. Another one I struggle with is with my sexuality. I’ve been trying to figure out my sexuality since 8th grade (I’m in 11th now) and I settled on lesbian a while ago but the reason I have barely come out to someone is I feel like I’m a big faker and I am constantly second guessing myself and I just can’t stop thinking what if I come out to everyone and then in a year I realize I don’t even like girls and then I just solidified the horrible stereotype of sexuality phases and now I’m a horrible person??? But I know it couldn’t be that because I’m sure I like girls? There was also a period where I genuinely was worried I was trans even though I didn’t feel like a man at all and my whole world was crashing because I kept thinking what if I actually am and then I have to go through rhat whole process and everyone will hate me. Another thing is I love to clean and when my home is cluttered I feel like I can’t think and I feel like I’m going crazy but that might not be related to this. Anyway that’s only a fraction of my thoughts I have so many I can only remember a few but is it actually OCD? Should I talk to someone about it? Or am I just being dramatic? Sorry for this whole thing but I have no one to talk to about it

To those with HOCD, this may be triggering. Just know that my experience is DIFFERENT from the norm. For me, when I was 13, I had an intrusive thought about being into women. So I compulsively checked every night by thinking about women naked to see if I felt anything. I physically DID feel stuff (though that may have been groinal response because I wasn’t sure yet how I felt about the idea of liking women) Eventually though, I slowly accepted it. Part of me is now worrying that because it was born or OCD, I may not actually be bisexual and just have been mistaking groinal response for attraction this entire time. ….except for the fact that at a certain point, I wasn’t distressed by the idea of being into women. It stopped being a fear or an intrusive thought of ‘what if?’ And instead I realized, “wait… this is kinda fuckin swag. Women are kinda cool??? Fuck yes???” Which I feel is the big difference between other people’s experiences with sexuality OCD and my experience. Either way, it’s ok! It can be uncomfortable to not know who we are or have a label for that, but that’s a part of life. We are ever changing and that’s normal. If it turns out I’m not actually bisexual, that’s ok! I’ll be glad to find that out in my own time and discover more about myself naturally. Have a lovely day, everyone! :3

I feel so clouded. I wish I could just stop thinking. I don’t even feel present around my daughter. I am acting the part, but my mind is so lost in my obsessions. Lately I am obsessing that my head pain is something more than it probably is. It’s all I think about. Constant fear of dying 24/7. Is this it? Is this the moment I keel over? What if my daughter isn’t safe? How do I keep her in a safe environment so if I do die, she’s okay until my husband gets home? 3 weeks of this, triggered by the stomach flu. Since THEN I’ve had the following obsessions: tobacco poisoning, stroke, csf leak, tumor, ms, colon cancer, and aneurysm. It’s hard to find joy. I’m just waiting until it’s over. But 3 weeks and I’m still in the trenches. How do I get out?

My day has been so tiring, I feel sick and icky. If you feel the same comment just to vent it out we all need an outlet

How do I get over when you do something wrong and get “punished” but u cant keep obsessing about it? Like you’re omg that was wrong of me, why didn’t I just do the right thing? Imma tell yall. Don’t judge lol. But it’s a very popular crawfish place in my town, and it’s at a gas station building and beer hectic. The lines are usually a mile or 2 down the street. There’s a side street that’s near the front and it’s a light and the first time, a guy let me cut In front of him. We went today and tried to see if somebody would let us cut and we tried but they got mad and told the place and they told us they weren’t taking our order since we cut lol. I felt so bad and stupid. I can’t stop obsessing over it. Help

Can anyone please help me stop my rumination? I have been ruminating for almost 24 hours and I feel so exhausted but so scared. I am ruminating about my relationship and am alternating between fear of him hurting me by cheating to fear of wondering if I love him and fear of wondering if I’m a good enough partner I am so tired and just want to sleep I woke up in the middle of the night last night and was ruminating for hours. I need some relief 😞😞😞😞

I’m newly diagnosed with ocd. My theme has morphed since my symptoms started. I keep having reoccurring thoughts and images of documentaries and shows about serial killers/mass murders that I’ve watched in the past before all this and it never bothered me. When I get the thoughts I feel like it means that I’m gonna be just like them and there’s nothing I can do to stop it. Yesterday it hit and all I did was sit on my living room couch, look at the wall, and do this tic thing I’ve done. I shake my head and either say no out loud or in my head. When I wake up I start to do this and continue to do it throughout the day with or without the thoughts. To me I feel like if I don’t do it then it means that I don’t have OCD. I feel like I’m faking all of it and it’s just an excuse to cover the fact that I’m truly like these people. I constantly see mental images of the faces of these killers and all I feel is pure dread. I look back to every mistake I made as a kid and think it proves that I’m a psychopath and that I’m absolutely ruined as a person. I keep thinking that I fake being a good person even though it’s genuinely who I strive to be no matter how I feel. I keep doubting every interaction or nice deed I’ve done for people and keep thinking it was all fake and it’s not me. I love seeing people happy and well and I’m so confused. I’m worried I’m being lured back to the phase I was in 3 weeks ago. I was in so much fear over this stuff I wasn’t eating, sleeping, socializing. The only thing I did was wake up, immediately get hit with the thoughts, Google, and repeat. My only break was when I was asleep. I love to sleep now for a reason. My dreams are normal and the thoughts/images aren’t there. Sometimes my dreams felt so real then I woke up and was hit with the reality (thoughts). At a point I agreed with myself that if any of these thoughts about harm/being a serial killer was true then I’d just end my life before I ever did anything to anyone. I don’t wanna die but if I’m really this horrible of person then I’ve got no good reason being here. I’ve been doing better than that for the past week or so but it still is there in my mind. When I start to feel optimistic or looking forward to something then it comes in. I love to cook and do crafts and when I do that stuff it tends to come in and I end up not finishing what I start. At times it comes down to getting dressed. When I find things I’d like to wear I sometimes get a thought or “voice” that goes something like “this is the outfit you’ll wear to commit a murder”. I’m so sick and tired of this stuff. When I go out it’s like “have your fun now but when you get back you’re gonna kill ur family and then go to jail for the rest of your life so enjoy your last day of freedom”. I feel like a narcissist or something writing this because I feel like I don’t have ocd because I’ve been doing better and don’t have the anxiety I used to over the thoughts. I’ve been diagnosed by 3 professionals including a psychologist and still can’t believe it because there’s times where I’m still productive and stuff. It’s still there but as of the past week it’s not as bad as it was three weeks ago. I just wish I could wake up and it just been over. I miss who I was 2 months ago before all of this started. It happened overnight on a vacation I was on and ever since I feel like a different person. I at times look to pictures of myself and life before all of it started. I miss it. Idk if my intrusive thoughts now about documentaries and shows about serial killers are even ocd. I’m freaked out. It keeps making me think I’m gonna do the horrible things they do even though I’d rather die before I hurt anyone. I HATE THIS!!!

I’m all alone

OCD is excruciatingly painful. I don’t think any other forms of torment on earth can rival it, except maybe schizophrenia-type disorders or physical torture. I have come a long way from where I started. I don’t believe I have OCD, as it is clinically defined, anymore (though some experts might disagree). I no longer have any intrusive thoughts. I have the silence and freedom in my mind that I always wanted—but never could attain before. But I remember the days when the thoughts ran like wildfire through my brain, each thought scarier than the last—the never-ending, repeating sentences that were like frightening music 🎶 that never shuts off. Only people who have experienced these thoughts can understand the mental pain and anguish. Even on the other side of the disorder, where I am now, the OCD still haunts me every day. It’s mostly in the background, but I can always feel its shadow. The roots of perfectionism and fear still run very deep. Every day, as I work on further recovery, I find that I am peeling back more and more layers that I didn’t even know were there. I understand everyone who says they despise their OCD. I find it hard to convey to other people the amount of pain this disorder causes. But every day now I have an opportunity for joy if I choose it. And I love that. Some days are mostly normal. I can almost forget about the OCD for hours at a time. I always sleep in peace, even my naps. And even though every day has significant OCD-related struggles, I also know that every day I am getting better.

Hello, this is my first post. I'm Mag (or Maggie) and I'm 24. I have OCD. Last few months it has been really tough. I finally sought help a month ago (I was diagnosed with it for a year already but didn't receive treatment). After an assessment, I was told that in my case it is highly recommended to start with medication. This terrifies me. I am terrified by the thought of medication changing who I am. On another hand, I am barely keeping it together. I cry a lot. I obsess so much and the compulsions barely make it better anymore. I am unable to feel normal anymore whenever I'm home, alone with my thoughts. I feel sick a lot. I'm exhausted all the time. Yet the medication somehow still seems scarier than all this. I don't know what to do.

how to deal with hyper fixation or hyper awareness? I can't seem to stop noticing pixels in my vision when looking at the walk or in bad lighting. It's been 2 days with this obsession. They cause me so much anxiety and I can't stop thinking about it or checking. I have health ocd as well as this which I think is somatic ocd. So it's making me even more anxious

Hi, I just wanted to see if anyone else had trouble with this? It manifests in making me breathe and blink "consciously", which is very distressing and leads to really bad air hunger. Has anyone managed to get out of it?

I see a lot of people posting the same posts here (myself included at one time) to get reassurance. but there is a sad truth here: no one can help you but yourself. the only thing that will help you is therapy and acceptance of uncertainty. you are literally fighting your brain and you will NEVER win. There will never be enough reassurance for you and yet you can't accept the worst case scenario. there are even people who post the same thing in order to draw people's attention to their posts. but it won't happen. you are your own worst enemy, you are your own best friend, you get to choose whether to be enemies with yourself or friends.

Over the past week I’ve recently started having doubts about my relationship with my boyfriend. I have logistical concerns that we were working on but something kept telling me it might be falling out of love. Because I truly do care for him. But feel that if I’m unsure whether or not we’re meant to be together. If anyone has dealt with ROCD and has any advice please let me know. In the past I’ve had OCD episodes with different types so I know what it’s like to some extent. Over the past week I’ve been very distressed over this all and that led me to ending things with him last night but he’s the one who told me it could be OCD, if it is I want to work on it with him but if it’s not then, it’s not unfortunately. Back story We’ve been talking for the past 7 months and dating for 3. When I met him it was a few months after I had a relationship end very abruptly and traumatically but I don’t see him as a rebound Thank you in advance

My head is a crazy mess. My SO-OCD is now focused on a particular person, and so every time they come into the room a get anxious, I get uncomfortable, it makes me panic in my head and a my head thinks is "you like etc" and creates a false narrative and false response/attraction that feels so f***ing real. The worst thing is, I didn't always get anxious, but I'm still not interested, but my mind starts playing scenarios in my head as if they were, and it's thoughts. Plus, subconscious worry of them popping into my head and they've are, all the time and it creates more false responses which makes me anxious, which then makes my mind go "omg you do" which makes it worse. All because she comes across as been interested which, with my so-ocd (and pocd) flare up), just makes me panic and my mind starts thinking all sorts. I think I now do this over any girl who I think is gay. I'm seeing a guy a like, I'm anxious because of self esteem issues, I'm awkward, I don't want to embarrass myself and look stupid, say the wrong thing etc, at the same time scrutinising him, then panicking because I'm analysing and, today, while we're making out a bit, never allowing myself to get into it because I'm afraid of messing up etc and I'm socially awkward and I'm hyperfocused on what's happening and, guess who pops into my head mid intimacy and makes me panic and then then get immediate things. The SO-OCD has blocked everything in general with him and guys. I hate this so much because it feels so convincing and yet I know it isn't because I'm not interested but all the time my head is like "oh god, you/I do etc." Which makes it more intense. I mean I had this in a classroom full of kids last week but it was more generalised. But my POCD has also been focused on a couple of individuals (with responses) and it made me feel I was attracted. Does this make any sense to anyone?