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working to conquer OCD
I did a bad thing when I was a kid. I feel like I dont deserve to move on and dont deserve to be happy. I keep thinking about the damage that I did and I feel like I deserve to be alone . And that I cant be trusted. Any advice?
Almost a year ago, I went to dinner with my now ex and his teenage daughter. I drank way too much (I was super embarrassed the next morning). Anyway, the day after I had a horrible thought like “what if I did something inappropriate to the teenage daughter.” Everyone assured me I didn’t. Then I found out her and I went to the bathroom together. That really amplified everything. Well today, I found out something I gave to my ex, he gave to one of his friends (outdoor heater). Now I’m freaking out thinking “what if he gave it to them because he doesn’t want to be reminded of me because I did something horrible to his daughter?” Now I am FREAKING out. This feels so real.
I’m soo stuck and that’s the only way I’ve been feeling for over a year. Just stuck. I can’t even deal with myself anymore my intrusive thoughts keeps winning more and more I feel like they’ll eventually defeat me. There’s no words that can help I just feel like it’s over even if it’s not. I’m soo scared inside and out
Is there anyone here who has struggled with SO-OCD for a very long time? or as long as they could remember? I see a lot of post of people saying "yes, I always knew I was straight and it came suddently out of nowhere" or "yes I was always boy crazy and one morning I woke up and had these thoughts". However, I have had these thoughts for as long as I could remembrer (maybe since I was 8 or 10 years old) and I am 26 today! Which makes me feel like 1) my OCD is fake and its just denial and I'm just too afraid 2) I feel so alone. My therapist actually dignosed me with SOOCD 6 years ago but I just always feel like there is something not right... I also have been with my bf for 6 years and I love him but again it always felt like something was missing... and at the same time I cant imagine life without him and I love cuddling/being close to him... I know that there are a lot of people on the spectrum, I'm just scared that I'm living a lie and will deceive everyone and will come out later in life (like Sophia Bush or Chrishell Stause) when I have kids and I'm gonna ruin everyone's life... Like my mind is telling me now is better than after, come on do it!
I’m wondering if anyone has tips for practicing self love. I feel like I’ve hit a wall because of my ocd, where I’m upset because I was born with a brain that doesn’t allow me to trust myself, and even though my traumas and trials weren’t my fault, it’s still entirely my responsibility to fix the damage that’s been done, a task made extremely difficult because of ocd. I have to trust myself to put in the work to be better, I’ve made so much progress too, but it’s not enough, and it’s not coming fast enough. For example, I have a skin picking problem. I keep making progress and then stress or other factored cause me to relapse. I stare at myself in the mirror and ask myself why I can’t just be normal, why I can’t just stop, leave it alone and let my skin heal. I hate myself for struggling with this, but the more I shit in myself the worse my condition becomes. I want to practice self love, I want to learn to trust myself, but I have no idea where to start. I don’t want to feed into the ocd by googling possible solutions and whatnot, I figured asking members of the community would be a safer choice. If you have any tips to share please do, thanks 💪
Does anyone else find comfort in their OCD? I know I have pretty severe issues that come with it, but it makes me feel better in a way. I want to get better, but I don’t want to lose the feeling of clarity I have from OCD. I am specifically thinking of checking (and even intrusive thoughts in a way). By completing my little compulsions and routines, I can breathe and relax a bit. If I “get better” am I going to be able to be as thorough and careful as I am now? How else will I be able to soothe myself if I can’t do these things? That is very distressing to me because I very much think that my OCD is connected to anxiety, and if I can fix my OCD, will my anxiety become worse or less manageable? Am I going to lose the ability to self soothe? At the same time, I want to get better because the compulsions and routines and thoughts can be extremely overwhelming and upsetting and I waste so much time and energy. I’m just worried that I won’t be a whole person if I can fix myself, but I also don’t feel like a whole person when I’m dealing with it all every minute of the day. Does anyone understand this? How do you go about fixing it without losing part of yourself?
Does being an affectionate person feed anyone else's ocd? I used to be super touch repulsed as a kid and young teen but after alot of therapy I became a really physically affectionate person. I love hugging and cuddling the people I care about, close friends, family, etc. But ever since my first ocd flare up sometimes it can feel like my ocd recontextualizes this to mean I'm some kind of pervert whose uses being an affectionate guy as an excuse to get too close to people. I feel like alot of the time we can shut down parts of ourselves to "apease" the ocdemon as a form of avoidance, but I don't want to be anyone but the friendly guy who loves his friends and isn't afraid to show it. So if you feel the same tell me ur story, maybe we can support eachother
I’ve been suffering through OCD for years and at varying levels of intensity. I’ve gone through stages of all sorts, cleanliness, harm, pure. Most recently I’ve been terrified of subconsciously or impulsively groping people, mainly women. It’s been lasting months, this intense fear when passing people on the street or in the workplace or even members of my own family and friends. I am absolutely terrified that I may do that against my own will. Or the intrusive thought may come into my mind and it gives me so much distress. For months now it has made going out in public, to the shops or to the gym or even going out of my apartment completely unbearable, I’m afraid to have my hands out of my pockets, I’m afraid of not being able to have full accountability of myself. I’m on fluoxetine and need to see a psych, I’m trying to expose myself to situations to lessen the fear but it’s just leading to a cycle of intense burnout and moments of accepting a life that’s ruined and then intense fear of ruining my life or harming someone else. I’m terrified of touching someone in that way, and I don’t know what to do. I had to quit my job and I just can’t see how I could ever return to normal. Reading posts on this community definitely helps, I guess I’m just writing now because I need to get it out of my head.
i’m just getting over a pretty bad anxiety attack. it also started when i was making food and a wave of nausea hit me which of course sent me into a spiral. however i started thinking about how i’ve really neglected actually trying to work through my fear and thoughts over getting sick. because i’m so hyperfocused on getting my harm thoughts to diminish and be gone, i haven’t been doing the same for my contamination. i’ve pretty much diagnosed myself with emetophobia. and i know that’s so unhealthy to do especially as someone who’s not diagnosed with anything, but there’s absolutely no way in hell that i don’t have it. i cannot remember a time where being sick wasn’t on the forefront of my mind. and i do physical compulsions for it, but i never really thought i had intrusive thoughts over it. but when this (and past plural) anxiety attack was happening, my mind was telling me “if you just get sick, you won’t have to worry about it?”. then i took a zofran and am having thoughts of “the nausea will come back and you’ll get sick”. my heart is pounding just thinking about it. over the summer when my harm thoughts got extreme, my emetophobia essentially became a backseat thought. where it was still there but i wasn’t that worried over it. and i wished for it to come back but now that it’s here, i would do anything for it to be gone. i’m so back and forth because at least this anxiety is (mostly) keeping me from getting sick as i do anything and everything i can to prevent it. anyways, i’m so sorry this was so long but i had a lot on my mind that i needed to talk about. so much love to y’all 🫶🏻
This disorder has nearly ended my life. Not even 1 hour ago i tried walking into a sea and wanting to end it because of this ocd and the loneliness that comes with it. For anyone out there you are not alone and always know that you have people out there who are by your side.
Sorry in advance if this is kinda gross lol Does anyone have any advice for checking compulsions?? in particular, cleanliness compulsions?? i’m currently having a flair up but i don’t know how to handle it. I can barely stand going to the bathroom, because i never feel like i’ve wiped enough or i’m not clean enough. In particular if I have to poop, even after i make sure i’ve cleaned myself thoroughly i still feel the urge to go back to the bathroom to check. And whenever i pass gas I feel the urge to check my underwear just in case i’ve had an accident. It’s getting so stressful and annoying at this point :// I’m wasting so much time and tissue when I check myself, but i can’t help it. It bothers me so much. I want to stop, but I don’t know what to.
Do you cope with genuine hopelessness? Deep down I am convinced this will never get better. I think about suicide a lot, but that would hurt my family. But even being alive is hurting them because I cannot stop the mental breakdowns. I also cannot afford therapy. But it's the hopelessness. I feel that suicide is inevitable because I cannot live with this. I cannot stop self harm and I have a mental breakdown almost every week and often multiple times a week. The self harm is giving me brain damage. I literally have no hope. None.
Anyone scared of being depressed? I have harm ocd and I’m so scared that being depressed will lead me to harm myself or others even though I don’t want to and would never want to. I’m so scared that I’ll stop caring and become one of those people who hurt others. I tell myself I would never do something like that but it’s like I don’t believe it.
so my anxiety has been quite literally awful the past couple weeks , like can’t go into public ect. And I’ve always seen stuff out the corner of my eye , but it made me think what if I’m schizophrenic. I’ve been so dissociated and just scared :( idk
Can I have intrusive feelings as well with ocd? I’m feeling so sad since I saw a post of my ex bf getting engaged last Monday, at the beginning I thought it was normal but then I couldn’t stop thinking about him and our relationship, I feel I miss him but it’s so confusing, why am I missing him? We broke up 7 years ago and I’m in a relationship and love my bf. But I can’t thinking that maybe I want to be with him and imagine how it would be if we try it again, but I don’t know why I’m thinking on that, it all started suddenly after seeing that post :( I feel genuinely sad, I can't help but cry every time I think about him. I don’t know what to do with these feelings b
I am struggling a lot lately. I am burnt out, so very sad, and my OCD anxieties have run amok; mostly harm OCD, and reviewing past memories for evidence of having been an immoral, bad person. So afraid of losing control of my life, not being able to take care of my dogs. Spent, just exhausted and barely able to breathe. If anyone has felt so utterly, completely exhausted and sad, and you've learned something that helped you then, please share.
Right as I’m starting to feel happy again I get hit with what feels like intrusive feelings… sometimes of sadness or anger which then triggers my intrusive harm thoughts. Not sure if this is a mood disorder or just ocd. They don’t feel like what my true feelings should feel like if that makes sense.. ugh the feelings are harder to deal with than the thoughts. Trying to lean into them but it’s hard.
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