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How can I respond to some of these intrusive thoughts without feeling like I need to fight, resist, and etc?? They’re extremely distressing and make me question myself, my reality and my health/brain. I’ve tried just distracting myself, ignoring it, and letting it scream at me. But then it comes back with scarier ones and I’m just struggling . I’d been doing good with them lately but suddenly they’re awfully intense and hard to ignore Help😞

I have a little scratch on my finger. Someone shook my hand after work meeting, I wanted to resist and tell that person I have a scratch on my finger but didn’t not. Instead I shook their hand. Now I’m obsessing that I may pass some disease to that person. I don’t have any disease I can pass to them that I’m aware off. Feel terrible guilt for not resisting that shake and telling person I have a cut. Please help. How do I deal with it? Maybe, maybe not statements don’t work for me.

Hello, Since coming to terms with OCD in my life, I've thought a lot about parenting. My kids are 10 and 6; two wild boys with too much energy. One has an ADHD diagnosis and his little brother probably has ADHD too. To give you the details of my situation, I've been an at-home dad for ten years and spent nearly every day with my kids, including parenting through the pandemic. OCD has made parenting harder and influenced my behavior on a daily basis. In hindsight, I see how much I've needed to control my kid's schedules, activities, and plans. To some degree, I did this to survive the natural chaos of little kids, but my need to control has become really intense. It bothers my wife and she has to remind me to chill, particularly on days when she's home and I don't need to develop a plan for the day. Ten years as an at-home dad is a long time and this has led my need to control to become ingrained in my daily functioning. I feel stuck in this role now and don't know how to move on. I don't know how to let go because I'm obsessed with supervising their daily life and fear what will happen if I'm not around to maintain control. My mind leaps to worst case scenarios of my kids getting hit by a car in our neighborhood or getting into fights with unruly kids or experimenting with alcohol or drugs because of older kids in our neighborhood who don't have parents supervising them ever. My mind really goes off the deep end. OCD and parenting seems to have made my world smaller and I don't know how to detangle myself from this situation. When it involves the care of your children it's very hard to walk away and put your needs first. I often joke that my kids are like a tractor beam sucking my back into their wants and needs. If you are in similar situation or have experience parenting with OCD, I'd love to hear your thoughts. Please keep it constructive and kind. I already feel like shit about this because my inability to move on from this situation has caused my family to struggle financially and probably in others way too. I know it has taken a toll on my mental health, which has negatively impacted my family.

I have been skin picking since I was 5 yrs old, and I am currently 22. The only explaination my therapist and I have for it is either an intense autism stim, or OCD. My hands were an absolute warzone during the pandemic, and at my old job, it was causing me so much distress, I'd walk out at the end of the night covered in bandaids on my hands. It's always made me look "crazy" and unsocailized. My therapist isn't trained to deal with OCD so that's why I'm here. They gave me a pop-it bracelet and that's helped a lot, but it's still very isolating. All my friends pick at their acne or fingers, but I haven't met anyone who has used their hands as chew toys, to be blunt :/ I just want to feel normal.

hi, im graduating high school next year and i wanna go to uni and my biggest dream is to go to a med school. I've had this dream since I was a little girl. but in 2021 my ocd and other disorders got so bad that I couldn't function. my dream of studying medicine got crushed. but I got much better this year, I'm feeling like myslef again, I'm trying new things I couldn't before because of ocd. and ive got hope again that I could get into uni. my parents, sisters and close friends are really happy and they are really supportive about me wanting to go to med school. but some of my teachers are like, are you sure? it's gonna be too hard, why don't you do something else (when i choose biology and biochem class, my teacher went to talk to my friend and told her im not good enough for that class. and i dont get it like how? i think im really good at these subjects) and my other friends and classmates think I'm stupid and not good enough for this uni. I know I shouldn't let that affect me. but I dont how. I'm so sad that they don't belive in me and im scared it's gonna affect me and I'll also stop believing in myslef. I'm really doubting myslef and im in such a bad mood. I need to work on this, to not take things too personally. does anyone have advice for this, please?

I know it most likely I will never be in the position to take one but I have this irrational fear that I’d be strapped to a chair and be forced to take a lie detector test in court or something and they ask me scary questions relating to my ocd types. And I feel like I’ll say no with everything in me and the test will say yes anyway regardless. That scares me so much, I don’t know much about how those things work but I hear it’s based off your heart rate and I feel like I’d be scared to answer that question because my heart will be beating so fast like-this will make or break my innocence as a person. I hear that’s why they’re inaccurate and that freaks me out so much-it throws me in for an anxiety loop. Am I crazy or am I not the only one?

I was wondering if anybody had any tips for how they personally deal with rumination? Certain things (usually relational if that matters) can keep me up through the night. There will be some times when I can sleep for a few hours but the anxiety wakes me up on and off through the night and sometimes it takes me a while to fall back asleep. I try to do the method of recognizing when I’m ruminating and telling myself that it isn’t helpful and redirecting my thoughts but some days/nights it’s relentless no matter what I do

I’ve been struggling recently what if the “ what if these aren’t intrusive thoughts from ocd” because my mental health has been terrible , I’m at at ting to have suicidal thoughts and siv never been a depressed person I’m very scared of death actaully:( it’s scaring me that I’m having these thoughts and images 😕

Is it wrong to be here if I don't have an OCD diagnosis? I know for a fact I have really horrible intrusive thoughts I can't deal with and I don't feel comfortable talking about it with a regular therapist because they may not be equipped to deal with it and I already feel like a bad person. So I thought using an app where the diagnosis directly works with that would be a lot more comfortable for me.

I am very scared . My mind is sick. Someone told me that a bad thing happened to them and I keep thinking about it. I think: what if I wanted that to happen? Is this ocd? I am so scared and disgusted. How can I think like this??

I've had my OCD for so long that the intrusive thoughts have begun to feel like they are who I am and anytime I try getting over them, it's so painful, and it makes me feel like I don't know who I am anymore

Starting group therapy again and taking some time away/break from my “normal life” to get my mental health back in order. It’s so difficult to stop doing the norm and take care of yourself especially when it doesn’t work out or go how you thought it would. I’m nervous and scared and just trying to keep it all together with in my self and not go everyday upset crying or angry with myself for taking a break for myself and well being, just feels like I climbed Mount Everest made it to the top and now have to climb it all over again… This break is needed and I know this, and I hope I find myself again and get better and back to where I can feel and be me again and enjoy my life. Sending positive vibes and love to others in my same shoes or struggling themselves with your own personal issues . ❤️

So I’m doing my ERP with this girl who I think I have a crush on? I thought it was SO OCD, but now I’m thinking the crush might be real. I have these tight feelings in my chest and I’m perceiving them as romantic. Is it OCD or are these feelings actually real? I don’t know, but it scared me so much to think them real. The problem is is that I’ve always identified as straight and this crush is scaring me. I don’t want to have this crush. I’m also in a very happy and committed relationship with a man who I do love. Good news is that I won’t be seeing them anymore after the end of the month. It’s so hard not to go into my compulsions. I feel like a bad girlfriend and person. I’m also struggling with my identity…. Anyone have any advice?

Been dealing with a new type of ocd thought it’s to do with stabbing and it now feels like I like the feeling of doing that or almost as if I want to do it or that I know how it feels to physically do that and that I ‘like’ the feeling but it feels really real that I like it and almost like my emotions like it? Like as if there’s an emotion that I like it and I’m scared that it’s real that I like it but at the same time feel nothing because I’m so use to having bad thoguhts because I’ve been dealing with ocd for two years now but I literally feel nothing no anxiety noThing towards the thoguhts it just feels real that I like the feeling of doing that and I’m worried but at the same time feel like I’m not worried because it almost feels like I like it and feel a positive emotion towards that thoguht and actually want it/like it but I’m not sure if that’s a fake feeling ocd has manifested but i feel scared and alone and don’t know how to deal with this I’m just hoping I’m not a sick person I wish I could feel normal again this is so hard to deal with, also I feel like I’ve morphed some things into my thinking like I don’t know how to explain it but you know when you see in movies the evil character like evil smiling when no one is looking it feels like I’m feeling that about myself like when i get that weird emotion that feels like I like those thoughts and want them and it feels so real it feels like I’m secretly evil and I don’t want it to be true but you don’t know how real it feels I don’t know what to do I’m scared and at the same time feel nothing. I tried to tell someone I know about how I’m feeling but they jsut replied ‘oh really’ and I said what’s wrong and they said ‘you only talk to me when you have a problem with ocd’ and then I jsut felt so sad after that I don’t know how to deal with this problem I don’t even know what I’m feeling anymore I don’t even know if I’m scared or if I’m lying i don’t know

Today I’ve been having that a lot lately! Recently been having Satan/demon heart thoughts and it’s scaring me! I love God & Jesus and I tell them all the time they have my heart but recently those thoughts have come and it’s giving me anxiety! I’m trying to tell myself you don’t just accidentally let S____ in your heart but I feel like it’s a fear of evil or it “happening”! I don’t want Him near or ever in my heart! But I feel like my OCD is making me doubt myself thinking I want these thoughts or maybe I want that or what IF I’ve already done it! Like some new theme coming on. These nasty thoughts keep coming back!! Also my mind keeps thinking and questioning it straight up accusing me if I did it! I’ve apologized and beg God & Jesus to please forgive me. How can I let these thoughts go! I don’t want them! Am I okay? I only want God, Jesus & the Holy Spirit in my heart NOT the enemy. Has anyone else had these thoughts?

I’m currently obsessed with digital footprint, data leaks and breaches, as well as social media anxiety. It causes me to continually google search my name and handles, delete or deactivate my social media accounts, and even risk my safety by contacting third party breach websites to wipe my data. Has anybody else experienced something like this? I get extreme anxiety when I try to log into an old account I planned on deleting but I ended up forgetting the password. It’s harder for me to navigate my OCD when it’s something more specific and there’s less of a shared community surrounding it.

Over tun last almost year I have realised I most likely have ocd, I have done so much research, which u can probably tell because I’m on here, during late night episodes and have remembered so many signs from my childhood and started noticing things in my everyday life. I have always had a feeling that something wasn’t quite right in me and I could never put a finger on it and I thought all the thoughts I got were truth and I was a serious danger, I had no idea it was ocd! Probably because of how social media portrays it. Today I have been really striving to get my mum to get me a doctors appointment to get this checked out, which I’ve found very hard to do because I’m 16 so I still mainly relay on my parents for things like getting me to the doctors. I just want to know, did the diagnosis help? And do I even have a right to say I have ocd if I don’t have a diagnosis just yet? I mean from what I know from my extensive research I most definitely do. Some examples of my symptoms are: 1. When I was little and now as well in recent months I had a serious obsession with making everything equal on my hands and it got to the point where to stop me doing this I would say “stop Alice stop” over and over to stop myself 2. I constantly have to pick up and put down things untill it feel right, this have been happening a lot recently because it’s exam season so I keep having to pick up every thing on my desk multiple times during the exam. This also first started around the age of 9 3. I’ve been getting very vivid and convincing harm thoughts since the age of about 11 and they used it scare me so much to the point when I would make my animals leave my room or I would never stop thinking about it. I was seriously convinced I was insane. I still get these thoughts but nower dayd I get alot more ROCD thoughts but I do still get harm thought during bad flare ups The list goes on and on and on I’m just wondering does it sound like I ahve ocd? Or am i just insane and trying to convince myself other wise? Please people reply I need you guys help!!!

I’ve noticed that having ocd there is less compassion and support. With anxiety and depression (which I also suffer from) there seems to be more compassion. Like people wanting to understand and wanting to reach out and help. With OCD it seems like you are isolated or you’re constantly “doing wrong”. Like I still want compassion and support but I understand that I have to do different type therapy compared to something like depression and anxiety.

I’ve felt like I’m in danger all day long and that something bad is about to happen to me 🙃🙃I realize this is probably just a compulsion to think about it. I ruminated and obsessed basically all day. However In therapy today I played with a food that I’m terrified that I’m allergic to! So that’s a win 😊

I really am having the last 24 hours of straight up hell. My blood sugar will not come down from 250 no matter what i do. And with my blood sugar being 450 for 8 straight hours last night, my mind is spiraling. Another fun fact that doctors never seem to touch on : when you have OCD you have more sugar in your brain, they don’t know why, so now imagine you have blood sugar control issues such as myself and your sugar is in the 400’s plus multiple times a week. A neurologist I saw in the past said there isn’t a medical term for it but from what i described (thats a whole other conversation) and the brain scans I have “sugar toxicity in the brain” which contributes to my severe obsessive compulsive disorder. I feel like I can’t catch a break guys. I am hurting so bad. Just 5 minutes ago, after my night of hell and getting piss on myself and having to clean my sheets and my bed and shower, i just went pee and it splashed up on me AGAIN. I want to SCREAM. Idk if anyone else has this (you don’t have to answer) but if I have this happen i am now “dirty”. I can now not only not touch anything i deem as “clean” in my house…but also elsewhere. So I can’t go shopping…& i needed to get some things and its my only day off. The only way id be able to go is if i took another shower and got re-ready for the day. Its already 4:30. So my entire day is ruined.