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working to conquer OCD
Can intrusive thoughts make you feel crazy? What are yours like I need help mine are so bad . They pop up random when im talking to someone while someone's talking ..... it feels like they are getting worse by the minute .
So I watch daily videos of a mother and daughter that do make up and talk. They are so funny. The daughter is about 10-13. She always talks about her school crush in almost every video and her mom always rolls her eyes and they just make me laugh because I have a daughter that age. So I was watching their new video today and after watching their videos for so long and listening to the daughter always go on and on about this boy she likes, I simply thought to myself I wonder what this boy she has such a crush on looks like. As soon as I thought that, my ocd has me questioning myself telling me I am inappropriate for wondering that. I know I wasn’t thinking anything wrong but why does my ocd always make me feel like a bad person? Am I? I hate my brain and living. I can’t do or think anything normal without questioning it and feeling like a horrible abnormal unworthy person.
I’ll start - Worried I was a zoophile because I enjoy eating octopus - Thought I was dying of a brain aneurism because my head hurt - Thought that because my towel touched the hand towel that my family uses that I had to wash them both so that way my family wouldn’t become attracted to me.
ROCD is so painful because I can feel sick to my stomach/worried about my relationship fading out and have no idea if it’s my OCD or the actual relationship. If you have OCD -can you just assume all of this is anxiety and ignore it? I feel like I want someone/something to tell me everything is okay and I can ignore all these feelings (seeking reassurance) but also everything in the media/comarisons makes me think these feelings wouldn’t happen if I was with my true love. The ‘trust your gut’ advice is SO triggering to me because my gut generally always doubts/questions my relationship. And also can I have gut feelings that something is wrong but still be with my true love partner?
Sorry I’ve been posting a lot lately, im just really really distressed. I’m worrying a lot and my thoughts can’t seem to be quiet. I want to distract myself and stop thinking about all of this, but when im this stressed out, I can’t enjoy the things that I used to because all I can do is ruminate. Does anybody have advice on this? Advice on calming down your thoughts and ruminating
So my ocd has found something new to obsess over, sadly. I’m the oldest sibling and I’ve always struggled with my anger. As a kid, I would take these feelings out on my siblings whenever they made me mad and i feel terrible now just thinking about it. My brother admitted to me a while ago that he felt so sad and depressed because of how rude I was. Thinking about it now, it makes me feel so ashamed. I was so mean to him. I’ve changed and he doesn’t feel that way anymore toward me anymore and our relationship is actually so much better. I guess im just obsessing over the fact that I caused my own brother to be depressed and sad. I wasn’t even worried about this before because I’ve changed. And I’m really scared because my ocd has been terrible lately, leading to a lot of stress. What if this stress leads to health issues like heart disease?? I’m really scared. Please help me
I recently revived my award for conquering my OCD. I was feeling great, having improved significantly. Previously my OCD was mostly focused on constant debilitating fears that something bad would happen to my loved ones. Now I can’t even remember the last time I had a thought like that which is great. I am preparing to move across the country to live with my boyfriend and now i’m experiencing ROCD which i’ve never had before. It’s been days of this now and am afraid I won’t be able to get it under control. It is also making me so sad because I have never had thoughts like these regarding my relationship before. Any suggestions on how to tackle this before it worsens? I am trying to use the same strategies I learned in therapy that I used for my other themes, however i’m struggling.
i think I'm developing relationship OCD. i keep feeling like I don't want to look at my partner because I'm worried I won't be attracted to him. so many people online say that if you don't feel physically attracted you have to break up. i think that's going to happen. please don't reassure me even though my head's saying this might be real and not OCD. i want to always treat it like it's OCD
Why did I have to have ocd?? Why could I just be normal? This has been bothering me so much. I don’t know anybody that struggles with this, but the fact that this could get passed down to my children is terrifying. I don’t want to witness my kids struggle with the same things I did. On top of that, my ocd has been through the roof lately and it feels like I can’t do anything to help myself. I feel so disgusting and shameful.
A lot of people say to delay the compulsion. How do I delay it?? I ruminate a lot and I have no clue how to delay it. It’s like I have no control over my own thoughts and it bothers me every single day.
I don’t know what happened again. I feel so numb. I feel like I want to d!e. Not into doing something to myself and I’m making sure I’m not alone anyway, but I just can’t stand that feeling. Emotionally so exhausted and distressed. I just need someone to tell me it will eventually pass. Please. My life was so good before all of it. I can’t even be sad about it anymore. I don’t know if things can ever go back to normal. I feel like my brain changed. Idk how to explain it.
I touched a random used towel by accident and I STILL don’t feel like my hand is clean after washing them with soap so many times. I used hot water and ran it under my hand till it burned HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA- I hate this f*cking mental illness… I should never ask for reassurance but…I really need this. Do you all think it’s clean enough, genuinely?
Does arousal = sexual orientation? Sometimes I get turned on by the female body (in porn) but I have no intention to do anything with them nor am I attracted to women that way in real life. My brain keeps telling me otherwise and I'm so confused rn. I've been attracted to men all my life
I work with kids so as to be expected my contamination ocd (surrounding getting sick, especially throwing up) gets triggered a lot. Which is hard, but usually worth it for me as I’m really passionate about my work. But sometimes it feels like I don’t know how I will be able to manage my contamination ocd while working with kids the rest of my life (teaching). It makes me really sad when I think about how my other coworkers don’t have these same worries of getting sick and can then focus more on their meaning fully work. Like today, a kid told me she threw up last night after her water bottle had previously sprayed water on my face and I couldn’t focus fully on the class for the rest of my shift 😭 which isn’t fair to the kids either but I did my best, considering I’m still reeling from that and struggling to refrain from rumination and other compulsions. Just trying to tell myself that I’ll survive regardless of if I get sick or not, even though my ocd brain equates throwing up to death haha. Anyways I’m not looking for reassurance, but more so just wanted to vent and see if anyone can relate at all.
Has anyone been on this medication before? My doctor wants to put me on this but I’ve never heard of it
My OCD is what it is. But I am curious! Did anyone have kids after they were diagnosed with OCD? I’m not concerned about passing it down as much as handling the stress of childbirth and child rearing. Any tips would be helpful!
Hi. I'm new here. Never been diagnosed but identify with symptoms. I want to seek a diagnosis but I'm terrified of seeking help and having the doctors think I'm just faking it or being a hypochondriac (I have a laundry list of thing I want to look into as far as diagnosis go). I just need answers and help because it's hard and after having a kid it's even harder. How did you get diagnosed? Was there medical gaslighting for you?
I feel like OCD is ruining all of my relationships and I hate it. My symptoms have been significantly better since I started on medication but recently I’ve been struggling with just constant thoughts that my friends don’t actually like me. I also reassurance seek a lot and so much so that I had a friend say we needed to take a break from being friends because she couldn’t deal with my excessive reassurance seeking. I just have this anxiety surrounding every single one of my friendships and this fear that they don’t care about me and I hate it. I’m scared of loosing more people because of OCD. I’m still young and I’m worried that I won’t ever be in a meaningful relationship because everyone I try to get close to will push me away because of my anxiety. I just hate OCD and I wish it wasn’t affecting my relationships to the point where I don’t feel like I can even reach out and talk to them.
Four months ago, I began taking 25mg of Zoloft, and my dosage has since been increased to 100mg. This increase has significantly alleviated the anxiety and heart palpitations caused by my OCD. However, it hasn't been as effective in treating my depression. Alongside medication, I'm currently undergoing ERP therapy. Given the mixed results, I'm considering either switching medications or augmenting my current regimen. I have a consultation with my doctor tomorrow to explore my options. I've heard from others that finding the right combination of medications can make a huge difference. Does anyone have experience with a multi-medication approach that has been beneficial for them?
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OCD doesn't have to
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