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Why are all these different things being called some form of OCD? It looks like every issue under the sun is some kind of OCD. Can someone explain the common trait that makes all these things a type of OCD?

I had a hard day today with my mental compulsions, rehearsing and thinking about stuff between me and my boyfriend and brought something up I thought was important. What happens every time I do is that he gets annoyed because it’s a demeanor that is intense as a result of obsessing. I didn’t say anything mean, I know it could have been much much worse, and I stopped talking about it much more quickly than I’ve done previously with going on and on and on. It’s really hard though, I’m thinking about it more, and it’s another reinforcement that it really is the same every time when you think about something all day. I feel like I’m going down a rabbit hole now where I’m thinking about it more after the fact, feeling distress at the uncomfortable thoughts. How do I stop this?

Hopefully the algorithm pins my previous post on the bottom, but my friend of 14 years has suddenly stopped talking to me completely. It’s caused me great distress and I cannot stop checking my phone and asking people for reassurance on this situation. I’ve had chest pains and headaches, and I feel sick to my stomach. I’ve done nothing to her. But since I started social media, she’s been ignoring me. My friends (and partner) all say to cut her off and that she’s trying to punish me out of jealousy bc of my recent looks (I’ve been told I’ve had a substantial glow up) and my success with art online (she’s a photographer). Birthdays were considered our traditional day to catch up, we never missed birthdays. She ignored me, but she DID post her other friends and a party on social media. Here are the texts I’ve sent in the past few days. At what point do I call it quits? Should I just block her? I cant even relax, this is on my mind constantly.

Why does it take so long for people to respond to others posts? Is there just not a lot of people on here to help or do they just not know about said subject like I said genuine question no hate intended

Some examples of my thoughts, images commands, feeling and sensations. Who relates to these? -stomach dropping making my chest tight -rapid heart beat/skipped beats -images of horrible scenerios like driving off a bridge or hurting someone or images of what me “snapping” would look like. -looking in the mirror and getting scared that my face will change into a demon face so I stop looking in the mirror. -looking too long at my son and having to look away so I don’t hallucinate a different face on him (even tho I’ve never hallucinated) -what if you’re a horrible monster and you’re going to off yourself -what if your husband and son are demons -you shouldn’t be left alone with your child in case you hurt them -images and scenerios of me texting my husband while he’s at work and telling him I’m killing our son and then myself (even tho I would literally never do this. It makes me sick to even type it on here) -what if you you have schizophrenia even though you’ve been professionally diagnosed (twice) with ocd -what if the ocd specialist was wrong and you don’t have ocd and you’re dangerous -what if you go into psychosis. -what if you are In psychosis right now -what if you were scared of your hands…?¿ this one is so weird lol -what if that bug isn’t real -what if you hear voices -kill them -they’re better off without you -you’ll never get better - you’re crazy. -this can’t be ocd it must be more -nobody else gets these thoughts and feeling -feelings of scared, worried, uncertain, intense anxiety -fears intensifying at night as I’m drifting to sleep -nonsense thoughts that don’t make ANY SENSE at all as I’m trying to fall asleep -what if you believe people are after you one day like a crazy person -what if you already believe this. What if you are delusional. The list goes on. I hope these help some of you feel not alone if you have them as well

I’d like to preface this by saying I know this is really niche but it’s been effecting me extremely bad since the moment i woke up today and for many days. Every time I start to like anything a lot no matter what, for example if I’m with a good friend and I’m in the middle of laughing, I will feel the need to specify that I love God over this moment and person, and if it doesn’t feel *just right* I will punish myself like by slapping my leg a certain amount of times etc. If it doesn’t feel *just right* it feels like I am putting them over God and then I feel extreme guilt. With every thing that I love I end up stopping it because I feel like that’s me saying I’m putting it over God. Even now, I was talking to this person I liked and had the thought come up again and it didn’t feel right so I blocked them because I want to prove to God that I love him more than anyone else. I convince myself that I’m putting things over God when I feel intense joy, and that God will punish me for that. Anyone have any tips or been through something similar? Thank you for reading it you did.

TW: Parent loss My OCD has spiked since losing my mom in March. Like my nesting is trying to find its new obsession to hold onto. Not sure how much more of this I’m going to take.

Hi all, I wanted to share that I am trying hard to exercise frequently with many different sports/activities, but I’m finding that it’s keeping me in my thoughts even worse and making my brain increase and accelerate the unwanted intrusive thoughts passing through. Does anyone experience this/ and have recommendations to combat this? I need to exercise not only to get healthier but I also want to enjoy it and not dread it with the seemingly increased OCD thoughts and compulsions/rumination it causes. Thanks! 😊

OCD makes me feel like I’m holding in the biggest secret about myself and I don’t deserve happiness. I feel red faced and nervous all the time, when the thoughts come on it feels like a big rush of “truth” hits me and I can’t not believe it

Hi it’s been a while since I’ve been on here but to those who has real event, have any of you confronted the person about it since they were like involved?

Does anyone else feel like your OCD goes after everything that’s important or precious to you? Like if you have a dear memory of something, your mind will try to tell you why that’s wrong or bad even when you know it’s something perfectly pure and a happy memory. I feel so beat up by this illness.. it steals my joy. Only Jesus can help me, only he knows just how bad this torment in my head is.

So lately I've been able to control OCD after a long time. If I have a harm intrusive thought or image, I just let it go. By doing this, I am able not to feel anxiety with these intrusive thoughts, and therefore improving over time. But sometimes I start to feel anxious for not feeling anxious with these thoughts. It's like: "If I don't feel anxiety with these awful harm thoughts/images, does that mean I want to do them??" It drives me crazy. Also, as I tend to have intrusive thoughts and sudden images at some point everyday, I think "what if maybe it is not OCD, but another kind of mental issue? What if I don't treat myself and I go crazy over time? What happens if I think I'm improving, but I'm not?" Anyone feeling this way as well?

Does anyone else get ROCD thoughts surrounding possibly cheating on your partner? Mine focuses on other interactions with men other than my partner that may have been cheating. Even from years ago. And then i get the strong urge to confess to my partner even thought it’s almost embarrassing because these situations aren’t considered cheating by definition. Sometimes, I obsess on interactions that “could have” led to me cheating. Does anyone else experience this? I’m recently engaged, and it’s flared up since then. I’d love to know if anyone else deals with this and/or has any advice. Thanks!

I was hoping to get some insight into what recovery/remission looks like for those of you in it. Does it look differently for each of us? I am managing much better than at 22, but it’s still annoying and constant. I’ve done CBT and ERP therapy, I’m on Prozac, and it was helping quiet the thoughts, but I still have flare ups or flooding of thoughts. My wonder is, is this recovery? I have a job, I’m a mom, I literally live in exposures everyday and I keep going. I never avoid, I always continue what I’m doing when the thoughts come up. I just get frustrated when I hear people say “I beat OCD.” What does that look like, sound like, feel like on a daily basis? Does it mean, despite the horrible intrusive thoughts, you carry on any way and don’t let it stop you from living your life? But to me, it’s just always there :(

**TRIGGER: SEXUAL THEMES** Does anyone have any advice or can relate? I’ve suspected that I have ocd for quite some time now, and it’s usually rocd but lately I’ve been getting thoughts that I might be bisexual or even a lesbian, I’ve never gotten these thoughts before and idk if it’s ocd or if I actually feel this way. I’ve always been straight and at one point in high school, I thought that I might be bi but I would never date a woman, it would only be in a sexual sense. (Idk if that even counts as being bisexual honestly). This still stands but I’m having a hard time accepting the sexual part, even tho I don’t think I’m bi. I think this has come up because lately I’ve been loving Chappell Roan’s music, and cuz most of her songs are about women, I think I’m getting intrusive thoughts cuz of that. Also I watched her “my kink is karma” music video and I just really loved the style and a transition in it, and she looked really good like I’m not gonna lie, but idk if it’s me having a “girl crush” as a straight woman or if I’m part gay. The thing is, I don’t think this whole thing would even be a problem if I was single, but I’ve been with my boyfriend for a year and a few months now, and I love him to death, and I’m obviously attracted to him (even tho my rocd says otherwise), but I can’t help but feel guilty if I’m bisexual. It’s not even a big deal and I don’t have to make it a big deal, but I get thoughts that if I did like women, I’d have to break up with my boyfriend in order to figure it out, but that’s not what I want (even tho it’s so hard to decipher what I want or not with ocd). Usually when I get these thoughts I can shrug it off and it goes away for a while, but now I’m getting this picture/video in my mind of me giving head but on a vag. I think this started up because ig I wanted my bf to do a certain thing while going down on me and I imagined myself doing it and it got like really vivid and now I get groin responses from it. It’s just really scary right now and I really don’t want it to be true.

This year the quality of my sleep decreased, resulting into chronic insomnia, lack of sleep and heavy dependence on sleeping medication. Quite recently I managed to regain control over it, though last week my insomnia returned and subsequently my OCD thoughts increased. From now own it circles around fatal insomnia and risk of having it. I know that it's irrational and the illness is very rare. However, I can't help thinking about it over and over. And it really disrupts my sleep, causing serious panic attacks.

Every time I think about my temporomandibular joint dysfunction (TMJ) or am reminded of it, it just suddenly manifests itself. I don’t know why or how this happens, and it only stops when I forget that I have TMJ or manage to distract myself. I keep getting comments from my mom that I’m forcing the clicking noise in my jaw, but it doesn’t make any sense for me to deliberately put myself through that discomfort??😭 I can’t manually make it stop bc the tension in my jaw is VERY real. This physiological reaction also happens when I get too anxious or excited. Lmk if you can relate to this bc i really don’t know what to make of it.

What do you do when you feel like you’re running out of “fight”? I feel like I’m trying really hard to keep pushing through but feeling like no matter what I do my battery is on E.

Has anyone been with their partner for more than 5 years? What kind of love do you feel towards them? I have been with my bf fo 6 years! before getting with him I never labled myself and considered that when I'll find love I'll know... and when I started dating my bf its because 1) he was my best friend first 2)he was so sweet and considerate and 3) he was like perfect (met all my expectations) but I always felt like something was missing and I'm scared that it is an "ick" situation and that its the feeling gay people feel when they're in heterosexual relationship. I dont want to be with him just because he's perfect on paper and my parents love him and I got used to him, I want to be with him because I love him for him and choose him. I've always been a believer of true love and accepting yourself etc etc... and yet I feel like I'm the one who's not accepting myself? Like it feels like im in a movie or a serie and Im the closeted character who's not happy with her life and needs to come out to have a happily ever after??? and yet I feel good with my bf, he's my home and I really like touching him and being intimate with him... I'm just so lost... my therapist diagnosed me with SOOCD 4 years ago but im not so sure about that... and my bf said to me "if you only liked girls and didnt like guys, believe me I would've noticed at some point during the past 6 years". But again sometimes when people love watching a rom-com movie and project themself with the guy it feels like I cant do that..... and I used to love rom-coms between a guy and a girl but it feels like im seeking more LGBTQ+ stories now? My therapist said that it was a complusion to make myself feel better if it were ever true but I dont know... ugh anyone else going through this?