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Ok so today I was in a really crowded place and at some point I got really annoyed at not being able to work properly bc of all the people in front of me so out of rage I just decided to bust through everybody and the second time I tried to pass through people I ended up having my upper arm touch a woman’s b00bs. And I can’t fully remember why and what happened bc it was hot outside but I couldn’t really get through bc it was really tight between those two people so my arm was still touching her there and at some point my brain properly caught onto the situation and then I started panicking completely. And now I’m scared this could’ve been SA and keep questioning why exactly this happened bc that’s the part I can’t remember properly. Like I keep questioning if it was really just hard for me to pass through or if I somehow slowed down. And I mean it was just my upper arm so it wasn’t that terrible and the woman was like 40 years older than me but I’m still ashamed and feel guilty. What if I had somehow done that on purpose? Like I know I rammed her on purpose but what if I really just wanted to do that? I feel so guilty and I remembered just now that as I was approaching her I was just so mad at everything I had even rammed the first person and then I also decided to just ram into the second person but I’m also not sure if that might’ve just been an intrusive thought bc it appeared at the back of my brain and I really only had that contact bc of the lack of space I had to bypass her but I still feel bad despite this not having been that horrible and idk what to do

I’ve made other posts over the days saying how difficult it has been with my OCD, lately. My PCP prescribed me burispone for my GAD and hydroxizene for if my anxiety gets really bad (he said to use it as a as needed pill) . I found myself not keeping up with taking them as I had been - I fought off the idea of taking medication for my anxiety for a long time until I started working again over the summer full time and started feeling the stress and over whelm catch up to me alongside my single mom duties. I’m trying to get in to start therapy again virtually somewhere that accepts Medicaid bc we are low income as well - ideally I’d like to fight this off with just the help of the Lord and my own grit - but the medications did seem to help - at times I don’t really notice a difference especially now after taking them for a few weeks … but now I haven’t been consistent and am starting to see a familiar voice fear it’s ugly head the same one that would convince me I dont need medication or therapy etc . It’s the same voice I think most of my family listens to as I have really been the only one in an out of therapy and always trying to get the help but have been extremely inconsistent over the years. That is always my biggest issue. What helps you to stay consistent on your healing journey with OCD? How do you over come those voices that try to get you to believe that help isn’t needed when it really is?

Hello!! does anyone have any tips on how to stop prayer ocd, I have to pray for forgiveness every time a bad thought, or word pops up in my head, and sometimes my ocd tells me I say it but idk if that’s true or not. Ive had this ocd theme for quite a long time and I want to stop it

how do you know it's ocd and not just extreme guilt for something awful? I feel like people who are just guilty experience the same symptoms of guilt, trying to rationalize, ruminating on the event, thinking about how people who look at them differently if they knew, ect.

has anyone actually done some bad things as a child, and now your ocd fixated on it? am I terrible for what I've done as a child? I know now how wrong and weird and gross it was, and I would never want to do something of that nature Ever again and it's also illegal. what should I do. I don't want to live as someone who has done that.

I just listened to something that said our brains aren't wired for success, it's wired for survival. That's why we get stuck in these patterns of behaviour. Makes sense but never thought of it that way.

Been really worried about this lately. Having a huge identity crisis and worried that i’m just a shell and what if I just take the identities of people around me? I’m scared

Ocd is just so exhausting.. i ahte myself and im just so disgusted by the way i am .

I was drunk once when me and my boyfriend had sex, he wasn't, but while being sober I told him that I am okay if we have sex while I have had alcohol. Afterwards, while still drunk, I told him that I think we shouldn't have sex whole I'm drunk anymore just because I feel sick afterwards from the alcohol and also just because I decided that it was overall not a good idea in general (nothing bad happened but I did get super sleepy.) My ocd has recently though hyperfixated on the idea that my boyfriend has sa'd me when I don't feel like he has (other posts give explanation as to that situation.) is this bad?? I was drunk again and we teased eachother but it didn't go father than that and when I told him we should stop, we did. jokes were still made and stuff but otherwise nothing happened. I feel like my ocd is just getting worse and worse about this whole thing. making me feel things about him I don't actually believe and think things happened that didn't. please give me advice

Hi, everyone! My family has just moved from California to Connecticut, and I'm not doing very well. Late last year, at the age of 19, I realized that I have OCD. Finally being able to put a name to all of the thoughts, compulsions, and images that I've dealt with all my life has been a game changer, and for some years, I've had a routine involving exercise and meditation that really helped to mollify what I now know to be symptoms. However, since the move, I'm having a lot of trouble finding relief. I've been feeling really depressed and sick, and being in an unfamiliar house and neighborhood has me feeling very lost and confused. I'm trying to be strong for my loved ones, since it's been difficult for all of us, and they're all very happy with the new place - and I do really love the house, too - but it just isn't home, and everything is so different. I don't know what to do. Any advice would be much appreciated. Thank you! <3

Currently obsessing over me being the only “real” or conscious person in the world, and that everyone I love isn’t actually real. I know deep down that this is ocd, but I feel like by not ruminating I’m just ignoring the fear (which feels so real and scary). Has anyone experienced anything similar and how did you get out of this worry? Trying not to seek reassurance as it’s one of my compulsions, but I’m very distressed.

a little bit about me, i have dealt with mental health issues for my whole life. i went undiagnosed for many years, being because my family (at the time) didn’t believe in mental illness, it was believed that everything could be fixed with a little “talk with Jesus” that being said, for as long as i can remember i have had the intrusive thoughts, the obsessive thoughts. i can remember being a little kid trying to pray to god and my mind would be telling me over and over again that i hated god, that i loved the devil, that i wanted to go to hell. i also believed that if i didn’t pray for every single family member that they would die. i still to this day have trouble sleeping because im convinced that the rapture will happen, and i will be left behind. well as the years have progressed, these intrusive thoughts and obsessions have become worse, resulting in me thinking about harming myself and others when i have no intentions to do so. i also have been struggling with and obsessing over people dying, and mourning people that are still alive and well.

I know depression is not ocd but I have both and they sometimes work together. I started having mood swings and I am unsure if that is good or bad. I have had depression for years and now I am having huge mood swings and feel more emotional about everything. Can anyone late?

Since I was 16, I have experienced deep depression and anxiety. I fought through it without understanding it for years. Despite these struggles, I managed to find a career, get married, and have kids. At age 23, the weight of my depression became too much to bear, so I finally decided to see a counselor. Going to counseling really changed my life; I found a counselor I truly connected with and saw regularly for the next five years. Mentally, I was doing well until... I didn’t realize I had OCD until my first Pure OCD experience four years ago. It was one of the scariest moments of my life because I analyzed the situation, and every solution I came up with pointed back to me as the problem. I felt like I was the bad guy, the one who was dangerous to this world. I didn’t understand what was happening until I described the experience to my counselor. She explained how my OCD brain perceived intrusive thoughts and what intrusive thoughts actually are. Understanding OCD and recognizing that the intrusive thoughts I was having were NOT real made a big difference. I ended up trying different types of medications for a couple of years and eventually found two that really helped. Once I felt like I had it under control, I stopped taking the medication. A year ago, I had a really bad OCD experience that led me to develop a daily ritual that has become a burden on my life. I fully understand that the obsession isn’t real, yet I still feed into it. I’m at a strange stage in my life right now. I feel like I understand how OCD works and how I should react to it, but I still have bad days when I let it defeat me. My counselor retired last year, and I’m currently in the process of finding a new one. I feel like I’m back at stage one again, and I’m okay with that. Reading these posts reminds me that I’m not alone and that we can find serenity in all of this. We can live the life we desperately desire. I’m here to help as well and answer any questions.

recently i’ve been really struggling with agoraphobia. i’ve never really struggled with it before and it’s awful. one of my favorite things ever is going to concerts. i haven’t been to one in a few months and i have a few coming up but instead of being happy about them i’m more anxious than anything. back in may i had the stomach bug and got sick in public (i have terrible emetophobia) and ever since then my anxiety has been AWFUL. every time i’m in public (stores, restaurants, etc) all i can think about it what to do if i start feeling sick or if i’m going have a panic attack. it’s been hell. some days are better than others but it’s greatly affecting my day to day life. and i don’t want to let it take away from one of my favorite things to do. does anyone have any tips? thank you :)

Conversations about cancellations and public figures being rightfully criticized for saying slurs when they were younger makes me unsure of how I should feel about my bf’s past. He said bad things like the f word when he was in middle school and it used to be normalized in his high school for non-black minorities to say the n word, including him, and a couple times since being with him he has accidentally said it. Idk it’s just conflicting… I think it’s wrong and he also knows that and is anti-homophobia, anti-racist, etc. but I don’t think it’s okay when people just write it off as “they were too young to know better” because I don’t agree with that. I guess it’s just something that I need to accept is a gray area.

I’ve been stressed a lot and not well rested… I’m feeling paranoid about everything and feeling like I’ll die if I don’t get reassurance. Idk if it’s ocd or valid fears, I know the patterns are the same as all my other OCD obsessions but these ones don’t fit into exact categories. Like, paranoid I’ll loose my job and be homeless, paranoid I’m doing a bad job and all my friends aren’t my friends and actually can’t stand me. I’m alone, I can’t talk to my sisters. Even if you can’t get reassurance, everyone needs someone in their life to talk to and to be there for them when they’re going through something hard. I feel like I do so long as what I’m struggling with isn’t to hard or too extreme, when I feel I need someone the most, that’s when I feel I can’t turn to anyone. And experience has taught me that, not just my own fears. So I isolate and the thoughts I’m having lately, I know the patterns of OCD, they hit all the sudden like a ton of bricks and it’s immense anxiety and thoughts that I should kms. Or that that is the only way out of the terror my life brings me. I am also AUDHD and have a very hard time functioning and holding down a job, much less getting a new job!!! I feel like I’m drowning and everything is overwhelming to the point of not actually being able to handle it. I’ve been sober for 10 days and don’t want to mess it up!!! I know reassurance won’t help in the long run, but if someone here could help me see I’m not alone, that would help in the long run. Thankyou.

Can my past childhood sexual assault have led me to having ocd?

I keep getting a random feeling of anxiety, I’ll be doing good/better and then it randomly pops into my head. It’s not a specific thought it’s more of like an uneasy feeling that I can’t wrap my head around. It feels like a deep sense of doom/fear or something like that. I’m not sure if me trying to figure it out is a compulsion/ my ocd just wanting to figure it out or if I should just sit with it and let it be.

Been having a hard few days. I’m visiting my long distance boyfriend and have had a lot of rocd thoughts since getting here. I just got this intrusive thought / feeling like I am not in love with him anymore / actually grossed out by him, like I don’t want him to touch me or kiss him. I hate this feeling and I absolutely love physical touch. Trying to picture our future no longer feels right like it used to since this relapse and I am just so worried and don’t know how to stop ruminating today 😣 posting here for some extra support