We are the faces of OCD

My therapist brought up to me when I was having a panic attack that she thinks I have ocd. I told her no that couldn’t be it bc I don’t wash my hands a bunch or keep everything clean and organized. But I do have repeated thoughts and get stuck on some. I tend to research things. So I researched ocd and I discovered pure o ocd and everything I have seen i relate too. It makes me question if I like these intrusive thoughts when Ik that I don’t and I know me and that i wouldn’t do any of the things but it scares me thinking it. I haven’t been diagnosed other than my therapist mentioning it. I tend to do things like count in my head randomly or when I’m doing a task such as filling my water bottle or counting steps. I also have to repeat things in my head till it feels like I’ve said it a good amount of times, it has to feel right. Specifically the word no or shaking my head so the intrusive thought goes away. I hate these feelings and thoughts.

Hi, I'm Ali. Nice to meet you. I just randomly today started searching about OCD because I related to so many of these experiences on this app (which I don't want to mention) and I wonder if I really have an OCD. For example, yesterday my brother gave me his iPad since he hasn't used it in a while and there's a scratch on it, and I'm really scared if I did or he did it because wouldn't that show I'm careless with it, and he's had it for so long, so I don't know if he scratched it or I have, and the buttons are so clicky, and I don't know if they are meant to be like that. I really want to tell my dad, but I don't know if I'm just seeking attention because I've already told him about other experiences in the past and he has sorted them (I love my dad).  But if I ask him that I have an OCD, I don't think he would believe me. Please guys, I need your advice. Thank you for reading this much. Have a good day.

I usually always watch my drink or leave it around a close friend, but about a week ago, I had to do something urgent & took my eyes off of my drink for a long time. Somebody who I’m not sure if they like me was around it & then as soon as I finished what I was doing they left off & when they came back they were looking in my direction. I started to toss it altogether, but I took a sip & thought it didn’t taste the same but it could just be OCD. It’s been a week but I still feel uneasy worried my drink was tampered with or that there was some type of undetected poison. Even when I’m doing good, I wonder back to it & it makes me anxious. How do I move past it?

I’ve been vaping for about three years now. I’ve tried to quit multiple times but with the people around me, also do, and it makes it difficult to stop buying it and or hitting it. My OCD is based off obsessive thoughts on my health and worrying about natural bodily feelings. Twitches, random pains throughout my body, scare me and make me feel like I can’t control my thoughts. When I vape, i’ve heard about lungs collapsing and I worry about it. I want to stop, but can’t seem to. If I have a headache I worry about a brain tumor, when there are many reasons I could have one. When I mess up a sentence I worry about a stroke, and check my face to see if it’s even. I worry about cancer on a regular basis, a small pain or lymph node swollen, i convince myself it’s cancer. I go to the doctor often because of this. It’s scary, that there is a possibility it could happen. I hate this.

Hey guys lol So the longer I’ve been in OCD therapy, the more my meds have helped quiet my mind: I realize how many things I have been doing that was compulsive that I didn’t realize was compulsive. And for some reason I felt like those compulsions helped me to feel closer to God. Like felt closer to my values. And now that I’m recognizing what I’m was doing and now that my medicine has helped create space between my thoughts and what to do next, I feel like fear was what helped me be close my values? Can anyone else relate? Or does anyone have tips on how to still feel close to your values with the absence of so much fear and paranoia caused from OCD?

Has anyone seen improvement from lifestyle changes? If so, what changes did you make?

Does anyone think we are Selfish for worrying so much about our problems. Or is this jus my ocd?

Does anyone also suffer from emetophobia? Am I alone in this? It feels like I am and like no one truly understands me.

How do you know the difference between OCD thoughts and Intellectual conflicts that anybody could go through? especially if you're someone who loves philosophy and morality delimmas? and also as a young adult who experience a quarter life crisis and/or identity crisis and struggle with changing and growing up, How do you know if what hitting you OCD or something of those?

i can’t stop obsessing over how i look and thinking about how ugly i look i feel like i’m going insane i keep looking at pictures of myself and i just feel so disgusting my lips are so small and without makeup i literally look like a man and i just compare myself to my friends and people i see online all day i literally cant take it anymore like i just feel so worthless all the time bc of my appearance i would literally do anything to feel beautiful

When my intrusive thoughts get bad and I try my hardest to push them out it feels like I’m physically straining my head, like it legitimately hurts really bad and I feel like I get dizzy and can’t think and I can’t stop focusing and then my ocd causes me to think that there’s something wrong with my brain and that I need surgery or to be lobotomized or something crazy like that, does this happen to anyone else?

I have had soocd for 5 years and it impacts me all day everyday every minute. I’ve read that some people only have it 1-2 times a month or for like two seconds a day and it scares me that I don’t have ocd. Because mine is legit constant and so scary

i am a christian. i am constantly terrified of offending God and going to hell. i love God so much but this so scary. i feel like a really bad person. i have to pray in specific ways at specific times of the day in a specific order and sometimes it feels like a chore. i feel so bad about this. the reason i became a christian in the first place was mostly out of fear. i feel so bad admitting all of this but i really need help. i wanna continue being a christian i think but it’s all so scary and stressful. praying has become a compulsion, i feel like a terrible person with every sin, and it’s so exhausting. also, i’m a lesbian and i’m so scared God will send me to hell for that. i can’t change my identity. i’ve tried, but i just can’t like boys. i’m so scared and sad and terrified and stressed. i have no clue what to do.

Recently I’ve been having scary intrusive thoughts about hurting myself or others. I’m so scared, what do I do?? I wouldn’t hurt a fly.

Does anyone else struggle with the theme of being afraid of dying and death? I don’t really know if it’s my OCD or if something is legitimately wrong with me, but it’s starting to consume my thoughts. Sometimes it’s almost physically debilitating when it’s all I can think about. I guess I’m just reaching out so I don’t feel so alone in this.

Struggling today with my thoughts and maybe some dissociation. I can’t get any clear thoughts. I felt like lately I’ve started to recover and then the past few days have felt so hard. I feel scared for the future. I am scared I don’t have enough hope for living with ocd. I am scared that I’m not gonna be happy. I’m scared I’ll chose to end my life over this. I’m scared I’ll want to end my life. I feel weird. My thoughts are jumbled today. Something feels like it’s going to happen and that’s what is giving me anxiety.

So I started using tampons but I don’t know how to insert right yesterday I was wearing one and it felt super uncomfortable so I took it off like 2 hours later and today I did it again and but took it off by the like the 5 minutes or 10 max because I seen that if you wear it wrong you could get TSS and I took it off and now I’m worrying because I seen that you could get TSS from taking out dry tampons so from that I was so worried and stressing I always take Magnesuim glycinate at night 400mg and today thinking I was gonna take another one I don’t know why I took that one I took it again at 12 pm and last night I took it like at 10pm now I’m scared something is gonna happen to me or I’m gonna die or od of it which it’s possible and I’m feeling cramps from the Magnesuim but I’m also on my period which makes it 10x worst ugh I’m very stressed I don’t know what to even worry about because I know you could also get cramps for TSS and back pain and I’m getting it ugh guys idk what to do I’m so overwhelmed

I know this is my OCD and it can make me look like a fool. I’m have been married for 7 years to a sweet loving person who has never hurt me. My OCD is telling me he is going to leave me and I’m going to be alone. ( I have recently lost my a love one and had to step away from my family because of money inheritance ) I have recently decided that I have to shut down my business because of economy . I know my OCD is triggered by stress. Stress that I have been suppressing for the last year and I know my brain is just sticking and picking up everything. I hate waking up in the morning and feeling wave of anxiety and uncertainty that it makes it hard for the bed . This morning I had to work myself out of bed and go for a walk with my dog in the park, which helped a lot. I just keep beating myself up because I let myself get to this place. I saw all the signs and I ignored them all. I feel so foolish 🥺 I went through something like this before 2017 and I feel like I’m always going through some level or mental illness that my husband has to help me with and it is so disappointing with myself because why can’t I just have a normal brain. Why can I just have a mind simply works and I don’t have to keep manually shift it out of gears I’m scared my husband and people that I have close to me don’t you say that I’m too much just discard me. And I thought with myself to say that I’m not too much. I’m just going to human experience and that I’m a little bit more. I’m just extremely frustrated. I’m just sad that I’m back at this place again. I’m happy if not as severe as it was when I first had my OCD breakdown, but I’m still disappointed in myself. I should’ve took better care of my mental well-being. I should’ve focused more on that and focusing on other things that knew my mental.

Does anyone have experience of being in recovery from addiction and being around people that don't get it and they keep offering you drugs? It sets my anxiety off a lot and I start feeling overwhelmed. Just good coping strategies will do.

This past week has been very challenging; I have been seeing this guy now for a couple of months, and every now and then I will experience a loss of interest in him. Sometimes this is brought upon by the OCD itself, which makes me not want to be around him because he is the trigger. Other times, it’s hard to tell if I’m genuinely not interested, and this drives me absolutely crazy. I feel like I am leading him on and forcing myself to like him just because I want to be in a relationship. To make things clear, he is the sweetest guy and hasn’t done anything wrong; he knows that I struggle with R-OCD and has been very understanding, but isn’t aware of my periods of disinterest and doesn’t know just how distressed I get. This morning, he texted me and said he can’t wait to see me. While reading his text, I never got excited or felt butterflies, I just felt sick to my stomach because all I can think about is how I’m gonna have to tell him I’m not into him right now. I feel like at this point with the back and forth feelings, I just need to end things. The more I think about it, the more I start to believe and feel that’s the right answer. I get sad because I am starting to catch feelings and don’t want to put a stop to a potentially good relationship. I’m really trying to understand why my feelings for him are constantly up and down.