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Does anyone have any tips on how to handle contamination OCD?

I am very sad. I have obsessive thoughts from night to morning or in a week. I am scared. I am 23 years old now. I have been suffering from obsessive thoughts for eight years. I am not from a rich family. Please someone help me. I can't do anything because the thoughts don't make me progress. I have no friends at university. No one talks to me.Help me, help me, please.

I sometimes come back to this particular feeling and thought. So when I first met my partner I wasn’t immediately attracted to him. I don’t think I thought he was ugly by any means. I met him at work along with another new go worker and I thought the other co worker was cuter than my current partner. That alone fills me with guilt but what’s even WORSE was that I told a friend “Oh man I wish that guy was in our group instead of the other.” Something like that. I feel so much freaking guilt over that comment. I adore my partner and this always fills me with shame. I think my partner is the most beautiful man in the world and I kick myself that that was my first thought or worlds about him. I don’t know what to do. I want to confess but how do you even say that to your partner? I just feel so guilty and awful inside….

I have confessed to my partner multiple times about a person who is kind of on the fringes of our social circle who I have a crush on. I told him that I fantasized about this person and scrolled through his social media out of curiosity to learn more about him. My partner reassured me multiple times basically that as long as my actions aren’t physically cheating, I am free to do whatever I want in my own head and fantasize. He said he’s had his own crushes too at his workplace and he fantasized about them. We both agreed that it’s okay. He told me to stop fixating so much on intentions and internal cheating and realize that my physical actions are all that matter. This person happens to be in a Discord server with me, my partner, and like 15 other people. Whenever I speak in the server, I take great care to ignore this person’s messages and ONLY directly reply to other people’s. I take great care to ignore them, not give them any attention, and not give a single hint that I care about them at all. Even the times where they addressed me, I keep my responses to a minimum. However, 2 days ago I met him in person (he ended up coming to an event that we were having). I went to dinner after the event with the group of people that I normally go to dinner with, and the person came along. I don’t know if he was planning on going, but I could tell he felt excluded and I asked him if he was coming with us to dinner. I also sat next to him during a part of the dinner (it was a fast food place and we went with a group of 10 people, all of which I am wayyyy closer to). I was ignoring him for the most part, but at one point I did ask him if he liked this place and I made normal small talk with him. I am worried that I cheated because I admittedly did have certain thoughts like: - I felt excited to sit next to him. - I was hoping I looked good. However, I intentionally didn’t shave my mustache that night because I didn’t want to seem like I was just trying to look good for him. I knew the mustache would make me look worse, and I wanted to prove to myself that I was okay with looking worse and that I wouldn’t try to look good for him. - I did however wear my hair in a way that I often do, but sometimes don’t, and I did do this to look more appealing. I took very very good care to NOT give this person any special attention, to ignore him and talk to other people, but I am worried that sitting next to him intentionally was cheating.

Idk if this happened to anyone but I have a lot of self doubt and memory problems.idk if they are false memories or not. When someone ,a relative , or even going to church in a deliverance service ask questions like "have you don't something in the past that you feel guilty about in the past?" "do feel like you admitting to stuff would make you feel a certain way ? I feel like it triggers me does that means that the thoughts I have are real and I did do something if I feel triggered. I always feel guilty 😔

I’ve never really dated before out of fear of being rejected or being emotionally abused. So this was the third date with the first guy I’ve dated in years. Last time he said he wanted to kiss me and that’s all that was on my mind. I was afraid of being bad or not liking it so we didn’t kiss and I felt terrible. I was telling myself that I should be thankful that someone is so patient with me and this is why I’m gonna die alone, because I’m so judgmental when it comes to dating….. and I couldn’t stop. I kept ruminating until I later on the couch, closed my eyes, and started giving myself grace. I had shut down for over 30 minutes. And now I’m scared of dating in general.

I just recently turned 51 and take medication for ocd but STILLhave major issues--i need some hope--🥰

I have very odd dreams and they always have to do with my intrusive thoughts. I will have nightmares about all of the things i don’t want to happen and i am afraid of and even thought this is normal, i never have real dreams. Only nightmares.I also always remember my dreams and have 3-7 dreams a night even if i only sleep 6 hours. i wonder if anyone feels the same way or has a story to share

If any Muslims with OCD come across this, i would like advice. Other people are also fine to give advice too. Anyway i am not a Muslim but most of my friend group is Muslim. I never grew up religious my dad was an ex catholic but still had religious views ingrained into his brain and when i would go to say good night to him he would say things like “God Bless you have good dreams” plus he was always drunk so it would be way more emotional and in depth. Anyway that transcended into me as a child praying to god everytime i was in the bath even though i didn’t believe in him it was “just in case”, which i know now was my OCD. Ok back to the point sorry it is long but I told my best friend who is a Muslim that i’ve been thinking about converting which was true, and i’ve been thinking about it for about two years. Today is the first day of Ramadan and i told two of my friends that i would be fasting for the month because most of my friends are and also the fact i’m interested in Islam. I woke up at 4am today, ate enough food to be full by the sunrise, then i fasted until 2:12pm when i did a horrible thing and broke my fast. I was so tempted and i know it was wrong and i have to do something good to fix it. But i started feeling like all of this, everything i think about Islam, it’s all just my OCD, and i have a strong feeling about this. I pray to Allah in my head, learned some arabic, read part of the Quran, and i tried to fast but i know i wont be able to resist my temptation even though that is the whole point of Ramadan. I know in my heart i don’t have real religious beliefs and that all of my thoughts about Islam are intrusive. How do i stop my thoughts and how do i tell my friend that i am probably not going to convert because it is not right for me? She will be understanding but i will feel like i mislead her and also i will feel a little more uncomfortable around my friends because i know i have decided that i don’t believe in Allah or want to convert. Please don’t tell me to convert because it will influence me immediately and although i love the religion i know it is not what i believe in or want with my life. Please help i am sorry this is so long

I had a black box side effect and I’ve been on 5 different medications in the past 2 months. I did a gene site test and it said Zoloft was one of my better medications but it was the worst one I could imagine being on. Has anyone had this same experience?

Struggling really hard right now, going through a lot of changes in my relationship with decisions for grad school coming out for both of us, I can’t tell if it’s my ocd or if it’s real anymore. I love her so much but sometimes I cant really see the future like I can see 6 months in advance but that’s about it I’m scared of what it means to see a future. I don’t want to be with anyone else and I am okay with being alone but I couldn’t stand to lose her.

i just got diagnosed with OCD this past week. i've kinda always known that i have it. i used to have counting compulsions a lot in high school, i just didn't tell anyone. my biggest challenge as of late is cleaning and organizing. everything i see/am around has to be clean and orderly. does anyone have any tips for adapting to this?

I’ve had many types of OCD, but I gained control over them over the years, but a new one has started to arise. Do y’all ever have scary thoughts about something you might do? Recently I’ll get extremely uncomfortable no matter where I am because I can’t stop thinking about “what if I screamed really loud in my lecture class tomorrow?” And other stupid stuff like that. Also, this one is kind of funny, but sometimes when I use the bathroom I pause before because I think “what if I’m actually in class right now?” I also cannot control the thoughts about past embarrassing moments. I know everyone does, but I will become visibly uncomfortable and harp on something from years ago. This happens all throughout the day. Also, does anyone else do things that resemble tics when you get these thoughts. Like when they happen I’ll curse under my breath or like jerk my head a little bit. When I’m in public I keep it low key but when I’m alone sometimes I’ll physically get up and pace or something when those thoughts happen. Just curious if anyone has had these experiences

Hi! Does anyone experience guilt about doing exposures? Like if my OCD is right and now I’m going to get possessed or cause this terrible thing to happen it will be my fault. And also prove that my brain DOES have that power which is so scary. I just did an exposure and I feel so worried about my fears coming true and the people I love (& me) getting hurt because of it. How do you get past this? It feels like I shouldn’t do exposures because it’s selfish.

TW: Abuse/Pocd Im feeling really hopeless right now. I have an extensive history of sexual abuse, neglect, physical and emotional abuse as well and a significant amount of trauma from my childhood. I didn’t get any help until my late teens. During this time period I was an incredibly troubled child/teenager and I made a ton of really bad decisions that go against all my morals and values now as a grown adult. I feel like I messed up so bad I don’t deserve to recover. I don’t want to discuss all the events because they are quite personal to me but I’m really struggling with past sexual mistakes and feeling like some sort of deviant because of my past. I never hurt anyone and I never to my knowledge did anything illegal but I definitely had sexual behavior issues from my abuse. I sexualized my own abuse to cope with it. I feel horrible about this. Like I’m a monster. It also convinces me my thoughts are true and it’s evidence. Should I go to a OCD specialist for this or a sex therapist? Is there anything they can even do.

I just found out today that a family friend will be staying over at my house (I live with my parents) for a night. And I have contamination ocd and that’s causing me anxiety. I fear that her being here will contaminate my home, which is like my safe place. It’s hard just sitting with the anxiety. I want this day to be over! Does anyone have anything to support me? Thanks

i saw a tik tok with a guy reading notes about how others relationships ended, or new it ended something like that. One of them was “ when i wasnt excited to see her anymore and it felt like a chore, i wasnt happy anymore and i felt like that for over a year but i couldn’t tell her” i feel horible bc i think i have rocd and for over a year i obbses with me not loving him anymore. i feel awful. what if im in the same position as that guy. what if i dont love him. he is at my house rn and i feel si bad, i feel like i have no feelings. i feel horible i font understand what is happening. i dont want this to happen . This video made me want to cry. what if i cant accept the fact that i dont like him anymore. when he kisses me i think that i dont want him. i feel like a liar.

My intrusive thoughts really really really disturbing and I just I can’t seem to like saying maybe to them and I can’t seem to like just accept them cuz they are sexual related and abt family too. They seem so real and I know that everyone says that but it’s just I can’t take it because it feels so ridiculously real and I keep thinking what if I actually like these thoughts or want these thoughts and I’m scared. As well as intrusive urges they are really debilitating and scary on top of compulsions which hurt me in the exhausting and I don’t know what’s real anymore and my values seem to be gone why won’t my head just stop! I don’t know how to explain my fee my anxiety is through the roof and my therapist is more than ERP therapist rather than someone I can just talk too like I definitely can but she’s more of a like a an exposure therapist and I just I don’t have anyone anymore and my best friend Pet bird just passed away a few hours ago and I think that has a really big affect on how I’m feeling and I’m crying so much right now and grieving I’m scared please reply and tell me your thoughts on this.

I have a genuine fear of playing video games due to my magical thinking OCD. It’s driving me crazy. I get this overwhelming sense of anxiety when I play them. I have a correlation between video games and a health thing that started around the time I was playing video games a lot. Now I feel like every time I play a game it’s gonna cause that problem to come back. Any suggestions on how to conquer this?

my spouse cheated on me on our wedding night and i haven't gotten over it. they never told their parents and i was resentful their parents didn't know. so i called them and told them today. it felt good in the moment to have that extra support from my in-laws but im freaking out now that i have to confess to my partner and they will feel betrayed by me and leave me. is this confession OCD or a real fear? i'm really freaking out.