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Sometimes I catch myself looking at people, specifically men, a little too intently. I feel like I do it to seem prettier or more attractive, but I also think kinda enjoy seeing how they get flustered, I’m not sure. Even though it never goes beyond that, I still feel like I have cheated on my boyfriend, or at the very least, that I am being disrespectful to him. I feel like I’m almost flirting. I don’t know if this is some sort of distortion and or if this is normal. I’m really freaking out to the point where I’m nauseated. Please help. I can’t stop panicking.

Living with OCD is a daily challenge that tests my strength and resilience. Some days, it feels like OCD controls my thoughts and actions, affecting my choices and routines. However, I am determined to take back my life. I choose to face these challenges directly, embracing each moment with new confidence and a commitment to personal growth. Every step I take shows my willpower and my desire to overcome the limits that OCD imposes on me.

Hi all, I wanted to share an OCD win that I had this past week. I recognized and stopped a compulsion. I felt the urge to keep going with the physical compulsion of checking on my son before going to sleep to make sure he was still breathing and to pull the blankets down away from his neck, but I knew it was a compulsion and I used my ERP skills and didn't go and check. Even though my intrusive thoughts haven't been too bad the past few months, I still have them and still have my ups and downs. With me continuing with my ERP, I know that is why I am still on the upside of my OCD. Without it, I wouldn't have the skills to get through the bad times. What’s a small win you had last week in your OCD journey?

My spouse is my best friend. A few months ago I basically worshipped the ground he walked on. He’s the best partner in the world so no “maybe he’s not the right person” commentary. Lately my fear of going psychotic has brought back my intrusive thoughts about harming my husband. Now, whether it be from emotional dissociation or medications, I can’t feel any emotions so I’ve developed ROCD. This is ruining my life and has been a month from hell since my spouse/comfort zone makes me feel nothing. My therapist hasn’t given me any info on how to do anything about this other than reading a book (didn’t help). Any ERP suggestions? I haven’t done ERP before for these types of OCD

So everything has been going well recently. The only thing pressing is for peace of mind I am getting STD tested on Wednesday morning and I am pretty anxious about what the result will say. I go to certain massage parlors that offer extras. And I have made a point to not engage in intercourse but other non-intercourse things I have done. I was afraid that since those women do other things with people that maybe virtual things were left on the beds I would lay down on or something. I told this to a doctor I saw recently and they said it was highly unlikely. But I still have the health worry. But we will see come Wednesday. The only reason I am going is because I went to the urologist and they wanted me to rule things out since I had what seemed like a UTI but it turned out to not be the case. What's a good way to not focus on catastrophizing the situation. I keep worrying that my life is over if I am diagnosed with something and my future relationships will be tainted or I'll put someones health in jeopardy

Hi I’m 17. My life since I was born has been full of exploring and tons and tons of hobbies. I have adhd. But about 1 year ago is when it kinda started or at least when I started to notice these thoughts and compulsions. I got in a relationship with my girlfriend. And about 2 weeks into that relationship my I started thinking “what if I don’t love her” and I didn’t even know that that’s what ocd was at the time and it ruined with gut wrenching anxiety for months. Then I started titling it as ocd. After we broke up I started to notice that my ocd was starting to flare up a lot. Like when I was snowboarding and normally when I was having the most fun is when I would ask myself things like “what if I hate this” “what if I’m not having fun” then I would try to feel if I was having fun. I would use chat gpt a lot to try and help it but it didn’t really help. I have lots of other ocd thoughts aswell but at the time this one really caused be anxiety and I just felt numb and I became not social. To this day I’m still not as social and I don’t feel like myself anymore. This is the opposite of who I was a year ago. Then I started questioning everything I do and people I love. So it feels like from the moment I wake up my mind just starts spiraling. I can’t seem to find peace or joy in anything anymore and I just feel like my life is going to continue like this and I’ll never be happy. I’ve accepted it at this point. I would love some help. I haven’t really told anyone I know so any tips would be appreciated. I’d be surprised if you even read this far haha. I’m also Christian and love to approach things from a Christian standpoint. I don’t want to sound like a baby who isn’t experiencing real ocd and it’s hard to put into words how much it affects me I just really hope yall understand and can help.

Trigger warning ⚠️ , Hi, I’m Anna, I’m a young adult in my senior year of high-school. I’m not sure what subtype of ocd this may be but my obsession changes, usually one lasts 3 months- a year and it’s been like this since I was a small child. For example it used to be an obsession over sweat, then over religion, then over getting ill. Now it’s strange, very strange but I’m afraid of my dad slipping something into my food. We have a rocky relationship and in arguments he’ll sometimes makes comments that scare me like “we should all 0ff 0urselves” or that he wants us “dead”. I also smoke pot time to time and he doesn’t approve and I’ve had this strange fear of him slipping me something stronger to “teach me a lesson” after I eat anything of his if I absolutely have too I wait an 15-60 minutes and look for any signs of illness or a high. It’s exhausting because he mainly cooks in the house and I’ve lost 5lbs this week due to this fear..it’s consuming me and may be my most exhausting obsession yet.

I gave up caffeine to help w my anxiety/panic attacks, and it’s been great so far. However, I loooove the taste of coffee so I occasionally treat myself to a decaf latte or even like a quarter cup of coffee (like maybe 3oz just a couple sips). However, MY ANXIETY GOES THROUGH THE ROOF???? 😭😭😩 Is this me being a hypochondriac and it’s just placebo??? I’m barely drinking any caffeine.

Could I see a therapist at NOCD and also see a psychiatrist?

There are plenty of natural SSRIs out there. What they do is prevent the healthy neural pathways your brain creates (truly healthy, especially for ocd), being made redundant and then being reabsorbed to make room for other transmitters created by cortisol for example. When you eat food that increases seratonin production, you need to tell your brain that you want it. The way you do that is in what you do, and what you do right now, not what you're thinking about doing later. It tells your body that these neural pathways are relevant and needed. For example, if you take 100g of protein a day and want to gain muscle, you don't sit on your ass watching TV and video games. Your body will just get the message that it's not needed and then you'll have gigantic protein poops. 1. Eat food that boosts seratonin 2. Eat foods that have natural SSRIs for seratonin receptor longevity 3. Do things that communicate with your body that promotes seratonin stimulation. Simple AF, go do it! 😊 Love you guys ❤️

Hi there. I’ve recently joined NOCD and wanted to ask: does anyone have a sort of mental contamination fear, such as believing that interacting with people will “infect” oneself in a psychological manner? Just wanted to reach out and ask if this is an experience others had. Also looking to share experiences with others. Thanks.

I’m 21M and i believe i’ve had ocd for a lot of my life. I started researching ocd when i was either 16 or 17 because my intrusive thoughts were starting to get really loud and wouldn’t leave me alone. And they are still loud but never louder than before. I never talked to anybody about this until i brought it up to my fiance a month ago because my stress level was at an all time high. I don’t think she really understands because i haven’t went into detail about all my thoughts. Just bits and pieces of it. Anyways, i’ve been stressing about my past intrusive thoughts. I’m concerned on why i wasn’t as stressed as i am today. I was still stressed and had anxiety but i’m guessing i handled it better then. Today though, i’m stressing constantly. Like i never knew this app existed, i never watched videos on this condition or there were different subtypes until now, or i think i didn’t know. I remember back then i would research and research about this and have mental rituals but that was it. Like i wasn’t so stressed back then. Now, i just feel like i’m sick all the time. I’m just scared that my past intrusive thoughts were my true desires. I know they ain’t but how can i tell my brain that? I just wished i would have known more about this back then. I absolutely hate this and i don’t wish this on anybody

Over the years I’ve had vertigo a few times. The most recent couple times have been debilitating. Like I can’t even get up and walk, my head is completely spinning, I get hot and nauseous and have even vomited. I pretty much have to put my head down with my eyes closed until it passes, then I have to basically lay down the rest of the day or for a few hours before I’m back to normal. I don’t know why I was having vertigo before, and I haven’t had it in probably a year or so, but I’m always afraid it’s going to happen in certain scenarios. At work with clients or sometimes while I’m driving. My anxiety then kicks in, which makes me feel a little lightheaded or weird, which I’m then monitoring for vertigo, and the cycle continues until I’m out of the situation. I’ve never had vertigo during these times and even if I did, I know I could handle it. But it’s so annoying! I feel like this is somewhat related to my OCD and it’s definitely related to my anxiety. Anyone dealt with anything similar?

TW// self ha rm this is a lot so sorry in advance have been very depressed recently, OCD is kicking my a**. I have been thinking negatively and about not being here in this world pretty intensely. I’ve also just been crying and sometimes hurting myself in a fit of rage. i have been very aggressive to the people i care about, family like mom and grandma or my pets (not being gentle when picking up or holding and or yelling/screaming(this only happened yesterday)… i have felt really bad about this as this is not okay and unfair to the people around me especially my cats because they don’t understand and I wouldn’t want someone being rough with me and or yelling/screaming for not a reasonable reason. my cats are fine and they want to be around me but i still feel so bad. I cried and hugged them and apologized . But i feel it is not enough . also i just feel upset at everyone around me who has failed me but i have become so mean and nasty i just hate this. i cry for so long i dont want to be like this im just so stressed and upset but i have been trying to calm down and if I feel like an outburst is coming i try to direct it somewhere healthier as of rn. im just sad and also i have to go on a trip soon i planned it for myself but i dont wanna cancel i just feel like i ruin everything. ive been diagnosed with so much like borderline, major depression, adhd, histrionic disorder like wtf i feel so not normal and I’m just upset.

My OCD’s been relatively in check as of late, but I’ve been having some major fears surrounding driving in the last several weeks. Unfortunately, those fears crescendoed this past Sunday when I was driving my best friend and girlfriend from Los Angeles to Oceanside (2 ish hours) for a birthday party. On the drive up, OCD struck and it struck hard. I was racked with fear I’d make a mistake, the wheel would give out, I’d swerve off the road with two people I love riding shotgun, you get the picture… Obviously, my entire body and nervous system was racked with fear and because I didn’t want to frighten my friend of partner [and didn’t want reassurance] I stayed quiet. So, while I started to unwittingly compulse (tapping the brakes, intermittently long-blinking, etc), I caught the early warning signs of OCD pretty quickly and began using my ERP tools to sit with my fears/thoughts and push past them — Acknowledge them and let them go. It was really tough, I wanted to pull over and give up several times, but I kept going. I used ERP for two FULL hours and I got us to Oceanside (needless to say in one safe, extremely safe piece). Even better, I’m happy to report that the drive back was night and day better. A little OCD and anxiety, but MINOR compared to the drive there. ERP worked and it worked FAST. Was it hard? Of course. Did I want to give up? Yes. Did I tell my OCD who’s boss? Hell yeah I did!! I’m really proud of myself and I hope other folks reading this take it as a reminder of just how amazing Exposure and Response Prevention can be. After all, the more we sit with our fears, the closer we grow to our truths… What’s a win you had last week in your OCD journey? I’d love to know!

I’m a 20 yr old female, I think I’ve always had ocd but the symptoms didn’t become apparent to me until I was about 17. I feel like that’s where life went downhill for me. OCD attacks everything that is important to me, my sexuality, my morals, even my health. Sometimes I wish I could be a kid again and not have this vicious disease in my head constantly bullying me. But I know I will overcome it one day.

Hello! It has been well documented that OCD can manifest itself in the form of religious rituals. There is a fine line between genuine piety and OCD. For those of you who have struggled or are still struggling with this, have you sought the guidance of a religious figure in addition to a therapist? Meaning, that you attend therapy with a therapist who works with you on ERP exercises, but also have a rabbi, priest, or imam who you use for guidance in determining what is actual piety versus behavior that is OCD?

I frequently feel the need to test myself with sexual scenarios with a guy jn my class, im jn a relationship and i keep testing if I find him hot attractive or whatever and i have many crisis about it likw i pray to god to not make me attracted to X person, sometimes I avoid going to school i avoid looking at him I skip periods and truly yall idk what to do anymore. Can someone give me suggestions? I'm scared I don't wanna be attracted to anyone else besides my boyfriend i don't wanna cheat on him I don't wanna do anything I just wanna live a quiet happy life with him . I'm worried I know the truth and just don't wanna accept it jm super worried I need suggestions pls

My ocd has been flaring up lately I’ve noticed some things that I don’t know if it’s ocd or something else whenever I seen someone like drugged or sick or just not “normal” I feel like or get scared that’s gonna end up being me? Does that make sense or then after a few minutes I feel like I’m them I don’t know exactly how to explain it I feel like I’m gonna start acting crazy or like I act weird or like them ? Idk exactly how to explain it and I have such a drop in my stomach thinking of it because it makes me feel insane, I haven’t had such an ocd episode so it’s getting hard again and making me feel insane specially because I don’t know how to explain this that I feel, I feel so scared rn can someone please comment on this?