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I think about my partner constantly and have difficulty distracting myself. I work full time, hang out with friends, and have various interests that I pursue, yet my mind is always split with worry over my partner.

I used to suffer with HOCD. Me and my partner of 9 years broke up last month, I was absolutely devastated. Cried for the days we weren’t together, begged to work on our relationship, stopped eating and more. Got back together 5 days later. I felt the love, I felt safe for a few days. Then the thought of ‘I don’t love him’, ‘I don’t want to be with him’ all started. I feel numb, I feel anxious all the time. I’m smoking cigarettes like there’s no tomorrow. I’m back not eating. I’m scared. I really don’t want to lose him deep down, but I’m filled with doubt. Is this normal? Please help.

My OCD is doing horrible. I was put on birth control to balance out my PMDD. I don’t think that’s going too well it just keeps getting worse. My mental health keeps getting worse. My OCD is so bad that my existential theme came back, the one I overcame six years ago for the most part. My POCD is flaring, my every single damn theme known to man is flaring right now. I feel absolutely insane and I feel like my OCD has never been this bad before. Even at its worst, like me posting 6x a day on here months ago. I’m doing a lot of compulsions it’s not my original compulsions or anything. They’re like really freaking complex like compulsions within compulsions. I feel like I’m literally dying. I feel so much fear. I haven’t been able to stop crying in my face is dry from all the salt. I don’t know what to do. I’m genuinely desperate. I don’t want to do this. I already tried relaxing because I have little periods of time where I feel a little better, and I even ordered myself some ice cream, but I’m not doing okay. I feel like I’m drowning in a nightmare and I just can’t wake up.

18+ UPDATE: Currently right now, I'm in a 50's style diner with some cast and crew from a student film they shot. Im in a corner seat because there was no room for this couple to sit together and I gave her my spot. But thats not what im sad about... what I'm sad about is feeling like nobody in that room gives a single shit about me... or they hate my guts and just want me to go away... so im by myself typing this because the last thing I want to cause is any form of idiotic drama... I hate myself for my POCD, my Harm OCD, and my real events OCD... and i hate myself for being so lonely too... i have no one... no girlfriend... no friends... just acquaintances... and my dad will tell me to suck up my loneliness and be a man if I call him, so... I cant call to him for advice... all I am and ever will be is alone... this is my 5th year in college.... and I hate myself now more than I've ever done... When trying to find explicit anime stuff i enjoy, i keep stumbling across POCD related content I find disgusting and disturbing... but then i get this urge to go back and click on it and check my reaction... when i do, im immediately disgusted and quickly exit out... it happened a couple of times tonight... My POCD is labeling this as an unconscious attraction... chatGPT is saying this is morbid curiosity... i dont want to be attracted to men or kids... i dont want to be attracted or even curious about it... Tonight, i just had an intrusive thought of the word "loli" and an intrusive urge to look it up and check my reaction... i looked up a hentai site and saw it (loli...) i checked my heart rate to make sure it wasnt beating fast (a sign of attraction) before i quickly exited out of the website... my pocd is telling me im a P for this and Im genuinely so triggered...

so my boyfriend just ran into his ex girlfriend who was his first love. they ran into each other at his favorite restaurant which is apparently where she works. it’s been years since they were together and him and i have been together for over two years. she cheated on him multiple times (with her step brother) and was very manipulative and physically and mentally abusive towards him, so it’s like i’m not worried he’s going to leave me for her because she’s awful, but it was his first love. i was left by someone before who was all in on me but then his ex girlfriend who was his first love came back to him and he left me for her, and she was also manipulative and mentally abusive. so the topic of first loves causes a lot of anxiety for me. i trust him and i know nothing happened and nothing will happen, but i am anxious seeing her will stir something up in him and he will leave me because of that. please help if you have any advice on what to do

Y’all I think I’m dealing with false attraction but idk and I can’t tell. It’s bugging me. It’s one specific (female) friend of mine lately. Idk if it’s cuz she’s a lesbian and it’s playing on my soocd or smthn. I keep having groinal responses around her. I don’t see her like that but I’m worried I either am starting to or already do and am suppressing it but I have had no interest in her in the last 2 years she’s been in our group. This started somewhat recently and every time someone makes a sexual joke or smthn (like flashing or twerking) it causes a groinal response and I just kinda shut down. I don’t feel anything in the crush sense of the word. And it’s bugging me that I’m having these thoughts and I keep having thoughts of my bf and then my friend gets placed into the thought and it just makes me upset. Annoyed. I feel this tightness in my chest and it’s not good. I like seeing this friend but I don’t get excited seeing her. I wonder where she is when she’s gone but I do that with all of my friends, if one doesn’t show to our group dinners I ask. I worry I’m making too much eye contact when we talk. I keep checking if I’m feeling anything anywhere but it’s just a persistent groinal response and I’m worried it’s attraction

Any image that pops up into my head i automatically assume it’s posted online so i have to check every app to make sure. Or a simple action or word and my brain makes up an imagine like what if you actually did this or said this. I just sniffed or huffed to make a noticed that I was annoyed by my dog and now my brain created this image and now I think I said something.

I cant believe this like why am I asking this so I have health anxiety right and I was worried if I had scitzaphrenia and one of the symptoms were believing delusions obviously I don't believe any then the same day I went for a walk and looked at the clouds and got a thought what if clouds aren't real which was really ridiculous ik clouds are real lol heck you can see them even "feel" them obviously you can't touch em but I was afraid if I actually believed that they aren't real obviously they are why am I having this even after the schizophrenia fear left I still have the what If im crazy fear anyone eles have some advice to calm down I don't have to know how clouds work again to prove my ocd wrong lol im laughing a bit how irrational these thoughts are.

I'm sorry if I'm bringing religion into this but I grew up around those beliefs. Listen I really don't like the thought of considering that I could homophobic cause of religious-like beliefs. This has been bothering me which is why I kinda stepped away from religion and faith cause it just seemed way too hateful and controlling. I'm a heavy people pleaser and an empath. I would like it if lgbt people and religious people could help me feel better <3 I'll try to explain how I feel. I have religious beliefs that being gay is a sin. I grew up around Christan beliefs but I was taught to hate the sin and not the person <3 like respect the person. Always! I respect people for who they are cause I was taught we're all born sinners in the end but I'm also taught in my religion that it's important to try and stop sin. But we can always be forgiven if we catch ourselves sinning that's the beauty of it no matter the sin except for blasphemy of course. I just do not understand the gay agenda. And that's just me that doesn't mean I'm going to go around hating and bullying others. I don't that that's not right period. Religion or no religion. It's just wrong in general especially if someone is just being their selves or figuring out who they are. I just think people get this mixed up. Like I just don't get it I'm not one to be attracted to the same gender I'm just not that person. I'm more traditional. But I don't like being a hater... but I still want to respect others. Like I even had intrusive thoughts of being attracted to the same gender because I thought someone was pretty 😂 but it's not like that I'm more like ("slay queen!"). But attracted??? No, to me it's just weird for me in my perspective doesn't mean I don't respect others, I do I really do. I just don't understand. And I hate having the thoughts that I may sound hateful cause of such religious like beliefs. I even had an old couple of friends in school a long time ago or knew a few people and I always respected them! <3 because a few of them were super nice and were cool. Like idgaf as long as you're nice and chill!

i recently got into a relationship with somebody, but i feel very off about the way i personally act in it. i get these hyperfixations (as im sure we all do) on things, and right now im obsessed with a specific actress/song writer, sarah yarkin. i have SUCH a big celebrity crush on her, and it makes me anxious that im cheating on my girlfriend because of it. it sounds stupid, but sometimes i think about how things would go if i actually knew sarah on like a personal level. would i pick her over my current girlfriend? does my girlfriend pretend she doesn’t care about my celebrity crush, but actually does and she just doesn’t want me to be anxious? does it count as cheating if i have a crush on this celebrity while also having a crush on my girlfriend? i’m giving myself these constant morality tests about this, like would i leave my girlfriend for sarah yarkin if given the opportunity? and i feel like me saying no is just my brain gaslighting myself so that i can still be with my girlfriend. this is so anxiety inducing and i don’t know how to go about this 😭

I hate when my daughter tries to hug me. I try to avoid it if I can but I had an episode where I couldn't. She was coming in for a hug and I tried to stay still. I had a thought come up that if I turned a certain way she'd brush my bottom with her hand when she hugged me. I contemplated not doing it and then I felt like I wanted to do it and turned my body. When she hugged me, her hand did brush my bottom and I panicked after she hugged me. I feel so much guilt for this. Why did I feel like I wanted to do this and let it happen? I have POCD, but this is just too scary to understand What I'm scared about is I felt the desire to move that way to make it happen in the moment. I recall feeling some sort of desire. But it would've never happened if the intrusive thought to move that way wouldn't have entered my mind first.

I’ve been picking at my skin for 10 years. Whenever I pick at my scalp I feel “gross” and have a compulsion to clean my room and shower and “start over”. I used to talk to my mom about it almost every day but I just recently moved away from home and she told me this was something I needed to manage on my own. I want to be independent but I’m feeling so hopeless. She’s in town visiting me and I’ve only been gone for a few weeks at this point but I’m scared I’m going to ruin my time with her or even worse I’m going to ruin my life. Everyday I pick and every day I tell myself that I failed and I’ll start again tomorrow. I don’t want to be wasting my life but I can’t stop and I can’t forgive myself and I have no one to talk to

I made a really stupid mistake over two years ago. I brushed it off and have just assumed everything was fine since. I even forgot about it. Recently, I saw a reel on my phone that triggered anxiety and ruminating about said mistake. Everyday when I wake up and fall asleep, it’s all I think about. I begun opening up to loved ones about the story and they all reassured me that everything’s fine, and that it’s really “not a big deal”. I’m still very much on edge, paranoid, and aware that it could come back to bite me in the ass. It’s consumed my mind so much to the point where I don’t enjoy the things I used to, it’s difficult keeping up with daily tasks, it has stripped me of my motivation and my relationships with other people due to isolation. I’m physically sick from worrying about the future, coming up with every worst possible case scenario and mentally living in that persona instead of what’s happening right now in front of me in the present.

Im a teen girl and i like yk how people have like unrealistic expetations im really scared cause like my brain paired like attraction like with pefect skin and yk how woman are in corn so when i see like uneven skin and things like that im like thats not attractive but like when i see real people irl i immidetly think like that but yall i mean like everyone older then me my age and younger and that what im extreamly scared of

Last night my boyfriend and I were intimate, like most times that I’ve ever been intimate I couldn’t stay in the moment, thoughts racing through my mind causing me to be in my head rather than in the moment. EVENTUALLY, I was able to really be present and enjoy our time together, but it was once again fleeting. Afterwards I broke down and was crying, I had realized that OCD has ruined my intimate life from the very start. Of course my boyfriend was concerned so I opened up about what I was feeling. Well he started to explain that everyone gets distracted during sex and that it’s normal, so then I started thinking. What if I don’t even have OCD? What if I’m completely normal and just think I have OCD, I don’t have “episodes” 24/7, but I have them quite often. But maybe that’s just how the mind works?? My boyfriend said “you can’t control your thoughts, no one can” So does that mean I don’t have OCD? I’m spiraling and trying to understand it all. While we were intimate I had a realization that sex isn’t about what you’re thinking it’s about what you’re feeling, but I can’t stop thinking to actually be able to feel. Once I’m “distracted” I can’t get back into the moment, the thoughts pile and evolve and cycle and it’s never ending. I just don’t know, I know OCD can make you question if you even have OCD but what if I don’t have OCD and am just trying to convince myself I have OCD? HELP

Can anyone help me to stop groinal hyperawareness when exposing myself to triggering images?? Every time I look at them I get groinal hyperawareness and it’s such a pain that every time I look I can feel literally everything down there😔

It’s so hard sometimes to differentiate between a genuine need and a compulsion. I’ve been feeling insecure in my relationship and I just want to keep asking for attention, I’ve been doing a lot of mental review and checking compulsions and prompting to see if he “still cares,” but I know it is coming from a place of wanting more verbal affection. I’m sitting with this instead of talking to him about it right now but I also want to be able to communicate how I’m actually feeling. I don’t know, it’s just Blegh and I want someone to tell me what to do but I know that’s not good for me.

18+ did anybody else do things as a kid that they are ashamed of? i feel like im haunted by my actions as a child. i was very sexually aware at a young age and i didn't know it was bad (under 10). this made me do things that i maybe shouldn't of done with others around my age, some a few years younger. i'm so mortified i feel like im a bad person but i was also a kid too just learning. anybody else experienced similar? i didn't have the best parents ever so i wasn't taught what's bad and good very well. but it really triggers my POCD and just OCD in general.

I am feeling sad and frustrated today with myself. I have been in therapy for two months and had my meds upped two months ago too. However, my job is extremely stressful and I have been dealing with a set back. I keep getting told to set boundaries or even quit but financially I can't and can't afford to lose my medical insurance. Anyone have any tips on how to deal when stress makes the OCD worse?

Every time I say smthn I like about my body or ask myself questions (likley a compulsion) or even just being around my bf I feel like this frog in my throat/nausea feeling. Why?? I never used to feel that before all of this. I love my body and I love being a woman I have no desire to be a man, maybe to try out semi masculine/tomboyish styles for funsies but that’s it. Ex- I was saying just now I do like having smaller boobs even tho they’re not super big or visible when I wear baggy clothes (that’s been bothering me lately. I’m wearing a sweater rn and I can’t see them ;-;). Then I end up in a loop of “if there was a button in front of you to turn you into a man would you press it” my brain jumps to yes but I don’t want that I don’t think. Idk. I’m just confused. I don’t feel like myself anymore. Certain nicknames my bf gives me make me anxious or nauseous but if I didn’t have this I don’t think they would. He reused a nickname I haven’t heard since I last saw my half siblings so maybe that’s where it’s coming from? I like the nickname it’s cute, especially when he says it out loud. I think I’m just weird with nicknames tbh. I like calling him nicknames but I haven’t really been called anything till we started dating. It started with honey, meu amor, meu anjo, and habibi/habibti (he’s Arab, I’m Brazilian. Banger food combo. We’ve joked about opening a fusion restaurant lol) and it’s kinda evolved from there. Idk the nauseous feeling has been persistent lately. Especially cuz his parents hate my guts rn 😀and likely will forever should be and I get married. Which I do want. But then my SOOCD comes in screaming NO YOU DONT YOURE GONNA LEAVE HIM AR THE ALTAR FOR *insert friend I have a false attraction to* (I’m pretty sure it is false attraction. I don’t like her in that way. But every time there’s a joke I get a groinal response and panic internally. We’re not close and I don’t get excited to see her or want to be closer to her the way I do with my bf/before he and I started dating. I know what a crush feels like. But I feel like I’m going insane and that it isn’t ocd and I’m just losing my mind and I don’t love y bf). I love being back at university but also hate it at the same time cuz I live in an all girls dorm. Which is. Great. When my ocd makes me think I’m a lesbian. And all my friends are queer so this kinda doesn’t help. The friend that is specifically being targeted atm is a lesbian. Lately it’s been her for a while. How long does it take for it to jump false attractions? Cuz I’m worried that if it lasts a certain amount of time it’s a real feeling. I also just get groinal responses around my friends a lot and it bugs me. Why am I feeling a twitch and feeling wet? We’re playing cards? Oh god am I turned on by an entirely different friend than the usual target cuz she’s wearing shorts? Like😃😃😃I’m losing it lol I also feel generally numb? Like idc if this happens with him, idc if he can’t see me. But then when I can’t see him or if I even imagine smthn happening I start sobbing. There’s currently restrictions on guests in the dorm so we can’t even cuddle or hang out in silence. He came to pick me up the other night to go for a drive and it was nice and wonderful but I did feel a tad bit anxious. Maybe it’s cuz it’s been 2 months, I’m worried about meeting his parents, he has 2 jobs and has classes, I have classes and a club presidency to deal with, I’m on vyvanse, etc. multitude of reasons but once we eased into it I felt better. We kissed a little and all I could think of was “I love his eyes and his smile” I was worried I would hate kissing him. But I loved it (idk it’s like my brain wipes the memory and is like “lol do you even like kissing him or having sex with him??” And it’s putting in memories of me being uncomfortable and annoyed by his kissing which I never am. Sometimes his mustache and beard are pokey but I think that’s normal lol) even when I enjoy things my brain is like “nah you’re GAYYYY🫵AND on top of that! You’re likely a man who is denying that he is trans. Here’s a name for you that you never asked for or conjured up!” Idk if anyone else’s ocd does that. I like being a woman, love it some days. Neutral most days, whcih I did read is normal, cuz you’re just going about your day as you are. Not thinking about it. Not feeling anything wrong. I never did till this shit. I don’t think about it often but one night it just hit me like a freight train “what if I am trans and suppressed it? I mean I was a tomboy as a kid.” But I know plenty of tomboys grow into cool girls so. ??? Idk. Ramble over. I have class🫡