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If yall had this awful intrusive thought would you still drive or be too afraid toy would jump out after opening the door mid drive! I’ve been housebound for two years :(

How do I get over the fact that others have the opinion that my fear is true??? Worst feeling ever. How do you get past other peoples opinions and stay in the uncertainty like I’m told to do? (Even tho this is hard with all the evidence and shiz) And also how do I get past thinking I could totally just ask my partner his opinion or whatever about a bunch of stuff and boom resolved. And then I’d know if he would be upset or not and attempt to fix it. Even though I know a lot of it would upset him. And I know I can handle that guilt. I am not perfect human. Someone plz help me understand!

Do any of you obsess about if you did some horrible thing and completely forgot about it, or did it in a state of some kind of a psychosis? I replay every single memory, for me it is not really about illegal stuff, but mostly stuff about hurting my partner, specifically about being unfaithful. I would never in my life get the idea to hurt my lovely girl. I know I did not do it and never will, I am so focused on doing the right thing all the time, but ocd tricks me so well. Yestarday I randomly spiraled, it is using every innocent interacion I ever had, or maybe the time I had one or two drinks after work. False memory is hell on earth.

How do I get over the fact that others have the opinion that my fear is true??? How do you get past other peoples opinions and stay in the uncertainty like I’m told to do? (Even tho this is hard with all the evidence and shiz) And also how do I get past thinking I could totally just ask my partner his opinion or whatever about a bunch of stuff and boom resolved. Someone plz help me understand!

My health anxiety is over the top! It controls all of my thinking at times. Is anyone else like me?

I keep having intrusive dreams about family members in the moment in the dream I don’t seem to care at all and am aware that what I’m doing is disgusting but when I wake up I’m infuriated that I’ve had another dream like this and repulsed by myself. A lot of the time the thing that bothers me the most is when I wake up after having a psychical reaction to these dreams (wet dream) it makes me scared that it’s not just an intrusive dream and it’s something I actually desire deep down. I had another (intrusive) dream earlier today and I don’t think I can keep doing this. I’ve noticed that my medicine that I’m taking makes me have stranger dreams but even when I don’t take it or before I started taking it I do have these sorts of dreams so maybe I’m using that as an excuse in my mind for it. I keep searching for answers on the internet (I know I shouldn’t reassurance seek if it is OCD but I’m not fully convinced that it is OCD) and everytime I find anything about it they don’t mention anything about having a psychical reaction(like a said before meaning wet dream) in these scenarios. Please help me if you’ve had the time to read all of this by commenting and telling me any advice you have or if you’ve experienced this before too.

I only find very few men attractive/am attracted to them. Does that mean something?

Hi everyone. (|||❛︵❛.) Tonight is a bit rough I'm noticing, which is unfortunate because yesterday was a lot of fun and even today was good with the exception of one intrusive thought I had earlier. I will take the opportunity to vent, since I don't normally do so on here (even though I should—who will understand me better, besides my fiancé and sister, than others who also suffer from OCD?). I went out grocery shopping with my fiancé today, which we went to Walmart, and we had gone into the toys area because we like to look for Magic the Gathering cards and plushies. He found a Vaporeon plushie and knew that I'd want it, so he showed it to me and said I could get it. Really sweet, right? ⸝⸝ʚ̴̶̷̆ ̯ʚ̴̶̷̆⸝⸝  I was so happy, and then I had a classic OCD thought: what if we end up breaking up, and I leave my plushies at his house? It was upsetting and I ended up zoning out for a little until he asked me what was up, to which I tried shaking it off and carried on with our trip. I successfully finished shopping, getting food, and coming home without feeling too uneasy! I also helped put groceries away, ate with him, and then we watched some YouTube videos before he fell asleep. ദ്ദി ˉ͈̀꒳ˉ͈́ ) It was only until the past 20 minutes or so that I started getting the unnerved, uneasy feeling in my tummy that usually comes with my intrusive thoughts. I notice sometimes I get the feeling without a direct intrusive thought attached to it, which ends up with me trying to figure out what's causing the anxiety or nervousness. I know that's a compulsion, and I typically am good about not engaging with it, but for whatever reason tonight is a bit more difficult for me. It sucks dealing with ROCD, same with all of the other themes there are, especially because I love my fiancé with my whole heart. I went through 2 very bad relationships before I got with my fiancé, and he's done nothing but treat me the way I want to be treated. He's my dream partner, and before my OCD latched onto the relationship I couldn't have been any happier, so it's really hard sometimes not being able to get that same level of excited happiness anymore because of how anxious I am. I know love isn't a feeling but a choice, and I have consistently made choices that align with uplifting my relationship and fiancé, but I really do hate being so anxious and having my mood tank so easily sometimes over what would be a passing thought for someone else. I had a lot of wins today, so I'm going to try and remind myself of those and also the many wins I've had throughout the week where I didn't engage with my OCD and let the intrusive thoughts pass by without latching onto them. I'm also going to try and give myself grace—it's okay for me to cry and to feel sad about having a rougher time tonight, because that's the nature of having a mental health disorder. I'm going to have good and bad days, good and bad nights, and plenty of days that are both. Hopefully I can try to sleep soon, but until then I am going to play games on my phone that I like, cry, maybe eat some snacks that my fiancé and I got today, and let myself feel my feelings that I'm entitled to feel. ( ᵕ̩̩ㅅᵕ̩̩ )

Does anyone have tips for sleeping with terrible night anxiety? I have tried no screens, reading, melatonin (it just gives me nightmares), vitamins, a guide diet, exercise before sleep, and when im at my wits end I hope a benadryl will do the trick. I know the tricks of counting down from 100 to 1 I often do it in German and English. I am stuck in a loop of sleepless nights where I get 15 to 30 minutes of rest just to be woken up alert and panicking. I'm getting desperate... I just want to sleep

I remember when I had no mental illness. In fact, no one would know I have one now unless I tell them. I remember the years when everything was “normal” and I want to go back so badly. Will I ever be normal again? I don’t think so. I see others who appear normal and feel sad.

(18+ if ur a minor pls dont read!) I keep remembering back to when I was… yk, while watching a 🌽 vid, (2+ yrs ago?) Anyways, I remember having an intrusive thought of how the girls in the video sounded young/ (or like little girls I don’t remember exactly what the thought was) and it felt like I finished to the thought… but the thing is I can’t entirely remember, and I keep thinking about it and the more I think the more I’m unsure. I remember at the moment I moved on and was fine. Idek how I felt after or what exactly happened. My memory is so fuzzy. But I started thinking about it in july of last year(I got over it but idk how or why), and then again this past week. I can’t stop thinking abt it. I feel so grossed out and terrible if that’s the case and I can’t stop thinking back to it and trying to remember more. But it also feels like me not remembering or saying I can’t remember is me trying to lie bc I don’t wanna admit it’s true or something. Idk. I hate this sm .

my mom knows I have ocd and she knows I have adhd or some problem with executive functioning but when those disorders impair my functioning she tells me im not trying at all and i dont care about anyone else and when I tell her you don’t know what ive been doing this whole time (actively trying to get ready) and you don’t see what goes on in my head she’s like no I do know you’re not trying at all 🙃 lately ive been up all night freaking out spiraling cause im afraid of being a narcissist and manipulative and sometimes i ask her for reassurance which i know is bad but the point is she knows i freak out about it all the time and it causes me debilitating worry but now she literally just went “maybe you are a narcissist” because she was mad at me and thinks I don’t care or try when I am trying but it just doesn’t work anyway and I just feel like telling someone their biggest ocd fear is true because you’re mad at them is just unfair Maybe she’s right maybe I am a narcissist and this is me being unable to accept responsibility but I feel like I am trying but it just takes me forever to get ready because it’s so hard to start any task and once I do start getting ready there’s a million things that my brain tells me have to be done right that second because if I don’t do them I feel disgusting and I just feel like I can’t stop myself and I don’t have a good concept of how long things are going to take anyway and im stressed the whole time because I don’t want people to be mad at me but she just sees it as not caring or trying and it really hurts my feelings when I stay up all night doing compulsions because im so afraid and then I’m not awake at normal times she tells me that im not trying and im rude because of how it affects other people but she never ever seems to think about how it feels to be the one up all night with the horrible anxiety or to be unable to get yourself to do anything you need to do and the whole time you know people are mad at you and you know you’re only making things worse but you just can’t seem to stop I don’t want people to be mad at me but I don’t know how to be normal Maybe im just a bad person I don’t know

Potentially triggering, but I’ll try to be vague. So having ocd + ptsd has been really hard. Ever since I found out about my trauma, I’ve developed all kinds of cognitive distortions that caused a significant increase in intrusive thoughts. These were really dark and self hating distortions. I still have them and that’s why I feel so horrible. I need to come up with some cognitive defusions so that I can finally be free from this debilitating anxiety. It’s all about what I believe, so I try not to believe in lies. Ocd is really good at making me believe I’m lying when I’m telling the truth. Makes it really confusing. Any tips on cbt? So that I don’t live my life believing in lies?

I feel like I'm not myself. I know that deep inside there's an excited girl who loves music and books anything pink and her boyfriend, with whom she acts like a cuddly kid. But on the surface, it doesn't feel like that's me. I keep getting the urge to break up with him now because I feel like I don't love him. But what is that based on? He's coming over tomorrow and we're gonna build the lego bouquet he bought me and we're gonna make dinner together. I was the one who suggested making dinner because I like making stuff with him. We made brownies before and I thought we could make heart-shaped pizzas now. It was our 3-month anniversary yesterday but I wasn't excited. I've convinced myself that I only like our relationship or the idea of him but not him as a person, even though he always makes me laugh and makes me comfortable and I love spending time with him. I feel like a terrible person who's pretending and faking. I've spent the whole day cleaning my house, vacuuming everywhere, scrubbing the carpet, organizing my books, changing my bedsheets. I thought I was doing well in managing my thoughts, considering I always lie in bed alone for hours fueling the thoughts, but it seems I was just pushing them away and avoiding them by cleaning.

I’m looking into starting an SSRI or some sort of medication for my anxiety and rumination. I deal with ADHD and pretty moderate daily anxiety and I’m curious to know peoples opinions on medications they’ve taken, thank uu!!

I know I have been posting quite a bit lately & I think it’s bc of my initial post of this week but today my progress is doing ok! I woke up with the heavy/tight chest feeling & have been ig replacing bad thoughts that come by with others. idk if I’m combating them with logic & maybe it’s not ideal for dealing with OCD. idk but I’m doing what I can to help relieve this like “ache” in my chest. I know I will eventually shake it off. I think for me, usually when something happens like hurting myself against a table, the pain stays there for a bit but eventually wears off. same thing when I get frustrated or annoyed when it comes to something. it might take a while for me to cool down but eventually I’m back to normal. anyway, here are some positive things: today is the first day of the winter storm! the power hasn’t gone out, my sleep was good that I ended up drooling lol, my kitties are cozy in my dad’s room where I’m at, my dad slept cozy as well. I woke up earlier than my dad and he still wanted to sleep more so I just went back to “rest mode” & tbh???? when I just tried to focus on resting and being comfy, a lot of thoughts seemed to go away (some came by but they were brushed off like whatever) & my chest felt lighter. cool thing! my brother is probably gaming or watching tv in his room. idk if my boy cat wants to go outside lololol but it’s coooooold. he’s looking out the window that now. :P I hope I can get this tight chest feeling down even more today!!! since everyone is home, I will focus on being happy :333 hope everyone else is doing alright!! if you’re in this storm, I hope you have everything u need to get thru this!! stay cozy ^_^

Most people think OCD is “about” the scary thoughts: the what if I hurt someone, what if I blaspheme, what if I’m secretly bad. But those thoughts aren’t actually the core problem. The most overlooked driver of OCD is the meaning a person gives their thoughts. Everyone gets weird, dark, or intrusive thoughts.That means EVERYONE. The difference with OCD is what happens next. A non‑OCD brain might go, “Wow, that was a random, messed‑up thought,” and move on. An OCD brain goes, “The fact that I had this thought must mean something about me. It must mean I’m dangerous, immoral, irresponsible, or secretly awful.” That interpretation flips a passing mental glitch into a moral emergency. Underneath that is a quiet set of rules many people with OCD live by, often without realizing it: -“If I think it, it’s more likely to happen.” -“If something bad happens and I didn’t prevent it, it’s my fault.” -“I have to be 100% certain I’m safe/good/pure before I can relax.” So when an intrusive thought pops up—“What if I swerved into traffic?” “What if I offended God?” “What if I molested that child without realizing?”—the brain doesn’t see noise, it sees a threat and a verdict. Now it feels morally required to neutralize that threat: confess, replay, check, pray “the right way,” seek reassurance, avoid triggers, research endlessly, analyze every feeling. Those are the compulsions. They’re attempts to solve a problem that was largely created by the interpretation in the first place. This is why people with OCD often say, “But my thoughts feel so real.” It’s not just the thought that feels real; it’s the guilt, the responsibility, the dread of what it would mean if the thought were true. The brain is not fighting a picture; it’s fighting a possible identity: “What if I’m actually capable of this?” “What if I don’t love my partner?” “What if I don’t really believe?” When you believe your thoughts are a window into your true character, every intrusive image becomes a moral trial. Here’s a simple example. Two people are standing on a subway platform and both have the thought: “What if I push that person in front of the train? Person A: “Weird brain glitch.” Keeps scrolling their phone. Person B (with OCD): “Why did I think that? Normal people don’t think that. Does this mean I want to do it? What if I snap? I’d never forgive myself. I have to stand farther back. Maybe I shouldn’t take the train at all. Maybe I should tell someone, just in case.” The thought was the same. The story about the thought was completely different. Why does this matter? Because when you only focus on “stopping the thoughts,” you end up fighting the wrong battle. Intrusive thoughts are part of being human; nobody has full control over what pops into their mind. What can change—and what treatment targets—is your relationship with those thoughts: how much authority you give them, how responsible you feel for them, and how far you’re willing to go to prove them wrong. A big turning point for many people with OCD is realizing: -Having a thought is not the same as wanting it. - Feeling responsible does not mean you actually are responsible. -The urge to be perfectly certain is part of the disorder, not a reasonable standard for living From that place, exposure and response prevention (ERP) and related therapies are not just “white‑knuckling through anxiety”; they’re retraining your brain to see thoughts as thoughts—not prophecies, not confessions, not moral verdicts. Instead of “I had this thought, so I must fix it,” the stance becomes, “I had this thought, and my job is to let it be there without doing the thing OCD is demanding.” If you live with OCD, you are not broken because your brain generates disturbing content. Your suffering is largely driven by how seriously and personally you feel forced to take that content. The most compassionate, and often most healing, shift is moving from “My thoughts define me” to “My actions and values define me; the thoughts are just noise I’m learning not to obey.”

It seems like once i calm myself down from one fear another one comes up. My brain just can’t let me be calm recently for some reason and I feel like it just scans for ideas to scare me. I have been sick for the past week and have been going through some problems with dysautonomia and tmj. My body has been very on edge and having symptoms lately like dizziness, lightheaded, nauseous, headaches, heart racing, etc. The dizziness has really been freaking me out but it seems to be getting better with time and not scanning for it. All day i find myself switching between wondering if i’m going to feel dizzy again, it getting worse, it lasting forever, or if im going to lose my mind and go crazy even if im not even feeling dizzy in that moment. If i calm myself down from that my brain wants to think about death to scare me. If i can calm myself down from that my brain thinks hard about more existential concepts and life. I think my nervous system is just at a very heightened point right now and for some reason I just have to be scared about something at all times. I’m trying really hard to let all thoughts pass by and not pay them much attention because I have a tendency to get super caught up on things and digging myself in an anxious hole that is hard to get out of which I want to avoid. Even when i’m not thinking of anything i just feel on edge. I just want to feel calm and peaceful and be able to enjoy life. Any advice with any of these things?

does anyone have periods of passive ocd after its bullied you or even at the end of a period of ocd silence. like its there and its annoying and its trying to pick something to stick to like one of those randomised wheel spinners but it just isnt landing on anything and its just cycling through everything so quick. ive had bouts of it here and there they normally pass or escalate into full flare ups but it feels like its been in limbo and its so stressful like. “i need to go do this” “remember when you did this why did you do that” “what if this happened right now what would you do about it”. i was saying to my partner earlier ive got a new hobby, my new glasses are coming later today and i brought a new perfume everythings going too well, so its bound to fall apart soon, i asked if he ever gets that. like do you ever think “lifes going too well something life changing in all the bad ways is bound to happen soon” and he was like “uhhh no bahaha”. i think my brain is picking on me in anticipation perhaps

I’m trying to remember if I did something wrong during my late teen years and it’s killing me. They definitely don’t feel like real memories but the OCD is so convincing that it kind of feels like it is? I try to embrace uncertainty but I don’t know how to especially if your themes revolve around harm or other difficult themes.