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the NOCD Community

Can someone explain to me why reassurance is bad for OCD?? I often have overwhelming anxiety that my boyfriend is upset with me. So I will sometimes ask him if we’re good. Even though nothing has happened to suggest anything is wrong. He knows I have terrible anxiety so he never makes me feel bad for asking. And as soon as I’ve asked I feel better.

Losing my late parents’ belongings is salt poured on an open wound. I feel I keep reliving my parents’ death. So I’m already highly anxious and because of it I was so stupid and careless that I copied something before I pasted on my iPhone. Anxiety and OCD doesn’t really protect you. It destroys you. It robs you of having a decent life. I just want to be happy. I want to be normal. Why do we have to deal with this? Meanwhile my sister who’s older than me had a sheltered life (she lived with my parents until they both passed away few years ago-never once on her own) is having an easy life and still complains about how she has to pay $100/month for rent.

Most days I feel very trapped and depressed due to my severe ocd and specifically my intrusive thoughts. Did SSRI’s help anyone with intrusive thoughts? My brain tells me I did terrible things in the past, and it can be very exhausting and debilitating. I don’t want to live my whole life like this.

I’m having some bleeding with my pregnancy. I am only about 7 or 8 weeks along. I had to go to the ER Thursday for some testing and today it is even worse so I have an appointment in a few hours for more testing at my doctor’s office. My therapist says that my anxiety over these complications is not OCD; that it is valid concern, especially due to the traumatic complications I had with my first pregnancy. So, since it’s not really OCD related, this might not be the best forum to discuss it, but I am just beside myself waiting for the appointment and wanted to air out my frustration.

It’s comforting to know that with OCD, often what makes people describe it as ‘terrible’ and what often makes it ‘terrible’ - is not the intrusive thought - but the fear and negative feelings we attach to it. Now I am able to have intrusive thoughts through out the day - and they don’t give me bad feelings or anxiety bc I know they are just thoughts! Also everyone, even those without OCD, has intrusive thoughts. But the destructive and terrible emotion we attach to it is what makes the experience so terrifying! It is quite comforting to realize this!

I’m 14 years old and I’m pretty sure my doctor won’t prescribe me anti-depressants or something to help with my anxiety but I want to know if they actually work and help and any other alternatives? My anxiety kills me something

What do you do if you feel like you can’t get away from some people who call themselves ‘friends’ but you know that they don’t actually care for you and are no good for you? Since my mental health has been getting worse over these past few months, I have felt like I’ve hit rock bottom. My best friend of twelve years has more or less been avoiding to come and see me. I clearly know that it’s because of the way I feel at the moment & it’s not easy to be around me but I more or less try to hide it all when I’m around people anyway. I feel like most people around me are so bad for me, they add no good into my life and it sure does show when you are going through a bad time who your friends are! Any advice?

I’m starting Mamentine (Namenda)this week to see if it will work on excess glutamate in the synapses. Is anyone else taking this medication? Hope to see better response than SSRI’s.

Does therapy actually help people with Harm OCD?

Does anyone else constantly hate themselves and think that they don’t deserve help? Like I’m not depressed and I just wish I would shut up. I hate how I complain so much and I never seem to be right about anything. I’m never anyone’s favorite or the best at anything. I look weird and I act weird and, I saw someone write this earlier, I feel like I’m in the wrong movie. As if I’m not even the main character in my own life. Sometimes I just want to be alone and lie down and stare at something without feelings for a bit. Idek if this is OCD or if I just hate myself ??‍♀️

cw: weed talk Does anyone have any success stories with using pot, and/or cbd? I recently got my medical card and I’d LOVE to hear strain recommendations, what ratios work best for you, how much you tend to need, etc. Just anything that can help me with the weed <-> ocd correlation. Thanks!

Accepting uncertainty feels like I'm accepting my intrusive thoughts (that I know are false) as truth. Does anyone else deal with this thought and have any tips to avoid thinking this? (I know it's my OCD telling me this so I can continue ruminating and "proving intrusive thoughts wrong", but it's a thought that makes me feel like ERP will make things worse)

It’s been a month since the breakup, and all I can think about still is my ex. While I walk, eat, sleep. It feels like it’s interrupting my life. The breakup triggered my depression to come back after a few months. I’m not on any medication but I feel like I need it now. Any go through the same thing?

So I haven’t been 100% diagnosed with OCD. I’ve had weird thoughts my entire life I just always thought everyone had these thoughts and that they where normal. Until recently they have been horrible so I went to the doctor and she prescribed some anxiety medication by it hasn’t been helping. So I started googling the weird thoughts and my symptoms and came across ocd and I always thought ocd was being really neat and tidy I didnt know it had these horrible thoughts and compulsions but the thing for me is I don’t have any compulsions besides touching the zipper on my pillow(it weird I know)I know this isn’t a diagnosis but I’ve taken a bunch of the ocd test on the internet and they all say I have it. So I am kinda lost here

Does anyone else have this - having to do things a certain number of times. Touch things, but other more difficult things. Mine started as 2 and then became a multiple of 2. Then OCD made it a multiple of 4 and I had to do things 16 times. I thought that was bad and then years and years ago OCD made that a multiple of 4, so 16 times 4 and now sometimes I have to do things 64 times. I have called people, including an HR person for a job I was interviewing for, changed the channel on the tv, had to stop and look at something and a host of other things. Does anyone else have this type of OCD? I also have combined with that an OCD of ‘if I do this then I will ruin the rest of my life’ - and that can be anything like if I see this person again, or call this person again, or walk down this path again and more keeps getting added to it. Does anyone else suffer from these two types of OCD? I don’t even know what to call the second one. And if anyone does, what will ERP look like if I want to do that? What exposure should I be doing. This is making me very isolated and tired, I am so tired all the time, it makes me so tired and exhausted all the time. Any help, advice will be highly appreciated.

Hey guys I’m new to this and reading your posts really help me relate and not feel so alone. So I’ve been having a problem lately, I had an intrusive thought about my nephew that I had his finger in my mouth when I was doing something. Now I would never do this and it goes against everything it caused me distress and agony it was so much anxiety, it was effecting my health physically and mentally. I was driving home from school the one day when I was fighting with these thoughts in my head. I basically was having an argument with them in my mind, me against me lol. But I yelled at the top of my lungs what do u want me to say that I did it and liked it, all of a sudden the anxiety went away. I thought wow my mind finally saw that this is not true and it was all in my head. But I’m not sure what was going on because I think instead of that intrusive thought it took the power over to another much stronger one. The thought of OMG why did that anxiety go away am I attracted to kids? Am I a pedophile. It made me sick and want to puke everywhere. Then I did the worst and did compulsions I started to look online and look at random pictures of kids and was talking to myself saying u didn’t have an attraction or get a sexual feeling from and say see you are not attracted to kids it’s just a thought you had. I then got scared and said omg did u just get a sexual feeling from that, mostly my mind playing tricks on me right? it made me shake and want to puke. Im so scared of this thought. I am far from one to want to harm or do anything to kids at all I love kids. Tomorrow I’m going to decorate a tree with my nephew, do u think being around him will help take the anxiety away ? Does anyone have any preference in this? Help, thanks so much

I feel like my head is so messed up. I tell myself, you wouldn't do the things you think about and fear, you have morals. But then I question if my morals are strong enough? Or if my morals have changed at all? I never used to question things like this until my ocd really flared up in the beginning of September, and it's sort of been hell since. Questioning myself, questioning my morals, questioning my intentions, feelings, everything. My main obsession right now is if I find the thoughts enjoyable or not. I feel constantly uncomfortable, uneasy, and anxious. Whenever I see kids in real life I feel fine, I know I'm not attracted to them. But when I'm in my head and the thoughts pop up I question everything and worry that I enjoy them, even though I don't feel bad about kids for the most part in real life? The thoughts are never usually even explicit, it's just like, do you see children in a sexual i ed way? Did you imagine that child in a sexual used way? And I bounce back and forth between being like "no, I'm fine, I know I'm not a pedophile, I find the thought of pedophilia disgusting," and "constant anxiety worrying that I am one and that I only feel anxiety all the time because deep down I know I'm a bad person." Does anyone else share any experiences similar to mine or have any words of wisdom?

You know my Harm, responsibility, sexual and paedophilia OCD really get me on the vivid imagery. I’ve always had a very active imagination but when it creates intense graphic images those are what get me. Starts with questions and doubting but I can shrug that off. But the pictures are literally traumatising! If anyone else’s OCD manifests this way then at least you are not alone.

These anxiety attacks are really taking it out of me. Worrying over stupid shit that will never happen is making my whole body so tired I can barely keep my arms up to tie my hair up. My bones feel so heavy and I feel like not even sleep helps. I’m tired of the stupid “what if” when I feel so alive with my fiancé that it’s just the thought of losing him and having to be with a woman instead that terrifies me. I’m just tired. Even my hair looks different, more thin and all my split ends are out of whack. I shouldn’t be so depressed about stupid shit so young.

is it normal to have OCD? I’ve never told anyone i have it before. will my friends judge me for it? am I going to lose them? ):