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Hey guys, Mike here from NY. I’m not going to post anything tonight, it’s late and I’m going to try and sleep soon, but I just wanted everyone to know that I’m here to help as much as I’m here for help. I’m basically an OCD encyclopedia. I’m 36 and was born with it. My severe episodes started as far back as I can remember at 7 years old. Back when it was super scary and I didn’t know what it was. No one did. I thought I was going crazy. My parents helped solidify that belief. As the years went on, it got worse or stayed just as severe, but information about OCD and therapy/medications began To pop up with the arrival of the Internet and with much more information being accessible, it was easier for more people to start to research it and understand what it was and that it was an actual condition. I’ve been on just about every medication you can name and it took over 15 years to get the right combination that works best for me. It’s still far from perfect and OCD is still a large part of my existence and consumes most of my life but over the years I have done so much research on it and have been through so much therapy that I’ve learned so much and that does help. I’ve learned techniques and things like that to help but the main thing that helps is knowing that you’re not the only one. It’s a condition that is actually common and many people out there are going through the same thing even though it feels like that’s not possible. A lot of information is available on it now And just in that you should find comfort. Science and technology has come a long way. So if there’s anything you want to ask me any questions or concerns about OCD and any advice you may be seeking and how to deal with certain situations feel free to ask. I’ll be checking in!

I am dealing with religion and existential OCD. Anyone else dealing with this right now? I'm analyzing everything about the bible and the first people to walk the earth. No I am not stoned LOL Although that can exacerbate this kinda thing lol

Hello everyone! I have suffered from retroactive jealousy for about two years and it was only recently that I made a pretty big discovery. So his ex has always been kind of a figure in the background a lot in our relationship. He says he cut things cold turkey with her but it seems like if it had something to do with his past, it had something to do with her. This girl has always been seen in a very negative light in my eyes. So much so that I used to wonder what he even saw in her. She cheated on him for the last two years of their relationship. Called him mean names and boosts about on social media acts like she’s better off without him even though she went to his house and begged to get back with him, I mean this girl always seemed to me as a mess. My boyfriend got depressed and was medicated for a little, he plays it off with a laugh but it always bothered me how he never stood up for himself. Never admitted to himself the way that he did to me that he just wasn’t happy in that relationship and he was over it before it was ever officially over. I’m sure that he had some self esteem issues on his own and it always sounded like he was desperate to be with her and it sounded like as much as she wants to play this character she has pretty bad issues on her own. When I met him I could sense this heavy weight, now I’m not sure if he still loved her when I was introduced into his life but I could get a hint that he missed her, or at least he missed the relationship and was mourning. The truth is, I was caught in-between these two hurt people. I wanted to love him but the day that she approached me made me terrified that she really did “make the man I loved” and could easily take him away. And so this harsh light continued to shed on her and whenever I look at her social media I’m left with this heavy feeling in my chest. I’ve realized to simply accept that I don’t like her. I’ve realized through feeling bad about even thinking about her that she was indeed very disrespectful towards me and my boyfriend and had no right to have ever strike up a conversation about her entitlement towards him with me. It’s okay, she’ll be just fine if I don’t find her nice or even worth my time. She’ll continue to live life to her fullest, doing the things that she’s doing if I admit to myself that I don’t like her. And now knowing this, it shifted how I see my retroactive jealousy. Because I was so in denial about not liking her, I used to compare myself to her and think she was better than me and even thought that he couldn’t love me the way he did her- it made me want to be better than her one day then the next be all sad I wasn’t her. Now that I’ve said to myself, “listen, you don’t like her, how she treated you, how she spoke about him, or how she continues to think that you should be afraid of her”— it makes me realize that I want nothing to do with her or her social media. I cyberstalk her because I’m afraid that my boyfriend still wants something to do with her, but if I don’t like her now and keep feeding into it to more of a negative point of view— I’LL NEVER GET BETTER AND REGARDLESS OF WHAT HAPPENS FEED INTO A BAD HABBT EVEN IF THINGS DO/DONT WORK OUT. I think I needed to just accept that there are so people you can’t force yourself to like. I’ll never wish this girl anything bad but admitting that I’ll never be in a situation where I’m okay with her due to the fact that sometimes it’s just life and things happen and people are petty- made me realize that there’s no point in continuing to pretend like one day I’ll see a tweet that changed my mind. I don’t need to accept his past into my life nor into my own web of problems and I did that so early on just because I wanted to prove my worth to him and make him realize that I was the right decision but it led me to meeting a really rude person and continued to follow that rabbit hole just because I thought she had an advantage of me. In letting things go and saying, “I’m not sure what may happen between us but I refuse to sabotage myself into continuing this act of worthiness by putting myself in an uncomfortable position against someone who brings out negative feelings.” I can’t change the situation but it’s in my best interest to stop traumatizing myself again and again and feel bad that nothing has changed when I know the best thing to do is just let this pettiness and jealousy go. I’m not letting my guard down to her, I’m not claiming defeat. I’m asking for my peace and I’m telling myself the truth: stop chasing the same rabbits that got you lost.

Question for you guys. So I’ve been dealing with a religious fear since am incident happened last year. An exposure could be to look up preachers talking about this particular issue/sin and letting me sit with the anxiety. BUT it could also be a way to reassure myself when I’ve talked to all of my spiritual mentors/pastors and they’ve all told me the same thing. What is the best way to navigate this? I’m sitting here and having this anxious urge to google what a particular pastor preaches about this issue for fear that maybe someone thinks differently about it and I’m really actually screwed lol. (Not funny but kind of funny) to me if it’s driven by anxiety it’s a compulsion. Not sure how to navigate that.

What are your coping strategies to get through ERP in a positive way?

Funny. We speak to so many people a day, and while we may drop the occasional depression joke, as most people do, depressed or not, they will never know that we are in fact actually in pain. Funny how we can go out days laughing and talking and playing games with our friends, but if they could only see inside, they’d find a person who needs help. A person who’s being torn apart from the inside out by their own mind, and someone who lives in constant fear of themselves. Who’s always staring a monster in the eye, a monster created by themselves against their will. It’s just so interesting to me how a person can experience this without it being known. Sorry if this was a bit cringe, just kinda came to mind.

Anyone else struggling with contamination OCD more than usual since covid? I have contamination OCD that has spiraled out since covid which causes my anxiety and panic disorder to spiral out too. I was checking my temperature 6 times a day, my hands are raw from washing them so much, I have only been able to go to work then I have to rush home to shower, etc. I am just starting out on my exposure therapy journey, so hopefully it will really help. I feel like everything has covid and I can't rest until I have sanitized EVERYTHING! Does anyone else feel this way? What is one thing that has really helped you?

I suspect I have HOCD "that was porn induced" making me think I'm Bisexual when I've always been straight (I'm 25 y.o with no history of OCD), and I can't afford therapy nor get in touch with NOCD therapist because they're not available in my country so I can't get a proper diagnosis but I guess ERP won't harm even if I don't really have HOCD. Do you have any tips and steps to follow in order to do self ERP to overcome my OCD and the confusion? Thanks

What kind of mental disorder is ordering books you'll never read, researching vitamins and pills and never taking them, doing research on end and never following steps?

Should you leave a good guy that you've been with longterm who treats you right, are able to be 100% comfortable with him, talk to him about anything, take care of eachother when were sad. and I tell him good and bad news right when I find out, just cause you don't have feelings? I've been with him for 6 years.

This is a weird thing but is anyone else around the 19, 20 age and never had a relationship or been kissed? My anxiety and OCD are taking that today ansand making me obsess over why. And it is making me feel like an ugly loser :(

cw// long, vent, mentions of grooming last night i had one of the worst TOCD attacks i’ve had in a while and i think i ended up AGREEING with a thought. i am so terrified. basically when i was ruminating on something i said when i was probably around 12-13 (i think i had the thought of “if i were a man, i would be gay” despite the fact that i now identify as a cis wlw) and i just spiraled from there. i couldn’t stop thinking about that one event. i’ve actually come back to this one specific thought several times over my OCD journey and the more i come back to it, the more visceral my reaction is to it. after spiraling and freaking out over thinking about it for around 5 minutes, i think i agreed with the thought. i was like, “would a cis person have this thought?” and my brain went, “no, this means you’re in denial” and suddenly the thoughts just stopped. like my paranoia stopped for a second. i think i shocked myself so much with agreeing that my brain couldn’t think for a bit. and then i just had this awful paralyzing fear make its way through me and i felt like i couldn’t breathe. it felt like i was back in 2020 when my TOCD obsessions were at their worst. it felt like there was a hole in my chest and i started crying. i had to get up out of bed and go online and take a bunch of quizzes for reassurance that i actually had ocd, and that i didnt have gender dysphoria. i KNOW i have OCD, and i KNOW i’ve never experienced real gender dysphoria, despite being uncomfortable with my gender once or twice when i was VERY young and being influenced by people who (i think) possibly groomed me. i don’t remember. and i think not remembering people who may have groomed me is really messing with me now and how i’m perceiving myself. in 2019 i was the happiest i’d ever been, BECAUSE i felt so comfortable with myself. i felt so incredible presenting as a woman and using my pronouns, better than i’d ever felt before. it felt like i really found my place in the world since i had always been insecure. i just feel like all of that has been ripped away. and i feel like even typing out that i’d been uncomfortable with my gender one time when i was like, 12, MEANS that i’m trans. i just don’t know what to do anymore. one day in 2020 i just was struck with a thought of “what if you’re trans?” and it never left my mind. i remember the exact day i had it and the first thing i did (i now realize) was compulsively make a list of reasons of why i was/was not trans, and the compulsions just spiraled from there. even after i had seen and experienced all the evidence that i have OCD, i still feel like i’m lying to myself.

I have real event ocd and other themes that I’m kind of ashamed of to even talk about, but overall I kind of feel like sometimes I don’t really deserve help, anyone else? Sometimes I wonder if it’s not even ocd and all the thoughts are real and mean something about me. Which if that’s true than I’m definitely helpless. Sorry this is kind of negative

I dont know what to do now. I am starting to obsess about people and even government or police about discovering my web browser. I already knew that nothing is Impossible when It comes for technology. And the thing is, I really never searched about anything illegal, but I think that usually normal things that I searched are wrong, unethical or even illegal. Some years ago when I first developed my pocd, I ended up destroying a Hard Drive I had on my really older PC that I didnt even used for years anymore. I obsessed a lot about It. Told my mom, my father and sister and even a pastor about It. Its was like 2018 I guess and when I used to go out of my house I would panicking while being or even passing by a child. I had many intrusive thoughts that would say this or that and even images that tortured me for the past years and made me believe I was really a monster. I think most part of the reason why my pocd started was because a event that happened on my life, a mistakes I made when I was a child. Basically I have a older sister, that is like almost 10 years older and I was only 12 I think in the time when I disrespected her, as all my family used to sleep together because in the time we didnt had the financial condition of having other bedrooms. I dont think going in details os worth It, and even can make my ocd worse, because I am venting here, but also confessing. It happened I dont know, many times, but so long that this happened and eventually I got caught. And this was good because know I am a better person and better man, my family corrected me and showed me the right path to follow. I have repented and asked forgiviness and as time passed I regained the love and trust of my sister and now we do everything for eachother, protecting and helping. My mother passed away due to covid in dec last year (Will always be the best person God put in my life and my best friend) and tomorrow is ver birthday. She teached me how to live this live, about good and helped me be the person I am today. Some time later I got diagnosed with ocd by my psychiatrist and he prescribed me meds to help with the intrusive thoughts, one of them being sertraline. After a long time of treatment, the pocd intrusive thoughts lowered, giving place now to my real event ocd. One thing that helped me a lot was somewhat exposing myself to movies, news and things like that that could distress me with pocd and without noticing, I started to care less about the thoughts and "almost" doesnt bother me anymore. Now what tries to take my peace away is real event ocd. I am not going to be desperate about my pc and things like that, like before I did. And one of my concerns was because I had really bad time with watching porn. Ive been fighting the urge to see It, even more now. I really Just want to be in peace. I think I am going to diaappear from the nocd app for some time, mainly now that I really exposed my history here for real another time because I scared of my thoughts again and scared again that I am a horrible person. Sorry for everything. Hope everyone be ok and safe, yall have a nice day <3

I just want to say... ERP WORKS! I cannot compare the amazing feeling achieved from facing our fears compared to the temporary “relief” from doing our compulsions. I know it’s scary at first but it’s so worth it!

My boyfriend keeps commenting on my weight and suggesting I should go on a diet. I'm 5'5 and weight 135 pounds... I'm also an athlete. This is making me have serious body dismorphia and I'm obsessing on whether or not I'm fat and need to lose weight or he is just off the rails 🤔 It's so annoying.

is it just me or some days you're so convinced you're gay/bi and you're "accepting" it(the thoughts seem so real like you want them, but in reality you don't and they bother you) and others you're like super certain you're straight? or am i really gay? please help i am freaking out

can someone help me plz this boy at my schools mum just told me that he likes me. and she asked me if he asked me out would i say yes. and in that moment i said yes. and now i’m panicking. i feel like i’ve lied and i’ve never had a bf so i’m freaking out. i’m not as young as this all sounds haha. i’m 15 abs yes. i’ve never had a bf

Hey I really need someone to help me so please reply if you can. But basically I'm still getting LOADS of intrusive thoughts about this theme, but the thing is I have zero distress about it. The idea still bothers me and i still realise i don't want to be with a girl, but even imagining scenarios does not bother me at all anymore. Like i realise it is not that bad so i don't need to be disgusted by it but the fact that I'm not disgusted by it anymore makes me feel like i want it or something. I just want to be with a man.

Having some absolutely terrifying existential thoughts for the past 2 weeks that keep me awake every night in fear of literally everything. I am overthinking every single aspect of existence and my brain is telling me I NEED an answer to things that are unknown (why consciousness exists, why good is good and bad is bad, what happens after death, if there is something greater than us.) never had these thoughts before about 3 months ago and now they’re absolutely horrendous. Anyone have any experience with this or recovery stories? Any tips on how to deal would be greatly appreciated. My exposures seem to just be stressing me out a lot more with no relief thus far.