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Do you think trauma is an underlying cause of OCD or think it’s genetic/chemical/physiological??

I honestly don’t feel like doing anything with my life anymore. I feel like my life was over once football was over for me. I’ve tried reinventing myself by becoming a fit healthy person. Then I tried being a fun outgoing person. I tried getting a good job a crappy career but it payed me somewhat good enough smfh. I’m just tired. I mean no my ocd isn’t helping either but I just don’t feel a need to prove it anymore. I don’t feel enough want to prove anything in my life anymore. Everything sucks. I’m completely off of all supplements other than having coffee and that’s about it. I meditate everyday and I just feel empty afterwards not really having a desire to show off or anything just going about my day not giving a shit and just chill.

is tinder a trigger for hocd? for anyone else? but its also like im lonely but then the idea of meeting these guys in real life gives me anxiety and the thoughts of yeah your gay or asexual start popping up and then im like yeah i cant go on a date with these guys like theyre going on a date woth someone who has these intrusive thoughts they deserve better and what if i kiss bad and then there proof im gay its just and im 29 like i have literally kissed two guys in my life when i think about how little men ive done anything with it just confirms more to me like yup thats gay but i also think i should go on these dates as exposures ... i went on one recently but there was a little less pressure because it was a set up it feels worse when i think the guy is cute because if i go and there is no attraction well boom there we go proof my thoughts are right

What do you do when your medicine effects your sex drive? Every anti depressant I’ve ever been on had this as a severe side effect and I obviously know being mentally in a good place is more important then sex but I have ROCD and HOCD and this can see really worsen it. Feel like I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Hii. So this is kind of a weird thing but bear with me. I know when people come out, others will say "oh we've known" or like "I'm not surprised" and that's definitely an insensitive thing to say but I fear that my friends/peers talk about me and think I give off bi/lesbian energy but don't tell me. Like if my SOOCD isn't real and I came out one day, would people say that? I'm just afraid that my friends talk behind my back about me in that way and so I go the extra mile to avoid those LGBTQ+ stereotypes whatever that may be. Even stupid shit like having a nose piercing or clear phone case etc. My OCD clings onto that thought and so I'm always conscious in my head about not trying to give off that energy based off how I present myself and it's so exhausting like I wish I could just wear whatever without being like "oh I saw a tik tok one time that says this type of shirt is a gay thing" or whatever. I am not in any way homophobic as I'm an ally of the LGBTQ+ community but my OCD just drives me crazy and because of that I have this constant fear of being perceived as bi/lesbian. Sorry this was long and all over the place LMAO but if anyone can relate/ has advice it would be so appreciated because I honestly just feel so alone

When I'm doing pretty good (good compared to how it's been at least) and I see a lot of positive changes in my anxiety, the way I react to intrusive thoughts etc., it gets so easy to become discouraged when I let either things like loss of attraction (which result in too much checking with females or over analyzing their looks 🤦‍♂️) or if I fall for into compulsions like ruminating, checking or self reassurance. Like i said, I'm feeling overall better but anytime these things happen it's easy to fear the worst but I'm still telling OCD "ok, yeah sure. Hit me harder. You never know." Its all I can do....

Hello! My name is Alexandra Davidson and I’m new to this community. I haven’t done therapy yet on here, as they do not currently accept my insurance, but the community is nice to have for now! I have recently been noticing some pretty severe problems going on with myself that I have not opened up about, but I finally see a psychiatrist this month. I’ve never been officially diagnosed with OCD, but a CBT specialist once told me she believes I have it. I struggle with a few different problems in the realm of OCD. One is that I have 5 chronic illnesses (we are in the process of a 6th diagnosis) and I worry all of the time about certain illnesses. I make sure I do nothing that can trigger or start that certain illness. For example, I don’t wear a tampon because I am terrified of toxic shock syndrome. Second is that I have very persistent fear of infertility, to the point where I am actually getting an infertility test and stopping my birth control just to be sure I don’t have any issues there. Thinking about the fact that I may not be fertile makes me anxious and I break down, and sometimes cry myself to sleep because of it. I want to make sure I don’t have PCOS or Endometriosis because I was once told I have blood results that could mean PCOS, and I have symptoms of them both. I go to see a GYN on the 11th and I’m seeing a ENDO on the 10th merely because of my fear. Thirdly, I have intrusive thoughts that I have to go to major lengths to make disappear, and it only lasts for a bit of time before another one comes back. I am constantly worried I upset someone, and if I think I upset them, my brain tells me they are going to kill themselves because of me. If someone is upset with me or mad at me, my brain tells me that I should just kill myself. I’ve never been suicidal and I don’t self harm, but the thoughts are so bad that I take my moms xanax once and awhile just to relax, and I take sleeping pills (which are per scripted) just so I can fall asleep and forget about it momentarily. I have many more intrusive thoughts, some which actually make me vomit. Fourthly that I will discuss are my compulsions. Sometimes they are so random that I can’t help but laugh afterwards, but some are dangerous. For example, a random compulsion is doing three spins before the microwave beeps, and if it’s still going, I need to do three more or I think something bad is going to happen. A dangerous one, one I got today, was the compulsion to place my hand on top of a hot grill. I did it very quickly, and I put it under cold water for a bit after. It’s very distressing because I don’t want to injure myself in anyway but I feel as if I’m being forced to do these actions. I feel as if I don’t have control over myself. And lastly, I have this tic that’s very annoying. It feels almost as if I’m about to shiver, but instead my head jerks in a very involuntary and odd way. It sometimes hurts because of how often it happens and I get neck cramps. It’s embarrassing when these things happen at work, or when I need to stay still at the dentist for an X-RAY or an MRI at the doctor. I’m wondering if anyone can relate to any of these things and if it sounds like OCD or if it could be something else. My thought was always it’s probably OCD, but even if it is, I don’t know how to manage it. I really love my life, but OCD is ruining so many things for me. Sorry for the long post. Thank you guys so much if you read this.

My brother just came out to me as bisexual and nonbinary. Of course I’m happy for them and want them to be comfortable with themselves and how they identify, but I’m freaking out slightly. The reason I’m freaking out is to do with my HOCD, I’m scared that because I’m related to them and because they’re bi it means I must be too, like if it’s some sort of genetic thing. All my friends who are gay/bi all of their siblings are too. I’m also freaking out because change is a huge anxiety filled thing for me, I’m very very scared of it, so changing my brothers pronouns (they said I can still call them brother for now), might take a lot of getting used to. I don’t want to slip up and upset them, and I also worry about them and how family members are going to take it, because I know most won’t understand unfortunately, which means I’m going to be the one my brother goes to for supper- which is fine! But with this theme this is going to be a HUGE exposure for me and I’m scared :( I love them so much and want them to be happy, so why is this scaring me a little? I’m so sorry if this is also insensitive in anyway, I’m in full support of all genders/ identities and sexualities, but this theme plays with my head :(

My very own Meditation Excersise I came up with today! Try it and let me know if it helped you. This excersise is great for allowing thoughts to just be thoughts and letting them flow, without reacting to them. I guess this is kind of like metaphoric exposure scenario 🌬 Alright, what I like to do is listen to music while I do this meditation scenario. My choice of music is Native American flutes. Choose any music of your choice 😁 Step 1. Find somewhere quiet to lay down, like your bedroom or maybe even a living room area. Lay down in a position you find comfortable and pick what music you would like to listen to while practicing this scenario. 🧘🏻‍♀️🧘🏼‍♂️🛌🎶 Step 2. I like to open a window up and breath in the fresh air when I'm doing this excersise, it really helps me to relax while I take deep breaths of fresh air, you may find that it helps relax you aswell. (Doing this exercise outside would be great aswell) Step 3. Get into a peaceful and relaxed state before you start your scenario. You may have intrusive thoughts while trying to get to a place of peacefulness, so what I like to do is say or think to myself "I allow these thoughts to pass through, these are just thoughts and they can do me no harm" Step 4. Once you feel you are relaxed begin to imagine this scenario... Scenario: You are walking through a dense forest 🌲 Every which way you look you are surrounded by imposingly tall trees. Their leaves create a canopy above your head, and block any sunlight that tries to penetrate its massive green shield. You notice you can feel the cold earth beneath your bare feet, the soft flesh of your feet are met with the forests natural debris which litters the ground, twigs, rocks, dirt, mud. Pay attention to how the earth feels beneath your feet for a while. Is the ground soft? Hard? Does it hurt your feet? 👣 You notice in your arms you are carrying a large jar, and suddenly you feel how heavy it is. Inside the jar you see a strange black mist swirling within the jars glass walls. What could this mysterious black mist be? Your thoughts.... You are now quickly reminded by the black mist in this large jar again. It's so heavy, so heavy that you can feel your arms ache in pain, you want to let go of the jar you want to let go of that dark foreboding mist but you cant, you're to scared to. What if you open the jar and let out the mist? Will it attack you? Will it ruin your life? Will it hurt someone you love? All these what ifs... What if there was another way? There is. As you walk further and further through the forest, you hear something in the distance, echoing through the trees. It sounds like water. As your curiosity gets the best of you and you travel towards the sound, you notice the jar in your arms begin to vibrate, the black mist seems to be in a panic and you cant understand why. Your attention to the jar is quickly averted when you notice a calming warm light envelope your body, its the sun, there is a clearing up ahead! Ignoring the jar you quicken your pace towards the light. The sound of water you heard earlier is becoming louder and louder... Then you see it. You are standing infront of a gorgeous landscape, a river flows and a water fall roars just a few steps away. Looking down towards the jar and then back to the water an idea forms in your head. 🏞 Step: 5: Letting the thoughts flow In your mind, take your jar and gently begin to unscrew the lid (think about the black mist as all the what if's and scary thoughts you have had) before opening the lid kneel down infront of the water and carefully one by one release a bad thought into the river. Look at the thought, think about it as it slowly makes it's way down the river towards the waterfall. Dont react to the thought just let them float away and once that thought falls down the waterfall, it's gone. Breath a sigh of relief everytime you release another thought and watch it disappear down the waterfall. Say positive affirmations to yourself aswell while you watch the thoughts flow away. 🌊 Hope this helps some of you guys! Thanks for taking the time to read this post.

I see allot of people complaining about their OCD but not enough about what they are doing to recover. What exposures are you doing? Are there unique therapies that you are doing? Are you feeling any better on medications like prozac or zoloft? How hard have you been working on controlling your anxiety. Give me some hope!

When I fantasize about my partner I feel like I imagine it from a weird pov where I imagine him doing the actions but I’m not him? Almost like an observer of us but leaning a little towards his point of view. I’m not sure how to explain it but now I feel like it’s a “sign” because I don’t imagine it from my point of view. 🙄🙄

I posted on the ocd subreddit about my thoughts and someone asked me if my thoughts are real or intrusive and it's making me want to cry

Hello everyone, this is my first time talking here. I’ve been a victim of OCD for a long time now so I’ve came here to see if I can find some advice. I have been repeatedly worrying about abnormal things happening to me or my possessions recently. For example, I’ve been worrying about their being irritating music uncontrollably coming out of me or people are able to see what I can see but I somehow don’t know it. At the moment I’m worrying that somehow I’m causing people’s phones to act weird and do stuff on its own whenever I’m using my own phone. I know these things make no sense and they aren’t even possible, even the one about my phone making weird things happening without me knowing, though I keep constantly trying to justify it happening or not even though it clearly isn’t something that can happen and I keep worrying that if I don’t figure out what is happening, then it can become a reality. I’ve tried numerous things such as not following the thoughts or to do meditation stuff though whenever I get one of these obsessions, I’m always imagining my fears happening which make it really distressing even if it isn’t happening right then and there, and I feel as though asking people whether these things are happening is the only way to deal with it. Being a Christian, I have prayed to God numerous times asking him to never let these things happen, but then I keep worrying by checking things I am distrusting him which I feel guilty about and I continuously keep worrying whether he may make it happen for some reason. Does anyone have any ideas that can help me, and what type of ERP practices could I do in this case?

Hi all. By far and away rumination is my biggest compulsion, and I find it feels very automatic. Does anyone have tips who have overcome rumination that has felt automatic in the past? I am guessing its not an all or nothing thing, that even regular people ruminate on occasion but gently bring themselves out of it. I think I'm probably trying to control it too much, which can become an obsession in itself

I feel really alone because i don't know anyone else with my type of OCD. I have harm OCD but my ritual is harming myself to match intrusive thoughts to keep others safe.

what if my mental "checks"(imagining scenarios with the same sex to see if i am aroused)are actually what i want but i call them "checks" and "compuslions" to mask my denial with hocd??? please help i am starting to panic that i have always been gay in denial and it's not hocd i have been doing good for about 4 days

Smfh. I hate how my ocd always has to interfere with my sexual thoughts of women smfh. My ocd just does not like me being able to think about sex with women smfh. It will do anything in its power to mix it up smfh. I could be thinking about sex with a girl and it will start to make me think of something else like a person, an object, an animal anything to stop me from thinking about sex with a women smfh. Like it’s not my fault. I just get anxiety about it and it keeps me having an arousal feeling cuz it’ll mix up the sexual thought of a chick smfh. I’m sorry but I can’t help it smfh.

Please read. Two weeks ago I got an image about strangling my parents or other people. But now I even have thoughts such as ' If x happens, you could kill them'. These thoughts feel like they are my own desire not intrusive thoughts. Could I be a psycho ? Or maybe a narcissist? How could I possibly know that ?? It feels so real scary af. I'm scared of what I could be.

real event ocd coming to attack when i am trying to sleep...i feel so much regret and guilt, i just keep writing in my notes like someone can hear me...:( i wish i could turn back time

Last night I went out drinking for the first time in over a year and a half. This morning I’m full of anxiety (which I know is common after drinking). We went out and a random girl held my hand because we were all running to this place, before this theme I would’ve been fine with this and thought nothing of it but now I’m worried I liked holding her hand :’( I also had a bunch of random guys I hadn’t met before chatting me up in this club whilst my friend was with her boyfriend, I didn’t fancy any of them which makes me think in gay/ bi or something :( I also felt so ugly, manly looking all night and out of place, I really don’t want lockdown to be over, I just want to stay inside forever :(