I have trouble sleeping every night due to my intrusive thoughts keeping me up etc. I usually listen to music to help me subside these thoughts but I’ve lost my earphones :( anyone have any recommendations to help I feel out of place without my usual routine
I am the spouse of a person who has OCD, but was never really diagnosed. Her key crack. The key characteristics are need to always have everything in its right Place, when we go out, hast to sit in a certain seat, and table has to be perfectly said before eating. At home a complete introvert went out with other people a complete extrovert. What can I do to help here
Did a bunch of my mental rituals purposefully on bad numbers. OCD is screaming at me to do just one more to make it a “good” number of times I’ve ritualized. I’ve basically done a bunch of things wrong that OCD hates. Obviously the doubts are pretty strong and I’m questioning whether or not to ritualize but I’m hanging in there. Hope you all are stepping outside ur comfort zones too!
Will life go back to the way it was after I recover from ocd?
If I know there is a certain thought at the back of my mind related to my OCD, should I try to figure out what that thought is? Or should I just leave it alone and try not to see what it is?
How to deal with intrusive thoughts popping up to ruin the moment when I’m enjoying myself? I struggle with this a lot
ERP Therapist- Kim Glassner My first OCD memories stem from ages as early as the 1st grade. However, it is not until now at age 26 that I report with confidence that OCD is no longer something that controls my life. Upon starting NOCD, my mind and my life was wrapped up in an OCD bubble that I thought was protecting me. Kim helped me uncover my core fears and expose me to them in a way that challenged me. Yet, these challenges empowered me and equipped me with the mindset that I can still do things when I am anxious or uncomfortable. I am not a sit down and talk about my feelings kind of person. Everything I did with Kim in our sessions felt action-based and intentional. I didn’t mind sharing because I knew there would be an actionable outcome, rather than me rambling for what feels like hours and then a therapist prodding more into, “and how do you feel about that?”. With Kim and NOCD, I made drastic changes in my life in 4 months. ERP is the ONLY treatment that has even scraped the surface on guiding my path to mental freedom and stability. I would recommend NOCD to anyone who suffers from their OCD- even to those who don’t think therapy is their thing or can help their current situation. Fear is no longer a perpetual feeling in my mind and body, and for that I thank myself, Kim, and NOCD. Best of luck to everyone 💛
Hello, I’m Katie. I haven’t been diagnosed with ocd but I do have the thing where if I touch something with one hand, I have to do it with the other. It just doesn’t feel fair if I’m doing something with only one hand. It’s just not balanced. (Been this way since I was young, didn’t know why I did it. It just felt better when I did) Something random that I realized could be OCD: sometimes when I wear socks that don’t match. my favorite sock (for example, if it’s a purple sock and a pink sock & I prefer the purple one) would go on my left foot. Why? Because left starts with L and my grandmas name is Linda and I love my grandma (…..I know). The next day of course, my favorite of the two would go on the right foot to balance things out… Tbh it sounds like an easy fix, wearing matching socks LOL. I definitely want to start journaling all of the routines that I do that could be OCD. 🤔
How to deal with anticipatory anxiety of intrusive thoughts popping up to ruin good moments in my life?
I had the realization that OCD has affected every area of my life. Did anyone else have this realization? I realized that even my perceived low levels of anxiety are still pretty anxious and how my intolerance to uncertainty is the root of everything. The themes, delaying decision, self doubt and lack of confidence, overanalyzing and trying to figure everything out and now I am thinking it has really manifested into every area.
So happy to find this place. I've had OCD that causes me to over thing and over plan and over analyze everything. I can't shut my brain off until I've completed the analysis or the plan is set. Then this past Sunday I caught my husband in an affair and confronted him about it. Been on a downward spiral since then of not being able to stop thinking about it and my mind races with all the possibilities. Even got manic yesterday trying to complete an emotions exercise our new couples therapist gave us that morning. Hoe can I shut off my OCD so I can do the therapy work?
Does OCD recovery mean not getting the same intrusive thoughts everyday even when you’re not thinking of anything?
people have told me they think i have ocd and occasionally i think i do too. i am constantly overwhelmed by something whether it be worrying about relationships with friends and family or school. i feel like i can't have fun or have "me time" unless i get everything done that i need to first. i also feel guilty giving myself breaks or resting. i also get really uncomfortable and uneasy when i feel as though certain things don't go my way ex. i don't evenly step on cracks in the sidewalk with both my feet, i hear/feel certain noises or sensations, i don't touch things with both my hands (ex. i have to touch elevator buttons with right and left pointer finger) i've never been able to figure out if these things that i'm experiencing are just me being me or if it's something like ocd or anxiety.
I was recently diagnosed with OCD, and among other subtypes, I have perfectionism and “just right” OCD. Though my family and colleagues praise me for my level of organization, I find it to be absolutely debilitating. If I don’t write out every single sub-task, I don’t trust myself to remember or complete anything. I used Notion for a while, but I’m worried I take it to an extreme degree of compulsive organization for fear everything will fall apart if I don’t track or check every single thing in my life. Any tips?
I get the same intrusive thoughts everyday, but my intrusive thoughts don’t have a perceived threat like ‘if you don’t do this or that, something bad will happen’. It simply just says I won’t be able to enjoy life because I will always obsess or ruminate. I also don’t have the ‘disorder’ part since I can get on with my life as usual with the exception of intrusive thoughts bothering me sometimes. Does that mean I won’t get an OCD diagnosis?
If I get different random intrusive thoughts sometimes, I can dismiss them like they don’t mean anything. But I keep getting a certain intrusive thought everyday. Everyday the same intrusive thought comes to my mind. Doesn’t that mean it’s true or it means something?
Whenever I’m enjoying myself, an intrusive thought pops up to ruin the mood. What should I do about this? Should I try to mentally neutralise the thought? Because if I don’t I find it hard to enjoy myself anymore
Ugh I did a Bilram yoga class today and could smell the guys breath next to me. It was unbearable and i couldn’t stop obsessing about it the entire class - totally ruined my experience
Just increased my Zoloft and I don’t know if it’s a placebo…..but I’m doing great! It was easier to identify my thoughts as intrusive today and move on from them. I didn’t give into a compulsion like yesterday, yay! Hope everyone has a chance to experience a good day like mine :)
I’m doing ERP on my own without a therapist, and recently I did an exposure my brain regretted. Is this OCD telling me to stop doing it, or is it actually making OCD worse? Sometimes I’m confused whether my exposures are actually compulsions without me knowing
If I can function properly and live life as normal, but still get the same intrusive thoughts everyday, what should I do?
My psychology teacher talks about being OCD and stuff all the time… Actually, I don’t wanna write all this out because then I’ll freak out that I didn’t get everything that I needed to written down and I will be writing forever.
If I just get on with my life without doing exposures or compulsions, will my intrusive thoughts get quieter over time? The reason I’m not doing exposures is because my OCD only gets triggered in a certain game which I don’t even play anymore, so that isn’t important in my life.
Whenever I ask something online, I have to ask it twice to make sure the answer is reliable and correct. When I only ask once, I feel really anxious and have a urge to ask again. Is this OCD?
Sometimes I feel like I’m losing my mind. When I write things down on paper if the letter is not exactly perfect I have to rewrite it. Or if The numbers aren’t written exactly whole or “together” i have to fix it until it’s right. And I can’t stop until it’s right.
Started ERP therapy just before Xmas, going well, had a very “bring it on” attitude But this week, oh man Starting Sunday it’s been relentless I feel like a dog with fleas and maggots When I’m not ruminating I’m doing repetitive body ocd, when I’m not doing that I’m checking, then im looking for reassurance, on and on, there’s more From the minute I wake Im not looking for reassurance Just, when you’re super overwhelmed by this, what do you do?
If OCD makes me deeply regret an exposure, does that mean I’m doing it right?
My OCD is a little different. It doesn’t latch on to a specific thing, it just says, if you don’t do the compulsions, you will be stuck ruminating and won’t be able to enjoy your life, which is exactly what’s happening to me. Doesn’t that mean my intrusive thoughts are true?
My OCD says that if I don’t do compulsions, I will feel anxiety and ruminate. It doesn’t have a specific fear it latches on. Doesn’t that mean my intrusive thought is true?
These last few days my ocd had been maybe the worst it’s ever been. Currently, I am trying to do schoolwork assignments but I’m having a hard time reading because my mind is reading too fast and just skipping over the words then I feel frustrated like I have to go back and read the words carefully one by one with the same brain effort put to each word. Then I feel like I need to go back and look at how much I’ve read up to now and how much I need to read still and compare and it’s a never ending cycle of frustration. My mind is also racing about negative past events on top of that
What should I do if my OCD thought torments me with intense pain and regret? I would’ve never had this regret if I didn’t have OCD, so how should I respond to it? Should I respond to it in a way that would decrease the painful feeling, or should I just feel the pain everytime I think abt it?
Should I still do exposures for something that isn’t even related to my life? For example, my OCD only gets triggered in a certain game that I’ve already quit. Should I still set time aside to do exposures or should I just carry on with my life without doing exposures or compulsions?
What should I do if I get intrusive images which cause me to feel anxious?
How do I know if me sharing something is a compulsion or I just genuinely want others opinions? I don’t feel anxiety even when I don’t share
Whenever my brain says ‘if you hadn’t done this, you would be enjoying life more now’ should I try to counter this with a positive thought? Or should I do nothing and treat it as an intrusive thought?
I haven’t been feeling anxiety for a while without doing any exposures or compulsions. Should I still continue doing exposures? I’m afraid I might regret doing exposures since it might trigger the OCD when I’m already doing fine without doing exposures
I’ve realised that it’s mentally impossible to be fully present in every single moment. If I’m not ruminating, I’ll be thinking about something else, never able to be fully present in whatever I’m doing
Can OCD use anything to force you to do compulsions? For me, OCD doesn’t use anxiety to force me to do compulsions. Instead, it makes me regret something I did in the past that I wouldn’t even have regretted doing if I didn’t have OCD, over and over again. It’s like a silent pain that won’t go away unless I do the compulsions.
My OCD intrusive thought is that if I don’t do the compulsion, I’ll be stuck ruminating, which I do. Does that mean my intrusive thought is true?
I realise that whenever I’m in the shower or taking a walk in the park, I always tend to ruminate. I don’t know how to stop
When OCD is making me doubt a question that I already know the answer to, should I remind it that I know the answer to that question? Or should I just say ‘maybe, maybe not’ even when I already know the answer?
does anybody else have that constant voice in your head. If you do you understand what I’m saying. It’s like when I do an action and a voice my head is like “you did that wrong you need to do it again.” Or if I’m talking, a voice, my head be like “why would you say that don’t say that say that again why would you say that”, it’s just like a little voice in the back of my head constantly nitpicking everything. I feel crazy, so I hope someone else relates.
Any coping mechanisms for OCD panic attacks like coping mechanisms I could use to kill myself down before, and after one
does anybody else experience more OCD like symptoms when they feel as though their life is getting out of control or a big change happened? when I feel as though things are getting out of control, I obsess over the things that I can’t control. Such as food, cleanliness, and the list goes on and on I’m sure you would understand.
I have 2 nose piercings, one septum and one on the right nostril. I have this intense fixation on the asymmetry of my nose. I keep thinking about piercing the other nostril constantly. I avoid mirrors to avoid the thought. Just typing this out is very difficult because I'm focused on the piercing. I like how my nose is now, and I am going to use this as an opportunity to challenge my OCD and not entertain the compulsion to pierce my nose again. I've had this problem before with my ears. I had 2 helixes on my left ear and one on my right. This led to me being so frustrated with the asymmetry that I took out all 3 rings and let them close. I regret that now. I will not pierce my nose anytime soon. If I do it again it will be because I want another piercing, not because of asymmetry.
How do I know if I’m just genuinely curious to find out something or if it’s an OCD urge?
For example, if I have checking OCD and my brain tells me to check again, but there is no anxiety or urge, does that mean I’ve recovered from OCD? Or must the thought of checking be completely gone to be counted as recovery?
Hi there, I thought it might be wise to seek wisdom from the crowd on this. I am a CPA and autistic, and so my OCD slightly unique, and that it can flow between compulsive buying & financial anxiety on insecurity. My goal is always to stay in the middle of those two extremes, and one thing that I’ve worked very hard on is not doing online purchasing. That said Amazon has a lot of wonderful controls to prevent minors from compulsively buying, but they don’t seem to have a lot of controls on Account owners and so I was just wondering if others have found great techniques or account settings
I get thoughts on doing my compulsions but I don’t feel any urge to do them. Does this mean I haven’t recovered from OCD? I’m still getting the thoughts of doing compulsions but I don’t feel any obligation to do it or any anxiety
What is waiting it out for OCD? I’ve heard an ocd specialist say that waiting it out doesn’t work for OCD. But what does waiting it out mean?
What is the difference between confessing your thoughts and telling someone about your OCD?
My symmetry OCD only gets triggered in a certain game. I feel that if I ask a question to a support agent on my phone, I will also have to ask the same question on my iPad to make it equal. Should I just do the compulsions to make everything symmetrical? After all, once it’s symmetrical it can’t be changed since it’s in a game so it will stay symmetrical and OCD won’t bother me anymore
Can OCD make it distressing when not doing compulsions but also make it distressing to do compulsions? That’s exactly what I’m feeling right now. I’m anxious about not doing compulsions but also anxious about doing them at the same time
Before I had OCD, I used to like doing things like being home alone and looking out the window when I’m in a bus. Now, with OCD, I don’t like doing those things anymore because I feel that if I don’t do something to distract myself, I will always start to ruminate. Pls help😭
I was doing fine without doing any exposures or compulsions for the past week. I also wasn’t ruminating a lot. Yesterday, I just did an exposure and my anxiety and rumination came back. My brain tells me ‘if you didn’t do that exposure, you would still be enjoying yourself now’. I really regret doing that exposure cus I was fine without it😭
Everyday my OCD makes me regret about something I did in the past. Whenever I’m enjoying myself, I end up thinking about what I did in the past and I’m unable to enjoy myself. This is making me really depressed and I don’t know what to do.
I enjoy going out for walks with my family, but now I don’t feel like doing that because I know that’s when I ruminate the most. Whenever I’m out with my family I ruminate all the time and I’m unable to fully be in the present. Pls help😭
Has anyone experienced this? I think past to the past and tell my self how could I or anyone else been happy and think I was so stupid.
Recently, I made a bad decision that I can’t stop regretting about. When I don’t do compulsions, instead of feeling anxiety, my OCD torments me with regret, and always say “if you don’t do this compulsion, you will be regretting about this forever.” The compulsion I’m doing will be able to reverse the regret as it is related to it. What should I do? Should I do the compulsion to reverse the regret? Or should I just stay regretting forever?
Like all of you here, I have OCD. My OCD mainly consists of me having to do something 4 times, or 8, 12, 16, 20 etc times. I don’t know how this came about, but I have a guess. I have been into music for most of my life and when I play an instrument I oftentimes have to keep counting “1-2-3-4” in my head to keep a tempo. Another part of my ocd is that when I see something I don’t like/don’t want to happen to me or apply to my life I have to exhale while looking at it and then look away while exhaling. It kind of makes me feel like I’m not breathing in the “bad energy”. I also have intrusive thoughts. Does anyone else struggle with these sorts of things or want to share some advice? Thank you for reading this!
My OCD is a little different. When I do an exposure, I don’t feel any anxiety. Instead, my OCD torments me with regret. It says “if you don’t do this compulsion, you will be regretting this forever.” And that is true because the compulsion and the regret are correlated. The thing is if I didn’t have symmetry OCD, I would’ve never had that regret. What should I do? Help me pls
Is pure OCD about very distressing thoughts and doing mental compulsions to get rid of them? Right now, OCD torments me with regret every day, and I tell myself something like “that’s not true, I can still enjoy life despite that”. Is that considered as pure OCD?
Can anyone pls tell me what is the difference between obsessing over something and catastrophizing about something? My brain always tells me “if you didn’t do this, you would be so much happier now.” Is this me obsessing about a regret? Or is it me catastrophizing that I’ll never enjoy life?
There’s a question that’s been in my mind about OCD for quite some time now, before my diagnosis. Back then when I went through tough moments in life I dealt with depression & some anxiety here and there. I remember having habits or compulsions I guess you could say, but they weren’t always debilitating or provoking thought that I had ocd because if I didn’t do these things I’d be fine. Granted that recently I have gone through a great amount of stress and change in life, I now live alone and not at my mothers house, is it possible for you to form new subtypes of OCD after traumatic events and high stressful anxiety inducing moments? Sometimes I don’t even think I have OCD and am just going through really tough times recently. An answer to a post recently got me thinking.
What is the difference between obsessing about something and catastrophising about something? My brain says “if you hadn’t done this, you would be enjoying life so much more right now”. Is this an obsession or catastrophizing that I’ll never be able to enjoy life?
I have obsessions and I do compulsions as the obsessions do cause me some anxiety but they do not take up my day. I can do the compulsions while getting on with my day. Is this considered as OCD? If not, can ERP also be used for non-OCD compulsions?
Are intrusive thoughts the same as obsessions? Or are they two different things?
I have obsessions and I sometimes do compulsions to get rid of them but they do not take up my day. I just do the compulsions while getting along with my day.
How do I stop ruminating? My biggest fear is that I’ll never be able to enjoy life fully because I’ll never be able to stay in the present moment due to rumination. Whenever I go out with my family, I also can’t stop myself from ruminating sometimes. Pls help
I don’t know if it’s me my ocd or just life in general but it seems my biggest fears always come to pass 😕
How do I stop ruminating whenever I have nothing to do? I always find myself ruminating whenever I’m not watching tv or doing something to distract myself. Pls help
Everytime I’m not ruminating, my brain will sometimes tell me “hey, you haven’t been ruminating for a while, good job!” And my brain will keep checking to see whether I’m ruminating or not. How to stop checking if I’m ruminating? Help
hey everyone, i’m currently struggling a lot with irritability due to my ocd, it causes the need to for me to be very precise about everything. when anything is in the way of that, i get angry. i lash out at my friends and family and i dont know how to be comfortable with things not being perfect. even if someone says a word my ocd doesnt like, i get mad at them. and i also have contamination ocd so when ever someone contaminates something of mine i get very mad. however none of this is their fault, its entirely something i need to work on. if anyone has any tips itd be much appreciated!
I’m ruminating about whether I should forgive myself. I go through the details of what happened in the past to see if I should forgive myself for a bad decision, but I still can’t decide whether I should forgive myself. What should I do?
What if the compulsions that I do don’t affect my daily life? For example, when I send someone else an email or ask something online, but I can get on with my daily life while waiting for them to reply. Is this also OCD, and if so, how can I do ERP for something that doesn’t interfere with my daily life?
My OCD is a little different from the rest. It’s a little like symmetry but it’s in a game. For example, if I send 3 support tickets about a certain topic in the game on my phone, I will have to ask the same question 3 times on my ipad as well. so it’s a little like symmetry, but I don’t feel the need to have things symmetrical in real life. Pls help idk if this is ocd
This is an awful condition & I’m tired!
Sometimes when I’m enjoying myself, my brain says “if you hadn’t made this bad decision, you would be so much happier now”. And then when I think about it, I feel regret and am unable to enjoy myself. Is this an intrusive thought? Or is it just regret?
Do I have real event OCD? My brain won’t stop reminding me about a bad decision I made, and whenever I’m enjoying myself and think about it, I will be filled with regret and I won’t be able to enjoy myself anymore. However, I don’t ruminate about this, my brain just simply reminds me of my regret, like a voice in my head.
I have made a bad decision in the past and I can’t seem to stop regretting or move on from it. It makes me depressed whenever I think about it and my OCD says doing a certain compulsion related to the regretful decision is the only way to get rid of it. What should I do? Should I do the compulsion to make the regret go away? After all, doing it might actually help the regret to go away since they’re related.
okay well. i don’t even know if this is a thing but i think i had like an ocd attack..? i was putting together a table with my mom (who doesn’t and can’t understand ocd/anxiety). she accidentally put the wrong screw in a place and i thought “no big deal. we can just remove it. problem solved.” long story short we weren’t able to remove it. in an attempt to help me move on (i think) my mom kept saying things like “i think you’re obsessing and need to step away.” this was not helpful. the incorrect screw was not crucial. it wasn’t going to allow the entire table to fall apart. but i genuinely could not let it go. my mind was racing with thoughts of “but what if it isn’t fine?, what if the table collapses and hurts someone?, what if it break and we have to buy a new one and the inconvenience upsets my roommate?, or the financial aspect upsets my parents?, etc" then it shifted to "i bet my mom is furious and so annoyed right now because i cannot move on" and things like that. then it shifted to "what if we eventually do get the screw out and then the ocd wins and i failed and mom thinks im crazy snd im a failure…" and spiral spiral spiral. i started sobbing because it literally felt as though my thoughts were attacking me and i couldnt fight them. and i felt compelled to explain everything to my mom even though its never a productive conversation. it was awful. im exhausted. p.s. sorry this was so long. had to tell somebody who might get it.
What ERP should I do for real event OCD. I keep obsessing over a regret and I can still enjoy myself until I think about that regret, and it prevents me from enjoying myself anymore. Help pls
I am 30 and was diagnosed with OCD at age 7. The past few years I have noticed that my memory is getting worse. I am guessing it is a result of the mental distress of OCD or perhaps a side effect of medication. Has anyone else dealt with this?