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hi peeps today i found out i have mono, and for someone with contamination ocd that sucks even more than usual. am i really supposed to be worried about who i might infect for the indefinite future? and the fact that i wont know for weeks if i got anyone sick? and i’ve got a big trip with my family planned in a couple of weeks and im worried that one of my family members is gonna end up having symptoms before we go. has anyone else ever been in a similar situation? how did u deal with it without missing out on everything?

I just had a really awful chest pain that felt like my chest was exploding and im really terrified. I feel like maybe it was a heart attack but idk. I've had many ekgs and a chest x ray and they don't find anything wrong with me. Idk what this means anymore im so sick of being scared that ill die. Can anyone relate at all? It comes out of nowhere

Hi everyone. I take hydroxyzine 50 mg every night for anxiety for about five months. I’ve been experiencing at least one heart palpitation a day so of course I went down my googling spiral and saw people say it gave them cardiac arrest? I’m only 19 but I’m so so scared. Please someone help me.

Hi! I’m new to the NOCD community, but I’ve been dealing with OCD since I was 12. I’m almost 29 now, and my biggest issue is health anxiety. It’s gotten to the point where getting work done is nearly impossible because i can’t stop spiraling. I’m lucky that i work remotely, but also makes it easier to be in my own head… Asking for advice - how do you all deal with the intense anxiety and are able to make it through a 9-5 work day? Any suggestions on how I can actually be productive? Thank you!

I recently went through complete burnout I had panic attacks for over a month…brutal…then they manifested into the body. I’ve been constantly looping on symptoms and the tension in my neck and throat is pretty bad. It’s been scary. I’ve been in a chronic state of high stress for some time and also have ptsd and cptsd. I’ve considered residential since I left the job. Plus my son passed away recently. I’m down in San Diego right now staying with a friend but from NorCal. I don’t know why to do. Guidance would be appreciated.

Hello, my name is Brittany, and I have been living with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) for as long as I can remember. However, since experiencing a stroke that I believe was a result of chiropractic care, my struggles have intensified and become overwhelmingly exhausting. I have always been acutely aware of my body and its signals, which has led to a heightened sense of worry about potential health complications. Though I’ve always had a tendency to worry, the anxiety that has surged since my stroke feels insurmountable. I’m reaching out in hopes of connecting with others who understand this journey, sharing stories and experiences in the hope that, one day, I might find a way to overcome these challenges or at least discover some relief from the relentless grip of anxiety.

I am really suffering with health anxiety at the minute I am absolutely PETRIFIED of cancer and Im only 17 its draining the life out of me Ive had a cough / cold for two weeks now and ive felt itchy - Has anyone else ever just felt really itchy Im terrified in case I have cancer Im really really petrified I get so scared of death im really frightened SO frightened Im so so scared of the C. Uts scary

I cant afford therapy which is why i’m not diagnosed with ocd. The first time i had heard what ocd was truly abt was 6 years ago when i overthinking my sexual identity and it fit. Additionally, i struggle with debilitating health anxiety and when i was in a rlt i was extremely anxious that i might not love my partner. This is the third year i experience distress around my sexuality but this year it feels real. And it could also explain my rlt anxiety. Comphet is a concept that really scares me. I dont want to be with a girl. I would rather die than discover i was lesbian. I cant accept uncertainty cz i dont want to be homosexual. Chat GPT told me it wasnt ocd + the thoughts dont distress me anymore. I experience 3 intense weeks of anxiety prior to now. Maybe its internalized homophobia. Maybe its comphet. I do find women to be attractive but i dont wanna be with them. Maybe i’m in denial. Idk anything anymore. I’m remembering times where i would find an actress attractive and try to shift my focus towards the man cz it would make me anxious. I’m not well at all.

Starting to think I have unresolved childhood trauma unfortunately. Health OCD is also driving my absolutely crazy but I'm too scared to go to my doctor. I worry about diabetes, illnesses, cancer, skin problems, etc. I just hope everything works out in the end. Right now I just can't do the things I love doing because I'm constantly worrying about everything. All of my worries are exacerbated and I just can't keep them away. They only come back.

does anyone else have an intense fear of developing schizophrenia or psychosis. This has been a really heavy theme for me as well. I’m constantly checking to see if I have symptoms or if I’m gonna go crazy or develop these. it’s so scary.

hello everyone! this is my first post on here. i decided to download this application because, one, its for individuals who struggle with similar issues as i do, and two, although now my treatment is slightly more focused on my ocd i still thought it would be beneficial to my recovery/accountability to download an application that encourages that. i feel extremely alone in my ocd - it isolates me a lot from my family and friends. which comes to the part i need advice with, how do you control your health concern ocd? especially if you’ve had serious health issues that led to prolonged hospitalization/inpatient in the past (and also currently have poor health.) i find myself obsessively checking my heart rate on my Apple Watch during school, work, and curricular activities. any minor chest pain i feel i immediately associate it with a heart condition. it’s something that gets in the way of things i should be putting my undivided attention towards. this fear has also caused a severe panic attack during school. I don’t know how to keep myself in check, even while knowing these thoughts are irrational and unrealistic. anything helps :-) thank you all

i’m currently experiencing a panicky anxiety attack and i don’t know why. i’ve been on edge all day because of being scared to get sick, but right now, i know i’m not going to get sick but i’m just really panicked and cannot calm down. i’m currently listening to music that helps relax me with an icepack on my neck to help, but not much is happening. my sister and mom keep coming into my room and it’s only making it worse but i don’t know why. i just don’t want to talk or be around anyone right now. these kinds of episodes are worse than any other because i don’t know why i’m so scared. it just feels like it’s never going to go away.

I hate feeling constantly conflicted no matter what. I have noticed with food intake, I find myself going back and forth between obsessing over eating too much and fear of gaining any weight to obsessing over eating too little and fear of losing an unhealthy amount of weight and the negative consequences of such. I am getting married this year and continuously think about how I need to be mindful and not eat too much since I need to fit into my dress and feel confident on my wedding day, as I don’t want to look back at pics and be unhappy with how I look. But I also think about how if I don’t eat enough, I will look too thin and will not be confident in myself, and will look back and be unhappy. Idk. It is so hard because I am always trying to figure out what is “right” but it feels like there is no “right.” And I have a really hard time recognizing what my body ACTUALLY looks like physically, not really knowing how I appear to others

Hi all, I’m brand new to this app. I’ve never had any mental disorders. I’ve never been diagnosed or even suspected that I had some kind of issue going on. But recently my partner gently pointed out to me that I’ve developed some weird tendencies that are progressively getting worse. I’m getting overly anxious about the smallest of things. Every time he leaves for work, I stare at the tracker on my phone until he gets through his 25 minute commute because I’m convinced there will be a wreck. I’m terrified that someone is constantly taking pictures of me through my windows and even feel like people can see through my (solid) blinds at night. Every time I hear someone in the hallway of my apartment complex I stare out the peephole because I’m convinced they’re going to break in, even if it’s a neighbor that I recognize. I check myself for lumps in my body every morning and every night, and my partner too, even though neither of us have any scary medical history. I unplug everything with a cord every night before I go to bed because I’m terrified that something is faulty and my apartment will catch on fire. I am constantly afraid of being sued by people I don’t know even though the worst thing I’ve ever done is gotten a speeding ticket. I have dreams that people are sending me threatening mail and it stops me from opening my actual mail. There are so many more, I could go on forever. Writing it all down, I know it’s stupid. I just don’t know if feeling this way is normal. There are people out there that have actual stressors and here I am working myself up a million times a day over nothing. Do normal people feel like this? I thought it was normal.

My OCD has been terrible the for the past two weeks. I have a fear that I will never be able to get out of the thought loop. I am hyper aware of my thoughts and it disturbs me. I haven’t been able to eat for 10 days. I force myself. I haven’t been able to sleep for more than a couple hours. Then I wake up and ruminate for a couple hours, until I’m exhausted. I’m also afraid I’ll never sleep well again. And I’m afraid I’ll never eat and enjoy my food again. I’m afraid I’ll never be able to stop thinking about this enough to enjoy my family ever again.

Idk if im the only one but I've literally just been holed up in my bedroom for the past 3 months and have barely gone out especially in the last 2. I'm too scared to leave and interact with people normally because I feel like a criminal and like someone who doesn't deserve to be around others. But in the same breath, I'm starting to hate my bedroom. It just feels like all my negative emotions are being bottled up and stored in here. I keep telling myself I should go out and take a walk and maybe it will feel better to just be out in the fresh air. But also don't want to because I'm quite lethargic on top of not eating that much either. Just feeling... stuck.

Anyone else feel that when they aren’t experiencing a theme that their ocd is almost non existent. It almost makes me feel like I’ve been faking it, and also makes me feel ridiculous for obsessing over things. I feel sorry for myself :/ I know that my themes are valid and felt very real in the moment, but after I “get over” them I just can’t believe that I was obsessing over something that either wasn’t true or didn’t apply to me. I would also like to know how to prevent themes from reoccurring. Health, religion and existential OCD themes tend to take turns throughout my life, I just didn’t know that was it ocd. Trying to break the cycle.

From the age of 10, I’ve had all kinds of frightening thoughts taking over my mind. Tell me about a disease, and I’d be on WebMD and Discord, researching symptoms because I was afraid I had it. For a while I even walked around with a heart rate monitor, a pulse oximeter, and other equipment, because I was terrified that my heart might beat too fast—and maybe give out. I would tell people, I feel like I’m possessed. Like there’s someone else in the driver’s seat of my brain. It was a lonely life, because I didn’t know anyone else who was struggling with these things the way I was. Now, at 26, I know it wasn’t simple anxiety and that I have obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), though I didn’t get the right diagnosis for many years—after all, my experiences didn’t match the symptoms most people associate with the condition. But my diagnosis is what changed everything. It allowed me to find the treatment I needed to thrive with OCD. Something I used to hear a lot when I shared my fears was that I was really creative. I’d tell my family about my thoughts and they would say, ‘Oh, you have such a big imagination.’ I have to say: man, that was not it. I had a disorder. I connected with NOCD, and my life changed. My NOCD Therapist explained these weird thoughts and superstitions weren’t me —they were symptoms of OCD, and they didn’t mean anything about who I am. That was a revelation. I spent a really long time not understanding what intrusive thoughts were. I didn’t even know the term ‘intrusive thoughts.’ But at NOCD I was learning that I’m not in control of every thought that I have. This was so pivotal to managing my OCD, learning that you can’t control everything that enters your mind—you can only change your reaction. I’d love to hear about your experiences with Health OCD. Drop your stories and questions below. I’ll respond live in the comments today at 4pm CT!

Recently, I’ve been struggling a ton with what I eat/put into my body? I’m a first year college student with a few different health issues (including IBS), and lately it’s been hard for me to find food on campus that doesn’t upset my stomach. I also have pretty severe emetophobia, and feel extremely anxious when I feel sick. The ironic thing is that being anxious makes me feel even worse, so I end up sticking myself in an impossible loophole. My OCD has taken hold of these fears over the past few months, and it’s been such a struggle. Especially since people have been getting food poisoning from various dining halls on my campus lately. My OCD has gotten so bad that sometimes I’m too afraid to eat food other than what I buy myself. I feel so trapped. I don’t want my OCD to affect my physical health or prevent me from eating, bc I love eating!! It’s the fear of getting sick that’s the problem. And it’s even harder when everything is so unfamiliar. Just wondering if anyone could relate. Advice is appreciated!

I’m anxious about HIV. What if I get it? That’s a scary thought to me. And then I’m scared/worried about giving it to others, not knowing if I have it, etc.