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the NOCD Community

I know comparing themes is bad but I just want a few opinions

OCD can be anywhere from bothersome to devastating. For many of us, this is the hardest, most painful part of our life. Yet somehow pain has a way of making us into really special people if we let it… How has OCD changed your life for the better? I’m in the thick of my journey right now, I start erp therapy next week. Its tempting to feel alone, bitter, and like I’m the only one who has ever experienced this. I am looking for hope from those who have walked this road before me!

For those who remember my post from the other day about feeling suicidal. I am again. I’ve even reached best ways to end your life. None sound good enough to make sure I do die for sure. I’m not telling anyone because I cannot go back to the mental hospital. I just can’t keep living with this. I’m hurting. I hate myself so much and I feel like I would be doing the world a favor if I end my life. Because the world doesn’t need another evil person. And I fear I might just be one. I want to cry out for help. But nothing is gonna make this so called “OCD” just go away. It will never go away. Maybe simmer down but never be gone. Everyday feels like a never ending battle. I can’t keep living like this.

I was recently diagnosed with OCD. Probably more along the lines more of Pure O. . . Very very distressing intrusive thoughts and fears. I can see how it's likely been an issue most of my adult life but really exacerbated lately. It's exhausting. Has caused a significant disruption in my life and it Feels like a constant mental battle. Has anyone had luck with medication? I was recommended for lexapro. Tried it for 3 days and felt awful. Is the ERP therapy usually effective without medication? I'm on the wait list for a nocd therapist as they say they don't currently have any available in my state.

I’m suddenly really struggling right now. I’m having suicidal thoughts and I feel like the best option for me is to do it. My family really really loves me but I don’t think I can do it. I wish I felt I could live for them but I feel like that’s selfish of me because what if I’m actually a bad person. I’ve seen people talking on here saying they’ve struggled for more than 20 years and I’ve only been struggling for a few months. And this is absolute torture. I cant imagine living like this for that long. Because that chance of me being a bad person or not being able to live the life I wanted is a chance I feel I can’t take. I know in order to overcome ocd you need to accept the either or. But I don’t feel strong enough. I wish I was different.

Anyone feel like you have ruined your life through giving into ocd compulsions? Or the choices you made in life that led to ocd symptoms getting sparked in the first place? I know healing is very possible, but right now i am remembering so many important moments in my life that have been “robbed” by ocd… :( I know this may continue to happen. The intrusive thoughts. The numb emotions. The constant checking to see if I’m in the present moment, which is exactly what takes me from the present moment. I wish I could go back in time and make different choices so my ocd didn’t flair up and rob important moments in my life that I had dreamed of for so long. Feeling bitter. Have you been where I am right now?

Does anybody else experience delusional intrusive thoughts? I have a very big fear of developing schizophrenia or becoming delusional. And it seems that a lot of my intrusive thoughts are delusional intrusive thoughts that I fight.

If so could you let me know how it’s worked for you? I might be prescribed that by my psychiatrist soon and I’m a little anxious about taking it, but if it helps with the intrusive thoughts then I’m all for it.

everything’s been really terrifying and loud lately and i found myself not leaving the house if i could avoid it, missing classes and appointments etc. i don’t WANT to give into the illnesses; i don’t WANT it to take my freedom. so i started going to class again. i haven’t been doing much else - i don’t eat out very much anymore, i send other people to the grocery store, and i’ve moved important meetings and appointments online. anyways, i’m sitting in class right now and battling the urge to leave. i made an agreement with myself that i could leave at the break if i still needed to. but i recognize that that is ALSO giving into the illnesses, and i don’t wanna concede more than i already have. i just feel so afraid all the time, and home is so much less overwhelming than anywhere else. i’m looking for people who have also experienced this. do y’all have any tips on how to manage? i feel like i’m going absolutely insane.

I'm unsure if this is even an actual intrusive thought, but occasionally I go through batches of intense insecurity over my appearance. Last night in particular, it got really bad, as I was scrolling through social media and looking at reels of different women and compared myself to them. I felt intense self hatred over my face and hair consuming my mind, and I fully believed that I am genuinely so ugly, especially compared to everyone I know and that there's nothing I can do about it, which lead to me having a big melt down. Before that, I had originally felt fine until I started having intrusive thoughts about different things out of nowhere. Usually when I feel bad, I text my boyfriend and he tries to help me feel better, but he wasn't responding much because he was playing games with his family. I tried to play some games myself to feel better before that happened, but it didn't work. I feel like I can never make myself feel better on my own. I'm also worried because I was having intrusive thoughts of the act of trying to talk to him being me seeking reassurance itself and I shouldn't do that and that he wasn't responding to me because he doesn't care and he's tired of listening to my problems and all that. I know those are intrusive thoughts and I try to ignore them. Everything all at once was just getting to me and I'm unsure of what the right thing to do was. I worry that anything I might do could be a compulsion despite atleast a majority of my compulsions being mental and worrying about how he feels about me or if he even likes me or wants to talk to me and I worry about my face and not liking it at all or if I'll ever like myself and it's all just a jumble of different things. I don't know what the right thing to do is, genuinely. Usually he will call me and we talk or play a game together so I get distracted and not worry, but when I'm by myself I can't get myself to even want to do anything besides lay down and ruminate with all my worries, making them get more extreme and make me feel worse but I couldn't even enjoy anything I tried to do last night enough to stop focusing on the thoughts. I can't get therapy for a while at least so I'm just at a loss, I don't know how to cope with it sometimes and I worry the one thing I do that does help me isn't helpful at all, especially because I was at such a loss when he couldn't call me. I'm sorry that this is all kind of scattered, I tried to explain it as clearly as I could. Mainly, I just want to know a good way to cope with these thoughts that isn't harmful. I know I do seek reassurance to my boyfriend sometimes (I try not to when it comes to my doubts about him but I still do sometimes), I don't know if our calling and playing things to be distracted counts as that though. I don't know if the self hatred is intrusive thoughts because I believe it or what it would even be categorized as. Are there good ways to deal with these, though? I have a really hard time feeling better with out calling someone and I know I should probably have some way to cope on my own, but the ways I end up doing it when I am on my own tend to lead to me feeling worse. (I believe I have a compulsion that I feel and/or have to express how I'm feeling or ruminate with it, so sometimes I end up posting about it on my Instagram oftentimes or I'll write or talk about it somewhere, sometimes constantly talking about it, journaling seems to not be good for me for that reason because when I write about what I'm feeling or thinking, it feels like I'm getting worse rather than actually feeling better.)

It was very relieving to find out what intrusive thoughts were because it was very hard for me to understand what I was going through without legitamently assuming I was crazy or evil. I believe my earliest intrusive thought (if this counts as one) that I knew of was when I was about 8 or 9, my parents were arguing and I had the urge to bite myself to feel better (I believe, I don't remember the exact reasoning except that I did it). Since then I've had a range of recurring themes, the first theme I remember is when I'm in a car I vividly see myself throwing my phone out the car window and I usually have to make sure I'm holding onto my phone so I don't do that, I believe that one has been around since I was around 10 (I still have it occasionally but not as common as it used to be). Besides that, my intrusive thoughts weren't particularly unbearable until I was 12 or 13. Family stuff happened during that time and it must've effected me a lot, because after that I started getting horrible Hocd and Pocd thoughts, which would cause me to panic especially because I had no clue what they were and didn't want to be a terrible person. I had frantically searched some things I felt like were going on and convinced myself that I might have schizophrenia at that time, and it was an incredibly scary time. I don't believe I have schizophrenia now though, I don't have hallucinations of any kind, but I mistook intrusive thoughts to be a part of that because I wanted to pinpoint that the horrible thoughts weren't my real thoughts. A more odd thing was I developed a specific theme where I felt I'd die in a car crash and even linked it to it happening in a February, so for a while I would be scared riding in a car and for a while I'd also be scared of February in general. Ever since I found out what intrusive thoughts are, it was actually very relieving for a while, until I realized that people would describe them in ways that they might not be too serious and they're simple to get to go away, which was for sure not the case for me. That lead me to frantically search OCD a few weeks ago after finding out they're mainly associated with that and I really feel like I can identify with many of the symptoms a lot, though I think I mainly have mental compulsions. I can't get a diagnosis right now though since I'm a college student, don't have a job and I currently don't want to try to explain what's going on to my dad for many reasons, I don't believe he could afford that anyway. I worry about self diagnosing and I don't want to but it feels better to identify with this because it really seems like it describes exactly what I've been going through for years.

I had never really had OCD symptoms like this a few months ago. I had struggled a little bit with anxiety and had always had a fear of uncertainty but I’ve never felt a 24/7 pain anxiety, guilt and fear like this. I was pretty happy😭 Have others had this experience as well? Did it just show up randomly from one intrusive thought that you couldn’t brush off? Is it possible to get back to how you were before or will I have to “manage” for the rest of my life?

How do I differentiate between giving into a compulsion versus doing erp? My trigger is thinking about and seeing my son’s exposed skin, particularly any marks that appear on him (eg bruise, scar, freckle, dry patch, birthmarks, pigmentation variations). I also feel compelled to look at other children’s skin (for comparison to see what’s common or normal). It all began after reading about a condition called NF1 leading me to fear that my son might have it. A symptom of this includes specific looking birthmarks all over the body. I stare and stare at him and eventually, I start to see shapes on his body that resemble the birthmarks in question. Tricky thing is I’m exposed to my triggers all day every day - changing nappies, bathtime, changing his clothes, seeing him in shorts. I feel like I’m cheating and avoiding my triggers if I don’t look at his skin (instead, I do things like dimming the lights or hyperfocusing on the nappy or article of clothing). I also can’t help but think that I should be checking each time to make sure everything is ok, and that not checking is unsafe in case he does have the condition and a mark is forming. Sometimes, when the distress is not too high, I will do my calming strategies while doing the above activities (my strategy involves me thinking out loud to identify my thoughts and feelings, affirm that I will not get entangled, ground myself by doing deep breathing, and then focus on finishing the task at hand, as well as engaging with my son to fulfil his desires/needs.. in other words distracting myself.. ). I don’t even know if the above strategy is actually erp. When I’m alone at night, I try to do erp by purposely thinking about his skin or a mark on his skin.. using the nocd app as a tool to facilitate that. My question is how do I do the erp?? In everyday settings as I’m carrying out my responsibilities and tasks as a parent, I feel I’m actually giving in to my compulsions rather than doing an exercise for my recovery. Another question is, I’m in Australia - is it possible for me to access a therapist on this app? I hope the above makes sense. Appreciate the advice!

I literally hate living with OCD….I was so happy before with not having these thoughts…😢 I have so many intrusive thoughts about stabbing (specifically my husband) and it makes me hate myself and makes me want to cry. I never dealt with this until almost 2 1/2 months ago, and I don’t want to anymore…I’m so tired of living like this:( Now it feels like I don’t even care if I act on it or not…like it wouldn’t be that bad of a thing, which I 100% know it is an awful thing, the most awful thing you could ever do to a person. But I’m worried that I’m eventually not gonna care and that I’m gonna give into the thoughts…😢 I feel like I was a good person before this. I love people and being around them. I love my husband so much, but having this makes me question if I even love my husband because I feel like harm ocd is not letting me feel those feelings for him…when I know I love him tho:( Someone pls help:(

I haven’t started therapy yet waiting for insurance to go thru. I have had POCD intrusive thoughts about my kids. Well it’s targeted one of them the most. Today I had a thought of I wish she would die so I wouldn’t have these thoughts!!! My stomach is in knots and I am sick about it. Obviously I don’t wish that at all?! What is going on with me? Is she going to die because I thought that?! My mind won’t stop. I am having a lot anxiety and panic about this thought. Please help me!

My boyfriend has ROCD and it can get tough or discouraging at times but I’m in it for the long haul. Does anyone have any affirmations that help them?

So I am co-maid of honor for my friends wedding and the other MOH is (was?) also my friend (we’ll call her Sadie). As MOHs, Sadie and I had to plan our friends bachelorette party. During the months we needed to plan/prep, my mental health was in a really bad spot, the worst it’s been in years. I still hadn’t been diagnosed with OCD yet and was in horrible shape emotionally. I told Sadie that I was struggling but I probably would not be much help for bachelorette planning, but would do what I could. I felt so guilty about not doing my share, but I had to take care of myself because I felt totally out of control, having daily panic attacks and crying. Sadie told me she understood and it was no problem, we met maybe twice for planning and the rest was ordering decorations and stuff, which I split with her. I thanked her and apologized repeatedly for running the show throughout the months leading up to the bachelorette. During the bachelorette, Sadie was in a horrible mood (long story) and it resulted in the bride getting mad at her. As the other MOH and seeing my two friends arguing, I checked in on them. At that point, Sadie (who was over tired and very drunk) started pointing fingers at me and saying that I was making her feel like a bad friend because I wasn’t getting into the details of my mental health situation with her (which is completely unrelated to the bride’s conversation with Sadie- it really came out of left field). She said that she was worried and wanted to help but I was unresponsive to messages (which isn’t true). She made me feel guilty for not trusting her with my deepest and darkest struggles, meanwhile I had just found out earlier in the day she had lied to me about something minor and unrelated… so why would I trust her with such personal and stigmatized information? I explained that I didn’t get into the details of my struggles with anyone besides my therapist and my mom, but she kept hounding me about how I was making her feel bad. Of course one of my OCD themes is worrying that I’m letting people down… anyone who knows me knows that’s a big concern of mine. Naturally, this made me cry. I found out after the fact that Sadie also told the bride (before I joined the conversation) that I never thanked Sadie for planning the bachelorette and that certain activities fell through because of me. Sadie (kind of?) apologized to me and the bride for her behavior, telling me that the mental health convo should have happened at a different time/place, but things have been weird ever since. I feel like she owes me a serious apology for weaponizing my mental health, because if she truly cared she wouldn’t have done what she did to me or would have pulled me aside later and apologized profusely. It’s been over a month and she has put in no effort to communicating with me and vice versa. I think she thinks I am in the wrong, although I’m not sure what I did and the bride doesn’t know either. Anger comes at me randomly about this, because I thought of Sadie as a good friend and I feel like she used my situation as a weapon. Even if she was hurting too for me not opening up, there are so many other ways she could have told me. In any situation though, I still do not owe her details about my mental health challenges. Right? My friends say that Sadie crossed a line by demanding to know details about what’s going on with my OCD. I just want to stop being angry with her and effected by this situation. Any advice?

I love my boyfriend so much! Sometimes though I get irritated with everything and anything he does. He won’t do anything bad, just make a joke, or laugh, and I get anxious, which I think is because I’m internally checking how I feel about him (completely unaware I’m even doing it), and then I get irritated. And it’s like I’m always irritated by anything he does. I feel it’s because my mind is rescreening how I feel and checking my emotions and whether “I love him enough” and that anxiety makes me anxious. Is this normal? Anyone else know what I’m talking about or have tips to help me?

I’ve been recently struggling so much with the intrusive thoughts and images, it was bad at first but now its worse. I cant even cry anymore. Im questioning myself. am i really crazy? am i really scared if these thoughts? what if i lose my self control? what if i am my intrusive thoughts? what if i don’t feel bad about them? im so scared my life is being taken over im not myself anymore i feel like im going through derealization as well which i’ve struggled with in the past. I haven’t been diagnosed but am almost 100% sure i have harm OCD im talking to a therapist and a doctor to get me on pills. Someone help me please or give me advice i feel so disgusted looking at myself bc i feel like im a sick human. These thoughts are against my family, especially my mom which is the person i love the most in the world. Im only 13 and miss my old self. I regret watching Dahmer so much, which is what initially caused this for the first time. What if im never gonna be the same again. I cant sleep i feel sick even eating. Am i alone on this.

i had a pretty severe anxiety disorder in 2017. I recovered in like 8 months fully. I couldn't leave my house without feeling anxiety. I couldn't walk around my house, drive with my mother in a car, go to school, the list goes on. With therapy I was able to do all the things I wanted. It was like I was a different human again, my old self but so much stronger. I got ocd just 3 months ago (intrusive thoughts with mental compulsions). It was like my brain suddenly just broke. The last few weeks were horrible. It felt like my life ended. Before, my life has been amazing and I felt such grief that I didn't appreciate it as much. I ended in a mental hospital 3 weeks ago but only stayed for two days because I realized I need to just go on with my life. And that's what I want to tell you: - Ocd is an anxiety disorder. It's not exactly like I had it in 2017 but the feeling is similiar - Do NOT stop your daily life. When you avoid it gets worse in the long run. I know it's hard. I feel it everyday and it gets easier when I pretend like it's not there. Ocd wants to get your attention. Let it be in the background till it fades - No matter what's your subtype you can still do anything you want even when ocd wants to get your attention. For example: harm ocd, you're afraid that you're gonna stab your family member when holding a knife. Take that knife and make some dinner or something. No matter how many times you see that image in your head doing it or your brain repeats "stab them". You know that ocd wants you to avoid things. Without ocd you would have preperad a nice salad for example. You can still do it. It's just your ocd that thinks you can't. - Learning by doing. Your brain needs to learn that there is no real danger. You can tell yourself 100 times that it's not dangerous but it won't learn. It only learns by doing. And it takes some time but it's not impossible. Lastly: You won't feel like this forever. You don't need to feel okay to do things. You need to do things to feel okay again. I only had ocd for a few weeks but i'm recovering everyday a bit more because I KNOW my disorder. Some people take years to figure out what they have and suffer in silence. I have to wait to get therapy but I don't have to wait to Start erp or get my life back together. I have the strengh to heal myself with my knowledge and patience and you can aswell! Sending lots of love and hope!