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the NOCD Community

Accept uncertainty and question your assumptions about worst case scenarios. Recognize all or nothing thinking and practice taking a step back. It's tough, but we can do this!

I have such bad ocd over my looks and my friends aren't helping. A lot of my friends are dudes and they tend to he really crass. Yk the engineering types right? I have this one friend who's like well super honest and he's not a bad person he's my fashion friend no shade against him. I often ask him for advice for fashion and he told me I looked a lot hotter without my glasses, that I go from a 7.5 to a 10/10. Me and my ex were joking around and we are still friends and i was like "you're a 7 youfe cute why are you still single?" Amd he was like "you're an 8 and you are too!". We were just joking around and my ocd fixated on it. My other friend once we were talkijgbaboit looks and dating and he was like "you're not average but you're not a model" which is true. This other time (now this was actually kind of weird) I have this one male friend that is objectively unattractive and was into me, and i had a massive crush on a guy who's super hot and we were talking about him and he was like "well he has low self esteem so will probably say yes" which kind of hurt my feelings. We were also just talking about men and women and dating and he was like , if you make the first move unless he's smoking hot he will say yes. So either he meant he's not going to try to look for other options first so will immediately say yes, or you're mid. The same dude also told me that I was pretty so idk. My ocd is making me fixate on my looks. My depression is terrible so being pretty feels like the only way I can have value. I don't see how I'm worth anything if I'm not pretty. Like there's nothing else about me that's worth anything

My name is Becky and I am in my early 60s. I have gone through many phases of my OCD-ness including bulimia, biting my nails, compulsive activities like cleaning/tasks, and now it is picking myself. It just seems to transfer from one thing to the next. So, if you do anything weird with your OCD, "I GET IT! I do live a productive life and it does not consume me so please have hope. I am very successful and I have to say some of the brainy stuff that goes wandering through my head constantly has aided me in creating my own business and success. I just wanted to say, that OCD is not the end of you. I think most importantly helpful for me is to pour myself into things that are positive and that I love. I also turned my life around for the better when I started really being grateful for everything that I had.. SERIOUSLY I spend 1/2 hour in the morning going all over the globe in my head to be grateful for all of my family, friends, and relatives. It has changed my life (and probably another form of OCD, hahaa) BUT IT WORKS! My life changed for the good (and when I don't do this, my life falls apart!) OCD can be very lonely and actually very selfish because it can take you out of the moment therefore taking away from relationships 'being present". Life is a journey, but one day at a time and I am trying to not let this have power over me but to minimize the "creature". Do not ever think that the OCD makes you less. It can actually change you into MORE and a better person, more empathetic and a very humble human. CHEERS to the journey and let's take baby steps and bite off 1 bite of the elephant at a time.

Unable to sleep, my area was making me anxious so I started cleaning at 7AM randomly. I don’t have a problem with cleaning, convincing myself I’ll have a long deserved shower to wash away germs. However, my cleaning process contains an entire system of what needs to be done first to prevent cross-contamination, going from least dirty to dirty. However, my dad did something that made me visibly angry, placing a pack of unused sponges I had used for the process, was right next to the bottle of face cleanser I use daily, right after I finished cleaning everything spotlessly. Distressed that my daily cleanser was next to something where germs could be roaming around, even though they had been completely new sponges. I wasn’t sure what to react in that moment besides obvious frustration spurring in my head. But I thought a little too much about how I should feel, and then I told myself, “Should I be angry? Well, yeah! After all this work I put in?” I’m an 18 year old, but I felt like a child had just came out and groaned into a tantrum. A child-like tantrum unlocked inside of me. I gave my mom an earful about my dad’s actions. I wasn’t actually mad at either of them but angry at what happened. Through my own lengths to avoid it, I poured the contents of my cleanser into a new container and discarded the old contaminated bottle. Because of this, this is the big reason I keep most of my own products in my room, nothing out of greediness and pettiness, but the possibility of contamination. Overall, I felt a lot better after a deserved shower, but I never knew how my temperament could spout the frustrations of that of a child. I feel a kinda bad for reintroducing my 4-year old self to my parents at ten o clock in the morning so I’m going to treat them to a salad lol.

I hope this is okay to put here, I feel awful. I also feel like it doesn't belong here. I just need to get it out somewhere. So there's a huge social problem with what's called a fetishisation of mlm (gay people and relationships). It's basically where predominantly females engage in for example fiction with gay relationships. This is not necessarily bad on its own, it's when these people view the people as just objects in the relationship and it changes their view (negatively) on real mlm people. Also when women read it just for their own enjoyment of reading two men being together. So the thing is, I read lots of fiction and in fact 100% (pretty sure) is mlm. For obvious reasons this made me panic because I don't want to be that person. I don't want to be that gross person and the thing is I do understand. It makes sense to me why it makes people uncomfortable. Some people say it's bad under all circumstances and that they will block you if you're like this. Again, I understand. Others say it's fine as long as you treat gay people with respect in real life. Which I like to think that I do. I have noticed that I tend to think female characters have less depth and are less interesting than male ones and I feel bad that I think this and hopefully I am able to change that. Hopefully it is only due to the fact I've always only read things with mlm in. I just wanted to watch my favourite show's new season again but then I started thinking what if I'm just fetishising mlm again. I don't want it to get views from something bad I've done so I started reading up on Tumblr and I think it is what I'm doing, I hate it with my whole heart and I so understand why people find it gross and terrible and I hate that I might be part of it, I just want to enjoy the show and I love the characters but I don't want to now. I just feel so guilty I don't know why I'm like this I just want to be good and respect everyone why can't I just enjoy it why did it have to make me bad? All I want to do is enjoy it. This show, it's my safe space. My happy place. And I can't live with myself. I love it so much and I don't know what to do. It's my favourite thing ever. I'm just so angry that I've turned out like this. Thank you if you made it this far. I just don't know what to do.

I feel like this one issue is making me crazy So I'm talking to someone as a potential date and some of our conversations have gotten a little lewd and suggestive. Without giving too many details I'm a support worker for vulnerable adults. I'd never respond to such messages around the people I support. But one day because of how the schedule went I had a break from the person I was supporting for a few minutes and responded something kind of lewd when they weren't around at all and I was walking back to my car. Idk if it's because I was technically still on the clock even though I wasn't with them for a bit but I can't shake the feeling that this was horribly wrong and completely inappropriate and it's driving me nuts going back and forth. For context there's also some things around relationships and sexuality where I'm also unsure of what's normal or appropriate because of an extremely sheltered upbringing and some trauma. So things like this that are probably no big deal to most people I'm so unsure about. Unfortunately my therapist isn't available this week but I'll definitely talk about it with her next time. But in the meantime I was hoping for some advice or thoughts.

I had my third session today, and my therapist and I are filling out my fear and response list. For some reason I'm having a hard time filling out compulsions and even some of the fear responses. It's like everything is so connected it's hard to separate it in my head. I've never tried to do this before. Also maybe I can explain the compulsions in a longer sentence but it's hard to use just one word. And most of my triggers cause a pretty high number of distress, but I need to find something with less anxiety to start the exposure therapy. Does anyone have advice on how to make this process easier, or just an example of how they filled this form out? Thanks.

I am doing great! I don’t know why I am doubting myself. But I just feel like I’m missing something? OCD is making me doubt if I am missing tools, I know I’m doing it right, acknowledging thoughts and continue doing what I am doing, not mentally checking my body or for thoughts, focusing on the present moment, sitting with anxiety, exposing myself to my triggers, even when OCD says NO, I still DO IT! but it feels like I am missing something, although I am better than where I was in September , MUCH BETTER, I’m scared that I will stay in this place because it seems so simple, even though sometimes it is SUPER hard to use the tools sometimes, I don’t know, I don’t want to be stuck in this same place I want to get even better if that’s makes sense? I’m scared if I stay in this same place I am, I will get discouraged and go back into depression where I was in September ? Anyone else done this?

I just failed a class and the semester is over so now I feel horrible and I feel as if my life is over and it doesn’t help that I’m already a grade behind I feel so stupid and I know when I tell my mom she’s gonna be angry

On my run this morning a person stopped me to ask if I had a phone on me, and I said “no, sorry” and kept running even though I did have my phone, because it was early morning and I felt scared they’d take my phone. For the rest of my run I felt worried that they were following me and would see me use my phone, because I had AirPods in so they could guess that I did have a phone, although conceivably I could have only been wearing my Apply Watch. Once I was home and that anxiety subsided, I’ve been playing the situation over in my mind and feeling like such a bad person for saying no because what if they really needed help, and I said no because I judged them based on appearance and the situation made me scared they’d take my phone. I’m worried something bad will happen to me as karma.

My OCD is trying to convince me I'm the worst person ever and I've thought and done all these disgusting things; and most of the time I can kind of blow it off, and tell myself it's just OCD. But lately everytime I go on social media I see angry videos and posts about "these people are the worst!" or "if you've ever done this you're disgusting!", and it makes me spiral. It's like I start obsessing about "oh no! Have I done that? Have I acted how that person did?? What if I wanted to? Should I be canceled?" I know, I know... limit my social media time; but without social media it's hard to stay informed and it feels more isolating. I just wish people were more compassionate. I get that there are bad people out there who feel no remorse for things they've done. And when people are online and posting everything spur of the moment things can get heated (especially when everyone is anonymous), but I already have my brain trying to paint me in the worst light and make me not leave the house; I don't need my constant anxiety about morality and being canceled reinforced by the entire internet. Is everything problematic? Is it possible to be a good person anymore? Will I ever feel okay again? Has anyone else gone through this?

I feel disgusting and ashamed!!!! My mom texted my sibling and got mad at them because she thought they don’t know to take care of themself and then she said “I’m so exhausted between you and Ishil”. I can’t. I can’t do this. My mom keeps making me believe things SHE thinks about! What if I don’t know how to care of myself?! I try so hard! But then what if I’m not?! I already feel self doubt and she’s triggering me to an extent that I might do self harm and start bleeding!!

So for the past month I’ve been throwing up after eating. As time has gone on I’ve done it more regularly. I’m scared though that I’m just doing it for attention and there’s nothing actually wrong with me. I don’t necessarily binge it’s more so I eat and if I feel any bit full I force myself to be sick. It’s been happening almost every single day. When I feel full I feel like I’m getting fat and I get terrified of gaining weight. My OCD is making me feel like an attention whore. I’ve told my mom and my boyfriend. And my mom is very upset and doing her best to help. Same with my bf. I keep thinking my poor mom I’m just doing this to get extra attention. But I’ve done it for a while and only just recently told her. It’s almost like I feel accomplished when I’m hungry. And I feel good about it. It started last November. I had been excessively working out before a group cruise to be in shape. After the cruise I lost motivation but didn’t want to gain weight so whenever I felt full I would make myself be sick.

Hi! So I just recently got my OCD diagnosis but I haven’t really seen any of my symptoms listed anywhere online. I’m mainly pure O, but I do have one physical compulsion where I am constantly cracking my knuckles/ other joints. To the point where I cant go over 45 seconds without cracking something without being incredibly uncomfortable unless I’m asleep. It doesn’t help that I have super lax joints so cracking repetitively is just something my body naturally allows. I feel so awkward going on dates/ job interviews/ work meetings/ etc… where I’m around new people because everyone I’m close to in life knows and just accepts the cracking since it’s been going on since at least middle school, but to new people it must seem incredibly rude if not just plain annoying. I also do not have to crack a certain amount of times, but I have to get a “satisfying” crack before I can do anything else. It started interfering with work to certain extents because I could have my report all typed up and then sit there for 5-10 minutes before being able to hit send because I HAD to get the right crack before doing anything else. Or when I have a patient that I’m taking vitals on and pause for a solid 3-4 minutes after putting the blood pressure cuff on them because I can’t continue until I get the right crack. As for the “O” part, I feel like my thoughts don’t fit neatly into a single category of OCD. There will be nights (most of them lately) where I cannot sleep because I’m overthinking things to the point that I become suicidal. Not to the point of acting on it, but where I simply want to give up and not exist. Most of these thoughts seem to be about things from my past that I consider embarrassing. For example, I went on a date with a girl about a year ago now where I word vomited and was so embarrassed about it that I still think about it daily. I have since gone on dates with many other woman and don’t have any attachment to the girl this date was with, but I think back on how awkward I was and the self loathing is fueled for the night. If I hang out with friends or people I’m super comfortable with and I say something stupid, not even thinking about it in the moment, I’ll go home at night and think about it until I’m nauseous and crippled with sadness and regret. I’ve been having panic attacks a lot lately because I can’t seem to quiet the thoughts and I just get so worked up. Night time is definitely the worst for me as its typically when I have the downtime to sit with my thoughts as opposed to during the day when I’m working or out with friends my mind has other things on it. I also go through really bad obsessions, different from thoughts that keep me awake at night but just things that I become utterly obsessed with for weeks on end (if not more). For example, I was watching the show Supergirl a couple months ago and got so incredibly obsessed with it that once I finished, I had a huge depressive episode and felt like I couldn’t get out of bed for over a week. And the obsession continued for weeks after. This sounds more like ADHD to me but I thought I’d throw it in here as a symptom as well since I’m still super new to the diagnosis and am not 100% what is what. Lastly, I have a weird thing that’s been going on for years now where I’m deathly afraid of intimacy. I’ve had long term relationships, and along with them sexual relationships, but overall I am so uncomfortable with anyone perceiving me that the past couple months I have not been able to even put myself out there because I’m so scared of being judged. I dated a guy for 4 years and maybe made out with him 2-3 times the entire relationship because I was scared of kissing because I felt like I wasn’t experienced enough with it and was always overthinking everything that I just never pushed through and got myself comfortable. Its been 3 years now since that relationship ended and I’m still scared of kissing someone or touching them in case I am doing something wrong. I don’t mind being kissed or touched as much as I mind starting the act myself. I’m just so self conscious about anything that has to do with my body that I feel like I cant function as a normal human. I also have an issue where I can’t eat in front of anyone other than a few close friends or family. I feel like I gave myself an eating disorder because I don’t want to be seen doing anything with my body that I don’t have to, and it’s made some normal life tasks incredibly uncomfortable. I’ve been really depressed lately and have been having a hard time managing my health, work, and school all together. I’m not sure if this is due to the OCD or just depression on its own, but that’s another worth mentioning I guess. A lot of these symptoms I assumed were maybe autism for a long time, and I thought maybe the finger cracking was tourette’s at first, but I was given an OCD diagnosis and am curious if anyone else has anything similar going on with them because I really cant seem to find anything relatable online. Part of me feels like I may have been incorrectly diagnosed, so I would love to hear from others!

I feel like I’m being buried in an ever-growing to do list of things that really can’t be ignored, but I don’t have the capacity to deal with them. Bills, finances, clients, etc. My income has basically come to a screeching halt because of the OCD relapse I’ve been going through. I’ve been living on what little savings I had and now that’s almost gone. How in the world are people supposed to live with this disorder? The treatment is so expensive. Working is impossible. I feel like giving up entirely but then I don’t even know what that would mean? How could I give up anymore than I already have? I am so sick of dealing with this and the stress that is on top of it for BASIC LIVING NEEDS! I am so so tired 😭😭

Right now I had just realized that I may have plagiarized another artist work. let me explain, Basically i saw these really beautiful figures that were women and included gore to them. And I wanted to redraw the exact pose but changed her look to make it look like my OC(original character). I was doing this because I wanted to practice a little bit of gore but it was on paper and it didn't turn out that great, but I posted the original artwork next to my drawing on my insta story but I couldn't remember the artists name and now I feel so horrible. Like it's a bad move for an artist to do to another artist, and I can't even say it was inspired because I literally did the same pose and same concept, but nobody called me out now that I think about it. And I did it multiple times with her other artwork but I just changed the way the women looked, I feel like shit now oh my god

Months ago I made a mistake at work and I havent brought it up. Im a grad student and part of my work is in the lab. I took some things out of the lab and into a different lab where there's more potential for cross contamination and I'm worried I may have contaminated them and someones lab work will be messed up but because I didn't say anything they'll never know. I feel like I need to announce what happened but it's been months, and I dont actually know if I did contaminate anything and Im embarrassed so I'd rather not. But it keeps popping up and haunting me. I know my OCD is at play right now, I'm not sure if this is a real fear or not...but I also think what I did was wrong, like there's a pretty common protocol to not take that stuff out of the lab, I just didn't think about it at the time. I could tell my advisor on Wednesday and see what she thinks I guess, but in the meantime I'm feeling consumed with guilt and it's hard to work. I know this is possibly an urge to confess so maybe it's good for me to wait? Any thoughts??

At this point I don't care if I'm reassurance seeking. I don't know what else I'm meant to do. I know this next bit is practically another confession but I'm all out of other ideas. In advance I'm genuinely sorry and I hate this. So I'm pretty sure I romanticise like adhd and maybe autistic traits. I'm sickened by myself. I read, and I was reading and this character, while not said to have adhd, in my opinion had the traits that I associate with it. And I feel like I like those traits. Do I find them cute? Interesting? I literally don't know. Only thing I know is that I'm disgusted with myself. I also remember feeling "something", whether that be a groinal response from worrying about being attracted to these traits, or actually being attracted to these traits, I have no idea, it's 50/50. But I'm pretty sure that it's the latter. I feel disgusting all over. I'm going to have a shower because I was going to anyway, but this won't even make me clean again, I know it won't. I just want to apologise, that's all. I don't know why I'm like this. I don't like it. I wish I was different. I wish I could go back to being young when the only thing on my mind was what I was going to have for tea. I knew no wrong. Now look at me. I am the wrong. Also I can't tell people about my worries because all they'll say is that it's intrusive thoughts and ocd. Like, okay, sure, maybe I worry more than the average person, but these are real genuine worries and I hate them. Maybe I'm putting this on the wrong place but I have nowhere else. I'm sorry. I'm just sorry. Words can't describe how badly I'm sorry. I think of what people with adhd would think of me. I'm disgusting. Maybe I'm just feeling overly sorry for myself to make myself seem like less of a disgusting monster, but I genuinely am sorry. I don't want any of this. I just want to be a good person.

Okay, so to spare you the DISGUSTING details, I won't go into symptom details here. Context: After being on prescribed Adderall 30mg to treat ADHD while I finish my final year in university, I had to go to the ER a couple times because I got very panicky. Essentially, the doctors and emergency psychiatrist said I'm experiencing dopamine toxicity as a result of Adderall, which can cause extremely uncomfortable, delusional hallucinations. I've never gone through something this terrifying before and I don't know how to manage myself at home. It's making my sleep terrible, which only makes the physical sensations worse. I am okay with accepting that it's a temporary thing and that it's just based on my perception of the feelings I've been experiencing for the past 4.5 months. I thought it was "just my OCD symptoms coming back with a vengeance" as I used mindfulness to help with fear and reassurance in the past. However, I've noticed a longstanding trend of paranoia and that reassurance does not seem to help me often these days. My thoughts seem to loop between some form of "can't trust myself," "can't trust the world," and "everything feels unsafe." It's affected my sleep (demons/ghosts/intruders/death/bugs/etc), my ability to walk outside (ie. Storms/lightning), my ability to eat (ie. Contaminated water/food/etc). It seems to always relate back to something hurting me, and I have done CBT enough to understand that I don't need to give power to the thoughts, nor do I need to let thoughts or emotions control my behaviours. But HOW THE F**K DO I GET OVER THIS!!!! It ruined the last 12 weeks of school. I could literally only submit 2 assignments and had to get an illness form which essentially rendered me incapable. I am a huge people pleaser and I am extremely self-critical. I just want to feel normal, and I know that I can't continue trying to use Lysol wipes to clean my back, or challenge the doctor when he says antipsychotics are the quickest solution. Like I'm CHOOSING the harder route by making myself learn to trust myself, even when it feels like I can't trust my senses. I'm at a complete loss for what to do at this point and I have a lot of exciting opportunities coming up in January. I can't continue feeling like I'm going insane slowly... I KNOW I will get through this, logically. I just don't know what to do when reassurance doesn't work. It's like no matter what the doctors say, I just feel stuck on these thoughts that I know are false. Any thoughts?? 😕 Thank you for reading if so. This is my first post here, I apologize for how long it is and I appreciate your time and/or literally ANY words of advice/support ❤

I’m taking it day by day. I recently put in my two weeks notice and have left a toxic workplace. It’s been hard on me because this has happened so many times. I’ve been working since I was in middle school, cleaning hospitals, sleep centers, etc with my mom. And at 16 I got my first real, legal job lol. And it’s been rough, employers can be toxic or the job just isn’t set up with the tools to succeed. This last job I put my all into and like most jobs I’ve had I wasn’t trained, but I persevered and owned it. I had to leave from cruelty and just not setting me up to succeed but fail. I could take the difficulty, but I couldn’t handle the disrespect. I actually really conquered some of my ocd there and used some of it to my advantage with organization and starting up new ways to help the team, as well as actually speaking up for myself and holding a small meeting. It was incredibly difficult to understand whether I was right or wrong, but I followed my heart. Even with conquering those small things like speaking up, I was still left unheard by the people who could change the environment. I’ve struggled quite a bit since then with feeling like I made the right decisions or not. My mental health comes first, but I need money to eat. It can become so discouraging that you’ve got to work to live and these places don’t have to treat you like a person… it would be a lot to go into it. But I’m proud of myself, although I’ve become depressed and have lost myself in my head a bit. I’m coming out of it quicker than ever, and honestly that’s because God never stopped believing in me. God has helped, and my ocd really messes with my relationship with God a lot. I won’t quit, and I won’t give in. I believe in myself. I’m proud because through the pain I’ve still managed to keep up with the house and my laundry and myself pretty well. Today wasn’t that bad and that gives me hope. I’ve recently been working on my breathing too, when things get overwhelming I take deep breaths for 60 seconds. It helps settle me and my heartbeat. I know that my ocd is gonna fight me thru getting my next job. Tons of reasonable and unreasonable thoughts. I’ve got to try and I’ve got to let go of what could or could not happen and be myself. I’m a child of the most high God and if He is for me then who can be against me? I’ve done nothing wrong, and I’m a great worker. People have seen that and people will see that again. I can do this, if I believe and try ! I believe in you !