Welcome to
the NOCD Community

I’m interested in hearing an example of intrusive thoughts you guys have. I’m having a tough time and could use support. Thank you!

I got a thought while looking at a picture of a kid saying that she’s going to look good when she’s older. Why did I have this thought? I know it’s not even true, as peoples appearance change as they grow up. Does this mean I was attracted to this kid? Did I think this image of a kid was pretty in a way that suggested me to have this thought? I know I’m supposed to label these thoughts as ocd but how do I know I don’t truly believe this thought.

I recently got diagnosed with OCD back in May of this year. What started it was a month prior, I took an SSRI which triggered an extremely intense couple of days due to panic attacks I’ve never had before. I’ve never had panic attacks but pretty intense anxiety. That’s when I started experiencing DPDR and hyper awareness. I’m good some days, but other days it’s so so hard. Especially because I have no one around me that understands. The DPDR and awareness of every feeling, thought, and just overall awareness of my existence gets really overwhelming. I feel like I’m losing my mind. It’s really hard to sit with my thoughts especially when they’re on a constant loop of every little thing I’m thinking and doing and on top of that feeling like I’m in a dream. I desperately just want to go back to how I was 4 months ago, but I know that’s just not possible right now. If anyone has experienced this and is doing much better now or even currently experiencing this please let me know! I need someone to relate to lol

This one's a "what if" exposure; a way to trace the anxiety spiral and sit with the discomfort it brings, instead of trying to avoid or fix it. Here’s how it works: Start with your anxious thought: 1. “What if A happens?” Then go deeper: “Okay… if A happens, then what?” → “Then B.” 2. And again: “What if B happens?” → “Then C.” 3. Keep going (following the fear, not avoiding it) until you land on the core fear, the real root of the anxiety. It’s usually something sticky, existential, or deeply uncomfortable. 4. Once you’ve found it, stop. Now sit with it (the feeling). Notice how it shows up in your body. Where is the tension? The tightness? The urge to escape, fix, or seek reassurance? And just let it be there. Without trying to solve it. Just you, your body, and the fear; without resistance. This isn’t about fixing the fear. It’s about making room for it. It’s about learning that you can feel the fear and not let it control you.

I thought I’d gotten better about reading articles and posts about most men being attracted to children. It upsets me and that’s fine but what i can’t do is relentlessly research it. I know there’s no cure and that it’s normal even if it’s not moral. But for that reason my mind latches on to it and i want to know WHY WHY WHY, or what if this person is, or what if my favorite YouTuber is. Statistically the answer is probably yes, most of them i assume are probably attracted to kids. And that’s where my ocd stems bc them k go in the loop about why and who. There’s no one answer and no correct number out there. It’s a hard fact to accept and i thought i was over this but now im upset over it again and my stomach is sick. I’m not sure how to overcome this.

I have been in ERP therapy for my OCD for nearly a year now. Before my diagnosis and doing ERP, I really didn't drive a car for five years and rarely left the house. Now I drive to work, coffee and other outings. Most of the people close in my life don’t really know about my OCD. They do see me doing lots of things I haven't done in the past. I don't really know if I should explain about why this progress happened. I hope they don't think I was just being lazy up until then. They will talk about how someone is “so OCD” because they keep their room clean and really enjoy things neat. Anytime I hear this, I just think that if they hear about my diagnosis of OCD and what it entails they will think I’m crazy. I feel very conflicted about how to go about this, so advice is welcome.

My ocd kicks in so strong this tine of year. My teaching job ends for two months and my ocd moves in to make me miserable. I can and will get through this but it sucks so bad right now! In therapy but still it’s kicking my ass. Any thing besides just sitting with it??? It’s definitely in the drivers seat and I don’t like the way it’s driving! Also it’s exhausting

I feel like I wasted my life.I am almost 20 years old I feel like I did some mistakes that are too horrible to be forgiven.I didnt help a kid who needed help..Who was in danger ..Who was hurt.This made me think I am dangerous and can't be trusted.I started to have these terrible terrible thoughts(pocd) and I feel like I changes since then.Like I am not a ,,pure" person.That I can't be like I was before.I hope it was a compulsion..I used to also stare at kids years ago.I know is so disgusting and I will never act like that again.I feel like I did something too terrible.I am scared this is all proof I am a p..I don't wanna be that.I will never do something but I am so disgusted by my thoughts.I know I shoulf not seek reassurance and all but I don't know if anyone will want to be near me if they knew.I feel like an impostor.And I am scared to tell a therapist..what if they told me that I really am?! Ped******a is one of the things that disgust me the most ..(I think for everyone is like that).I feel like I am too terrible to do something in life.After all of this idk if I deserve anything.Maybe there was a chance if I didn't start to have these thoughts..but now..I want to became a psychologist, to travel the world.I feel like I wasted my life .And I feel like I have too many things to do and have a lot of places to go.Some people are sick and can't do the things I CAN do.And I feel guilty because of that.And I am also scared I will get sick( as I write this, I am scared I will manifest it).I am going to a therapist but idk if I have the courage to tell abt my pocd

Hello. I joined this app because I realised my experiences might be due to OCD. I often have these really disgusting and terrible pictures of me becoming someone horrible, doing horrible things to others. These ideas really disturb me, and often in my mind, and physically sometimes, I literally scream quitely to myself, "Shut up!" Over and over until the image goes away, but unless I distract myself with something else immediately after, it comes back and gets worse. I also end up looking back on these thoughts, and being terrified that maybe I am thinking of this because it is what I truly want, so I end up desperately trying to filter my thoughts, and this ends up carrying into something like SO-OCD, even though I am confident that I am a straight male, and there is no evidence that I am not, I keep trying to prove to myself that I am straight to make the thought go away. I also get the fear that after I maybe do something and say something I know I maybe shouldn't have to someone, that when they leave, or I can't find them for a bit, they have gone to commit suicide. Likewise, I also get intrusive thoughts of me killing myself, even though I have no desire to, and this scares me a lot as well. I used to occasionally get these thoughts in chunks like maybe for 2 weeks and then I wouldn't for another few weeks, but they have gotten worse and more frequent this past semester. They are still not bad enough to actively effect my daily life and routine, but they definitely come frequently enough to distract me, disrupt what I'm doing and make me take a break, and it has dramatically effected my mood and mental state lately. Do you guys recommend any ways to deal with this, is this really severe enough to even call OCD? Would love to hear, thanks! ❤️

hi! how did you guys get your ocd diagnosis? what was that process like? did it take a while? do some of you not have a diagnosis but just know you have ocd?

I'm 13, and was screen broadcasting to my boyfriend because we where bored and curiously and we searched up..... Like porn. On the internet. Idk why... Anyway we came across smth that looked like a MINOR.(it was anime porn) and we couldn't tell for sure so now I'm spiraling and have CRAZY confession compulsions to my mum and I really do not wanna tell her. Please what do I do.

I'm 13, and was screen broadcasting to my boyfriend because we where bored and curiously and we searched up..... Like porn. On the internet. Idk why... Anyway we came across smth that looked like a MINOR.(it was anime porn) and we couldn't tell for sure so now I'm spiraling and have CRAZY confession compulsions to my mum and I really do not wanna tell her. Please what do I do.

I am newly diagnosed with OCD as a 33 year old female I was fat oses with bipolar at 15 and never really identified with it much and totally relate to ocd. I wish i would have known long ago so I could have gotten treatment earlier. Now that I know and am aware and can see what’s off and what are compulsions and my insatiable need for reassurance it’s so overwhelming- it feels like my mind is a prison and attacks me with a new pure o quest as soon as I wake up I’m optimistic I’ll be able to get better but it just feels like it’s time sucking and joy stealing disorder I know I’m not alone here I feel like a crazy person replaying and replaying things I want to know if you can relate or if you have been at this for a while and actually feel like you are breaking free from this Thanks for the read

I literally feel movements, pressure, tickle in my brain.. I still don't have access to myself :-( I don't feel happiness.. Some repetitive thoughts are gone, but I really feel like losing my mind I am on 200mg sertraline for 3 weeks now.. I had OCD for years but I could live with it.. Now my brain just stop working

How do you tell friends and family about ocd? Like it makes me so anxious and I feel like such a terrible person. A lot of my intrusive thoughts are on my kids. And I hate every single thing that comes into my head.

The things my brain convinces me of are so horrible idk how im going to get through this this time. I feel like I tell my self all the obsessions this episode u don’t even know or you definitely didn’t do but then I just start ruminating on simply the idea of them existing for me to worry abt being enough to keep me in the episode and I can’t even remember them all which doesn’t make sense how I would just forget but ocd makes it make sense yk. Sometimes they feel so real and there is nothing I can do to know and I just want to be happy so bad ik my core values and how I actually feel but it’s just a dark lonely terrifying cloud raining on me all day and night long.

Anyone take medication for OCD? The only medication I take is adderall but I had to stop due to heart issues so now my anxiety and intrusive thoughts are also back and adhd symptoms. My psychiatrist recommended I take antidepressants for my OCD like lexapro. The thing is I never ever thought I would take medication in my life. Here I am suffering from these mental illnesses which is also something I never thought would happen to me. I notice people that have OCD say that they wish they have taken medication sooner made life easier too but idk I’m still hesitant about it. How long do I have to take it for? Do I or should I take medication for OCD with therapy? Overall no adhd meds rn and man I feel so low and depressed lacking motivation and also overwhelmed thinking of doing other work related things.

I got diagnosed with adhd about 2 months ago, I started vyvanse and it was amazing at first. So much motivation, ocd intrusive thoughts were easier to let go and would not consume me nearly as much. But then about a few weeks ago I started noticing I was getting super irritable, anxious, intrusive thoughts taking over again. I had already gone up and down to try and tweak the right dose for me so I know it wasn’t the dose. So I stopped a few days ago, and all of that instantly subsided. I feel like I’m back to square one:( I do take Prozac, only 20mg becuase I have to slowly increase to reduce side effects but it does help me a lot. I still want to take adhd meds though because I’m back to feeling unmotivated. Has this happened to anyone else on stimulants? What did you end up having to try instead?

I feel like I m*lested my brother in his sleep because I was thinking if me touching his area disgusted me and I’m trying to remember if I got up and touched him but I don’t remember I was laying down I asked my brother if I did anything he said no but how would he know he was sleeping? It’s like what if I did something that I don’t remember?

I’m getting gronial responses by listening to an ancient Egyptian podcasts I love ancient history I was listening to one and they were talking about how he got married at such an early age and his wife was around 12 and my head is just hoping for him to say something inappropriate about them and immediately thought that if I wanted to listen to it that meant I was listening to cp and I got gronial responses and I just speed the podcast I had to take my head phones and lay down or eat a chocolate bar because the gronials it’s annoying I can’t even listen to music or do anything with my head phones on Then yesterday I was thinking did I touch my brother? Because when I was laying down I was thinking if I would get disgusted by touching his area it was just a thought because I don’t remember standing up and actually doing it but it’s like I feel like I did