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If you've been living with OCD for a long time, do you ever just habituate to the thoughts to the point where you're so used to them that they no longer make you anxious?

I'm so frustrated with how when I get so obsessive over an issue I ask my family and friends so much for reassurance that I know doesn't even help alleviate the distress. It makes me feel annoying. Any tips for reducing this behavior?

I saw a vid of a customer slap the shiii out of an employee I don’t really know the whole context but ik she wanted her money back and she was yelling at the employee and the employee said that she wasn’t with that attitude she was having, and she slapped her and then I got so pissed bc if someone slapped me like that hell I would explode, but what lead to this was that I was imagining what I would do if I was the employee, which was slap her but then it escalated so quick to where I was imagining like worse harmful stuff so all ima say is that yk blood but then I was like whoa 😳 why did I think of that?? It went too far and I also felt like satisfaction from it when I imagined it but that made me so scared after when I realized what I was thinking and I’m just so scared of my feeling and myself, but OBVIOUSLY I’m not gonna act out like god Jesus no but i just felt that way and it lead up to it so fast and I don’t think this is ocd if I’m thinking violently like this 😭😭 I think I need help bc I really feel like my mind is being slowly corrupted man :/ I wasn’t like this before I realized I was sexually abused as a kid and even emotionally bc I felt played by them and then this whole intrusive thoughts started happening for like 1-2 maybe and now this is where I am 🙂🥲🤦🏽‍♀️

I just want to say to anyone who see this to keep fighting! I know how difficult it is to live with ocd, even taking one day at a time is challenging but we can all fight our way throughout this! I’m always here if anyone wants to talk xx

I'll use the bathroom at work...wash my hands with 3 pumps of soap...shake my hands 3 times...use 3 paper towels to dry my hands. I'll open the door to leave but I'll turn around and go back in 3 or 4 more times, making sure I didn't drop anything on the floor. When I buy a snack at the vending machine, I have to walk back a few times times to make sure the machine reset so nobody can use my card after me. When I leave work, I lock then unlock the door 3 times. I'll even write on my hand all the closing duties I've done, and then check them off. But still won't trust it, so I'll do it again a few more times. When I'm at home, it's not as bad. Except for when I leave for work in the morning. Stuff like making sure my hair dryer and air fryer is unplugged...3 different times. All of this shit adds up throughout the day and it's making me miss out on other things in my life. I know it is. I need HELP. I'm also a binge eater who loves fast food. I know my bad eating habits contribute to my OCD and anxiety. I hope so. Because it would be an easy fix if it were. But i know it runs way way deeper than that. What can I do? I feel like if I don't stop counting, something bad will happen. :,(

I’m still starting to learn mine. They include… - Accidentally Doing something embarrassing or shameful in front of people you look up to (even small things) - Feeling super insecure on a day - Spontaneously get a message from someone who I like. - Waiting on someone I like to message me back. - See/hear/think of someone who is in trouble (in pain) and I get this feeling like I need to help them urgently!

I’ve been pretty bad with eye contact lately, and it’s gotten worse… I’m afraid to look my mom in the eye lately because I’m afraid I think I might look at her chest or her lower body. I notice I’m doing some things on purpose like when I notice her in my peripheral, I’ll look when I don’t wanna look, or I’ll find an excuse to look at the areas I want to avoid but I know I don’t wanna look there, so am I using this as an excuse? Am I lying to myself? Do I really want to look at my mom like this? Like I’m avoiding to look at her by looking the other way or when looking down, but I’m looking down, I’ll purposely start looking near the area I want to avoid but I know I don’t look at my mom in any other way. I’m just distressing myself, it’s stupid.

I can’t get over the fact that I’ve been in such distress over something I thought about and had a sensation over. I watched a movie with a child and because I’ve had similar “reactions” in the past with what was going on in this movie which in of itself is weird, I was thinking about what I had just watched and had a reaction. And i assumed it was arousal, and I’ve always known I didn’t like kids but it’s happened once before at 16 and I managed to forget about it but this was an even bigger trigger, it had ruined my life. I can’t even remember how long I thought about it and I think it’s possible I may have wanted to think about it intentionally?? I’ve watched that scene to check my reaction and I can’t get that same reaction anymore. I just don’t understand wtf is wrong with me and I’m so beyond mad at myself and hate myself more than anyone in this world. I hate that movie so much now and get triggered seeing any of the actors in that movie even tho it’s my fault this happened. I’m convinced I def have some disgusting kink that ive been in denial over and am just now feeling guilty over it, I don’t have any other explanation

This passed weekend felt amazing. Nothing special but I felt normal. I actually convinced myself that my long nearly 4-month-episode was over. The intrusive thoughts and images were still coming but I didn’t get frozen in terror, I was able to actually enjoy little things like playing my Xbox and binge-watching YouTube videos. Until Sunday night, the backdoor spike struck. I just hate myself a bit right now for thinking it would be over that easily, I look in the mirror and I do wonder in my head, “will I ever see my old self again?” I once heard someone say that everyone has their own trial to battle in life, mine is just OCD. Well I don’t want this one, I want a different trial. I’m posting this because I feel isolated, OCD does really make you feel like your thoughts are your “true” self trying to emerge from years of trying to be someone else. OCD really does make you feel alone and like the worst person in the world. Worse than Dahmer, Gein, Gacy, why? Because like my mind always says to my soul, “you’re worse because you’re not locked up, they were, so they couldn’t hurt anyone anymore. You’re out here and who knows how many you will hurt.”

Agh, this irritates me so much. My hands and skin are tight and dry from going crazy because I keep being compulsive and washing them. I hadn’t left the house in over a week and I still want to fuss over my hands. I know it’s OCD and I know that half the viruses floating in my mind aren’t near me, but I still feel like I’m gonna catch a fatal illness if I don’t obsess over my hands.

so i just recently had my first kiss and i’m glad that it happened cause i honestly just wanted to get it over with, but afterwards i had a huge wave of uncertainty and fear surrounding it specifically with contamination but also feeling really guilty for some reason. Part of this i think stems from the fact that I do not sit in my bed until i’m in my pajamas, showered, and about to go to sleep, but we sat on my bed and watched a movie (so the first part of my worries is about my bed being contaminated and the second part is that i compromised my “moral standards” although i know this is irrational). On top of all this i also have trouble feeling like a different person (like i don’t ever want to do anything that feels like i have changed or am different now) and this situation is making me feel like i’m a different person because i’ve never been in a relationship and now i feel like i shouldn’t want to be in a relationship or even that i would be ready because of how fixated i have been on this situation this week. also im pretty sure this person doesn’t want to be in a relationship which i am glad for because i don’t think i could deal with that right now but i think that’s also contributing to me feeling like a bad person, because i have such a strict image of what a first kiss should be like (basically being in a relationship with someone) but the more rational part of me is saying that this idea isn’t really realistic. Sorry for the super long post i just needed to vent or maybe get advice from someone who had a similar situation?

I had a good 2weeks and it was so nice not dealing w my ocd. It’s back and I’m ruminating. Any advice..?

So I just got off a call with my psychiatrist and told her about my delusions and how even if logically i know they're not real, something in my head acts like it is abs causes me anxiety and such, I told her (very reluctantly out of embarrassment) and she says i potentially have schizophrenia or at least symptoms of it. She prescribed me medication for it and I got off the call and cried to my mom about my fears and dread I felt about potentially having schizophrenia Started looking stuff up about schizophrenia and then came across nocd articles which helped ease me a little, if I do have schizophrenia, its only mild compared to my ocd which I know because of my fear and obsession over my condition I dunno what else to say, mind kinda zoned off but yeah (and yes now I'm over analyzing if the zoning out is schizophrenia lol)

I wanna cry, when I was a kid,like a toddler. 4-6 maybe. I used to do horrible things to my cat, I choked it twice.my bdother did too if I remember right, but still. Ik this isn’t false memory. I’m 100% sure I ddi this as a kid. But now looking back at it I’m like wtf??? But I’m scared because whenever I see animals hurt now or accidentally hurt my animal that thing pops up in my head again and I feel weird. I can’t explain the feeling but it bothers me so bad. I want to cry. I don’t like this, i rlly feel like I’m a bad person. Idek if this is ocd. What if I genuinely have mental problems???

this is weird put my ocd has to count and put stuff in order and when i listen to music it helps me do it faster, because I use the beats to count which helps me not have to repeat numbers a thousand times. anyone else know about this?

my real event OCD flares up by my birthday each year. i just remember the feeling of humiliation— inviting people to my birthday and no one wanting to show up, suddenly everyone has plans, i bring up wanting to do something for my birthday and they say “oh why dont you go do that then?” in a way that says : “uh, why are you even bringing this up to me” i guess ive always been strong knowing that i dont make a lot of close friends, and that’s okay. but it just hurts so bad each time this time comes around and i am reminded of how humiliating it is to think you have built a friendship only for them to brush it off no explanation. “best friends” of over a decade brushing me off on my birthday because i thought they were just busy but i was actually just left in the dark not knowing they didnt even like me. it’s just hard. i feel unwanted and stupid. i don’t like trying, and when i try, it turns out like this. i have true, close friends, and a family that loves me now. but the past just haunts me. i hate my birthday. i want to move on, but each time my birthday comes around i feel like theres something stuck in my throat, an overwhelming fear of being the laughingstock without knowing again. i hate this.

Hi everyone. I have food allergy ocd. Eating anything is hard for me. Especially if I’ve never had it before. It’s causing a lot of distress for me. Eating something new means I will probably spend at least an hour in anguish over whether or not it will give me an allergic reaction. I sometimes convince myself it is actually happening and it’s so frightening. I feel like nobody else has this theme and it makes me feel more alone and isolated since I’ve never heard anyone talk about it. I miss when it wasn’t so hard but I worry that once I stop worrying then that’s when it will happen. Anyone have any advice?? 🥺🥺

Hello everybody. I’ve written many times about this topic but can’t seem to find peace within me. I remember sexual mimicking during childhood with my female cousin. She would do this to some of my friends too. She would kiss us by tongue and touch us inappropriately but we felt like we couldn’t say anything. It was a game as she likes a bit and she would call us by his name. When I got a little bit older but still young , I remember playing some kind of similar game to this one with my brother. We were both under 12. I think I was probably 11-12 and he was 9-10. Maybe younger. I’m not very sure. We would not kiss but we would get too close when in the same bed ( without our parents in the house ) we would be naked and our bodies were inappropriately touching. We may also have experienced some kind of arrousal as I definitely remember my brother did. We both enjoyed this game but both also knew it was in appropriate and we wouldn’t let our parents know. This may have happened 4-5 times during the same summer . Not ever again. My psychologist really have tried to reassure me and let me know this is more common than I think. My after covid 19 and quarantines I experience rocd and relationship guilt. Even if I have already confessed this ( without details ) to my boyfriend , my mind keeps on pushing towards telling him again. My constant fear is “How will you marry this guy if he doesn’t know?” “You are not normal” “We had forgotten about it. You should tell him again”. But I know I shouldn’t confess again because this is an unending circle. Any advice to get over this?

I believe I done something awful and kept looking for evidence and now I’m stuck with this one piece it’s causing so much anxiety, and I don’t know if it’s true, what I think I done would put me in prison, HELP

I grew up in a conservative christian home, school, and church. over the past few years, a lot of unexpected and difficult things happened to me which caused me to start questioning my faith. i’ve become a lot more open-minded and studied and after researching different religions and spiritualities, i don’t see christianity or anything the same. issues, doubts, and questions i’ve had with the bible and modern interpretations of it and god ultimately led me to take a step away from christianity. i’m convinced this is what i must do but it is terrifying thinking i’ve “gone astray” or “never knew Jesus” or that i may be going to h*ll. i have intense fear of death because of this which is always present in my mind. and i struggle to stop thinking existentially about everything.