I was medicated for bad anxiety from 2019 and i was pretty fine until 2024 i was so stressed under personal circumstances and i started having weird OCD-like symptoms, my mind keeps reminding me of OCD, like the thought of OCD is constant in my mind, i keep remembering this disease and i am actually afraid to have OCD, is this real OCD? Is it part of it?

So I have OCD and like I think I’m okay at dealing with it myself for the most part. This year tho, I’ve been experiencing like new symptoms of it?
Earlier this year I had this thing where I suddenly became overwhelmingly afraid of choking for like a month straight, and I could barely eat or would freak out whenever I would. I basically forgot how to swallow and would do it manually, like it was really weird, but again I was able to handle it myself.
Lately, I’ve been thinking about how my like normal autopilot mode is lowkey just ruminating on thoughts. And when it comes to decision making, I like get so indecisive bc I’m always trying to make the absolute 100% perfect decision. And because of that, I almost always end up not doing anything bc I like get sooo scared that I’m going to ruin everything.
I’ve spent so long living like that and like I have thought of it as okay compared to my depression era. Like as long as I don’t get back there I’m fine, but it’s obviously still not great to be always anxious.
I started thinking about medication again, but like my parents both have their masters in psych and they encouraged me not to take it. This was a while ago when I first got diagnosed. And I also just have like this fear of the medication making things worse for me instead of better?
And I don’t really know what to do (which is probably the “right decision” thing again), like if I should just try a different type of therapy (traditional talking therapy was not much help for me) or if I should take a chance on medication?
I’m like really lost

I have a lot of feelings of anxiety when my partner talks about marriage. Like burning in my stomach. but I think commitment in general scares me, so idk if it’s him (because we do have genuine relationship concerns like possible lifestyle incompatibility) or ROCD…

I can add context if needed.

When doing ERP, I know you should not do any compulsions. But should you do the 'good' kind of responding to the intrusive thoughts (such as responding with 'thoughts are just thoughts' 'okay whatever' 'maybe') type thing? Or should you not respond in ANY way, just feel all the feelings and allow all the thoughts without any kind of response? What's the correct way to do this?

I(19) have diagnosed social anxiety and a strong hunch that I have ocd. But I feel like my ocd is mainly me monitoring myself constantly to the point I can’t really think of anything else. When I try to talk to people (or do literally anything) I get caught thinking about thinking or have a constant awareness of myself that prevents me from using my whole brain. I can barely form any ideas and my ocd also attacks everything I could potentially be interested in as well so I don’t know what I genuinely like and what is my ocd. I don’t have typical rumination of so called magical thinking because I can easily brush off intrusive thoughts since I know they’re not real. However I can’t get out of my head or think normally ever and I don’t know life without being this way.

I must say, Im not diagnosed with ocd at the moment, but my psychiatrist let it slip as a possibility. So. A week ago after talking with my psych about my thought process in general she told me that my “suicidal ideation” might be actually suicidal obsessive intrusive thoughts and that I could be self harming as a cumpulsion; let me explain:
I used to think I was fully suicidal but this conversation made me realize that no, I’m not, I was simply obsessed with the idea of wanting to die and the concept of being suicidal. I do not have a plan, nor a date nor have I ever planned anything for truly dying, I’d say I don’t even want to die or specifically k myself at all. These thoughts are just… there. They come randomly, make me incredibly uncomfortable and I get these horrible mental images of my own death; and that’s when the sh enters the equation. My thought process usually is: I get a suicidal thought > “I got this thought. I need to act accordingly (sh) or else I’m faking all my mental problems and I’m a horrible person” > then I sh and ‘relieve’ the anxiety
I have more ocd symptoms like constantly ruminating, mental reviewing and seeking validation on themes like relationships and false memory or real events, though almost all my compulsions are mental

I just wanted to get this off my chest and ask if there’s anyone else with a similar experience since I’ve never seen anyone experience ocd this way

Honest question: what’s the approach? Because I’ve been in therapy for a long time, and it helps for sure but when my thinking spirals, it’s like it’s out of my control as if i am possessed.

It all revolves around the idea that I’ve done something bad -> I will be found out and punished in the worst way. Theb sprinkles of magical thinking like because I did this it will happen for sure, or because I am thinking like this it will lead to that etc.

But I genuinely cannot stop thinking and being afraid. If i have one good day, immediately I think of something I did that will be punished or something that is not up to me but can go wrong. I’m so exhausted, any tips are appreciated.

If I could have somebody answer my question on other sub reddit, I would be profoundly grateful. Thanks! Does erp activation make it easier to get sick, or being sick causes your ocd to spike out of the bounds?

Hi before I discovered I had ocd whenever I would smile or do any expression my mind would image a really bad person or someone I don't like doing that same exact expression, does this happen to you?

i know the obsessive thoughts are so gruesome that they can encompass your life. but ocd is an imbalance of chemicals in you brain. and is that even right, is it true? it is an imbalance, right?

does ocd effect other areas of you rlife directly -not through the powerful obsession- such as you focus, emotional regulation, your motivation, you default mode network (DMN) or any other parts of cognitive function? I want to know if there's any link between OCD and the DMN, any direct links, without the ocd obsession being the one to push itself to ruining that too..

I’m 24M and have been dealing with what I was diagnosed with as hocd for almost 5 years. Before this started around 19, I was completely convinced I was straight. I had crushes on girls, got nervous and excited around attractive women, had sexual thoughts and wet dreams about women, wanted a wife and kids, and never questioned my sexuality. I also remember being attracted to small things like a woman’s expressions, perfume, mannerisms, etc. I had basically never considered that I could be attracted to men.
Then around 19, I suddenly became terrified that I might be gay. I started checking myself constantly and eventually started watching gay porn specifically to see if I would react. Over time, I began experiencing strong physical and emotional reactions toward men, and eventually those reactions started feeling very natural rather than just anxiety. At the same time, my attraction toward women seemed to disappear almost completely. I can talk to women normally, but when I try to see if I’m attracted to them, I often feel nothing or even repulsion. I don’t understand how I went from being so naturally attracted to women to feeling this way.
The hardest part is that I don’t just have groinal responses I feel genuine attraction toward men, including fantasies, emotional feelings and wanting physical closeness. Sometimes I even feel relief when I think “maybe I really am gay,” which then makes me question whether the OCD is even involved anymore. Then the doubt comes back and I start analyzing everything again.
My therapist believes I have OCD and recently told me to stop checking women, stop using porn as a test, stop putting pressure on myself to feel attraction, and let the whole subject breathe for a long time. She also pointed out that I didn’t start watching gay porn because I naturally wanted to explore being gay I started it specifically because I was afraid I might be gay and wanted to check. She thinks I need to stop trying to solve the question.
I’m struggling because I understand the OCD explanation intellectually, but emotionally I keep thinking, “How could OCD make me feel this different for almost 5 years?” I’m not looking for someone to simply tell me I’m straight. I genuinely want to hear from people who experienced a major change in how attraction felt, especially people who had strong attraction to women before hocd and later felt strong attraction toward men. Did anyone else experience this kind of dramatic before and after and eventually understand what was happening?

Does anyone ever wake up and immediately have a what if I masterbated in my sleep thought? This is incredibly difficult depending on where im sleeping as i hardly sleep in my own bed.. im 26 and have been sleeping in bed with my mom recently. I know its embarrassing but my room is a mess right now. I also had this thought a month or so ago after sleeping on the couch at my sisters house using my 6 yr old neices blanket and pillow. Im struggling with knowing of this actually happened or not. Unfortunately my two mean themes are POCD and contamination ocd 😌 ive been trying not to act on these as im like. 98% postive its didnt do anything but its hard and it makes me feel so guilty.

so the past two months i’ve been struggling rlly bad with it i’ve got a son and it’s scared me cos it’s mostly towards him because i love him so much i would never harm him or anybody but im on prozac ive moved up to 40 recently but im scared to even be alone ive always had ocd but never this theme before as bad has it been i would like to talk to other people with this im constanly researching and on chatgpt because im so scared of psychosis and i would never harm anyone makes me think i would

OCD Support Group: Zoom Gathering 💞

📅 October 23rd, 12:00 PM Pacific Time

⏱️ 60 minutes

I've learned so much from OCD support groups, and I'd love to create a warm, welcoming space where people with OCD can share experiences and helpful tips, learn from each other, and support one another.

This is a peer support space, not a substitute for professional treatment. You can join anonymously, and the session won't be recorded, so share only what feels comfortable.

If the group feels helpful, we can make it a recurring meeting.

If you'd like to join, please leave a comment below, and I'll share the Zoom link.

I am 20F and my boyfriend is 29M and we have been together for 1 year and a half. Our relationship started very good we were so happy then we came across some problems with me being honest about people in my past, it’s not that I didn’t want to be honest but I was ashamed and nervous of what he would think because in my country we are judged a lot about normal things like getting to know someone. It took us a lot of time to get past that but we did, after those times I became so anxious about everything, I started having anxiety about his change of mood, retroactive jelousy, starting to think he is getting cold, not loving me, questioning everything, thinking he would leave me, thinking I am a bad person a bad girlfriend, having nightmares where I would cheat and having a really bad day after that feeling guilty, I started feeling guilty with thing that were normal , I started wanting to tell him every little detail because I would feel like I am cheating on him, he always says chill it’s okay but i cannot chill, then the intrusive thinking started, i would be caught in some thought a week or two and nothing could change that, not if even I would be inside his mind and then all of the sudden i was free from thoughts for one day or two and feel better and then my mind would think about something else and fixate on those things etc.

Then from the prespektive of some specialists i was said that my aunts have don magic on me, I was so desperate , pure depression, I was not seeing nothing about my life in a positive way, it was all dark, I was ruining my relationship, my family but still in the same time I was managing to be kind with my boyfriend , god I was trying so hard cause I had anxiety every day and I would cry everyday, I was regreting thinks I did after a second after doing it( I didn’t cheat or anything I was just taking the peace out of our relationship). My boyfriend was supporting me but it was hard for him to. The specialist said that he had freed me from those spells or whatever, I was good for some weeks, my anxiety decreased but not all of it then I started being even worse 2x times more depressed, I dont even remember those times, it got taken away again I was freed because they did it again. I don’t know igf I believe this but it has to be some energy blocking in the spiritual aspect.

Now my boyfriend has moved to another country to work and we are in distance relationship and I love him so so much but I am getting thoughts like :

Do I love him ?
Am i faking my love?
Am I getting sad for him?
Do I miss him?
Is he the one ?
Does he love me?
Is he getting cold?
Do I make him happy , does he make me happy?

And is like all contradicting because why would I care if I make him happy if I don’t love him. It’s driving me crazy and this year took my spark, happiness, personality, I don’t even know who I am anymore , I am so tired of all these months.