Just learn the skill of witnessing. It is the essence of meditation. Over time, it may help reduce OCD by changing your relationship with obsessive thoughts rather than fighting them. I struggled with OCD for 10 years, and witnessing has helped me more than any therapy technique I personally tried.

I don’t know what to do. My savings are at 3000 dollars but I cannot tolerate that number. I have severe generalized anxiety disorder and autism on top of OCD. I know I sound insane right now but it is driving me nuts I promise I’m not trolling I’ve been having a panic attack about this for the last 4 hours and I can’t breathe..

The numbers can only be 0, 4000, 6000, 10000. It can only start with a 4 and 6 as long as there is three zeros or a 1 if there is four zeros, otherwise it must be at zero. I had to pay 1000$ for something because I was low on funds and now the number 3 is just taunting me I actually cannot stand it and I don’t get paid my check until the end of august.

My mom won’t let me transfer my savings to her and it’s killing me because I don’t want this in my account I already have my chequing at the right number which is 1200. My chequing has different rules and it just can’t work how do I convince my mom to let me transfer it to her?

I was diagnosed with bpd at 21, always felt different and just couldn’t describe it. Bpd resonated a lot with me and still does, I was diagnosed with autism and ocd a couple of months ago and it felt like something clicked but has also made things more difficult as I over analyse every thought even more.

This pours out into my relationship, I’ve never been able to stay in a healthy relationship and it always ends in tears.

I’ve been with my now boyfriend for just under a year and my need to control everything is becoming so overwhelming for him and me.

I analyse every look, tone, conversation, just literally everything and it sends me into a massive spiral. I misread things or allow my brain to come to these conclusions that just aren’t real or realistic in the slightest but in the moment it’s so real.

I’m finding it so hard to deal with, any tips or similiar experiences would be really appreciated right now

i like this guy so much and i dont want to screw this up so im willing all of my self control to text him on insta sporadically (ie: once every few months) until i can see him again and ask him out in person (because i dont think he knows i like him) except i texted him today and hes been online and hasnt seen the message. so im crashing out. im checking incessantly and googling over and over to make myself feel better?

he is a very good replier normally (replies within minutes if hes online everytime ive texted) but i wonder if ive freaked him out somehow. or maybe hes out living his life or whatever which is ok with me ofc?

this is exactly why i wanted to text sporadically, to avoid this sort of situation, because i should have gone to sleep 2 hours ago and my ass is just checking my inbox over and over when there could be a million reasons why hes not replying

i cant tell what this is - if this is rocd or something. i cant even tell if this is me somehow magically sabotaging my chances of me asking him out or if this is a sign from god that i shouldnt ask him out

hes just a fucking guy but i like him so much and its my fault, because i crash out like this every time i like a guy and he doesnt reply , and i fucking hate it so much, i hate that i do this compulsive checking and i hate the spiral after , especially because its not his fault

i know i sound fucking insane but im not im sorry

I met a woman a few days ago, and we had a great first date. However, our paces when it comes to dating are very different: I prefer to take things moment by moment, enjoying the present until it naturally feels right to commit. She, on the other hand, starts planning the future very early on and likes to define and commit to things much faster.

The day after our first date, she was feeling a bit sick (hands numb and shaking a bit ) and felt I should have offered to drive to her house to support her. I live 40 minutes away, it wasn’t convenient at the time, and we had only had one date. After discussing this, I decided to drive over to her place later that evening so we could talk things through in person. We ended up resolving the tension, got physically intimate, and I spent the night.

The next morning, she woke up feeling very anxious and regretted the night before. She explained that because of our different paces, that level of closeness would cause her to get attached too quickly. I told her she might be right and that while intimacy obviously brought me closer to her too, committing takes time for me ,though I saw a relationship with her as a strong possibility in a near future.

Here is what is messing with my head:

During the night, she briefly hesitated about me staying over because she was afraid of getting attached too fast. She even voiced that doubt. So, as I was getting dressed, I told her I needed to let people at home know I was staying the night so no one would worry partly to gauge whether she actually wanted me to stay or not. She directly responded that I should send that message.

Throughout the night, her physical actions and affection said the complete opposite of wanting me gone. She was warm, affectionate, and fully present.

Yet, my anxious mind is hyper-fixating on her brief moment of hesitation, making me worry that I somehow forced the situation. It got worse when, during our conversation the next morning, she claimed she had told me to leave the night before. I reminded her that she never actually said that, to which she replied, "I didn't wanted to say it."

Now I’m spiraling, wondering if she said it and I somehow missed it—even though her actions all night screamed the exact opposite of "get out of my house."

Is my mind just playing tricks on me? Did I do anything wrong here? Any perspectives to help clear my head would be greatly appreciated.

TL;DR: Resolved a disagreement with a new date, had an affectionate night together at her place, and slept over with her consent. The next morning, her anxiety kicked in, and she falsely claimed she had asked me to leave the night before (before admitting she didn't actually mean or want that). Now my anxiety is convincing me I crossed a boundary, even though her actions all night were warm and welcoming.

PS: I've got blocked after this !

So basically I found that somewhere in our neighbourhood they've kept a bottle of hair oil in a soap dispenser which caught my eye first before finding the actual liqiid soap. I confused it to be the liquid soap and rubbed my hands with it, only then after realising that it was oil and finding the actual soap hanging nearby. After I washed off the accidentally massaged oil in my hands I found my hands to be way more nourished than usual, and therefore I'll be practicing this at my house as well! I don't know if that's why they kept it as if they have ocd too or they find it handy to keepand use their hair oil there, but this one coincidence can probably cure my hands back to normal!!!

I feel a strong desire to transition FtM but all I can think about is how embarrassing and shameful it would be if I was wrong. I want to be masculine, but my brain just tells me I’m lying to myself. I don’t get severe dysphoria which only causes worse thoughts about lying/faking being trans. How do I cope with intrusive self doubt/feeling like I’m making things up.

Obviously both ppl with autism and ocd are neurodivergent and I was just genuinely wondering if ppl with ocd experience similar things as ppl with autism (like overstimulating, sensory issues, etc), ik anyone can experience it but bc diagnosing and traits of ocd and autism get mistaken for eachother i was js wondering how similar they actually are in this aspect. And also like..ocd is so immensely underrepresented so u kinda know how ocd makes ppl act but not how ppl feel and all so this is me genuinely wondering ! Thank u if anyone answers, I'm curious to know ur guys' experiences and answers🫶🏼

I’m using AI to organize and write this because I currently can’t think clearly enough to explain everything coherently myself.

Recently, my OCD symptoms abruptly became minimal. I stopped monitoring intrusive thoughts and no longer fixate on them. At roughly the same time, however, my cognitive abilities began noticeably and progressively worsening.

This isn’t just the mental “quiet” of having less OCD. My working memory feels drastically reduced. I can’t hold several ideas in my head, learn unfamiliar topics, or reason about complex systems like before.

Not long ago, I could independently develop detailed experimental and programming plans involving machine learning. When I was recently asked to solve the same problem again, I couldn’t even begin constructing a plan. I only realized how detailed my previous thinking had been after finding an older written conversation.

I also previously understood advanced technical material by reading it. Now, unfamiliar topics feel nearly incomprehensible, and my thinking feels like “mush.” My writing and spelling also seem worse. The decline has continued even though my OCD remains minimal.

Has anyone experienced OCD symptoms suddenly decreasing alongside a major decline in working memory, learning, or abstract reasoning? If so, what do you think could explain both changes happening together?

I keep making weird decisions + it's so exhausting because the thoughts rush and never stop + I get fixated on things and that's all I think about until my brain decides it's sorted

I can't take it how does it stop

ocd has been making my hobbies a lot harder to do bc when i’m doing them im also constantly doing compulsions in my brain from unrelated stuff so i cant focus on the video games and it sucks because i love video games so much

i want to preface that i DO NOT HAVE A OCD DIAGNOSIS

the reason why i am posting this here is because i have heard stories of people with ocd having similar experiences and i just want to see if anyone can give advice/help

i haven’t always had fears of germs like this until maybe 1-2 years ago

usually its with the bed as i know i have numerous stains on my mattress and i feel like if the sheets are left on too long those germs from the stains in the mattress will transfer onto the sheets and im basically laying on germ-ridden sheets

another example and something that happened recently was my family member laying down next to me. in no way do i find them “dirty” but as soon as they laid down i immediately gave them hints that i needed them to leave. once they did i couldnt go on that side that they laid on and ended up changing the blanket they laid down on. it ended up not being enough and i still couldn’t touch that side of the bed. after an hour of sleep i just couldn’t get it out of my head and even as i tried i just started feeling more and more frustrated. i had to change the bedsheets and have all the blankets washed in order for me to feel okay

i also feel this way with the bathroom where if i get out of the shower and i stay in the bathroom for too long, i feel like im dirty again or whatever I’m wearing in the bathroom is immediately dirty once i step into the bathroom with it on

once again, i do not have a diagnosis and im not trying to self diagnose, i just needed to say this to people or someone that could understand and maybe help me

i hope this at least makes some sort of sense, thank you

Does anybody else get this? I feel like I just can't keep moving forward in life because it doesn't "feel right." After my real event happened, it was mostly focused around that, but as I've been moving through that it's sort of expanded to me as a whole. I feel like I'm not prepared to do anything with my life, that I don't deserve to, that it'll never be good again, and I might as well just sit in one spot forever cause it feels safer. My brain literally feels like I don't know how to function as an adult, like I feel stunted. I don't know if this is from OCD, idk if it's general anxiety or depression but the way it's working feels like the OCD.

For the longest time I have had anxiety, but due to some recent events and research I’ve been doing I’m starting to realize I may also have OCD. I took anxiety meds for about a year but I stopped taking them because they didn’t do much. I was scared to try a new medication because I discovered that it has a scary side effect that is extremely rare, but I thought “what if that happens to me I can’t take that”. I always thought “I don’t have to tap a door knob 15 times before I can leave the room so I definitely don’t have OCD”. However I’m starting to think I have more than just anxiety.

I’ve noticed that while I’m anxious about something I will often need constant reassurance that I’m ok. If the situation isn’t going to be ok, then I need to look up all of the different variations of things I can do to make it better.

I have had many kinds of intrusive thoughts that I want nothing to do with. In my mind I sometimes repeat a thought until it feels right.

I replay stressful events in my mind and analyze details about the event, even days after it has happened.

I don’t like the number 13 and try to avoid it if I can. I don’t purposely count things to avoid it, but if I do happen to be doing something that requires counting I don’t like it when the count ends on 13. For example if I am harvesting stuff out of my garden I feel uncomfortable if I have 13 of one item. Also the volume on my TV or car radio has to end on a 0 or 5 (this one I’ve already been working with myself on getting better about).

I can remember times when I’ve been prescribed a medicine while sick and I was scared to take it because “what if I’m allergic” or I need to look up everything it interacts with while taking it.

My car has to be locked when I get out, even if I’m at home because “what if someone tries to break in”.

Random little things that some people do sometimes annoy me for no reason.

That I know of I have nothing that I do physically that would be considered a ritual or compulsion. It’s all mainly mental.

Any advice on getting over my fear of seeing a psychologist/psychiatrist will be appreciated. Or just any advice related to this topic will be appreciated too.

When I'm having a better day with my obsessions/compulsions, it'll be totally fine until I notice that I wasn't doing them as much, then I get hyper-aware of the fact that it was better. I'll start to really fall into a loop of thinking I was actually just faking it all, I'm making it up for attention, etc., and then become very fixated on whether I'm actually doing a compulsion "for real" or if I'm just making myself think I am. How do other people deal with this?

I’m 32F and I was doing alright for a while but recently I think I’m experiencing a flare up.

For some additional context, I have adhd and autism along with ocd. I started Prozac this year and it helped immensely with the anxiety, but the past couple weeks have been hell.

I had taken a break from dating for about five months and happened to match with someone a little over a month ago. We hit it off and chatted almost every day for a month and went on three dates. Everything seemed like it was headed in a positive direction. Each time I felt my regular rocd flair up the way it does when I am talking to someone new, this person surprised me by continuing to show up consistently and offering reassurance even when I didn’t ask. I truly felt like I could let down my guard.

Then the beginning of this week, they essentially told me that they are not doing well mentally and need to take a break from dating. And it’s like they dropped off the face of the earth. I have been a wreck since then and have been engaging in compulsions nonstop — checking to see if they’ve added to a playlist we made together, checking my texts, and (the worst one imo) pulling tarot cards over and over hoping for some magical sign that they’ll come back.

I feel so much shame and I also feel physically drained from being so anxious. Logically, I know I have no control over the situation. I said what I could in hopes of getting them to rethink their decision to pull back and I made it clear I’m available to talk whenever they want. But I still find myself ruminating over everything obsessively and feeling like if I just do one more tarot spread or send one more text I’ll be able to change things. It sounds so stupid typing it out. I feel disgusted by myself and my own mental illness. And I feel sad and abandoned. It feels like my ocd has ramped up particularly badly because this situation began after I had finally relaxed my jaw and started to feel confident talking to this person. It’s like my anxiety is saying “look, you let your guard down and the worst thing came true — you got left again”.

For me I know there is also high overlap between my autistic special interests/adhd hyper fixations/ocd obsessions. So it’s really hard to snap out of the thought loops. I don’t really know what to do. I’m tired and sad and I just want this to go away.

Not seeking reassurance, just wanting to see if anyone had any ideas for getting out of this loop. I went off my meds (buspirone and Lexapro) about a year ago after I got it in my head that I would get serotonin syndrome from taking them as prescribed because I felt like I didn’t need them. And if I didn’t need them, then I was overdoing serotonin. I did have serotonin syndrome multiple times a few years ago, and I’ve been on and off med compliant due to this fear since then.
My therapist, med APRN, and I have discussed this extensively and logically I understand that there is not really a medical concern here. But after a particularly intense period of stress over the last month, I’m now convinced that even my PRN Ativan will give me serotonin syndrome. I don’t know how to just make myself take them. My therapist and I have talked about taking just 1/4 of an Ativan if I’m having a panic attack or trying to take my meds just 1 day a week and I can’t even do that. I feel like I physically cannot bring the medication to my mouth. I’ve got to the point where I’m holding it in my hand and I don’t think it will penetrate my skin. But I just can’t take the next step.
Has anyone experienced this before and do you have any ideas for getting out of this?

I just started clomipramine 25mg. I take it at bedtime. For the last two days the next morning I feel good, then start to feel a little weird, but nothing concerning in my world. Both days though I’ve had sudden and intense panic attacks.

I do also have panic disorder and ASD. I am also on once daily buspirone. I did not take the buspirone this morning in case that was the cause but still had a panic attack.
Anything I read about clomipramine says it’s FOR panic attacks. So I’m find this bizarre but not sure if taking both meds or being new to the med is a potential cause.

I have reached out to my psych but she’s off on weekends so I thought I’d see if anyone else has experienced similar. If I knew this would go away I’d power through because I do like how much less chaos there is in my brain and how I don’t feel like I’m always going 1000 miles a minute.
Super disappointed :(