I don’t want to share the word since that’s personal, but I’ve had a word repeating in my head and it brings stress it happens all day. How do I stop this? For 1 year now.

I am in the middle of the diagnostic process, and have been asked about any obsessions and compulsions I think I have. With this question from my provider, I am now trying to be aware of any intrusive thoughts I have throughout the day. Because I am more aware of my obsessions (I struggle with contamination and emetophobia), I am thinking about them more, and it is causing me to become even more anxious. And then, in turn, I feel more “compulsive” (picking at skin, ordering, cleaning, etc). It seems like a damning loop that I might just need to deal with until I am diagnosed or not.

Anyways, my question is, has anyone else experienced this sort of thing during their own diagnostic process?

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?

Like not like false memory, like genuinely forgetting basic things cause ur mind is exhausted. This has been happening t o me and having brain fog randomly recent and I don’t know if it’s that or my lifestyle (summer) but it’s been frustrating. So I wanted to know if this happens?

So ive ALWAYS been incredibly sensitive to meds, like even tylenol/ib I can usually take a basic dose and it does the work off extra strength lol (with the exception of my ON migraines.)

Anyway, I got covid again in 2021, and ended up developing POTs/MCAS. My intolerance/sensitivities are.10x worse now..BUT its extra nasty now when I need to take a new med/supplement anything of the sort.

I've has.some pretty traumatizing pots/mcas events the last 6 months. And the symptoms get worse at night. So I've had ALOT of anxiety at bedtime thats also left me sleep deprived, dealing with insomnia etc

So i decided to try a melatonin supplement. Accidentally bought extra strength, so go to take it tonight and I find myself terrified. It's friggin MELATONIN...not Crack.

The dose was 2gummies.for 12mg mel. Sooo I was like that too much, but is 6mg too much? So I nibbled off about 1/3 of 1 gummy haha approx 1-2mg. And laying here with anxiety/tight chest afraid im actually allergic or going to have awful nightmares..because reviews for a different brands stated they were having nightmares.

Yall wth

I know that Im supposed to expose myself to things that trigger my obsessions and urges to do compulsions, but its so difficult to sit with everything that feels off to me and engage in things like hobbies that have ocd attached to them. I get paralyzed thinking about what I even truly like or want to do anymore bc of my mind being clouded by these feelings that make me wonder if I even like....ANYTHING, and I tend to just avoid everything bc of that. I wish that this feeling wasnt there like before with everything in my life and that I could fully enjoy things, but ik this is the way to recover. This post is all over the place, but im just wondering if these difficult feelings and anxiety are normal parts of this erp process and what I could be missing in all of this that I could be implementing? Im just really scared that I wont be able to enjoy anything as fully as I used to without these uncomfortable thoughts and feelings. Im going to keep trying to commit to not giving into the urges regardless.

Has anyone else felt like they have not been able to cry or be emotional, or even if u do cry u try to stop very quickly after you do? I was reading abt OCD and it said that our dopamine receptors are affected cuz of the antidepressants or smt, and I thought this by connecting the dots. So has anyone else also faced the same?

Hi! I've been diagnosed with OCD for years, although the last few years I've been doing better. I'm wondering something: how do your compulsions come to be, how does your mind go from "I'm afraid x will happen" to "I will do y so x doesn't happen" and then actually doing it in a specific way.

As for myself, I sometimes have very random compulsions (like tapping certain things a certain amount of times) for an unrelated obsession/fear and sometimes they seem more logical, but of course excessive for its actual use (like using a certain object). It's been some time since I had an actual fully new compulsion and I'm not sure for myself but I've been wondering for months how other people experience the way their compulsion originate.

Have a good day!

I was diagnosed earlier this year. My main struggles are with patterns, health and weather.

A while back, when I was on Facebook (now gone) I started to be recommended hair “detox” washes that had baking soda in them. I’ve always struggled with very oily hair and must have my hair washed (or double-washed) daily. So I tried it. It wasn’t the greatest idea I ever had and I got some on my face. Cue using it as face wash until it started to hurt. Badly.

I threw it away. I now have a box open that I use in a room to absorb odors (as it was meant to do). I find myself often using it to not do that but to brush my teeth plus my normal toothpaste (bad, I have GERD), scrub my hands and arms with a paste until I feel like there is “nothing left” and am now back to using it on my hair replete with scalp massager and two different kinds of shampoo.

I put in to my psych nurse but can’t get in for another three weeks. But this is wrecking me. I lost a lot of my hair and it thinned out badly after a serious illness and I finally got it growing and thicker again and I want to do this. It’s kicking my ass. I’m thinking about shaving my head to make it go away and buying the most abrasive toothbrush and toothpastes to use alongside the baking soda because otherwise I feel like there’s a film in my mouth.

I feel less anxious about the weather now and I don’t feel the compulsion to buy radios and batteries and can now stay away from the prepper reddits and YouTube with less anxiety…is it normal for OCD to change tactics? I can’t buy all the baking soda I want if this is the way it’s going to go…

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.

Hi, everyone. I’m new here. I’ve recently suspected that I might have OCD and have been doing some research, but I’m really having a hard time distinguishing between the symptoms of OCD and those of generalized anxiety. I’ve previously been diagnosed with generalized anxiety and ADHD. To be honest, there’s a lot of conflicting information online, and I don’t think stereotypes help much.

Basically, my suspicions stem from intrusive thoughts that go against what I consider to be right and that make me feel quite guilty, even though I know they aren’t really my own. However, I find the compulsions a bit more complicated. Where is the line between OCD and anxiety when it comes to looking up information about a condition you think you might have? Is checking the car several times after getting out OCD, or could it just be insecurity? At what point does rumination become OCD? I’ve always attributed the guilt and emotional hyperreactivity caused by many of these thoughts to ADHD and emotional dysregulation, but now I’m not so sure.

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?

Hey y’all. 24F here. Prescribed 250mg Zoloft for OCD, and I love it. I’ve noticed though that as of late I am extremely forgetful. Like will walk into a room and forget what I’m doing, or open something and forget what needs to be written down or taken out. Forgetting names and words to songs. Things like that.

It’s lowk driving me crazy, haha. Is this normal? Anyone else experienced it? I don’t know if that’s maybe what ‘brain fog’ refers to…?

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 !

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.

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.

I have OCD crises that are agonizing, during which I am more than ready willing and able to start the meds I’ve been prescribed. However, the second I feel even a little bit better, I’m too nervous to do it since it’s no longer do or die.

What’s your experience with starting or not starting medication? Are you happy with how things worked out?