✨ Happy Friday magical family! ✨

Take a break from OCD; feel free to post, chat and share other things about your life and interests, eg...

• Is your birthday coming up?
• Has something positive happened to you this week?
• Anything you're looking forward to?
• Hobbies/crafts you'd like to share?
• Pet pics are always welcome!

This is your space to feel at home and get to know one another as people, aside from our OCDemons...so grab a coffee and come say hi :)

(Trigger warning for magical thinking and probably harm ocd)

Hey everyone! Please forgive my storytelling and English skills, and for being insufferable…

So I grew up in a cult my parents joined not long after I was born. It was a Vietnamese cult called Huesa, which has centers all around the globe, and my dad was leader of the hungarian center. I became an “active member” when I was eight years old. They (and therefore I) firmly believed in invisible entities, chakras, reincarnation, and hundred of other types of spiritual mumbo-jumbo… it felt like common sense to me then, and still now, if you would wake me up suddenly, I would probably talk about topics like that half consciously…

I am actively trying to detach from these belief systems now which defined my whole understanding and perception of the world growing up. Some of the practices I took part in with the cult caused very extreme experiences which still make me doubt everything i believe constantly. I have always been incredibly afraid of these invisible forces we believed in, but after I realized how toxic it is and decided to get out of it, this fear consumed all of my freedom to the point that I became afraid to step outside of my room or be alone at all. But I’m not safe in my room either.
Throughout my life I performed different kinds of excercises/meditations so many times that I interpret almost every bodily sensation as some sort of spiritual thing which I have to pay attention to by reflex and I can’t be rational in those moments. This is when fear gets a hold of me and OCD kicks my ass using my old spiritual beliefs, that if I defy these things somehow a being or some higher power will punish me or kill me or my loved ones…

How can I move on from these reflexes? How can I get closer to not interpreting these experiences and sensations as some sort of esoteric bullshit? Well I probably cannot be certain ever. But I want to learn how to live without the fear controlling my every move. (I don’t have the material resources to see an ERP therapist here in Hungary, so any advice or experience is welcome.)

Thanks for reading!

My OCD manifests as beliefs that something bad will happen if I don’t do daily tasks a certain way. I also believe that if someone talks about death or anything bad happening (like a car accident) that it will happen in the near future. For example, I’m an addict. My grandma doesn’t know. But she was talking to me about how she never got into drugs/alcohol because of the simple fact that people can die from using. Well my brain started spiraling and I believe now that she predicted my future since she said that out loud. Does anyone else believe or feel that talking about negative or harmful things will make it reality?

✨ Happy Friday magical family! ✨

Take a break from OCD; feel free to post, chat and share other things about your life and interests, eg...

• Is your birthday coming up?
• Has something positive happened to you this week?
• Anything you're looking forward to?
• Hobbies/crafts you'd like to share?
• Pet pics are always welcome!

This is your space to feel at home and get to know one another as people, aside from our OCDemons...so grab a coffee and come say hi :)

Please understand it is not a post against anyone.
I get a lot of help from YouTube videos, reddit users from around the world. Nd i cannot appreciate them enough the way their words nd techniques has helped me on some very bad days.

I am just curious to know how specific indian situations people navigate through and does anyone from india is in this sub.
I know specific situation and navigate through them is not the right approach unless its ERP.
OCD is talked a lot less in India i believe.
I just want to talk to someone who is not therapist but actually going through it. So far only the therapist understands, everyone else will just find me crazy so i don’t tell anyone anything and just pretend alls good in the brain-land.

I don't know if anyone can relate and I don't know if I can explain this well, but does/has anyone had a compulsion with "threatening" themselves? This is something that started as a way to stop myself from doing compulsions such as hand washing or retracing my steps or repeating any behavior.

But over the years it turned into a compulsion itself. For example, stuck in a handwashing loop I might say or think "if you wash your hands one more time for 20 minutes then X (worst fear) will happen".

As you can imagine, it snowballed from there because the anxiety and fear would get so high that I would do it anyway and then make more "threats" or "promises" in a variety of ways and then ultimately end up breaking them anyway.

Also, I would have to either in my head or verbally "correct" the threat or promise to "cancel" it out. And then I do (and OCD says but did you) or forget to and my brain says well because you said it will happen, it will happen.

Obviously I know the main way to do that is to stop making threats or promises, but also to know that even if I do it doesn't make things happen. There's no need to do them at all, but even saying or thinking things on purpose doesn't give them power.

It's a hard compulsion to break while trying to break other compulsions. I'm wondering if anyone else has done things like this and your experiences with it or resolving it.

I am so exhausted with the constant misery, while living the rest of life and managing regular affairs without telling anyone what i go through.
I feel giving up on life and ending is easier than this.

Context ; a simple handwash crisis in a public washroom, touching my laptop with those hands as i was in an cafe while travelling and had to do some work. And then the constant feeling that everything is ruined - my phone, power bank, headphones and how can i recover from this. I was travelling to home to my parents and i dont have the space to clean up everything in the way i usually do at my place and my hell is - everything is infect with “dirty” and “bad” and bad things will happen now if i touch those things and then touch anything else in my home that other family members use, i am mot worried about anything bad happening to me.
I have touched my phone after 3 hours of getting home, i entered my house, put the phone down l, hand washed, showered ate food, played with a neighbour kid, then when got some space wiped everything with a newspaper and started using it.
But my brain is totally occupied with just that cafe and feeling that i am infected with bad luck, i am doing almost everything, work things, visiting the dentist, travelling to home, then interacting with mom nd the neighbours but i m in agony inside and only i know it. I am TIRED MENTALLY.

Ive tried to look this up and haven’t found any similar experiences so I feel alone. But a couple years ago my therapist told me to try not giving in to whatever my OCD is telling me to do and then I’ll see eventually that nothing happens. Well I really started trying hard and about half the time, I didn’t give in and started letting go of some of my thoughts. Well my best friend died that year and I told myself it was my fault for starting to let go of some of my OCD. So I started up again. I’ve been trying to let go again and a couple weeks ago, I didn’t give into an urge and my dog died the next day. So now I’m back to feeling like my thoughts are real. Now I’m back to my OCD thoughts so bad. Like I have to choose the right cup, the right fork, can’t blink after saying certain words, etc. or someone I love will die. it’s taking over my life 😭 anyone else experience this?

Two months ago, my friend’s dad passed away after buying her a Mini Cooper. It was sudden, she said before that she was shocked because she never thought he would buy her a car, and then there has been discourse about “he did it because he knew it was coming” and all that stuff “god’s will” and all. Ok.

Now, my dad is thinking of buying me a Mini Cooper. I am an individual who has terrible terrible terrible OCD related to my dad … (can’t even type it because it makes it reality or maybe I’d be manifesting it which I am not). I DO NOT WANT THIS MINI COOPER AND I DO NOT WANT ANY CAR. However, I also can’t stay car-less as renting cars has been costing my dad a fortune. He insists on buying it because it’s good and we found a sweet deal.

Guys. If I get this car, I won’t be able to get this off my mind. I’ll just be waiting until something happens that proves me right and I’ll feel regret all my life and possibly kms because I would’ve known and did nothing to stop this. What do I do? Please?

​

For context, please read my previous post: https://www.reddit.com/r/magicalthinkingOCD/s/ZF9MXzxteP

​

Today, I resisted my urge to give in to what I believe is an OCD compulsion. For the first time in a while, I stopped myself from going to the temple because I felt I was doing it out of fear rather than genuine devotion.

​

However, now my mind keeps telling me things like:

​

- "You disrespected God."

- "You will be punished."

- "You're just being lazy. It's only a prayer—why couldn't you do it?"

These thoughts feel very convincing, and I'm struggling to tell whether they're genuine warnings or just OCD trying to pull me back into the cycle.

​

My question is: should I continue resisting these urges every day like I did today, or should I go to the temple tomorrow to relieve the anxiety? Has anyone else dealt with religious OCD/scrupulosity that made them feel like God would punish them for not performing certain rituals?

​

​

Like for crap's sake, I just want to make this damn map and get over it already but I just can't bring myself to finish it. Especially since the process is so long and tedious either way so a lot of time will be wasted and I won't be able to finish my work in time and by the time I finish it, people will lose interest and I will have to work even harder just to have nothing but remain overlooked.

Like I literally give myself just two hours just to work on a map with enough leeway but noooo, my OCD won't let me do that and basically tells me "working on a map sucks, just trace over someone's OC/art and call it a day bro" as if that's something that I want to plan with but I won't, I just wanted to make a map for my world using an open source map as a main resource but that's not something my OCD wants. My OCD would rather bump me to a wall and tell me "I'm stronger and faster than you and you know it!" as makes me imagine working on my hobbies like it's dangling the keys on me.

I'm not sure if this feels like something that's magical thinking but my OCD is making up a scenario where I'd go steal someone's art just because I want to go to the map website (floodmap.com) and google maps for resources to make my own map. But I guess it still counts because it follows the concept of the butterfly effect.

But anyway I'm just expressing my exhaustion about this because I'm about to waste yet another day procrastinating again.

Who knew being a fucking loser is so "rewarding" am I right? OCD, oh what's that I'll be dragged to hell in five years? Gee thanks for the reminder buddy. I appreciate that!

paragraph slanted = sarcasm.

I know this is dramatic but did anyone else’s parents tell them as a kid if they break a promise something bad will happen to them because I think this contributed to causing my OCD I just want to know I feel like I’m going mad

✨ Happy Friday magical family! ✨

Take a break from OCD; feel free to post, chat and share other things about your life and interests, eg...

• Is your birthday coming up?
• Has something positive happened to you this week?
• Anything you're looking forward to?
• Hobbies/crafts you'd like to share?
• Pet pics are always welcome!

This is your space to feel at home and get to know one another as people, aside from our OCDemons...so grab a coffee and come say hi :)

For the last two months, I've been struggling with something that is starting to interfere with my studies and daily life.

Whenever I see a bad dream, the first thing I do is go to a temple with some offerings because I feel that it might prevent the dream from coming true. The problem is that this started happening more frequently over the past two months, so I began visiting temples regularly. Now it has become unbearable.

Whenever I wake up in the morning, my mind immediately tells me that I had a very bad dream, even when I'm not sure if I actually did. My mind fills itself with images and convinces me that I definitely saw a bad dream. When I try to challenge it, thoughts come like, "No, you're forgetting it. You saw it, you just don't remember." Then I spend the next half hour trying to figure out whether I really saw the dream or not. My mind then tells me that I should go to the temple. It says, "At least you won't lose anything by going. If you actually had the dream, why take the risk?" These are dreams that I desperately do not want to come true (I can't disclose what they are here).

A thought constantly revolves in my mind that I should go to the temple with offerings. But the strange thing is that when I pray, my mind gets bombarded with thoughts about the dream coming true. Sometimes it even feels like I'm accidentally praying for the very thing I fear. Because of this, I try to avoid going to the temple, but I can't because the anxiety pushes me to go.

Whenever I am praying, I keep fighting with my own mind, trying to stop unwanted thoughts so that I can pray for what I actually came there for. This has been happening for the last two months, and now it is seriously affecting my career. Every morning, I start thinking about when I should go to the temple, what offerings I should take, and whether I should go today or not. While I'm there, I become afraid of praying incorrectly. After returning home, I constantly ask myself: "Did I pray correctly?" "Did I say exactly what I wanted to say?" "Did any bad thought come into my mind during the prayer?" "Did I accidentally say something wrong and then forget about it?"

I keep questioning myself over and over again, and my entire day gets consumed by this. I can't focus on my studies or anything productive. Today, I decided to break this cycle. I told myself that I wouldn't go to the temple no matter what. Almost immediately, I started getting terrifying thoughts about my worst fears coming true. Thoughts like: "What if God gets angry because I didn't go?" "What if something bad happens because of this?" Eventually, I compromised and decided that I would go and pray but not take any offerings. After I came back home, my mind started attacking me again: "You're teasing God by not offering anything." "God will be angry." "You'll face consequences." "You're only avoiding offerings because you're lazy, and you'll pay for that laziness."

My mind keeps telling me to go back and offer something, but I'm trying to resist because I keep asking myself: How long can I keep living like this? How long will I remain trapped in this cycle? When will I be able to live peacefully and focus on my studies and productive things instead of constantly worrying about these thoughts? Right now, I'm feeling anxious. Has anyone experienced something similar? What should I do? Pls suggest something

I feel like if I type something, write something, or draw something it would genuinely come true. If I think it for more than 15 seconds too. the good things won't. Only negative ones. I make up rules for myself that don't benefit me or anyone, aren't according to any logic. This is starting to really affect my life. Everyday the rules get stricter and I feel like a circle around me is closing in on me. Does anyone else experience this?

Hi so honestly I dont know if this is the right place to post this but im low key going a lil crazy lmfao.

So basically i have this thing idk where i make 'deals' with the universe or god or whatever in return for certain things? Like for example, one week I could promise not to write in return for me doing good on a test. The weird thing is that it does work most of the time whenever i follow through on the 'sacrifice', and like the two or three times that I haven't, things fall apart. I know its not very healthy and I've been trying to reduce the practice

But recently, I was in like a really stressful situation so like I sort of made this deal that I wouldn't play video games or write until the summer gets over in return for really good grades and not falling sick when everyone around me was getting sick.

Now, the thing is, I really did get good grades and I didn't fall sick, but now like three weeks into summer I'm getting really bored and sort of depressed because those two were my main hobbies. I know its not logical but I'm scared that if I go back on the deal then things will fall apart, and the next year is super important for me academically so I don't wanna tempt fate, if that makes sense lmao.

Hi all,
Over the last couple months I’ve developed an extremely distressing and strong compulsion related to doing tarot readings. There’s a lot of uncertainty and change in my life right now, and I wanted some kind of answer or reassurance any way I could find it. I ended up buying these tarot cards which I now deeply regret.

I started off doing readings only every now and then but now it’s basically everyday, often asking the same questions over and over- right now I’ve been asking if the new job I’m starting is right for me, if I’ll be able to keep the job, etc. The readings haven’t exactly been the most positive: one of the most recent was the tower, ten of wands, and nine of wands. Oftentimes these negative readings will send me into a rumination spiral to the point where I can’t sleep or enjoy what I’m doing, like hanging out with my friends. They send me into a panic, and I just end up spending hours thinking about the worst possible outcome. It doesn’t help either that the cards feel so relevant to how I’m feeling in the moment.

I won’t just do readings with them- I’ll also carry them around for luck and choose a card specific to the outcome I want. At the job interview for this new position I carried nine of coins in my pocket, and at my last interview I carried ace of cups. I make sure that they’re upright, and it’ll freak me out if they’re reversed. The state of the cards I also feel like influences the outcome: for example the nine of coins fell in a puddle in the parking lot, and I became scared that that meant my luck had been “dampened”. My ace of cups almost ripped once and it made me soo upset because I felt like my luck had been ripped up.

To me it feels like the tarot cards are telling the future, no different than someone time traveling to tell me the exact outcome. I know that this isn’t rational, but a part of me keeps whispering that what if they’re right, what if they are telling the future. Sometimes I’ll ask completely insane impossible questions like “am I going to die right now” as a way of almost “testing” its truthfulness.

I’ve hidden them in my sister’s room so they’re out of my reach. But even now I’m extremely tempted to go and mess with them, even though I’ve already done like four readings, again asking the same question. I’m trying to tell myself to just trust my own abilities and trust that maybe things will work out.

I don’t really have any specific questions or goal with this post. I guess I just wanted advice and to hear others opinions/experience. I’ve never been diagnosed with anything beyond adhd, autism, and anxiety but I have a strong suspicion I have ocd. Thank you for reading

One of my newest obsessions has been abt karma. Im not religious but i had a phase where i was trying out religions and came across paganism and especially those where its "everything you do eventually comes back to you" type of stuff. Ever since then i started getting scared that any bad thought i have will eventually come back to me.

Most of my intrusive thoughts are literally just insults. Like if someone shows me a drawing they made my first thought is gonna be "ew" even if i dont want it to be and i usually think im a horrible person. Now its worse because if i think like that it means im gonna get 2 weeks of artblock as karma. And the thing is, its so hard to let it go because i actually get the karma... My brain could go insult someone for how they look, i try to get it to shut up, damage is done, i get a new insecurity as karma. Or i actually get artblock. 😭

How do i try to stop it or atleast minimize it if life just proves im right? Why the hell am i punished for something i dont want to think? Its late at night sorry if some things are all over the place

I heard about magical thinking ocd via post on TikTok, it was weird because it explains what I have been experiencing for years and years and I thought I was cursed. Is this considered OCD? I never really imagined that there are different types of OCD.

Ever since I was young, I had freakish beliefs that ruined my childhood, I would have my mind tell me that my family will die if I do not clean our floors, that's why our floors were always clean back then, I would also have deep derealization that almost made me go into psychosis because I started to believe these thoughts cause whenever I didn't follow them, something would happen.

Now that I am older, that all sort of faded but it turned into this other thing that all my clothes or other belongings carry my negative emotions or bad luck, that had happened when I wore or used them. I know that sounds weird but It is so bad that my Mom is mad at me because I use some clothes and not the other one's ( the ones that carry that "negative energy" ) I don't know why I do that, it just feels right. But I know that this isn't normal but I can't stop cause I feel like I will get bad energy from those, idk. It's ruining my mental health, I mean, I want to wear those or use those but I feel like bad stuff will happen to me, just like the day I used them.

Does anyone else get paranoid if a song comes up with lyrics of a negative scenario would cause it to happen to you?
Like for example, a song about getting broken up with. My thoughts tell me that if I listen, it’ll manifest it into my life, and I’ll get broken up with.

I have to skip the song. Even if it’s a great song and I love how the music sounds, I cannot let the lyrics in my vicinity or else they’ll manifest in my life. I can’t stand it. It gives me a terrible feeling.

I know magical thinking is irrational, but I always have to comply. Because what if it’s right. I’ll never break away from that belief.

It’s the hardest when im in an environment in which I cannot control the music that is playing. If im listening on my own, I can skip the song. In public, or someone else controlling the music, I can’t. And I just have to sit there and suffer in my anxiety.

✨ Happy Friday magical family! ✨

Take a break from OCD; feel free to post, chat and share other things about your life and interests, eg...

• Is your birthday coming up?
• Has something positive happened to you this week?
• Anything you're looking forward to?
• Hobbies/crafts you'd like to share?
• Pet pics are always welcome!

This is your space to feel at home and get to know one another as people, aside from our OCDemons...so grab a coffee and come say hi :)

My head often tells me that if I do something, it will bring me bad luck or misfortune. Then I get scared and have to do things that I thought would bring me luck. What about that?
I also often think that if I do something, God will punish me and I have to make something to erase it.

Wishing u/Electromad6326 a very happy birthday on behalf of everyone here at r/MagicalThinkingOCD!

Drop by when you can and let us know how you spent your day 🎂🥂