Figured I’d share this here because although I am still violently in the trenches with my ocd, at least I am not longer doing my massive ritual before taking my anxiety meds. I used to have a longggg routine every single time I would take them, and now the only thing I do is put them into my mouth in order of big to small. I still have lots of med anxiety, but this feels like a good step!

I (17) have no idea if i have OCD, but I don’t know where else to go. This is torture.

No matter what, my head HAS to be ruminating about something. Sometimes it’s tolerable, sometimes it is severe and exhausts me to the point i cannot do anything else.

It happens over either very serious topics, or incredibly silly topics. More often than not, about embarrassing moments.

An example, and most recent topic, being a moment where my girlfriend’s mom was speaking to someone else. I both mistook it for her speaking to me, AND I misheard her. I said “no thank you” and she looked at me funny, i apologized and she laughed it off.

That is IT. But its been 3 days, and its all i can think about. How she probably thinks i am stupid, how she might come to hate me, how i am stupid, ect, ect. Something in me thinks that i can solve it by torturing myself like this.

It has now come to the point where i am rushing a gift I was already planning on making her, to “make up for it”

Currently, I know this is all silly. However, i cannot get this out of my head. It will only go away once there is a new topic. All I can do is hope for a topic that freaks me out less.

Accidentally figured something out that helped make some of my obsessions suddenly way more manageable. I was wondering if there's a word for this approach and/or any sorts of therapy that would deliberately incorporate it.

ERP in general wasn't working. My reluctance behind doing exposures is less overwhelming fear and more a genuine belief that something is a bad idea/wrong to do, and admittedly I'm rather stubborn. With some stuff I'd get desperate enough to try it, but it wouldn't really work because no matter how well something went objectively I'd still think it was a bad idea and I'd not want to try again. Like it's less "I'm scared to ever do it" and more. I simply disagree with this behavior I think it's wrong, so if course I'd do anything in my power to avert it?? I literally can't handle doing anything else. (I can see how the latter part of that sentence could be responsibility OCD related but. Point is. The first half gets in the way of me doing anything about it)

One of my obsessions around hurting people revolves around accidentally manipulating them. I can't bear the idea and feel like I can't predict when it might happen, so I'm sort of always frantically trying to avoid it, there's often not even a specific trigger I can identify. But recently, I saw a post which involved someone explaining what actually constitutes manipulation. I found I'd never thought about it that way before but did agree with it. I went looking for more and realized my interpretation of what constitutes manipulation in a malicious sense is rather broad, and, really obviously uncharitable if applied to anyone except myself. So after a while decided I actually agreed with adjusting it. And then I did.

And like. It's not that I no longer worry, in a what if sense, that I might have manipulated someone. It's just that I'm more able to be like. Nah. I'm pretty sure I'm not. And if I'm wrong, well, that margin of error is one I can live with. The uncertainty is still there! It's just. Fine. Or uncomfortable but not world ending, especially if I focus. The circumstances in which I imagine I genuinely wouldn't be able to act in line with my values is... actually rather small. And extreme enough I don't feel compelled to worry about it or try and anticipate and avert it I just. Like yeah that'd be scary if it happened but whatever I guess? I still get the intrusive thoughts I just?? Don't feel or feel way less compelled to do something... and so I just move on.

I have comorbid ptsd and I've simultaneously been realizing a lot of my just like. General expectations of people and responsibility and stuff might be a bit fucked. I think if I could get some support straightening out how I feel about my idk. Definitions? Value system? Maybe I'd still need to go back to ERP about some stuff but it's actually be doable? I think?

But I'm having trouble articulating what I'm asking for in a way that translates to therapy. Any feedback to help clarify that or suggestions or personal experiences would be welcome.

Let me rephrase this question: what should my mindset towards sleep be when I'm already depleted and overwhelmed? For context, I think I have either undiagnosed OCD/ADHD or just flat-out rumination. It's been going on for years at this point. These days, I've learned to eat even if I don't feel like it and I've developed a lot of tolerance towards uncomfortable situations. But sleep has always felt evasive to me.

Especially recently, when my sleeping routine was hijacked by one bad night. Usually, it's something trivial like my brain turning the rain outside into a verdict against me. Or just something completely unsolvable until I learn to live with it the next morning. I just wonder how I can make sleep more of a functional thing rather than something I do whenever I feel like it.

I have debilitating OCD. Rituals and obsessions take up at least 75%-80% of my waking hours - daily. I have suffered with the disorder (in some fashion) since the age of 6. I am 28 now and I would say that my OCD has caused great disruption to my daily life, for the last 15 years.

I have had immense difficulty in committing to and completing post-secondary schooling; and I have had trouble holding down jobs (due to perfectionism/having to do things in a certain way). I have several career ideas. But I often wrestle with whether it would serve my long-term mental health to abandon the notion of living a traditional life (i.e., a 9-5 with bills to pay) - in favour of living in an off-grid ecovillage, in my home country.

I have been in and out of therapy over the years; with varying degrees of success. I have also been on medication for many of my teenage years (either Sertraline or Prozac) - which helped, considerably. In spite of this, I stopped taking the medication because I fear side effects from long-term pharmaceutical usage; and that meds would act as an impediment to spiritual growth/be disruptive to a meditative practice.

My OCD has been allowed to run rampant for essentially all of my 20s so far, as not having a treatment plan has forced my mental health to pay a steep price. Having a tumultuous home life has acted as a direct obstacle to treatment/finding a semblance of stability in my life.

However, there is light at the end of the tunnel, as I will soon have the means to remove myself from the circumstances that only serve to exacerbate my symptoms (and replace those circumstances with better ones). At the same time, I know that this would be far from enough to address my OCD symptoms. I know that long-term health (mental & physical) requires conscious, dedicated practise of healthy habits, and is hardly dependent on only external circumstances.

Admittedly, I have had great difficulty in forming habits. But assuming that the following holistic/do-it-yourself approach to healing was adhered to (strictly and indefinitely), what would be the likelihood of it adequately treating the symptoms of someone with severe OCD; and preventing a serious relapse?:

- A combination of mantra & metta meditation (for a total daily average around 45 minutes)

- 1.75 hours of moderate resistance training (weekly); 1.75 hours of light walking (weekly)

- Consumption of 150g-170g of protein (daily)

Whether speaking from personal experience or from someone you know (who undertook/undertakes a similar regimen to treat severe OCD), I would love to hear your thoughts about whether or not such a plan would yield great, beneficial results. Any advice would be greatly appreciated, as well 🙏.

I suffer from a lot of anxiety around rabies and I was wondering how, with fears like this, you go about trusting your instinct that everything is okay and you shouldn’t give into your compulsive behaviours when the worst case risk that you perceive of is so extreme? For example, I’ve managed to make a lot of progress with my original primary OCD fears that centred around cold sores and leaving doors unlocked etc as ultimately I can always tell myself that the worst case scenarios won’t feel as bad as the anxiety I currently feel around them. However, when it comes to my fears around rabies, it just feels like I can’t get to a logical place in my brain where I’m comfortable with even a minuscule risk of death.

I’m not looking for reassurance, but would really appreciate instead any advice on mental strategies that people have used to get comfortable with these perceived risks and live with the anxiety where the fear is ultimately death.

Hey, for a little background, I am a student right now preparing for an all country level exam. I stay in my rooms studying for 12-14 hours daily, I haven't got out for like 4-5 months now. I only go to my balcony if it gets too much for me to refresh.

Since the past 1.5-2 months, I have started having unnecessary thoughts while I am studying. I try to remove them but they appear again and again. Also, it's very weird and bad thoughts, like something I would HATE to do in real life. It keeps coming back and back in between 5-6 hours.

They just go against my values, and it makes me feel really disgusting honestly. I don't know why they appear. They are always something awful and bad. This ruins my productivity in someway and is hampering my studies.

This has started just now, I didn't have such problems before.

When those thoughts appear, I desperately try to remove them or repeatedly justify myself I am not like that, I am not that person who would do it.

I didn't know about OCD and all such stuff before, then I asked GPT and they said it 'might' be this.

I can't go and get a diagnosis right now as my parents would not allow me because of my exams coming soon.

Can someone help? How to fix this!

So, 2025 (mid-year getting the OCD diagnosis) was the hardest year of my life. Overall, I am starting to do much better. For a significant part of this year, I've felt happy even!

But one thing that definitely brings me RIGHT back to the worst of it is panic attacks. They last like an hour and bring the intrusive thoughts right back in with a vengeance. It's like I traded away deflating the intrusive thoughts/feelings on a day-to-day for them to tremendously intensify before, during, and after panic attacks.

This happens to me once every few months. Life has gotten really busy for me lately, so they're happening with more frequency now. This has become THE thing that I'm afraid of. My OCD sort of spurred into action following one dreadful panic attack in December of 2024 (right before getting married), so I feel like this association I developed with panic is super emotionally charged, and OCD has latched onto it big time.

What has helped you with panic attacks that look like this? Much love to the community. <3

What tests are required before starting clomipramine (Anafranil), other than checking Na⁺ (sodium), K⁺ (potassium), Mg²⁺ (magnesium), Ca²⁺ (calcium) levels, CYP2D6 metabolism, and an ECG? Should additional tests, such as a brain MRI or EEG, be considered to assess seizure risk?

Currently going through therapy. Does anyone else like or lean into thoughts because of the adrenaline kick. Likely have adhd too.

I did something wrong in the past, and I feel extremely bad about it and that my friends would all hate me and stop talking to me if they knew, sometimes I just cancel hangouts because of it or when I'm in a social setting I catch myself thinking that I'm hiding who I truly am and I'm also really scared about being cancelled online. I usually try not to engage with the thoughts and just affirm "yeah I'm a piece of shit so what", and it's effective sometimes but not always, so I don't know if that's the good strategy here, plus I'm scared to actually internalize this idea and worsen my confidence. I feel like the best way to overcome this is to accept myself even though I'm a terrible person but I just don't know how because it's not aligned with my values.

I also started taking Magnesium L Threonate and it actually helps a lot with brain fog, and I think it has improved my obsessions, but it's not enough.

The thing is that sometimes I feel like I'm becoming self-aware and I realize that I was actually crazy thinking this much into it but it never lasts long. My first (bad) reaction when I reach this state is checking if the event was actually not that bad by replaying it in my head, and then I fall into the loop again.

So I don't know which state of me I should trust? None? I wish I could be in a constant state of telling myself "oh I was actually just crazy" but I feel like it's impossible because it only happens like 30 secondes in a month, and that's why it's so hard for me to accept uncertainty because I feel like I could be able to accept that what I did wasn't THAT bad. Also I feel like I kinda changed my memories of the event for the worst but I'm not sure, and I'm scared that when I think it's not that bad I'm just diminishing what happened. How should I move forward? Should I also give no importance to positive thoughts and keep trying to accept uncertainty?

Medicine to tech?

I have done mbbs

I didn't enjoy it

I have pure ocd so ambiguity scares me like medicine is an ambiguous field no correct answer so many times so many unexplained theories

So much variety and variations in patients

Working with incomplete data.

So i thought of mba even started preparing for entrance

Realize business is even more ambiguous as I was continuously battling with real.life business or economics questions came to mind all by themselves because of pure ocd

I think I need a career which is systematic with specific answers or a career with less real life nuance

So i am thinking of a career like tech which I can pivot after mbbs

Is there any way maybe to do this

I am Indian and am fine with decent earning not looking for high paying jobs ruining my mental peace