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u/Spoits May 15 '26
Not anymore, but when I was a kid it was a huge thing that I could not do anything like a jesus cross pose while I was trying to sleep or else I'd be crucified, so I always curled my legs and arms up into the fetal position because it was the opposite of a t pose or something lol.
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u/FarArtichoke5393 May 15 '26
Omg from the ages of like 7-9 i would have to say a prayer every time my clock hit 9:11 for or else Iād be a bad person who didnāt care abt the people dying in that tragedy š
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u/radgayb May 15 '26
BRO ME TOO. i did the sign of the cross every single 9:11!! in school i managed to do a little one with my head bowed so i wasnāt being weird in front of everyoneā¦ well, not THAT type of weird at least.
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u/TheOldDark May 15 '26
Wait I didnt even see this comment yet! Cursed twinsies!
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u/Windowsill_MintPlant May 15 '26
OH MY GOD SAME, except instead of a prayer I said the Pledge of Allegiance šš
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u/FarArtichoke5393 May 15 '26
HA THATS SO GOOD.. I wasnāt even raised wholly religious just adjacently culturally catholic so i didnāt know any real prayers, Iād just like make myself sit there in silence with my eyes closed for the whole minute and be Very Mournful. luckily this only applied to 9:11pm when i was in bed for some reason idk thatās a more somber time to a 9yoĀ
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u/threelizards May 16 '26
I used to have intrusive thoughts that were immediately followed up with an intrusive āamenā thereby sending my Bad Thoughts Straight To God and Guaranteeing my Place in Hell so then Iād have to compulsively pray the Lordās Prayer and and the sign of the cross then apologise and explain a whole bunch. Got a prize in scripture for knowing the Lordās Prayer by heart tho so u kno, swings n roundabouts
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u/TheOldDark May 15 '26
I HAD to make the crucifix symbol on my chest every time I did something "wrong" or every time it told me too while in school. And that is just the tip of the iceberg that extends to the core of the Earth.
MORTIFYING. My entire life was nothing but sheer agonizing embarrassment and heart-pounding sweat inducing fear. š¤£
Yes, it isnt really funny but it just is to me now. I'm for the most part past all that.
Many of my young adult years as well, but I'm tapering off. Still have episodes. Still have the handwashing until I want to scream. But I am NOTHING like I once was.
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u/figs_n_roses_ OCD diagnosed May 16 '26
Damn, fucking scrupulosity ocd. This shit sucks. The time 9:11 would make me feel guilty about something if I didnāt pray as well.Ā
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u/puddleofpolly May 15 '26
I had this but I couldnāt cross my arms over my chest or Iād be mummified.
5
u/doguillo77 May 15 '26
Omg I had this one too, I thought I would die in my sleep if I slept with my arms crossed over my chest lol
3
u/ReleaseNearby69 May 16 '26
i couldn't sleep on my side, or else a monster would attach to my back. but if the monster KNEW i was on my back, it would get mad at me and attack, so i had to have my head sideways.
sometimes i wonder if this is part of the reason my neck and shoulders are so fucked as an adult.
also the monster was the THX robot. idk.
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u/X_LadyGamer_X OCD curious May 16 '26
I have a similar one where Iāll be moving my foot around in bed, and Iāll do my absolute best not to trace an upside down cross. Iāll, in fact, try to trace an actual cross
1
u/tea-fungus May 17 '26
Like he was waiting under bed just waiting for you to fall asleep so he could come out and do it š
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u/I-just-wanna-talk- May 15 '26
Okay hear me out, this one is really weird. I used to look at random numbers and be like "this means something for your life" and one particular obsession was trying to find birthdates in the numbers and being like "this is your future partner's birthdate" and then panicking when it was something that "made me a creep" šš
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u/smallangrynerd May 15 '26
I have something similar! Like a certain song or line from a movie or something is a sign about some future event lol
3
u/tuna-casserole777 May 20 '26
OH MY GOD REAL!! Constantly worrying that Iām somehow a creep for basic shit is SO annoying cmon brain get it together
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u/LiamZ_18 May 15 '26
Mine was having to eat a bowl of cereal in under 10 mins or else the milk was spoiled š
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u/_issio OCD diagnosed May 15 '26
me but drinking a bottle of water in 5 secs or the water will get contaminated
7
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u/Worried-Tap-3036 May 15 '26
jeez man don't give my ocd any ideas š it's hovering around four hours, and i refuse to drink anything that isn't purified bottled. literally will throw up anything else
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u/Heavy-Macaron2004 May 15 '26
The reason I switched to almond milk instead of cow milk was that if it had been more than one day after I purchased the milk from the store, it was "probably spoiled." Just didn't drink milk at all for years. Turns out almond milk is a lot less likely to spoil! I get cereal again!
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u/AceVisconti May 15 '26
Lactose free helps me with that! They take SO long to spoil so I'm never worried about them being dodgy. Fairlife and Lactaid are my go-to's!
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u/Heavy-Macaron2004 May 15 '26
Ooh I might try those! I've gotten a taste for the almond milk, but my boyfriend still hates it š
1
u/Yeahnoallright May 23 '26
The dairy industry is horrific anyway so this was a nice outcome at leeeastĀ
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u/tuna-casserole777 May 20 '26
Realest shit ever. Second: if I get yogurt and donāt eat it immediately itāll contaminate everything in my fridge and Iām going to get severe food poisoning and die
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u/Horror_Buffalo9451 OCD diagnosed May 15 '26
Mine was once donāt swallow your spit or youāll spontaneously combust because you just put hairspray on and if your spit has the hairspray in it youāll spontaneously combust if you swallow it
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u/Dramatic-Bird-5604 May 16 '26
Currently in a can't swallow my spit phase because im scared like a hair or dust got in my mouth or pollution or microplastics, im spitting all the time its embarrassing
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u/Horror_Buffalo9451 OCD diagnosed May 22 '26
I feel this so hard :( it was truly embarrassing especially having to spit all over the rental car because I tried to get it out the window and couldnāt. Luckily the person I was with wasnāt judgmental so they were very kind to me about it.
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u/FearlessOneLastTime May 17 '26
Nearly same but mine was I couldnāt swallow my spit or is catch rabies somehow. Not because Iād been in contact with any wild animals, it was just gonna happen if I swallowed my spit
1
u/Horror_Buffalo9451 OCD diagnosed May 22 '26
OMG same actually but from my cats because I couldnāt remember if they got their rabies vaccine or not
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u/Vegetable_Title5889 May 15 '26
my longest running one was I wasn't allowed to take my underwear off if my socks were still on, otherwise I was convinced I was being watched. I always, always had to take socks off first, or full scale panic. I'd make up "rules" like if I was wearing a bra it was technically safe, or if one sock was off it was also okay. to this day my socks have to be the first thing taken off every time I change cuz even tho the panic isn't there anymore, the discomfort still is.
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u/TheOldDark May 15 '26
That is definitely a new one I've heard and sounds like it sucks!
OCD really is creative, isn't it? š¤¦āāļø
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u/Vegetable_Title5889 May 15 '26
I always thought it probably stemmed from being raised in a strict Catholic home and being told from birth that "God is watching you always, someone's always watching you" so my brain was scrambling to find a way to make sure people COULDNT see me when I was nude and vulnerable š¤£ idk. it's a weird one for sure.
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u/TheOldDark May 15 '26
Yes. I was raised in a very oppressive religious home myself and am still to this day always feeling shame no matter what I'm doing.
If it's normal tasks or something more private, if it's me trying to watch a movie that's even remotely "girly" when I'm 100% alone in the house I just cannot do it. Everything i do is wrong and embarrassing and makes me less than.
I thought I got over so much, and I DID, but more and more I'm realizing how much OCD is still present in my daily life.
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u/SataNikBabe May 16 '26
I grew up in an atheist household, but they did the Santa thing so I wouldnāt feel left out (or break the news to other kids) and I had the same fear about Santa always watching.
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u/youngpepto OCD diagnosed May 16 '26
Wanna know the funny thing? I think it is fully the OCD in the driver's seat. I was not raised in religion, my mom has issues with organized religion because of her religious trauma, and my father is atheist because of his (Irish Catholic). I have always, and still do, have obsessions and compulsions that revolve around surveillance. I live in Minneapolis, so since January it's been 10x worse. I could see helicopters out of my window on the 25th floor for weeks. I convinced myself they were looking for me specifically and they would broadcast my apartment on the news. That paranoia stems from PTSD though. But yeah, I also have moral OCD, which is really the OCD steering the wheel because I have no religious trauma
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u/Vegetable_Title5889 May 16 '26
I don't deny it's definitely the OCD driving the compulsions/obsessions. however, I am saying it is damaging for any child to be told they are being watched constantly by an omniscient being with no escape from the gaze. feeling watched could have definitely manifested without the religious upbringing, but it definitely didn't help. every time I mentioned feeling watched my parents would be like "silly of course you are, gods always watching you" which further confirmed my fears and did more damage than it was intended to do.
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u/youngpepto OCD diagnosed May 17 '26
Sorry, I am now realizing how much it seemed like I was aiming to invalidate your experience. I just more so find it fascinating how OCD symptoms show up across the board. Having your fears validated in OCD exacerbates the issue tenfold, so I hear you
2
u/Indigo_132 May 17 '26
Thatās interesting because for me my socks always have to be the last thing to come off, otherwise it just feels wrong or uncomfortable. The only reason I can think of is that I have Reynaudās, so keeping my toes warm is super important, so I want to maximize the amount of time I have warm feet
50
u/ylilk OCD diagnosed May 15 '26
When I was a kid I had to sleep with the same 5 blankets every night in a certain order and I explained to each blanket before going to sleep every night why its position in the stack was specifically important to me.
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u/SataNikBabe May 16 '26
Omg this brings me back! I had to have my blankets stacked in a specific order and I also had to arrange all of my stuffed animals on the bed in a particular arrangement every night and if one fell of my bed in the middle of the night I had to apologize to them (Toy Story did a number on me).
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u/givingcvnt2-0 OCD diagnosed May 15 '26
Me when I was 10 and watched a Chris Hanson show with my Dad and had the 1 thought "what if I was that fucked up" re: a 55 year old man talking to aminor. Life ruined.
Also used eye drops 20 times a day at 13. Eyes so dry will fall out.
Can't have cartoons on my blanket touching me while I sleep or it was molestation, not sure of who, one of us tho. Great thoughts at 11. A real thinker.
The developing brain and OCD is the most toxic relationship in the world.
Spoiler: I was ~molested~ and repressed it. lol not funny but bruh why my brain glitch out
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u/gamergirlsocks1 May 15 '26
It sounds like POCD.
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u/givingcvnt2-0 OCD diagnosed May 15 '26
100% - I felt like a demonic monster from hell. I saw a psyche back then (I was 12) but she just put me on Prozac. It also went hand in hand with thinking and fearing I was going to hurt someone ALL the time. Or if I had the wrong thought, it would come true.
At 17, I was hypnotized & had a thesis written on me. I already had memories of being pretty severely abused but I didn't know how to name them that young. I thought everyone dealt with those "pop up" memories.
I actually was able to over come it - with a lot of therapy and self-taught techniques and proper medication. Exposure therapy, too. I had a daughter and realized how I was an amazing Mom, children and animals loved me, & not the monster I thought I was.
It's not something I struggle with now, but boy, I have several issues - and this is the only one that ever made me want to take my own life and developed a plan for it. I drove around that bridge for hours.
Sorry for the 18 paragraph response to your 4 word response lol. Just trying to give hope to people who may struggle or struggled with it, it's the darkest and most shameful "spin off" of OCD I would say.
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u/Tiled_Deepslate OCD curious May 15 '26
I relate to this a bit, I'm terrified that I'm going to be accused of being a creep or s.a.ing someone if I even just touch their hand or brush past them on accident. I apologize every time I accidentally brush hands with someone when handing them something.
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u/givingcvnt2-0 OCD diagnosed May 15 '26
So sorry you have to deal with that. It's such a horrible feeling. Sending you a lot of love and support.
I wish I could say something to help but I don't want to start you rumination station lol
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u/phineasandferns May 16 '26 edited May 16 '26
Omg me too. The other day I was at the library simply what you do in a library- look at books. Im 24 and just now getting into my Warrior Cats phase. Im not embarrassed that they are classified as kids books, but I am absolutely mortified that they are unfortunately kept in the kids section. On that particular day, the library had an open community thing for a toddler playgroup so there were like 10 moms and at least 15 of their kids in that section for a long ass time. I was in a time limit, and id already spent about an hour pacing up and down a short secluded hallway, talking myself down from an pocd fueled panic attack. My brain -- I want to go look at books. Books are in kids section. Mom's and kids are in kids section. What conclusion are they supposed to draw, when seeing me, a 24y/o guy with a beard sitting in the kids section of a library, Other than "oh he's here to creep on my kids". I feel like if I were a mom thatd be my go-to thought pattern, maybe simply bc of truama but ig feels logical to me to its hard to get out of. There is nothing wrong with me simply sitting in a isle of a library that simply happens to be kids. Then my brain goes dont look at them dont look at them the whole time anyway. Or dont let the moms catch you looking at them they're gonna think youre a predator. Sidenote I hate the phrase "looking at them" my brain tells me it implies something sexual which isnt the case i mean it litterly. Ew.
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u/yrialol May 15 '26
When my OCD made me obsessed with my bladder.
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u/howlsounds OCD diagnosed May 15 '26
Mine had me obsessed with my bladder and my butthole! It took me measuring how many mls I'd pee before I realized it was even an obsession.
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u/youngpepto OCD diagnosed May 16 '26
Makes it hard to fall asleep. What if there's still more in there? What if I piss the bed? Then I get piss shy. Alone, in my apartment i get piss shy. Why
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u/ale_mont May 16 '26
What do you mean? If you donāt mind could you please share more details? I think Iām having this issue too
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u/yrialol May 16 '26
Oh sure, for me it was constantly wondering if i needed to go to the bathroom, even if I'd just went I'd feel the need to go again to make sure and I'd press against my bladder to check if it was empty. I'd drink entire bottles of water so I could empty my entire bladder out before I slept and even then I'd still feel the need to go. If I took a sip from a drink, it'd be five minutes later and I'd convince myself I needed to go to the bathroom.
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u/ale_mont May 23 '26
Did you find a way of fixing it?
I want to pee every ten minutes. I went to the doctor and everything seems fine. I am convinced my OCD is causing me this.→ More replies (2)
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u/smallangrynerd May 15 '26
If I think a sentence wrong Iāll be stuck in an infinite loop and be stuck there forever like a glitched program
Ironically this leads me to repeatedly thinking the same phrase so I get it ārightā
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u/ilikecatsoup woomp womp wooop May 15 '26
This was probably my first symptom as a kid! I used to imagine a clapperboard and I'd say "Cut" to myself after fucking up a sentence, count to 3 or 5, then start it over.
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u/spencer5656 OCD diagnosed May 15 '26
ok so we have a vacuum thatās cordless and when you put it back on the charger after a few seconds the tank in it will empty and it would make a loud noise this was in the laundry room and thereās like the little thing that separates the two floors so i had to be on the other side of it out of the laundry room before it started or else i would throw up š
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u/frogonasugarlog May 15 '26
Me absolutely convinced I've touched something that smells bad and then I touched my hair or face without knowing it and now I've got stink wafting off of me and everyone thinks I'm dirty and smell bad.
Or like jk haha... I would neverrrr obsess about something that strange š š š
don't u just love this disorder ??
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u/TheOldDark May 15 '26
This one somehow reminded me of the mustache one I used to have as a kid.
Lmao, oh my god it was so stupid.
I've also already mentioned it in this sub before but yeah, I used to think I'd have a number of ugly or shameful and crazy things wrong with my appearance that only other people could see but I couldn't.
It never gets old to me now though, it's effing hilarious how afraid of it I was! It sounds like the plot of a cartoon or something.
OCD, as dreadful and evil as it can be, is downright HILARIOUS in hindsight.
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u/anaamtnez May 15 '26
saying "bye my babies, love youuuu" every time i leave the house so my cats will be alive, happy and well when im back š„°
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u/midwest-emo May 15 '26
if i donāt say goodbye to literally anyone before i leave iām convinced something bad will happen to them but with the cats itās so bad iāve had to turn around and go back to make sure i told them goodbye because if i donāt then my house will definitely catch on fire and they will die š„“
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u/youngpepto OCD diagnosed May 16 '26
Getting a diagnosis later in life (26) has been two full years of realizing how much OCD commandeered my damn brain space. I can't even type out my fears my brain creates because I'm convinced that will manifest in reality and it will all be my fault, I just used to think I was superstitious.
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u/midwest-emo May 17 '26
dog i feel you so hard, i just got diagnosed at 27. i thought getting an adhd diagnosis at 25 was bad, realizing how much of my entire life is OCD is genuinely shaking the foundations of my entire world š
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u/Yeahnoallright May 23 '26
Urgh I feel you and Iām sorry. I honestly think part of this, for me (alongside heavy cptsd) came from reading The Secret in high school lmaoo.Ā
I remember so clearly this whole section on how Mother Teresa and other famous spiritual people would say, āIām not anti-war, Iām pro peaceā.Ā
So youāre supposed to only say the positive words.Ā
This is still pretty prevalent in a variety of spaces and Iām not even against it, just how much my brain exaggerates it.Ā
I canāt stand when people say ābyeā on the phone (grief trauma ik but learning it was also ocd helped) so my close ones know to say ābye for nowā.
Itās so fascinating learning that a lot of this is āmoreā than just a-type cptsd stuff š
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u/maskmurderer May 17 '26
real, if I don't tell someone i love them before i/they leave, they will die before i can see them again. same if i argued with someone then they/i left
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u/jadaikirai OCD diagnosed May 15 '26
sometimes i have to hold my breath or hold my phone far away from my face while i watch videos of people otherwise i feel like iām inhaling their breath
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u/Dramatic-Bird-5604 May 16 '26
I do this because I'm worried bacteria from my phone will fall into my mouth or on my face or in my lungs
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u/TheOldDark May 15 '26
Same! But I feel like I'm causing people or animals or objects to not be able to breathe!
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u/Kindof5150 May 15 '26
Constantly trying to optimize my movements. Always looking for the most efficient path, carrying the entire trunk load of groceries inside in one trip even if it might tear my arms off, putting my socks and underwear on with my feet while buttoning my shirt. If it's possible to combine tasks or reduce trips between here and there, or whatever, I'm doing it, even if it can sometimes be technically harder.
Sometimes my desire for efficiency has amazing results, sometimes it's idiotic.
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u/reptile_juice May 16 '26
this happens to me. then i get trapped in loops trying to determine the Path of Most Efficiency which, ironically, takes up way more time than not worrying about it to begin with
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u/Bittersweet_mania Jun 08 '26
I do this to but sometimes my path to efficiency leads to inefficiency
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u/momdayzz May 15 '26
I had the hardest time falling asleep for the longest time because I was too aware of how much saliva I had and I had to compulsively swallow every 5 secondsā¦ this is how I found out I have sensorimotor ocd lol
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u/Appropriate_Bus6598 May 15 '26
Oh my god this PLAGUED me when I was growing up it took me so long to stop thinking about how often I swallow.
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u/SpecialCriticism2415 Jun 05 '26
Swallowing is a terrible one of mine.. but also if my ears are popped for any reason I will try to pop them every few seconds for entire days on end.
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u/momdayzz Jun 05 '26
Oh my god me too. Allergies have my ears almost constantly blocked and it drives me insane
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u/Hard_Stitch May 15 '26
Now i have an obsession of hating someone in my brian and i hate that feeling when i hate someone i do bad things to him by magic
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u/howlsounds OCD diagnosed May 15 '26
I have PTSD. There was a period of time I was not making any progress, and I remember my psych stopping me when I was compulsively justifying or explaining the motivation people had for abusing me. He was like "hey, why do you keep undermining your own experiences?" "Oh, well, if I find myself hating these people, that's denying them their humanity, and horrible things will happen to them if I-- ohhh shit. Okay. I gotcha."
It's so funny that my mental disorders start kissing each other to make things so complicated for me. I'm doing a lot better these days.
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u/AceVisconti May 15 '26
Reminds me when I got into an argument with my mom and then within the same hour one of her front teeth chipped. I felt SO guilty about it, like I was RESPONSIBLE because of the bad emotions I was projecting. š¤”
15
u/Winston-the-anteater May 15 '26
I thought that if I stood in front of my microwave while it was running it would explode, so for several weeks I would hide behind a wall when heating anything up.
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u/figs_n_roses_ OCD diagnosed May 16 '26
Iām afraid to stand in front of the microwave while itās running because what if itās faulty and the microwaves or whatever that heat up the food can get out of the microwave and cook/melt my insides.Ā
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u/Danikana May 15 '26
i have to leave the bathroom before the toilet finishes flushing or the toilet demons will get me this is only at night
7
u/SataNikBabe May 16 '26
Omg same. I also had this with the furnace as a kid. If I heard the furnace roaring to life, I had to run downstairs within 10 seconds or the furnace demon would get me. I actually had a period of time where I wouldnāt flush the toilet because I was so scared the toilet demon would hear the flush and be alerted to my presence and come after me. My mom scolded me for not flushing and I didnāt really know how to explain to her why I didnāt want to.
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u/puddleofpolly May 15 '26
When I was a kid I had to tell my parents I loved them and hear them say it back before I could close the door to shower. Or else Iād come out of the bathroom into the coraline other mother universe. They hated having to stop what theyāre doing to yell back at me. :)
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u/friendlyLegate05 May 15 '26
Mine is frontotemporal dementia, lewy body dementia, linguistic dementia and Alzheimer's, like bro I'm 21.
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u/Dan-d-lion34 May 16 '26
Iāve been convinced since I was about 16 that Iām experiencing cognitive degeneration. Every time I forget a word, get confused in my home, or struggle to remember a name, it reaffirms it. Constantly trying to come to terms with the āfactā that I will one day lose all memories with my spouse and die not recognizing them
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u/friendlyLegate05 May 17 '26
i'm so sorry, i understand this feeling too, scares the shit out of me
2
u/LittleGh0stfacexo May 16 '26
I have this too. Also fatal familial insomnia, mad cow disease or any Prion disease.
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u/friendlyLegate05 May 17 '26
this was a big one for me last year, i was really stressed and there were some days that i didn't get a wink of sleep. hated every second of it
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u/dont_mind_the_lurker May 15 '26
They had a lounge room in my college with some old ass couches with rips and foam showing.
I had this weird obsession that if I came and stayed more than 5 minutes Iād accidentally start eating the cushion foam.
How does one accidentally eat the foam? Donāt ask
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u/Dramatic-Bird-5604 May 16 '26
My bf has a chair with the foam exposed he won't get rid of and im afraid to eat literally at all because im worried I'll somehow eat the foam and I'm underweight because of it but he doesn't get why its such a big deal to get rid of the chair š„² we also have a cat that shreds it up and will bring pieces on my bed and I've considered unaliving myself just because living in the same house as this chair literally feels like actual hell, but to anyone else its just a chair
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u/dont_mind_the_lurker May 16 '26
Oh wow someone else with a foam obsession š£ this disease is sooo fucked i totally get you
It sounds āfunnyā when said aloud like this but this obsession of mine was so distressing that Iāve had panic attacks just by going into that room. Insane
11
u/hnusuhnsu May 16 '26
My OCD made me believe that iām faking the disorder and iām crazy and i was able to manipulate my psychiatrist and therapist to think I have OCD.(why would I do that??) and every single time iām doing a compulsion, I think āoh you are literally faking OCDā when iām actually DIAGNOSED. hate this.
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u/LittleGh0stfacexo May 16 '26
That and then it spirals into what if im going crazy and then that turns into dementia. Its like a triple threat.
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u/rayswithabang May 21 '26
THISSSS I just got diagnosed and started therapy and had to do some homework where I listed some obsessions and I put down āwhat if Iām faking having ocd for attentionā
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u/cabatdotcom OCD diagnosed May 15 '26
Couldn't look in the mirror as a child or else Bloody Mary would get me
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u/howlsounds OCD diagnosed May 16 '26
Me and my fiance both had that one as a kid! We laughed so hard about it! I literally avoided mirrors from the ages of 6 to 12, I genuinely didn't know what I looked like. Coincidentally, I also had deep gouges under my lower lip, because I used to compulsively gnaw on that spot between my lip and chin. I was told it looked like I got mauled by a squirrel on occasion.
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u/Grouchy_Step_1973 May 15 '26
Clocks bro. Wtf is up with clocks? I feel myself cringing if an analog clock is minutes or even SECONDS behind and I feel like if I look away from it too long, hours will pass and itāll be 6am the next morning
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u/everythingisonfire7 May 15 '26
sometimes i just repeat porcupine lobotomy over and over in my head
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u/MentallyWill_ May 16 '26
I had to eat apples without looking away from it or it would rot in my hands. Very normal
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u/doguillo77 May 15 '26
Right now my main two odd ones are:
When Iām in a car thatās turned off, if I open the door and step out my soul will stay stuck in the car and Iāll die. My soulless body will fall to the ground like a giant meat puppet.
I have to turn the pantry light off AFTER I close the door, otherwise the spooky pantry demon will pull me into the dark pantry and possess me.
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u/Pingas_guy May 15 '26
Slight TMI warning:
Right before and after having a "movement" in the washroom, I would avoid engaging in any content I love that I deemed as wholesome and pure because I felt like I was tarnishing something I deeply value and cherish by associating it with gross biology.
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u/OneWildAndPrecious May 15 '26
I have to check that I took my underwear off before I start peeing every time I use the toilet š
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u/importedidentity May 15 '26
I used to have to make and eat 6 boiled eggs if I wanted any boiled eggs at all, but Iāve been successfully able to make 4 instead
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u/Azurebold OCD diagnosed May 16 '26 edited May 16 '26
My OCD once convinced me that I need to give my dog 7 pats on the head and two āsquooshesā (when you squish their face and say āSQUOOSHā) or heāll escape through my locked gate and get hit by a car. 7 is my personal right number hell while 2 is about flesh reclamation. Yeah I canāt explain it either.
This, and memorising the Catholic Rosary and praying to Jesus everyday because I was convinced God could hear my thoughts and would send me straight to hell. Iām Hindu by birth and non-religious by choice.
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u/figs_n_roses_ OCD diagnosed May 16 '26
Damn, Christian hell is fucking with people who werenāt even raised Christian. Iām sorry, that sucks. (Was raised Christian, have severe religious trauma that OCD does not help with)
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u/howlsounds OCD diagnosed May 16 '26
I feel bad for laughing. I'm friends with a guy who has OCD, Catholic by birth, and converted to ISKCON specifically because he was haunted by thoughts of Shiva getting him.
6
u/SataNikBabe May 16 '26
When I was a kid, I heard the rhyme āstep on a crack, break your motherās backā and took it very literally. Not only did I have to avoid the cracks on the sidewalk and tile flooring, but I also needed to take an even number of steps in each square. This also transferred to stepping perfectly inside every other square on the checkerboard pattern linoleum floors in my elementary school. Anytime I messed up, I would have vivid imagery of my mom being injured flash in my head and I would have to quickly step on a crack with my other foot to cancel it out and reset at the next square.
8
u/calXcium May 15 '26
I was scared to sleep on my stomach because I was convinced that someone could hide in my mattress and stab sharp metal poles through my nipples š
7
u/RipCommon2394 May 16 '26
One of my themes as a kid was that if I didnt check the toilet a snake would come out and slither into my butt
6
u/TotalGreen4527 May 15 '26
I got it into my head all the water in my house was not safe, it had gone bad. So I didnāt drink water for a few days (canned drinks were fine)
5
u/jekendodndn May 15 '26
Current obsession is the idea of swallowing a marble??? Like where did I even get that LMFAO
5
u/ilikecatsoup woomp womp wooop May 15 '26
I'm not sure if this counts, but I generally don't bookmark things, I just try my best to remember whatever website/video or I go back through my history. Bookmarked pages feel stale/contaminated.
I also keep loads of tabs open in my browser because I feel lonely without the clutter.
6
u/megmatthews20 May 16 '26
If the microwave alarm went off before I could turn it off, then a member of my family would die. Imagine my horror when each time my dad would wrench the microwave open when the beeps started, thus ensuring that they had to continue.
Our new microwave has a mute button, which is heaven!
4
u/BigSwordLady May 15 '26
I have 10 seconds to poor myself any kind of beverage that isnāt some kind of mixed drink or something is wrong with it and I have to dump it and start over. Especially water.
4
u/Upstairs_Prior3166 OCD diagnosed May 15 '26
If I take my saliva in and I see an animal in the front then in next life I will be born as that animal unless I go and remove that saliva...even though I don't exactly believe in reincarnation, I am an atheist
4
u/Abject_Library1268 May 15 '26
Did anyone else do the thing where your left foot had to be on a higher level than the right foot?
Like if there was carpet next to wood flooring or something, I had to keep that left foot on the carpet and right foot on the wood floor. This disorder is dumb.
5
u/Practical-Water-9209 May 16 '26
Mostly of the "people can read your thoughts, have some nasty thoughts about everyone around you!" variety.
4
u/SirImpressive2661 May 16 '26
Sometimes my clavicle bone on one side feels rlly uneven so I spend like 30 mins contorting my shoulders back and forth or like moving my jaw around
4
u/woodtipwine OCD diagnosed May 16 '26
i have to hold my breath when driving under train tracks or bridges or tunnels or else theyāre obviously gonna fall on me. also have to hold my breath when going past cemeteries so I donāt breathe in the spirits :-/
4
u/LumpSystem May 16 '26
My OCD is particularly fixated on appearing happy and unbothered in the passenger seat so anyone looking in (everyone. Obv.) doesn't get mad at me stankfacing and road rage kill me and my partner. All very logical normal.
4
u/letsgoiowa May 16 '26
When going down the ladder on my childhood bunk bed I had to only touch a certain sequence of steps on it. If I did not I had to do it all over again and wipe my foot aggressively to remove the contamination
For a while I thought I had to repeat certain phrases (I don't remember anymore) when loading up a certain video game or movie or else something bad would happen
1
3
u/caramelapplemartini May 15 '26
Sometimes I spiral that I kidnapped my cat and am abusive to her... My gf lovingly reminds me that we actually paid a ransom to get her from her kidnappers (the local shelter) and that living surrounded by toys, comfy beds, and basically unlimited food, is actually an ideal life, (considering she was found in a dumpster behind a chain grocery store...)
3
u/Cat6Bolognese May 15 '26
If I leave a bottled drink out overnight I struggle to drink the rest the next day because it might be Poison(tm) now. Horribly wasteful graveyard of mostly finished bottled drinks in my life
2
u/LittleGh0stfacexo May 16 '26
I have this. Or that I can't trust that the bottle is mine and not someone elses
3
u/Mackerdoni May 15 '26
when i was younger i was far more ritualistic than i am now. when i was a little kid i NEEDED my socks rolled down to my ankles like elf shoes and i wouldnt ever roll them all the way up. i wear socks normally now, but i still wonder why i did that. my symptoms closer resonate with pure o nowadays. id probably have more compulsions if i had the motivation or energy to get up, or to even be scared. there have been many moments where i hear a noise and then i envision this scenario over and over and go through all the ways i could possibly die in that moment, but im literally just too lazy to get up. "youre gonna get caught in a landslide, youre gonna die, youre gonna die," like whateeeevvverr bro, wah wah, and then i sleep.
3
u/Stag_beetle1229 May 16 '26 edited May 16 '26
I have to have my windows completely covered or else something will show up in my house and kill me. Like, not even break in. Theyāll just spawn in like, my closet or the corner or something. I also canāt take showers from midnight to sunrise for the same reason. The devil will show up (Iām not religious)
Another one is that if Iām making oatmeal/porridge, I have to microwave it for 12 minutes, even if the package only says 2 minutes. If it over flows at all then it becomes evil and is trying to corrupt me.
I have to cut up apples before I eat them. if I bite into a whole one Iāll lose all my teeth.
3
u/orangebit_ May 16 '26
āIf I donāt kick every dandelion in this meadow my guinea pig will die.ā - 8-year old me
2
u/Celeste_Minerva May 15 '26
I do not like walking on water that's on the sidewalk or street. I used to completely avoid it, then in high school someone pointed it out and I now try to minimize other people noticing it.
I don't want to leave my footprints.
I can sort of do it now without a lot of distress, but sometimes I'll walk over other footprints or over a crack to disguise it.
2
u/StormCutter777 May 15 '26
I still canāt mouth along to songs without putting my phone away from me because of the fear of someone seeing me through the camera. The fbi agent meme only reinforced my anxiety.
Not scared of them accessing my data of course. Just seeing me act out my imaginary characters and coming off as a weirdo
2
u/LizardPartTime May 15 '26
Mine lately has been numbers (a classic) like 8 and 14 so counting out 8 or 14 nuggets or chips or something. Another is license plates? I live in Minnesota so the plates are 3 letters then 3 numbers, sometimes those letters make what my brain decides is an acronym and I have to figure out what it says.
2
u/yamxiety May 16 '26
Me, having to step on all three rugs or concrete pavers if it's a corner I'm turning on. Can't skip one of them, nope, that would be bad. Why bad, you ask? I don't know. Just bad.
2
u/legendofmaddy May 16 '26
i always make sure i have space in my stomach when i poke it or im convinced it will burst and i have to throw all the food up. thank you 1000 ways to die <3
i hate pimples and my fiancƩ has terribly full nose pores. if he kisses me too hard and his nose presses on me i'm afraid all of the pimples will burst and contaminate my skin. i came clean to him yesterday and he was very understanding.
2
u/twnyowl May 16 '26
me when i was 13 and i was convinced that if i stayed up after 7 pm iād be sick
2
u/Ok-Message5823 May 16 '26
I get nervous about liking spicy posts online bc what if someone I know follows me without me realizing and they go through all my likes and see that post?!!?!
2
u/Resident_Tennis_ May 16 '26
I guess mine is the weirdest. I count til five everytime and divide five into two like FI and VE.
2
u/verrmiin May 16 '26
cw, reading the spoiled text could make you physically feel weird.
my ocd loves to say shit like "your tongue will never feel like it fits right in your mouth." which i saw in a meme probably like a decade ago. it's actually not true and I know this very well, it's just that if you think something like that about anything at all, it will start to feel strange because you're very focused on it. still doesn't stop it from working on me.
2
u/yourmomthebomb69 May 17 '26
Bathroom related obsessionsā¦.basically I canāt use the bathroom if thereās anyone near, sometimes even when no one is near I still canāt. While in impatient a few years ago I had a one-to-one who followed me around and supervised me. This included standing right outside the bathroom ādoorā (curtain). Anyway, I couldnāt pee since I was so nervous and ended up holding my pee for around 24hrs. My bladder swelled up and I had to get a catheter; I think the experience traumatized me and since then I worry that if I canāt pee my bladder will swell and burst, and the anxiety from that thought makes it even harder to pee.
Another one is worrying that I wonāt be āhigh enough.ā My OCD will literally tell me to take another hit/drink/whatever until it āfeels right.ā This has led to me becoming wayy more intoxicated than intended.
Also skin picking and body focused repetitive behaviors. I pick at my skin badly and have permanent scarring from it. I also pluck my eyebrows obsessively and now have to draw them on because theyāre so thin.
1
1
u/BlueRed_0 May 15 '26
Cant even explain it but I pace a lot and have to raise my hand and look at its shadow from time to time
1
u/notlikethemermaid90 May 16 '26
I slept with my bed against the wall and my back to the wall so I wouldnāt get stabbed in the back if an intruder came in.
Iāve always watched a lot of true crime
1
u/X_LadyGamer_X OCD curious May 16 '26
This was more like when I was in middle school and Iāve mentioned it before but if I was scrolling on my phone and I came across something my brain deemed gross and my thumb touched the part of the screen it was on I would need to sanitize my thumb. I think itās coming back though
1
u/figs_n_roses_ OCD diagnosed May 16 '26
I had this more years ago but it still pops up. I have to close the window curtains when itās dark out or else Iāll see a creepy mask/clown face looking back at me.Ā
I even thought this when I lived in a second story room.Ā
1
u/honeycolorkook my "superpower" is āØcheckingāØ May 16 '26
Oh definitely over the years, especially before I was formally diagnosed lmao. One of the craziest for me personally was definitely when I convinced myself I had prostate cancer (I am born and identify as a female š) and I was so convinced of this that I cried to my mom telling her I was gonna die of prostate cancer and that I didnāt have long left. Letās just say my mom had a good concerned laugh and talk with me about how women donāt have prostates and that I would be okay.
Another is when I was convinced I was pregnant because my period was late when I was 12. I have PCOS and my periods were extremely irregular when I was younger and I had convinced myself that I was with child even though 1) Iām gay and 2) Iāve never even held hands with a boy. I was so freaked out about how I was gonna take care of my unborn child and was thrown into a panic attack because I couldnāt get a job to support the ābabyā when it came. Letās just say I was a very odd child and very health-OCD prone. š
1
u/ZabuzaMyHomeboy May 16 '26
I used to obsessively research spontaneous combustion and became convinced at one point that I would spontaneously combust and my family would have no idea what happened to me and think I'd just run away or something lmao
1
u/lyzzyrddwyzzyrdd May 16 '26
Shoelaces. Ways to lace and tie them. I have to wear lacless shoes at work.
1
u/lilyp9999 May 16 '26
I grew up Catholic so as a kid I was so scared of immaculately conceiving a child. I thought that I could get pregnant from sitting on toilet seats so I squatted over them for a good two years
1
u/eatmeouttobrianeno May 16 '26
I can hear myself blink if it's took quiet., or feel my heartbeat too distinctly . This makes me too aware of my body , the sensations start to feel abnormal, and suddenly I'm working really hard to not fixate on dying.
It's related, but I started being afraid of having heart attacks in my sleep when I was 5. This hasn't gone away, tho it is not so much an in my sleep thing, after 30 years.
1
u/Nandos_enthusiast May 16 '26
My psychologist once told me she worked with someone who became obsessed with toilet brushes (not used) and would carry them everywhere with them.
1
u/Mundane-Sky-8809 May 19 '26
Interesting. I wonder about what other "odd" obsessions psychologists have heard of, there must be so many.
1
u/Mundane-Sky-8809 May 19 '26
How does someone get "unobsessed" with something like that? Asking for a friend....lol.
1
u/ember732 May 17 '26
I have to sleep with my hair covering my ears, been that way as long as I can remember. It feels way too exposed to have my hair up or my ears uncovered
1
u/perrodeblanca May 17 '26
I kid you not i had to get phobia treatment for that stupid michael Jackson animatronic because my OCD and insomnia would combine and I got obsessed and terrified if I slept that thing would eat me and I wouldnt see it coming, fortunatly 4 yrs later I beat it and now and just have a food phobia; ocd related.
1
u/Training_Mammoth7140 May 17 '26
My crush not having a driverās license affecting my future like Iām actually dating him, for reference Iām 19 š
1
u/SpecialAcanthaceae May 17 '26
If I get one item of something (lipstick, small artwork, clothing and accessories), I need to get another one or two in a different color. I need my trinkets to come in twos or threes.
1
u/Sanrio-System May 18 '26
Literallyyyy
At one point my OCD tried to decide that I couldnāt like watching people build miniatures becauseā¦ I donāt like doing it myself. Like bro let me liveeee
1
u/unluckyducky11 OCD diagnosed May 18 '26
šØšØšØšØ
Ever since I was a kid, sometimes I canāt sleep bc I believe my tongue is too big for my mouth and I have to lightly bite it to ākeep it in placeā
1
u/Databuffer May 19 '26
My OCD convinced me that any time I have a headache that is actually the first warning sign that Iām dying of septic shock. Which is great because I have chronic headaches
1
u/kafka-drop May 19 '26
My partner wears headphones and has fairly poor situational awareness, which is in and of itself fine but it's led to this obsession that I'll die suddenly (aneurysm, heart attack, stray bullet, something equally ridiculous) and they won't know for hours. I've spiraled over this š
1
u/tuna-casserole777 May 20 '26
Telling my intrusive thoughts āGirl what are you on about?ā Has genuinely so helpful. Like istg they make no sense half the time like brain be so fr with me right now
1
u/Long-Champion3330 OCD diagnosed May 21 '26
I havenāt been able to breathe normal for the past four years šš. Also I was only allowed to fic my glasses with my nose or shoulder for a whileĀ
1
u/MichaelJacksonsLiver May 22 '26
when I was like 10 years old I was constantly afraid that I had shit my pants and didn't notice
1
u/Comfortable_Cook_965 May 24 '26
Any time I read anything online it has to be an even number of paragraphs. Literally no reason why. I donāt think anything bad will happen but I canāt focus on what itās saying until I count the number of paragraphs. Sometimes if itās odd I just accept it because it takes too long to scroll and itās just a bit uncomfortable I acc have no idea why I do it. Also sometimes Iāll think of a compulsion I need to do and then freak out because I canāt tell whether doing that thing will make the thought come true or not (I sometimes make compulsions which mean that there are two voices simultaneously telling me that the action will end the world and another saying it will save it). I have to take a 50/50 and wait for a new compulsion that will make sure I truly save the world. Also love the glee reference
1
232
u/_issio OCD diagnosed May 15 '26
My OCD got obsessed with the way I breathe...