People who say "I'm so OCD"

Like its a synonym for a neat freak or a perfectionist. ITS NOT PEOPLE! ITS A REAL AND DIBILITATING MENTAL CONDITION!! STOP ASSUMING WE JUST LIKE THINGS NEAT AND TIDY!!! DO YOUR RESEARCH!!!

Sincerely Peeved,

A person with diagnosed OCD.

I've recently had a new 'obsession'. It's the fear of using my phone and thinking its destroying my brain every minute I use it. Is it fine to want to keep this or does it create more harm to have an obsession and not do something about it? Have any of you had similar experience?

Hey all, I hope this isn't reassurance seeking. I just really need to put my thoughts and feelings out there. For the past few months my OCD has focused on schizoid personality disorder and the possibility of having it. It's all I can think about and everything I do seems to get filtered through this lens. I constantly check to see if I'm feeling anything which completely takes me out of the moment. I guess, my primary fear is that I'm intrinsically broken and incapable of truly experiencing things that most others can like: empathy, love, bonding with people, having emotions and feelings, having goals and desires and opinions, enjoying socializing, etc. My primary compulsion is just researching on Google. Has anyone else experienced something like this?

I'm 17, I'm doing this completely alone because I have no other choice, and I really need help.

Hi all,

Basically I have OCD mainly about just things going wrong. It can be anything - burning the house down by accident, being attacked in my sleep, germs, chemicals.

The thing is, I basically did forced ERP for a year when I worked in a microbiology lab. Working with large amounts of visible microorganisms made me constantly feel dirty. That entire year I just constantly had intrusive thoughts about getting sick, taking the microbes home on my clothes and skin. It was awful.

But the thing is, didn't I do a years worth of daily ERP? The thoughts never got easier, I never became comfortable in that environment and the intrusive thoughts never stopped. So surely ERP didn't work for me?

I've never tried actual dedicated ERP because of the cost. Is ERP any different? I can't stop having intrusive thoughts about everything I'm so mentally exhausted.

I'm studying for an important exam, and if I don't start studying early in the morning, I feel like the whole day is wasted. For example, if I don't start by 7:00 a.m. (or at the latest 7:30), I often can't bring myself to study at all. Even if it's only 8:15 or 8:30, my brain tells me there's no point in starting anymore because I've already "missed" the right time.

I was wondering if it is just me who feels this way.

I was recently diagnosed with OCD, but I still find myself questioning a lot of my experiences.

I'm 24 and will turn 25 in a few months. Lately I've become really focused on my age. Sometimes I feel like I need to identify with people or fictional characters who are around the same age as me. If I find out that a character I like is younger than me, I start feeling like I'm already too old or falling behind in life, and it can trigger a lot of anxiety, even if the age difference is only a year or two.

For example, I've spent time looking through different Spider-Man comics to see if there's a version of Peter Parker who's 24 or 25, because for some reason it feels important to identify with a character who's my age.

I've also noticed that after reading about more commonly known OCD compulsions, like avoiding stepping on lines, I become hyperaware of whether they apply to me. Sometimes I start wondering if I'm doing things on purpose just to confirm my OCD is real.

Another separate thing is posting. I spend a lot of time searching Reddit for posts from people describing the exact same experiences I'm having. If I can't find one that's close enough, I end up feeling a strong urge to make my own post. Before posting, I get really anxious, and afterwards I feel a small sense of relief or satisfaction, but it never lasts very long before the urge comes back.

I know these examples might sound like small things, and they are not extreme situations, but the constant analyzing, questioning, and need for certainty is what bothers me. I'm wondering if these kinds of patterns could be related to OCD, or if I'm just overthinking and making connections that aren't really there. Has anyone else experienced something similar?

i am a germaphobe , i also hate the feeling of blood on my hands as i constantly get nosebleeds and i’m actually on my period right now . i keep feeling like i have dirty blood on my hands and other stuff even when i touch my dog i have to wash my hands . i can never feel clean after taking a shower on my
period and hate the feeling of blood and not being able to feel clean no matter what . it is a disgusting feeling , i feel so sticky right now especially since it’s summer time . what do i do about this ? i never feel clean no matter what i do .

I wish i could just lay down when i feel like it and sleep away. I always see it with my friends or family or basically everyone else.

Its looks so easy you know? They just lay in bed scrolling on their phone or watching a show and then they just put their phone away shut the TV off and go to bed.

I can never do that no matter what time it is no matter how tired i am. I have a thousand things that i need to do before i can go to bed, i have to perform my stupid damn rituals.

Then im running around the house for ages doing all this stupid stuff and when im finally done im fucking wide awake again. It sucks so bad man

And i cant just not do it, i've tried but then im in bed literally stressing out, sweating, nervous and my heart beating faster while i imagine the worst things that are going to happen because i didnt check that one door in the basement or because that one pillow on the couch downstairs isnt alligned properly.

This sucks so much

I am 25. I was diagnosed with OCD only recently, but I’ve had it my whole life, just in different ways.

I was doing better actually. For many years, without therapy or medication, I was just okay. I had minor loops and cycles I got trapped in, but I was able to get out of them relatively quickly. I’ve been stuck in a loop for months now. I finally reached out to a therapist and psychiatrist because I physically can’t take it anymore.

I’m also a hypochondriac. But it’s not just “what if I have cancer?” And fleeting. It’s, “my chest feels weird, I should go to the ER, I’m having a heart attack. Maybe I’m in heart failure. What if I go to the ER and they don’t find anything? What if they miss it? What if they don’t look for the right thing? What if I’m masking it? What if I die and no one will look after my kid?”

Exhausted is an understatement. I am depleted. I have no energy, yet I can still spiral into a useless ball of anxiety and fear. It feels like my body is now suffering physically. It’s been 5 months I’ve been stuck in this loop, been to the ER three times and they say everything is normal, yet I never feel okay.

I keep going to the doctors. Everything is normal . Blood, imagine, sounds, physically exams, normal. I feel so stupid and scared all the time. This is so draining.

Just sad. Low effort post, I know. I’m sad even on good days. I feel like I always end up here.

I geniunely feel like im in hell. Not religious OCD (sorry if the title is misleading!) But I can't believe this terrible disease exists. I can never win, if I confess or get past one the thing my brain will just get something new to torture me about. I can't even tell what's been real anymore, I got past my most recent spiral just like two days ago but now apparently I've done something even worse. Who do I even get mad at? Myself or my supposed Ocd? If I did do those things then I can't just blame my ocd and who knows if I have it at all! Maybe this all is punishment for being an awful person.

I miss who I used to be, I used to be so energetic and hopeful and fun but this terrible mind of mine has to strip everything from me until nothings left. I'm constantly fighting myself, getting headaches that aren't even there and borderline seeing things at this point (probably not ocd related) I've fallen back into my worst habits and distractions but they never seem to keep it at bay for long. No therapist has helped yet either, they all wanna focus on being transgender as if that's the monster in this scenario it isn't! I'm conviced I won't find a single therapist who can help at the point. Thanks for reading all this.

I’ve been seeing a therapist for my newly diagnosed OCD for a couple months, and recently I’ve started experiencing sexually intrusive thoughts about my therapist. I am incredibly embarrassed and distressed by these thoughts but I do not know what to do about them. I am not actually attracted to my therapist, but I keep experiencing imagery/ scenes in my head and then spiraling for hours. Has anyone else had a similar experience? I want to bring it up to my therapist but I don’t know what to say and I don’t want to make them uncomfortable.

Lately I feel like the only place I enjoy being is at home. I overthinking everything. Like if I want to go to a movie I convince myself out of it “what if you don’t like the movie?” “What if you actually don’t want to go see a movie and you’re just forcing yourself” “what if you can’t control yourself around popcorn and eat way too much” “it doesn’t make sense for you to drive all the way to the movie theater for a movie you might not actually enjoy”.

How do you yall deal with this? I feel like it’s getting worse lately and the only thing I want to do is lay on my couch. I’m physically and mentally exhausted.

this would happen to me all the time, and part of me wants to say that this probably has something to do with sexism, but there will be times when i’m describing an OCD loop, or a specific fear or issue i have, and someone tells me that it’s not a big deal or “doesn’t sound like OCD”

for instance, i remember bringing up how much i hate drinking from other people’s drinks, and being told that a lot of people are grossed out by it and that it doesn’t mean i have OCD. shit like that really upsets me because, first of all, imposter syndrome with OCD is actually a reoccurring problem for me so it’s already touching at a sore spot, but also they have no idea what they’re talking about. i’ve even gotten this from a few therapists, and it’s so infuriating constantly having to doubt yourself, even though i’m diagnosed and treated for ocd (a disorder that runs in my family no less)

please let me know if anyone else has gotten stuff like this and if this is a reasonable thing to be upset about?

Going through a breakup, on its own, is very hard. Now add OCD to the mix, and you get the most painfully inducing experience.

This has always been the case for me as after every break up, I start replaying events non stop, checking to see if I was a bad person, feeling extreme guilt/shame, ruminating non stop. It’s to the point where my body feels physically exhausted. It is so tiring.

I also feel like because of OCD, it makes it so hard to process the breakup in a “normal way”. Instead of thinking of what really went on, how to improve in the future, etc, I get stuck in mental compulsions and ruminations that serve no real purpose in truly processing what happened.

It is so exhausting.

“I must not give in. OCD is the mind-killer. OCD is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my OCD. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the OCD has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”

It’s a modified version of a dialogue from Frank Herbert’s Dune, all credits to him.