It feels like my brain believes it. Like every time I try to say like "Oh all his relationships have been with girls" or something it feels like my brain autocorrects girl to guy which is frustrating and makes me have to say it all over again. Like I have so much proof he's not but my brain doesn't believe me.

(EDIT - can my therapist tell my GP I have OCD without me even knowing that OCD is a possible diagnosis?)

I’m a bit confused about something and was hoping someone could clarify.

I see a therapist for anxiety, and we have discussed intrusive thoughts and compulsions but never actually mentioned OCD or told me they think I have it. I recently needed an updated Mental Health Treatment Plan, so they told me they would email my GP a letter. I was fine with this, but when I saw the letter, it said “thank you for treating the OCD/anxiety” and listed “anxiety and OCD” under my current medical history.

I was confused because we’ve never discussed OCD specifically, and I had no idea they were documenting it as part of my medical history.

I’m not asking whether I have OCD, just whether this is allowed to be documented in this way and tell my GP without discussing it with me first, has anyone experienced something similar or knows what the rules are?

I don’t get it. I wipe and wipe and wipe for 10 minutes and I’m still seeing little brown stains on the toilet paper, even after using wet wipes. It’s not a lot but it’s definitely there. My girlfriend literally poops quicker than I pee. I’m so convinced there has to be something wrong with me compared to the average person that makes my poop different or my ass muscles different or something because surely people don’t just walk around with little streaks of poop on them? It’s making ERP impossible because I feel disgusting and unfeminine to walk around with a poopy butt because no woman I’ve ever been with has had that issue I hate it.

It doesn’t help that I have fissures and skin tags that will never go away and those cause issues for wiping even for people without OCD so wtf am I meant to do?

Since I started going on the dating app, I check the phone over 100 times per day.

Is anyone here’s trigger people you find gross to look at and you try to avoid them or even anything they touched? I know it sounds horrible and shallow, but an OCD person doesn’t exactly get to choose their trigger, even if it makes them feel like a bad person for thinking the way they do.

How do you cope with people discriminating against you because you have OCD? I’ve been told I can’t have jobs in certain occupations because of OCD. I’m sick of being treated like I’m incapable.

I guess it isn’t just people, but it is easiest to notice when it is people that I’m pushing away (could be activities/etc). Wondering if other OCD folks deal w this. In my scenario, I’ve been going through a deep dark low for 4-6 months. I know what this is like, I’ve been here before. I can tell I am coming out of it, but while I’ve been in it (and now coming out of it/tbh my state doesn’t matter) as soon as I see a text come in from someone I got into brick wall mode. Responding would be easiest. Somehow that feels wayyyy too hard. I’m doing much harder things everyday.. but I go through these periods where it feels impossible to respond to anyone for anything. And I crave connection—so it is extra frustrating. But seeing those unread messages is all I’m comfortable with—I painstakingly make sure that folks don’t see that I’ve read them (bc I have my read receipts on). I really want to understand this aspect and hopefully unlock/decode it in some way.

It feels that anytime someone texts to reach out (or god forbid actually call) my brain goes into an absolute panic. And folks I’ve known since hs I can’t bring myself to respond to, it feels too hard, too heavy.. maybe too hard to explain where I’m at right now? I’m not sure. Hoping someone else has felt this is association w ocd. Love and lights friends (and hail satan, as always, lol)

Currently I’m not diagnosed with OCD but it has been high suspected, I’ve been put on a temporary medicine for it, and I’m the process of getting officially diagnosed. I’ve heard that false memories are part of OCD but I haven’t seen anyone actually talk about it and I’m starting to feel like I’m loosing my mind. The memories I have aren’t like déjà vu or some dream I remember them happening in real time, I’ve made up entire songs that ended up not even existing, thought that two cousins were dating, turns out they weren’t even cousins, thought we learnt an entire topic in one of my classes but apparently that never happened either.

Is this just a me thing, an everyone thing, an ocd thing, or something else?

Anything will help

Yeah, I had a bad day at school today.. I’m a high school freshmen taking apparently an, ”easy,” class but I have a straight 57. My counselor says it’ll be okay if I just pass my other classes, which I am, and it’s just an elective class so it’ll actually pretty ideal for a college essay, because I at-least I challenged myself. Anyways, I was in class and yeah, I was on my phone, ironic because I’m failing the class badly but I still want to use my phone freely in class. I didn’t notice before the teacher, who I presumably already assumed probably disliked me was like, “Wow. That’s not going to help your grades, is it?” Rude asf but whatever, and she was looking at my screen. I felt so awful for the rest of the day. I can’t do anything afterwards without feeling embarrassed. It’s like, idk how to describe it, I don’t even know if it’s an OCD thing. My friends say that I make everything about my OCD after getting properly diagnosed, I just been struggling with it all my life and even almost ended my life back in summer because of a spiral, but... I don’t know.. Like that interaction would’ve just been an, “Eh.. I’ll just not use my phone next time,” to other people, but I feel physically stained. I can’t eat, I can’t play games, do homework without feeling like, some kind of dirt and filth. My brains keeps playing these, “What if this happened instead situations,” with even more embarrassing things. Yeah, I don’t know.
Also if my teacher is secretly in this subreddit, she’s gonna know I’m a pathetic loser..

when i scroll through reels and tiktok i get very paranoid that im liking comments that dont align with what i believe in... for example today i was scrolling through reels and this video popped up and under the comment section were some really racist comments that i genuinely felt repulsed by, but while i was scrolling through the comment section i got really scared that i liked one of the comments and i genuinely spent around 40 minutes using the drag scroll feature on my phone, scrolling up and down and screen recording it to make sure i didnt like any of those disgusting comments on accident... is there anyway to fix this it's genuinely consuming my thoughts and i blocked the page but idk what else to do...

I am desperate.

I developed ocd suddenly at age 8. Very very severe (spent 4-6hrs a day on compulsions). My parents thought I was “crazy” and we lived rural so I was just initially diagnosed but never got therapy or meds.

Teenage years were a lot better until about 16yo. Finally sought care once I turned 18 by myself.

It went downhill so much again. I'm now 19 spending 1-2hrs a day on compulsions.

I'm working with a psychiatrist who has tried me for weeks/months on:

Zoloft -> zero effect Effector -> extremely bad, made it so much worse Paxil -> very bad, mad it worse Lexapro -> the one I'm on now which is a little better than the other ones but basically zero effect on me

And of course: Working with an OCD specialized psychologist who I see weekly for CBT (I've tried multiple and finally found one who seems to be the right fit although I don't see much progress). Yes I do the homework etc.

I'm coming to my absolute wits end.

What helped your OCD? Is there any meds that worked that I haven't tried? Is there something I'm doing wrong?

I honestly don’t know where to start. My daughter “Bella”, 22, was diagnosed with OCD about a year ago. Apparently she’s had OCD for most of her life. She’d had multiple therapists throughout her years but no one nailed the OCD.

We always thought OCD was like the movies - counting, etc. She had always been “Type A” but now we know it was always OCD. We would do “brain dumps” for the week so she would know what she had to do and the order she needed to do things.

Anyway she developed and eating disorder (orthorexia) and apparently the OCD loves this. She was put on Zoloft and slowly upped to 125 mg. Anxiety lessened. OCD was there but didn’t rule over her life. When she went up to 125mg the transition was really tough.

She didn’t like how the Zoloft made her feel and she went off of it cold turkey. And didn’t tell us. It was 2 weeks of absolute hell. We thought she was losing her mind. OCD and anxiety off the charts. There is also a myriad of other medical problems related to her ED.

She has an OCD therapist that is exposure therapy but she hadn’t been able to do it because she went off her meds and couldn’t handle it. Her PCP prescribed Prozac (she has chronic constipation and this med doesn’t have that side effect) and she will start this week.

We also started alternative medicine (mostly for her constipation and motility issues - also ED related). Things are actually moving (slowly) whether it’s her protocol or pelvic floor therapy or a combo of things but we are seeing improvement. But her anxiety and her OCD is just off the charts and she is now questioning everything and nothing I say is “right”. I can’t argue with the OCD. We go around in circles all the time and she gets angry but I don’t know what to do. I’m so emotionally exhausted. I’m trying to keep her on course but now she’s questioning everything. New meds will take weeks to work and will they work???

I don’t know maybe this is just a vent but I’m so lost right now. Thanks for reading if you did. I hope this all makes sense.

Made a few posts like this which I know is probably reassurance in a way but regardless. I'm a rather dumb person, I read posts or comment threads and always get questions but thanks to knowing about said stupidity, I'm self aware enough to know I've probably phrased it terribly and then I worry about someone screenshotting it and posting it to some other subreddit to laugh and mock me, exposing my stupidity to people happy to dox or stalk or any other variation of online weirdness.

Does anyone else get that?

ive hurt people in my life because of my mental illnesses and i feel so bad for it that even years later i still deprive myself of basic needs because i dont think i deserve them after what ive done. i live in a constant loop of self-hatred that i cant even allow myself to be medicated for because i believe that i dont deserve that relief.

but then sometimes i realise that there are people in this world who do genuinely horrible things, and they go on living their lives like nothing happened, and they still think that they deserve good things. there are people who hurt animals and they still order their favourite food while watching tv. there are people who have done the worst things in the world to women and they still go home and hug their parents. i cant do any of those things because i hurt people when i was a child. but they can.

i hate ocd, the only reason i ever hurt anyone was because of ocd, there are other bad things that have happened to me but ocd is even worse than all of those things, worse than grief, worse than ptsd. i would rather experience my worst trauma 5 times than have been born with this thing. what the fuck.

I don’t want to spoil this show for anyone, but for those who have seen it, I imagine the Beast as representing OCD and the Woodsman keeping the lantern lit as acting on compulsions. Sometimes when I’m struggling it helps me to picture Wirt saying “Wait, that’s dumb.”

Full explanation if you haven’t watched and don’t care about spoilers:There’s a woodsman who spends the entire show chopping wood to fuel a lantern because he believes the flame inside is the only thing keeping his daughter alive (she’s been taken by a character called the Beast). At the end we learn that the Beast has lied about the daughter/ lantern and is actually terrified of the flame going out because it’s the only thing keeping him alive. Great (though probably unintentional) symbol for how acting on compulsions out of a desire to protect someone is just a lie and really only fuels OCD itself.

p.s. If you haven’t seen OTGW: Very cute cartoon, classic fall vibes, sometimes genuinely creepy and NOT for small kids!

I am on 30mg of Prozac and 150mg of Wellbutrin. I am in a severe downward decline currently and I am ready to try something new. I have OCD and ADHD which tend to work in tandem, but I struggle with executive dysfunction as many do. Currently I feel sedated and uncaring. My house is a mess, I don't have energy or desire to get up and do anything. I feel restless, but numb to the world, and my memory is horrible.

I have been on Prozac for about 8 months and I noticed the efficacy was declining about 2 months ago. I have been doing a lot of research to pick a new drug to try, but I am scared of this numbness and don't want to make it worse.

(Okay I might've gone into a different direction while talking about it, title unrelated..)

I'm 17. Have been experiencing OCD since 2022 I think. Every year it gets worse. I'm so overwhelmed I'm almost crying whenever a compulsion starts and while I whine I still do it. In other people's eyes I'm getting angry over no reason. I trace with my eyes, hands, click stuff over and over. Spitting whenever I smell a bad smell or breath to "get the germs out". It's tiring I feel like doing nothing just makes my brain decay more from the inside. I tried getting therapy but I was told I'm not a mentally ill person to get that. In my country they think only psychopaths need that. Can't text, look at someone or just exist quietly without it having to move my entire head as I follow unwanted motions. Now I wake up with a song in loop and I can't quiet it down. This is absurd but sometimes I have to close my eyes and yell at myself internally to stop for a few seconds or imagine pitch black. Last time I fucking bought a pass to quiet and it frickin worked idk how. I have to do unreal actions for a temporary relief. What pmo is when someone looks at me and says "you're too young to have things on your mind."

I haven't watched a movie for a while but when I did four days ago I'm wildly compulsing again. Please find some cure for it already..

Has anyone else seen her HBO special? She talks about her experience with OCD and (spoiler - sorry idk how to do that on Reddit lol) the funniest part is her talking about having no idea her actual shoe size. Does anyone else relate?? I GUFFAWED bc I once bought and returned FIVE pairs of the same shoe because none of them felt “just right.” The ones I’m wearing at this moment are honestly a little too big but I gave up haha. It was nice to laugh about OCD for once!

Over the last year and a half I feel like I have been in a CONSTANT fight or flight over analyzing every symptom I have. I have convinced myself I have end stage cancer of something different every freaking day. I finally have a dr appointment Thursday to see if I can get some help with this. It is debilitating to the point where it’s ALL I think about all day everyday. I am a mom to three so it has been hard to manage being a present mother and battling this constant OCD anxiety attack feeling. I started feeling this way after my last son was born in April of 2025. Before that, I never felt this way. I am in a constant state of fear. What has helped you with this feeling? I’m tired of feeling like I am going to drop dead from a random infection or end stage cancer at any point. Why does this happen out of nowhere?? I know logically it is probably just my constant anxiety causing symptoms but I can’t help but feel like I am dying literally 24/7. Please leave any advice you have. I am hoping my doctor will start me on some kind of medication and help me find some therapy.

So I was on my way to work and I work in a very big office building so we park in the parking garage across the street and open spots are limited in the morning. Where I usually park there was a spot open but the car next to it was parked unusually close so it was a tight fit. Ultimately I decided to park somewhere else but when I got out of the car on the drivers side I saw a very light scratch towards my rear bumper by the gas tank.

If I did I would have left a note with my information but I walked over to the other car which would have been on that side and I didn’t see any obvious damage. The car which would have been on my right so passenger side has some small scuffs but I’m not sure if that was caused by me and I don’t have any marks on my passenger side. I don’t know if the light scratch was caused by something else and I didn’t notice any obvious thud when I was pulling in or backing out.

Still managed to get a referral to psychology (though who knows how long an appointment will take) but god I did not need the lecture that came before it.

There’s ‘labels’ and then there’s psychological diagnoses. I suspect I have mental illness, if I had a tumor I wouldn’t get a lecture about ‘labeling’ it cancerous and to just go on more walks instead.

I don’t know, it’s just annoying. I waited until I was at my absolute limit until I finally reached out for help and it felt like I was being judged for it or something.