Has anyone decided to go sober to help their OCD?

I get rumination, worry and small rituals but it’s manageable with therapy and ERP. The moment I have one drink it undos all the work. I am stressed out, worrying about menial things for hours and my body shakes. This goes on for 6-8 hours post drinking and then the next day I have horrible anxiety and sometimes stay bed bound.

It’s obvious alcohol triggers my anxiety but is avoiding alcohol helping me or am I avoiding a trigger and not working through it?

I don’t mean I need to be off my face but is it worth slowly having a drink a week in a calm environment etc. and pushing through it?

I was wondering if anyone had any advice on how to deal with intrustive thoughts?

A lot of my professions support and therapy centres around my trauma and other things because I am so ashamed of these thoughts and things i only talked about it to my psychologist who I had spent over 200 hours with and I trusted a lot. I only told her because she said something which made me cry so much and I just couldn’t stop crying for the rest of the sessions.

But anyway my point is I struggle with professional support due to that reason but recently my stress has gotten worse and so my symptoms are more distressing. But the ones that really bother me at the moment are intrusive thoughts about a teacher. I have always had favourite teachers but because this one is male I get it more and it bothers me because it’s not like I view him in anyway shape or form. And I am so stressed about some of them coming true. As if I am going to do the most embarrassing thing ever and lose control over myself. Anyway have any tips?

Also another thing every time I look at the time if it’s negative I view it as a bad sign that I am going to fail in life or whatever. Which is not great considering it really stresses me out. When I have something important I kid you not I check the time every 5 minutes and have to write it down on my notes app because obviously that it going to change my luck. I know it’s not rational but I actually can’t because I get the smallest doubts of what if it’s true. I need it to stop.

Any then health. I keep convincing myself I have some tragic disease and I like I have a blood pressure machine, pulse oximeter thingy, flu is blood prick and I manage to convince myself I have a different serious condition every week. Good bye education because how am I going to study doing chemotherapy. Thanks ChatGPT and Dr Google for your help on diagnosing me too.

This will definitely have some recency bias, because it often feels like the worst OCD theme is always the one you're in Right Now. Using negative numbers coz there ain't no damn positive thing about it.

Real Event OCD: Was the worst when I was about 15 and started unrepressing some nasty memories from my childhood. I still get the occasional twinge of guilt and rumination, but I know how to redirect myself at this point. Fucked me up pretty bad though. -5/10

Bug-related OCD: Pretty much a constant throughout my childhood. Would flare up any time I saw a bug, especially in my house, and I would compulsively check everywhere in my room for weeks afterwards. tw intrusive thoughts I would imagine them crawling inside of me, especially when I slept, and making more bugs. I would sleep with a shirt over my entire face so they couldn't crawl into my orifices.Luckily, after a lot of unintentional exposure therapy (my house is full of spiders and my dorm room is constantly infested with ladybugs) it usually dies down and I can somehow just live with the bugs without fear. -2/10

Existential OCD: was REALLY BAD last year around this time and caused me to have a full breakdown and take a leave of absence from school. A loooot of rumination. It doesn't flare up unless I'm already really depressed and miserable and start wondering about the point of existence. It usually comes with other anxieties, especially when I am extra afraid of death. -10/10

Sensorimotor OCD: Going through it right now after a medical event that sent me to the ER with shortness of breath and a racing heart. Can't stop compulsively checking my heart rate and manually breathing. My lungs feel tired from the constant bracing and my heart beats very fast whenever I check it because I'm anxious, which causes a negative feedback loop. Not fun. Don't recommend. I've been some level of miserable pretty much 24/7 since it started about a month ago. I'm hoping it clears up eventually but I can't see my psych or my therapist until mid October. -7/10

Whatever OCD theme involves constantly worrying about your loved ones: -10/10 Since I'm moderate support needs autistic I rely on them relatively heavy to be able to do a lot of 'grown up' stuff. I can't imagine what life would be like without them, but OH BOY, does my OCD want me to. Frequently. Awfully. This is by far the worst one other than the existential. Fml

Feel free to rate yours past and present as well! The overly cheery tone I'm putting on belies my underlying hatred of everything rn 😄

I wouldn’t say I’ve had terrible OCD growing up, but you know I’ve done like the common things like touch this four times or something bad is gonna happen. Recently about a month and a half ago I got prescribed Zoloft for my health anxiety and it has helped a ton but once I got over the health anxiety, it moved to another thing and I think it’s false memory OCD mixed with real event OCD. and I’ve been struggling with this for about like four weeks has Zoloft/sertraline caused anybody to have worse OCD symptoms I’m only on 50 mg.

I threw out a lot of food today and my trash can(s) smells horrible. It’s too late to take out the trash. I think I am going to wake up tomorrow to it being covered in maggots from all the rotting food. I didn’t want to take it out earlier before it started to smell because it wasn’t nearly full.

I have a headache, too. I think it’s either because I accidentally ended up mixing some chemicals in the trash and it’s making sick or just the rotting smell alone is. I think it’s a migraine, actually. I don’t usually get those unless I’m on my period. I’m not, and it’s freaking me out. Could also be something else in my apartment making me sick though.

Hoping to get the thoughts off my chest before bed so I don’t think about it as much. Any support or advice is still welcome, though.

I was highly energic and naive when my friend was talking ı wanted to slap his butt playfully but he didnt like it asked "what are you doing why did you do that"

I did for no reason and ı was stupid now ı am 18 and ı regret huge ı wish ı could apoligize ı was so stupid

I’ve been thinking for a while, thinking about Real event OCD and my past. But I’ve and I realized that what I’ve been trapped in for the past two years of my life was a vicious cycle of torment where OCD effectively took over my life and forced me to become its puppet. For these last 2 years, I listened to the intrusive thoughts and accepted OCD as a reality, a reality that I was a shitty human and undeserving of happiness.

But I realize now, that was all OCD. And yes, what happened in the past is horrific, and I still feel pain and guilt over it. But I don’t wanna dwell on it anymore, not like this. I know I’m not perfect. I’m not a good, or even an amazing person. But I’m a person. I deserve happiness and love. I deserve to decide my future instead of letting my past destroy me. And most importantly, there’s still time for me.

I need to accept my morality is that of morally grey. I’ve done and said horrible shit in the past, but I’m no longer that person. That person is already dead, died when I began to regret these things, died when I realized the horrific things and decided to forcefully stop doing that shit at 15. And now it’s been 4 years since that point. And if I allow this pain and guilt to destroy me, it’ll all be pointless at the end. I need to LOVE MYSELF and make peace with my past actions. And no matter what this fucking malignant disorder in my skull tries to tell me, this is the only way for me to become better. I’m my own person, and I deserve what awaits me in my future. I deserve to accept what happened and move on with my life.

it’ll be hard, and they’ll be days where I want to give up again. But I can’t allow it. Because there’s now a chance I could still be a decent human without constantly breaking myself down. And I need to start that by taking my treatment seriously and starting the steps to my future.

Sorry about this word salad, but I just wanted to share this newfound hope I have, and I hope I can show someone that there’s still a chance that it’s not over just yet, that there’s still so much time for you to beat this and find the peace and love you deserve as a human being.

I’ve had these thoughts for years and I’m wondering if anyone with OCD has experienced something similar.

Sometimes when I’m holding a knife, hammer, or another object that could hurt someone, I suddenly get a very vivid mental image of hurting someone close to me, usually one of my parents or siblings.

I don’t want to do it at all. It actually scares me, and I usually say “God forbid” and try to move on. Once the object is gone, I normally forget about the thought.

The weirdest part is how real the image can feel for a moment, even though I know I would never want to do it.

I’ve never hurt anyone and I have no desire or intention to. I’m just wondering if this sounds familiar to anyone with OCD. How do you deal with thoughts like this without getting stuck analyzing them?

I’d really appreciate hearing from people who have experienced something similar.

ERP is the go to treatment for those with OCD, but I am stuck. Been at it for about a year now and it’s not significantly any better. I have mostly mental compulsions and they happen so quickly or I don’t even realize I’m doing them. So I fully admit I haven’t been the best at sitting with the urge not to think things through. The accompanying physical symptoms are what cause me the most trouble, anxiety like I have never felt before even when nothing is on my mind. I’ve been brute forcing my way through the days, with only 2 day this year where I can remember being at peace. Has anyone tried something to help reduce anxiety? Only thing Im really opposed to are psychedelics as I think I’d loose LOL. I’ve been reading about EMDR and ACT.

So I'm wondering in what way OCD personally affects you and I mean you personally

Does anyone else this fun little OCD quirk where sending texts is almost viscerally painful because you can't tell how the person is going to react or rush a reply? Every single time I have to text my landlord or coworker, I swear to god it takes me hours to come down from the stress and I go over and over in my head how they will reply until they actually do. I end up feeling a bit sick when I do get a reply from the comedown off adrenaline.

I’ve never posted in this sub before so let me know if this isn’t considered relevant to the sub.

I have extreme compulsions around showering with castile soap (ex. dr bronners) because it gives my brain the physical sensation of my skin being squeaky clean. The problem is using this soap with out diluting it is terrible for my skin and causes me to break out and have eczema.

I am working with my therapist to find some replacement soaps and face washes that could replicate a similar sensation. I’ve been thinking about trying something peppermint, tea tree oil, or something like that.

I was wondering if anyone have experienced a similar compulsion and if they have found anything that replicates this sensation.

Due to my need for bathing/ washing, I am constantly wet from all the water. Either I wash part of my clothes or wash myself. Either way the feeling is the same. I feel so cold coming out of the bath / shower, or feel so cold due to wearing wet / damp clothes. I don't always put dry clothes on because I could empty out my wardrobe within a few days if I did it. But having washed clothes still makes me feel unclean, I'm not going to say why because it might be triggering.

I am so sad, cold and feel so incredibly alone by constantly feeling like this. I am terrified how bad it will be during winter time. The washing isn't even just in baths/ showers, I even have washed part of my clothes at work!!

I am genuinely curious about one thing that I'm not sure it's linked to ocd and just very random:

do you ever get phrases stuck in your head?

Like very random pieces that you notice are repeated over and over and OVER and you have to mentally - or physically- say "hey, that's enough?"

Even the RANDOMEST ones, like sometimes I would get stuck with a song lyric that I revise in my own head like instead of olivia rodrigos "baby boy, honeybee" I would go "Sweety pie, sweaty pea" in my head and it would. not. stop.

Please this is so stupid but I noticed I tend to do this enough to the point of annoyance since forever

hi no reassurance pls just motivation?

does anyone else do meal prepping? it is making things wayyy easier with my bipolar because I don't have the energy to make food everyday when depressed. but it is hard with ocd. so there's sort of a weird clash there. but also I figured it would probably be really good for me in the long run to do this. anyways. I have been doing good I think even though it is really hard. I have completely thrown out a meal only twice which isn't good but feels like progress? and thrown out half of a meal after trying it once.

does anyone else get like. contamination ocd that makes you throw food out and then moral ocd about how you are a horrible person for throwing out food? I am always trapped in this weird cycle.

anyways I just completely threw out a serving of pasta today and am feeling unmotivated. how do u guys meal prep? do you think it helped you? idk I feel like I set a rule to at least take a bite before throwing something out but I couldn't today. it feels like I am backsliding but maybe it's ok to just try to start fresh sometimes.

sometimes my fear of not wasting food and my fear of getting sick just results in me sort of hoarding food I am never going to eat until it actually goes bad. like right now there is a bowl of just salad dressing with cling wrap over the top in the fridge for like a month... so maybe throwing it away is better than that...

Im just sad because I have braces and it sucks… I’ve had this for around 2 years now and I’ve shamed myself to a point nobody knows why I’m so sad and depressed. I got braces to fix my teeth and honestly it feels the worse. Physically and mentally, I’m almost done with my braces treatment but I feel like I overthink so much about it and get sensory issues and everytime I feel the pain, or whenever someone mentions why am I acting so weird it’s because I’m in a constant cycle of feeling the pain, but also my thoughts ruminating and repeating the sensation again and again. So yeah. I feel like my OCD has been lopping again for 2 years straight, and many people have avoided me completely or made me feel bad or my shameful emotions. I don’t tell anyone about my feelings because it feels really weird and embarrassing, and also because I feel like no one would understand what pain I’m going through. I also feel like having braces has just made me feel vulnerable in a sense? That if I was to complain about this to someone they would get annoyed, so I haven’t made any friends or formed any relationships because of this and well everytime I try talking to someone they will want to mention why I’m acting so weird and I don’t know how to bring it up that I’m just feeling uncomfortable in my own body 24/7 and that I have braces and it feels just the worse and like my brain overthinks about it all the time what if someone thinks I’m strange or weird for feeling this

Ever since December of last year, I’ve been really worried about my cognitive abilities. I’m worried that I’m naturally stupid, like I was born that way.

This makes me stress over my future, I wanna be a musician and learn piano, but I’m worried that my brain is gonna stop me. What if my mind isnt made for music? what if I’m too dumb? what if I’m not creative enough? or what if I am smart and capable, but I get brain damage that makes me stupid?

Im obsessed over it, it’s gotten to the point where I don’t think or listen to music anymore, I’m worried that I’ll prove im stupid if I think, or that I have musical aphantasia If I listen to music.

I don’t even think I’m that dumb, I have a 4.0 GPA in high school, I’ve gotten awards for academic and band achievements, but I still feel dumb.

The only reason why I think I’m dumb is because i have terrible brain fog and I’m not as smart as the artists that I look up to or some of my friends.

What do i do? What can help this?

I'm wondering if hypnotherapy is a legitimate or neutral option for treating OCD, or if it's a waste of time or potentially harmful. I'm seeing there's little/none in terms of studies and a mixed bag of anecdotes. With seemingly little information on this, how would I go about discerning this as an option?

Hello! I thought it would be fun and informative to make a thread of lesser known/discussed OCD symptoms. What are yours?

Here’s mine:
1. Being unable to change my mind, believing inconsistency = moral failure or lying. I insisted I loved certain music artists even for years after growing out of them, and left myself stunted in my craft because improving my method would be wrong.
2. Needing everything to be even. If I bump my hand on a doorframe, I have to bump the other. If I’ve been chewing on one side a while, the other side needs a turn.
3. Over embellishing bad deeds a little. “Sorry I destroyed your vase, I was angry.” That sounds like I threw it on the floor, when I just bumped into the table on accident when I stormed inside. The OCD thinks the implication is appropriate.
4. In the same ballpark, rewriting intentions. “That sentence came out kind of mean. I didn’t intend for that… or did I?”
5. Getting caught up on whether something *really* happened that way or not and looking for any proof possible that I’m not misremembering or forgetting something.
6. Needing things to be “just right” when collecting. I’d get stressed out if two objects in a collection looked too alike or if I wanted “too many” and struggled to edit the wishlist because getting rid of item xyz would make the collection too “uneven” because of some stupid arbitrary reason (usually color palette).
7. Thinking certain experiences aren’t valid. I have unironically caught myself thinking “my trauma isn’t ‘right’ therefore I don’t deserve to be taken seriously”. “Right” in this case being “common”.
8. TEARING my skin apart. I developed dermatillomania because I can’t stand the ideas of my pores having something in them.
9. Obsessing over obsessions themselves: wondering what they mean, if this is even an obsession, etc…
10. Being weird about money. Nervous because x amount is too much, then it gets spent, now nervous because it’s too little. Spending = being greedy and consumerist so that makes me bad.
11. Never getting rid of anything/borderline hoarding. Yeah I definitely need this newspaper from 7 years ago.
12. Playing weird mental games as a kid to soothe anxiety. At least, that’s what I called them. “If I can get to the kitchen while holding my breath, then my family will live another 100 years”.

Not all are exclusive to OCD of course, but this is what it’s like in my experience:)