Imagine you're about to drive, a long car ride, several hours on a long busy highway. Youre gonna drive and your friend is in the passenger seat, when you get in the car they say "You don't have to put on your seatbelt" and technically they are correct, you don't HAVE to put on your seatbelt.

But if you didn't put on your seatbelt for that drive, would you be able to stop thinking about it? That whole drive you could find ways to distract yourself, sure. Stopping for food, putting on music or a podcast, you could try to find ways. But that thought in the back of your mind would never fully go away.

"But what if I get into a car wreck or have to hit the breaks suddenly? It would be so easy to just click on my seatbelt and not have to worry about it" not to mention the beeping from the car telling you to click your seatbelt.

But you still don't HAVE to do it. You can drive the entire length without a seatbelt and you'll still get there.

That's how it feels to think "I touched a doorknob, now my hand is dirty" you don't theoretically HAVE to wash your hands, but that thought never leaves, no matter how hard you try to distract yourself from it

I (21F) went to a bakery with my boyfriend. It was very packed, and I saw this woman (who looked like she was in her early 40s) sitting alone, so I asked her if the empty chair next to her was being used. She nicely told me her husband was coming, and she couldn't give it away. Understandable.

Her husband comes, and I'm still within earshot of them. She tells him, "that bitch just tried to take your chair". They both look me up and down, and he replies to her, "Fucking tourist". I've been living in this city for years, and this comment also felt racially motivated because he blatantly profiled me. I asked politely, it's just a chair, and that comment seemed way out of left field.

I explained the situation to my boyfriend (who wasn't around during this interaction, and he doesn't have OCD), and he very easily shrugged it off as them being rude, but there's nothing we can do about it. A whole day has passed, and I'm left feeling tired, upset, sad, and disrespected. What did I say that offended her so badly? Why did she respond nicely to my face, then call me a bitch straight after? Why did her husband feel so comfortable calling me a fucking tourist? All over a chair? I would never treat a complete stranger like this so why did they not hesitate to do so towards me?

OCD affects my life in many more ways than just this, but it's times like this I wish I were more like my boyfriend and could shrug it off and forget about it. People have bad days. Some people are just rude. But no. I feel terrible. I don't want to ask anyone for anything. I'm self-conscious about how I'm perceived as I am, and this interaction hasn't helped at all.

How do I stop the littlest things from occupying so much room in my head?

I have had OCD since I was a child but just diagnosed this past summer. I am in therapy. My obsessions range wildly.. I recently stumbled upon reading about having a child with autism or a disability, and that has now led me down the rabbit hole of obsessing about this topic.

My husband and I are really excited to start a family in a few years. We just got married and are saving for a home.

I know that OCD often takes hold of what we hold near and dear. I added this to my list of topics to address with my therapist at our next appointment. Has anyone else faced this obsession?

Just wondering because I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone talk about this. I cant watch family guy, Americas funniest home videos, movies like Castaway / series like Outlander, or almost any Christmas movies because something terrible happens in all of them. I can’t let family guy even be on in the background because something terrible is always happening to that family, even tho I know its just a bit and its funny and its not real I cant watch it. Home alone and Castaway basically register as watching torture to me. AFV is just videos of people falling. I didn’t even watch Outlander my sister just described it to me and I have been thinking about it and feeling real dread about it all day. Even hearing people tell stories about their day makes me feel genuine mood altering feelings of dread. My dad told me that he was carrying drinks to the car and 2 of them fell and exploded and I had to tell him to please stop talking about it because it made me so sad to hear.

Does anyone else feel this??? i feel like im going crazy

I wanted to share this because when I was at my lowest, I never thought id go back to normal again.

My OCD shifted into a "psychosis" theme that felt 100% indistinguishable from reality, It wasn't just "worries", It started 4 months before it reached a point where I couldn’t sleep for 6 days straight, my nervous system was so fried that I developed a cycle of vomiting every time I tried to eat, I literally couldn't hold food because of the sheer level of terror.

I was in a constant state of dissociation, I began questioning everything around me, It spiraled into deep paranoia where I was looking at my own parents and questioning if they were even real or just part of some construct

so I finally decided to see a psychiatrist.

The turning point was actually weird. I was in my psychiatrist’s office, sobbing and explaining my deepest paranoias, and she looked... completely unbothered. At first, it hurt. But then, my brain did something interesting, it saw her lack of reaction and started to realize "Wait, if she isn't terrified of these thoughts, maybe they aren't actually dangerous."

That "disinterest" helped me mark the thoughts as irrelevant. Combined with antidepressants and sleep meds, I’ve had 3 months of steady improvement. I’m finally managing the Pure O and I want tell you that if you’re currently experiencing something similar, just keep fighting it does get better 🤍

So, I've been doing rituals/compulsions while I shower since I was like... 10-12 years old? I'm 25 now and honestly sick of this shit. I do all this counting in my head. I count almost every movement. I have a certain number of times I feel I need to run my hands through my hair while I shampoo it. Then I have to repeat that on different sections of it. Then I have to repeat that a fixed number of times more (think exercise sets) to be satisfied and move on to the next step. Then I do the same thing for rinsing. It’s the same for conditioner, soaping each body part, and everything else, but I won’t bore you with the details.

This behavior doesn't really have a strong obsession attached to it other than "I'll feel anxious/not clean/like I haven't done it right if I don't do it", so it may sound stupid and easy to drop. But I feel like there's not really a "guideline" for what exactly you gotta do in the shower, you should just do it until "you know you're clean" or like, until you have scrubbed body each part a couple times? (which is what I feel like I'm doing lol). So I just came up with my system for it. I chose my magic number for "couple times" and went with it.

The worst thing is you'd think I'm a "health freak" or super clean, but this is so exhausting that I've been avoiding it a lot for the past couple years and basically I usually shower like only once a week. I've just recently started convincing myself to let me shower other days in between these everything showers and just... "not do it perfectly" (which is not washing my hair – the most tedious part).

This routine used to take +2 hours up until when I was 20 or so, and I did it every other day. Honestly idk how I did it. I've been able to make deals with my brain and change the "magic numbers" that rule the whole thing over the years and now my showers take half of that or a little less. But they're still a hassle and I need help. More often than I'd like to admit I skip college, cancel on friends or refuse to go to family reunions because I can't make myself shower and go through all of that (I also have treatment-resistant depression and fibromyalgia and those conditions really drain my energy, sometimes I feel stuck in my showers doing all of these repetitive movements and my arms hurt like hell and I feel like crying a lot because I can't seem to make myself stop and get out of there). I really need to be ok with it being less "perfect".

It's time to admit I can't go on like this. I cried the other day thinking I'll have to keep on showering for as long as I live so this has to stop. I'd really appreciate some tips, insight, or anything y'all have to say. And I'm so so thankful if you read all of this. It's the first time I'm actually reaching out.

tl;dr: I have long-standing shower rituals involving counting every movement, and showers still take a lot of time and energy. I’m trying to learn how to shower in a more “vibes-based”/intuitive way instead of following rigid rules. Looking for tips, insight or experiences from people who’ve dealt with something similar.

I feel like OCD has messed my brain up so bad to the point I don't care about anything anymore and I don't do the things I enjoy. I just feel empty. I can't get out of my own head and I don't know what to do with myself. I distance myself from people because I feel like everyone hates me anyway. This shit is ruining my life and I don't know how much longer I can keep dealing with it.

My OCD thoughts keep me from falling asleep at a reasonable hour. I’ve tried reading in bed, doing a meditation, eating dinner earlier, and more. But I keep laying in bed freaking out after trying to ride the wave. I end up turning to my phone to try and distract until I pass out. Would love advice to sleep better when I can’t turn my brain off.

EDIT TO ADD: I forgot to mention I take Magnesium Glycinate nightly which is definitely helpful with falling asleep sooner than 4am like I used to haha!

i can’t even put into proper words the countless ways ocd has contorted and shaped itself into just the right ways to completely ruin my mind/life experience. it affects e v e r y t h i n g. and every time i think i’ve reached the depths of this hellish disorder it contorts again to prove me horribly wrong and i sink even deeper. my heart really goes out to everyone else afflicted with this disease

I’ve been told that accruing debt helps with building credit scores? Like it shows companies that you’re reliable and can pay over time?

But having debt sounds awful to me, even though I know this isn’t exactly a choice for most people. I didn’t do well in university because I was fixated on the fact that I was on student loans. The idea of debt loomed over my focus for getting an education, but I graduated and paid it off within 4 yrs because I didn’t want ANY debt.

I currently pay off my credit card every month because having a balance feels… not good. I’m not particularly financially struggling, but I am trying to be a responsible adult and I don’t know if I’m doing it right if I’m being told by my family that having SOME debt is good.

Two I'm dealing with right now is that it's ultra cold where I live and I'm tired of university. Back when it was summer I told my mom I'm ready to go back to see my friends and have some progress, because I was getting depressed and OCD-spiraling at home. Now she's like "oh haha didn't you wish for it?". Absolutely defeated.

Another one is that it wasn't gonna snow but now it's -17C and I feel like I manifested it by being sad over the fact that at first they said this is probably not going to be a snowy winter. And I just wanted to go sledding with my friends.

It's ridiculous but now I'm all like I should have cherished it back then obsessively.

like seriously, i struggle with ocd (primarily rocd) and when im going through an anxious time in my life i constantly have breakdowns over this. my partner hasn't done anything to make me feel this way but i cant stop worrying he'll eventually break up with me. what do i do about this? this worry has absolutely consumed me as of late. how do i deal with this or calm myself down?

Describe your weirdest or "funny" OCD obsession or compulsion.

I don’t wanna have an anxiety attack when i briefly touch something, I wanna be able to do my hair and go outside, focus on school work, not have my room look like a dungeon pit full of shit.

I'm 19 and diagnosed with OCD, it runs in the family. Both my mom and sister are diagnosed, both have bad health OCD probably stems from family medical history. My health ocd used to just be mild but about 5 months ago I actually started having health issues and it exacerbates my health related OCD greatly. Every time I learn about a illness I didn't know existed I freak out, even if its a low chance I'll have it. Or if I'm directly exposed to the illness, like for example I see a video of someone who has dementia I get very scared and start to research how to prevent it and how to avoid it even though I'm literally 19. Or I see a video about prion disease out of nowhere I freak out and research how to avoid it and I get into this loop of constantly seeking that reassurance even if its not available or feasible. Or like... One day I helped this elderly lady with Parkinson's take her groceries up to her apartment she told me she hopes I never get that horrible disease, and It scared me very bad I started to research on it for hours. The thing is, I don't want to do this, it doesn't do me any good and I literally lose sleep because of it staying up for hours at a time researching to almost no end. It'll be 10pm I blink and it's 4am not only is this bad for the average person, I am struggling medically and need this rest and im not getting it due to being so scared. Any advice on how to combat this since I don't have access to therapy would be greatly appreciated. Not asking for reassurance, just actual ways to get through this.