OCD & Anxiety Q&A - Bring Your Questions!

[@karamiracle4039]

my ocd is worse when i’m at home and have nothing to do. because then i have too much time on my hands to ruminate. now on weekends when i’m away from school i worry about going through the same spiral again with my ocd. if that makes sense. love your videos!!

[@بَسمه-م6ت]

I feel like i cant live without your videos😕

[@louisewalters6188]

Literally love love love your videos thank you

[@finnster5800]

I struggle with anxiety panic disorder… it’s my thoughts that I am letting bully me… I have been listen to your videos on intrusive thoughts.. practising catching them and saying maybe!

[@hjon9119]

easier said than done

[@abercrombie12345able]

I struggle with undiagnosed OCD.

[@wesleymorton7878]

Hi, Nathan. I have a theme around boundaries and violations. An example is I pass a playground in the park and I see able-bodied kids (sometimes adults) using a swing I believe is for children with disabilities. Sometimes they are being rough with the swing. Sometimes not. There are no disabled children at the playground. A strong urge comes up inside of me to step in and confront them about using the swing. Yet, that provokes fear of reprisal/confrontation. So, I don't say anything. Then I beat myself up for hours/days afterward because I didn't confront. I have stopped walking by the playground as it provokes too much anxiety to imagine I might see someone using the swing and go through the whole process. I could give other examples, yet, there is an underlying theme of compulsion to confront, obsession over confronting and brutal feelings after I don't confront.

[@ocdandanxiety]

I'm sorry for what you're going through. Sounds like some responsibility fears as well. Typically, with a therapist, someone practices going to the "triggering" places and risks seeing it again. Or even being the one on the swing at some point. As long as we're not breaking values or the law, people can do all kinds of exposures. I would want a thought like this to be a preference, not to controlling force of anxiety. I wish you the best.

[@wesleymorton7878]

@@ocdandanxiety Thanks, Nate. I appreciate the support.

[@HorsesClips]

Hi Nathan, I struggle with emetophobia. More specifically, doing normal social things where I feel like I can’t escape such as attending social events, restaurants with friends, weddings, or any place where people are expecting me to “not escape”. It’s a massive burden on my life as I’m constantly avoiding these events. I feel like willingly allowing myself to throw up outside of my home, and becoming okay with this, is a necessary exposure. What do you think? I don’t believe I can get over my emetophobia without learning that it is okay to throw up outside of my home. Thank you.

[@juliadennisofficial4716]

Hey, I was wondering how to get over being afraid of germs and getting sick.

[@sleve695]

Hi! I have ocd of going crazy. I fear i will start to say "we" instead of "I" when i am refering to myself inside my head. I hate it because i always loved my sense of self, and saying "we" instead of i in my head really makes me question what is myself and i don t understand anything and i fear i will really go insane because of this intrusive thought. I hope you will answer me, i just hate this intrusive thought;(

[@fabiolafortun]

So, I love when I am not doing anything, but seems like if you are not preoccupied with things in your life(meaning you are not doing anything)the OCD tends to be worse. Is it the only way to not have OCD bother me is to be busy with things? I hope my question is understandable. Thanks in advance for your answer !!!

[@chrisnadeau273]

When I do the compulsions, should I stop them right there or just finish them or just delay them?

[@joejiggy1424]

How can someone deal with the constant fear of doing a compulsion? So you Start to say the statement maybe, maybe Not way to often?

[@ghadeermohammed8678]

Hi, I have a question, the reason why am not getting better is because I think that this isn’t an ocd so I can’t ignore

[@wybuchowyukomendant]

Gotta ignore it anyway mate. I dunno what's your ocd about, but for example mine was about being sick - had a stomach problems, etc. I took some medical tests, got it checked, and then I had to force myself not to google, and not to check more and more, despite my brain saying "it can't be anxiety".

[@Berisdashit]

What are your thoughts on consuming psychedelics (psilocybin, MDMA) to help treat anxiety and OCD?

[@ocdandanxiety]

You know, I haven't done too much research on this. I know that ERP and SSRI's tend to be a good combo. 😉

[@gizemcnar2786]

hey! thank you so much for the livestream and your videos in general. so my question is how do I stop feeling uncomfortable when I try to not listen the impulses of my brain? I have contamination OCD and when I try to stop myself from washing my hands I just feel disgusted and if I don't wash my hands I just can't touch anything and can't move on from the thought that my hands are full of germs. I hope I made my point clear to understand thanks again 💗

[@tomahawkfromscandinavia9406]

I am not a specialist, but I think the “maybe, maybe not” exercise could be good for you. There are plenty of videos on this channel explaining the technique. There is a video on this channel called “your OCD is a baby- the power of the maybe, maybe not” and I find it really good. Best of luck to you. And also, it might be a good idea to find a therapist if you don’t already have one

[@ocdandanxiety]

Typically when someone chooses to forgo a compulsion, they have to follow it by not doing other compulsions. That's why the uncomfortable feeling tends to stick around. For instance, if I choose to not wash my hands, I can't protect from touching anything. I have to keep moving forward. The uncomfortable feeling tends to go away overtime as long as the person isn't trying to control the situation.

[@gizemcnar2786]

@@tomahawkfromscandinavia9406 I'm going to check it out thank you so much !!

[@gizemcnar2786]

@@ocdandanxiety thank you so much for your answer!

[@anthonyjt7122]

So could I get advice on the strangest obsession I've had to date? So I started experiencing sexual obsessions 12 weeks ago and during the 12 week period there were 4 occassions that I became physically aroused waking up or seeing an attractive female. Now for some strange reason I had some kind of quick automatic thought which caused anxiety ending the arousal. Now my analytical mind came up with: if anxiety can be habitual and by association and you can't stop thoughts from popping into your mind surely there's a chance I could be anxious on arousal for the rest of my life!? Now there have been occassions I became aroused without anxiety but my minds still fixated on the thought of will those automatic thoughts pop in again? Really struggling with this since you can't stop your thoughts.

[@Alimohamed-qk7el]

Thank you so much for the live stream and the amount of information on it!! But I have a question wich is most of the time when I'm doing something important or focusing on something my OCD makes me overthink of the dumbest things so I can't focus on the thing I'm doing. So what can I do to focus on the thing I'm doing?

[@ocdandanxiety]

Most take some time focusing on taking power to the current thought so that it'll help them move forward. Accept that there is no answer or conclusion. 👍

[@Truerealism747]

Anything OCD pain

[@zzzz546]

Hi , OCD and Anxiety , I have some question on ERP. facing fears and what happens with that because fear is endless if you dig into it. How normal ppl handle it they just fear and they just neglect it . Why cant we do that ,we lack neglecting part , just because that why we need to stay with fear ? Because fear is always going to feel you fearful. Then your mind keeps on dwelling over fear you might get depressed also. Its like feeling fearful is always expecting negative outcome . I do not understand its logic of ERP. Sometes response is fear and you say to stay with the fear which is response here , then where is response prevention. So you mean we need to accept cognitve distortions as true ? I actually got more bad following this stupid classic ERP. Its like you are asking to enter Rabbit hole , stay there , come out. but get the point we have ocd anxiety , its keeps digging the hole with fear and rumination . Then you still go into groove, rather than staying on the ground . I really faced this , what kind of approach i need fo follow, where i am going wrong . May be you are saying just go into the whole and come back without digging into it just stay there its ok if youbfeel discomfort. But what about content of the thought like there is mud in the whole it gets stuck to you . Its feels more worst as you cannot really seperate the content of the thiught and fear because they are so glued. May be we need to handle first with proper cognition to seperate them ? Then stop rumination which keeps digging the whole ? . I mean if ERP is done without handling these can cause more harm than better. Because i know ERP is difficult but leads to you better but i only felt more misery . Then everybody talks its a golden standard and i feel i dont have enough guts to handle it and force me to try . Its a conflict , its like you dont go near fire because you might have already burnt and learnt , but there is a unwilling force to fall into it in the name of theraphy. May be its even like this , ERP is actually is like peeled Apple and i am confusing it with peeled Potato which looks same and my ocd tricking me to think potato as apple ?

[@abercrombie12345able]

I cant tell if my ocd is real or if its lying to me

[@Cherry-qj2bd]

Sir.... Can you please read my comment?? Is Real event OCD and HOCD Related... I have done something wrong to a person of my own sex as a kid out of curiosity..I was probably 4 or 5... I didn't really know much about things like that... the guilt and shame always stayed with me...now I am just totally anxious and frustrated... Thinking what if the reason that I did it was not just curiosity but I am homo? Like I am attracted to my opposite sex... I always have been... It wall like default.... Natural... I have been having bad self image... insecurities and all... One time I saw a girl and found her pretty... Her makeup was so on point.. I would admire other woman's beauty and fashion sense... Wish I had that cloth, gosh that hairstyle is amazing!, Wow she has an amazing figure, and all.. after a year I suddenly started having instrusive thoughts about my dad... Bruh that man is my god... I was so freaked out... I cried weeks.. the fear the anxiety and all... I just couldn't even be around him and see... I talked to him and as always he hugged me and said it's going to be okay... Then the theme shifted to harming childrens and again... Bruhhh the kids are pure .. I totally love and adore kids... The fear went on... I was talking to my friend one day and suddenly I had the thought what if I like her... This time it stayed for so long... I would be anxious around my friends all day long.. would ignore crowd... I would be so anxious being around people of my same sex... Crying all night and reassuring all day long... It went for 2 years... I was on medication it indeed worked... I cut it off on my own.. then it came again.... I am just constantly thinking the things that I did in the past has some meaning about me... What if I am gay? What if I was always gay? Am I bi? Do I really want to be with someone of my own sex? I have searched, googled and all.... Took quizzes whether I was gay or not... Just self reflecting in my past... The tiniest details... And what they might mean... Imagining scenes and checking my reactions... Things feel so real and the urges.... I can't stay like this anymore..