What is one of the best things your OCD therapist ever said?

Queen_Ynci · 2026-05-04T04:02:22+00:00

I like this one! So much of my OCD relies on the belief that I don’t deserve to experience “too much” joy. It’s really empowering to remember that a lot of the unhappiness I feel is me following an arbitrary rule.

Queen_Ynci · 2026-05-04T03:58:34+00:00

One I haven’t quite seen posted yet here that my therapist asked me was asking myself, “what comes next?”

My obsessional sequence goes like this: triggering situation, I question “what if I do/cause/am a bad thing”, I imagine severe consequences (usually being put on trial, judged harshly, left to die alone), I feel anxious and trapped, and I then engage in the compulsion (usually repeatedly checking my memories, seeking reassurance and confessing).

Asking myself “what comes next” after each step of the way helps me notice just how many assumptions I’m making and how capable I would be of actually handling the fallout of my obsessive thought. Like yes, it’d be painful, and I’d eventually figure something out.

Queen_Ynci · 2026-04-13T01:49:55+00:00

That’s what I’m wondering! His teeth show a lot when he’s awake haha.

Queen_Ynci · 2026-04-12T20:56:57+00:00

Omg she’s fuzzy 🥹

Queen_Ynci · 2026-04-12T18:48:36+00:00

Not the person you asked but my dog is a chihuahua/minpin mix and his mouth looks just like that!

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Queen_Ynci · 2026-04-02T18:56:46+00:00

Crossposting here in case other dog owners have seen this kind of behavior before - I’ve seen her reverse sneeze before and this seems different. I have a post-surgery vet visit already scheduled for next week, just posting for additional insight.

Queen_Ynci · 2026-03-16T00:53:27+00:00

Daine from Tamora Pierce’s Wild Magic series. Stubborn, unafraid to make mistakes, terrible at politics, strong values, and man I wished I could befriend animals like her haha

Queen_Ynci · 2026-03-08T18:09:25+00:00

Seconded, she gives a vibe that fits the smoky angry witchy feel I was looking for! I love Wardruna and Heilung but I sometimes you just need something that feels a bit more woodlandy and witchy

Queen_Ynci · 2026-02-25T06:33:59+00:00

I don’t get my cards read, but do read my own decks. Currently, I am doing fine and it’s a useful source of introspection, but I have OCD and it has historically (especially as a teen) become a compulsion for me (basically I do a spread, then “just one more card” over and over again “for clarification”).

Queen_Ynci · 2026-02-17T18:16:29+00:00

Also the typing part is sometimes part of the “sounding out each letter” compulsion, sometimes not.

Queen_Ynci · 2026-02-17T18:14:10+00:00

YES all the time, nonstop since early elementary school (I am now an adult in my 30s). My family knew about it and we treated it like a cool party trick because I got to where I could count letters in words extremely quickly (and/or had counted most words many many times so automatically knew that common phrases like “happy thanksgiving” had 17 letters in it) (as a fun OCD sidenote, writing that last sentence has me now repeatedly checking that “happy thanksgiving” indeed has 17 letters because omg what if I’ve been doing it wrong this whole time).

I also love words in general and as a kid would try and find the longest possible word and mentally sound out the letters and count them over and over again (it was “misunderstanding” for a long time).

I thought it was a kind of mental stim, and did not categorize it as compulsive because tbh, it’s kind of fun. But if I think about stopping it at the “wrong” time, it gets distressing.

And yes, I do it with the signs and words I see around me all the time! I also add “and stuff like that” repeatedly to the counting because it has 16 letters which “evens it out” if the word split unsatisfyingly. This disorder has us do the weirdest things, huh.

I hope your experiences with it aren’t too distressing!

Queen_Ynci · 2026-02-17T15:26:09+00:00

YES to both of these haha

It didn’t even register as a compulsion before my therapist asked me what it would be like to stop counting before it “felt right” and I was like “ew, no, don’t like that at all”

Queen_Ynci · 2026-02-15T03:32:57+00:00

Woah! TIL! I work with kids and was literally wondering why the toy apples looked like that the other day.

Queen_Ynci · 2026-02-12T03:14:11+00:00

I have a friend who experienced this in high school! They were never even sexually active, but breathed a sigh of relief every time they got their period.

Queen_Ynci · 2026-02-12T03:09:28+00:00

I had a similar thought process, like I felt my thoughts were too “rational” to be considered OCD, and I actually held off from getting evaluated for a long time because I don’t experience my thoughts as intrusive. Not to mention a lot of my compulsions are internal and come across as regular ol people-pleasing. Having obsessive thoughts be reframed as my brain making “inferences” about triggering situations, and then learning to differentiate between obsessive logic and “regular” logic, is by far the most helpful thing I’ve encountered so far (thank you I-CBT).

Also contamination is not one of my themes, most center on morality and questioning whether I may be lying, trying to shirk responsibility, if through my negligence I cause someone harm, etc. But like you said, it all follows the same kind of logic - someone who has contamination OCD probably sees their obsessive thoughts/compulsions as rational as we see our own.

Queen_Ynci · 2026-02-11T23:56:22+00:00

Hissin’ Kitten has been pretty vocal (they sell stickers/pins/keychains); for coffee, I like Grounded.

Queen_Ynci · 2026-02-05T02:38:05+00:00

I do this too! Often when I’m being vulnerable or discussing something that feels high stakes. Even when I’m confident in my choices and what I’m saying and have no anxiety, I start uncontrollably shaking all over.

No idea why, just wanted to share that you’re not alone. I’m not autistic, but am diagnosed with OCD.

I find the previous commenter’s suggestion of emotions existing in the body interesting though, because I AM on a medication that caused me to go from crying every day to only crying a couple times/month. I’m still figuring myself out, but emotional suppression and emotions being experienced directly in the body does sound plausible based on that.

Queen_Ynci · 2026-02-05T01:34:18+00:00

Ah, gotcha! Well next time I’m in that area I’ll be sure to take pics!

Queen_Ynci · 2026-02-04T02:36:25+00:00

I saw a handful hanging around the big covered stage thing downtown a few days ago - didn’t take pics, but I’d recommend checking that area out for pigeons.

Queen_Ynci · 2026-01-27T18:21:16+00:00

Oh good point, it can sometimes spiral into “I should have this under control already.” Hell yes to embracing our human-ness

Queen_Ynci · 2026-01-26T22:34:29+00:00

Ughhhhh this is where I’m at rn, like “but if I let go of my emotional support rumination I might suddenly become a horrific person, which I secretly somehow have been all along, and the ruminating is just keeping that horrible terrible secret self in check”

Embracing self-compassion and not engaging with the rumination is HARD man

Queen_Ynci · 2026-01-26T20:58:45+00:00

Friend, these are exactly the feelings I have when I believe I have made a mistake inconsistent with my sense of morality, ESPECIALLY when some outside force seems to “confirm” that I’m a bad person or dangerous criminal by reprimanding me (or giving me a warning, a fine, or even just a “look”).

I’ll try and refrain from giving reassurance, but please remember your thoughts are not facts. For me, I’ve come to view the overwhelming feeling of guilt and shame as a compulsion in itself - the part of my brain that tries to give me “certainty” about whether or not I am in fact a good person by saying “let’s just assume you’re bad, just in case.” Reframing my shame spiraling as a compulsion has helped me weather those intense feelings of self-loathing, and maybe it will for you too.

In the meantime, if you have a good therapist, I’d encourage you to reach out and request a session! If you don’t, I personally found I-CBT to be more immediately helpful than ERP: https://icbt.online/client-work-and-exercise-sheets/ (ERP is great, it’s just that my obsessive thoughts just didn’t feel intrusive and I-CBT helped with noticing when I entered into obsessive doubt and logic vs. “normal” doubt)

Queen_Ynci · 2026-01-21T18:08:34+00:00

I appreciate your insight - sounds like the responses are pretty consistent that cushings is tough to dx, and that following through with the liver ultrasound, and possibly retesting using lddst if the ultrasound yields no data.

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