I’m 20 and I’ve had SEVERE ocd my entire life. Like I’ve been diagnosed since childhood and my list of themes grows literally every year. One theme that I’ve really been struggling with lately is somatic. TW// I’m gonna get into bodily autonomy, it’s gonna trigger me just writing it, so I figured I’d warn y’all At first it started getting really bad at night, like I would become overly aware of my heart and my brain and other internal organs and then it was my skeleton. And I developed this tic where I punch myself in the stomach every time I think about it because it makes me absolutely panic. The heart is by far the worst one… like I can’t look at pictures of it (even silly drawings that don’t resemble a real one, same goes with the brain) I can’t hear people say it, or talk about it, and it’s driving me mental. At first it was just at night, and now it has started affecting my daily life. It’s happening all the time and it sends me into full blown panic attacks and I either have to down anxiety meds or sleeping meds, or both & then hella distract myself in order to get through it. It happens every single day. I can’t afford an OCD therapist at the moment, nor do I have the time in my schedule for therapy right now, as much as I’d like to go… any tips for how to get through this on my own? Any tips for coping? Any ERP or CBT skills to work help through it? I’m pretty desperate at the moment, I’ll try anything at this point. I’m so tired of living this way. I’m constantly thinking about my heart, panicking and hitting myself and it’s no way to live. :(

Hi! Im a 20 year old woman and I’ve suffered from VERY severe OCD my entire life. I also have GED, panic disorder, social anxiety disorder, and ptsd. I currently take lorazepam as needed for my panic attacks and that’s it. I’m going to my primary care doctor soon to ask for daily anxiety meds because I’ve been struggling with a mental health crisis lately that’s made my anxiety a lot more severe and my school councilor told me I should do this. I’m looking for a specialized OCD therapist too because I firmly believe that’s the only way to treat OCD, but that’s very hard where I live. I’ve been on meds for my OCD before. I was on fluoxetine for years and it made my OCD worse, cause severe mood swings and suicidal thoughts. So I worry about going on any anxiety meds just randomly prescribed by a doctor. I’m going try to find a psychiatrist and therapist to get me on the right meds but that takes a long time. I need to do something in the meantime because of how urgent it is. So that’s why I’m going to my regular doctor. I don’t want to make my OCD, depression, or suicidal ideation any worse by starting a new med. Anyone out there with severe OCD who’s tried anxiety meds that felt safe/helpful?

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