#ocd vent

Pure OCD isn’t obsession without compulsion — it’s obsession with invisible compulsions: mental checking, reassurance seeking, thought suppression, and analyzing the meaning of intrusive thoughts.

The themes vary — harm, SO-OCD, scrupulosity, existential dread — but the cycle is the same:

Intrusive thought hits

Mental rituals kick in (often instantly)

Temporary relief

More anxiety

Repeat

That’s the trap. The only way out? Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) — even when the compulsions are all mental.

💡 What ERP Looks Like for Pure O

Writing and re-reading scary thoughts on purpose

Sitting with uncertainty ("Maybe I'm a bad person. Maybe I’ll never know.")

Blocking mental reviewing, confessing, or reassurance-seeking

Letting anxiety rise, peak, and fall — without fixing it

ERP isn't about feeling better right away — it's about retraining the brain to see the thoughts as irrelevant noise. And it works.

📘 One Workbook That Actually Gets Pure O

If doing ERP alone sounds overwhelming, this helped tremendously:

👉 The Pure O OCD Workbook

It’s written by clinicians, but practical and easy to follow. Some highlights:

Breakdown of Pure OCD themes (harm, sexual, religious, etc.)

Worksheets to build a personal ERP plan

Imaginal exposure scripts tailored to intrusive thoughts

Strategies to interrupt mental rituals

Relapse prevention and tracking tools

It teaches how to face the fear without giving in to compulsions — step by step.

⚠️ What Keeps OCD Going (and ERP Stops)

Rumination (“Why am I thinking this?”)

Reassurance-seeking (Googling, confessing, analyzing)

Avoidance (of people, triggers, media)

Treating the thought like it’s meaningful

Needing certainty before moving on

The more the mind tries to “figure it out,” the tighter the OCD grip. ERP breaks that cycle — and the brain learns that uncertainty is safe.

✅ Recovery Is Possible

Pure OCD can feel isolating and exhausting. But with consistent ERP — even without a therapist — things can change.

The thoughts may still come, but they lose power. The anxiety fades faster. The freedom grows.

It takes work, but it’s worth it.

👉 Here’s the workbook that helped make it doable, one day at a time.

Im so fucking tired of OCD being painted as "the cleaning disorder" and "everything must be so neat and tidy disorder" its not. its can be like that, sometimes. but just as often as OCD can cause (severely mentally and socially taxing) attention to being clean, often times it actually the opposite. and in my case, its severely the opposite. im sharing pictures because i don't know how to better explain to people that i can not walk on the floor of my room. i walk on top of old clothes and books and trash. I hope you realize this is an incredibly vulnerable thing for me to do.

OCD is not always about organization.

OCD is not always about immorality.

But it CAN be these things, it can be all of these and many more.

OCD is not the urge to organize your desk, it’s an obsession with placement, feeling a sickening “truth” that one failed task will surely bring bad luck to your family, they’re going to fall ill and it’s your fault. Do it again. Do it again. Do it again.

OCD is not the desire to clean your obviously dirty workspace, it’s the necessity to clean every single sign of contamination off of the counters, off of your hands. Oh, you touched that wall after the door handle. It’s dirty. Clean it. You’re not clean enough. That water isn’t scalding enough to decontaminate you. Clean it.

OCD is not the bad thought you had about your friend when you were mad, it’s the little thought in the back of your mind that suddenly consumes it. You’re such a horrible person, why would you think that? That’s disgusting. You need to pray for forgiveness. You need to confess what you’ve done. You need to distance yourself from everyone before you hurt them with your disgusting urges.

But it was all just a thought. That’s what people without OCD underestimate about all of this. One singular offput thought can blow up until you feel sick, overwhelmed, unable to think about anything until you comply with those compulsions, even if you’re fully aware with how unhealthy they are.

OCD is not the only disorder with intrusive thoughts, but the difference is they consume our mind until we fix it. Double check the door for the 10th time or else it’ll fly open, your cat will escape and get run over. Wash your hands again, or else it’ll spread all over your arms and the door and the walls. Apologize to your friends again or else they’ll resent you behind your back and know you as the monster you always were.

It can be a lot of things, it’s overwhelming. If you have OCD I am so immensely proud of you for handling the constant stress. You are strong, even if you let the compulsions control you today. Even if you did something you weren’t proud of. We all have our days, it’s okay. Remember your disorder does not define you, you will be able to get better control of it, it just takes time. Be patient with yourselves and be proud you’re alive today to do it.

DO YOU THINK-