Lynz

You're welcome. Glad I could help

Hi Gemma, It is your choice of course but personally I would go for the hysterectomy as this will greatly reduce your physical symptoms of PMDD and endometriosis. Yes there is a chance your OCD may flare up but there is also a chance that it will improve. The way I see it is that presently you have both physical health issues caused by PMDD and endometriosis, as well as OCD on top of that. Having the hysterectomy will tackle the first two and then you will just be left with the OCD to tackle, and you will be in a much better place to try and tackle it without also having to deal with debilitating physical symptoms as well. Good luck with whatever you decide to do

Thanks everyone for your kind words A lot of my progress is down to you guys for always supporting and encouraging me to kick OCD into touch! I don't think I could have made the progress that I have done without all of your support so thank you

Just thought I'd post on here to update on how I'm doing as I feel I've made a lot of progress and wanted to share as it might give others a bit of hope. As some of you may know I've had OCD for a few years now and the themes have varied to focus on health issues, sexuality and gender identity worries, harm issues and more recently worries to do with my relationship. I've been engaged to my partner since 2011 but have put off getting married all this time due to overwhelming doubts that have appeared whenever I've tried to plan it, such as worrying whether I'm making the right choice or whether he is the "right" person for me, to questioning my own feelings and levels of attraction. Well I can now report that I've put in a lot of work in overcoming this and I've managed to buy a wedding dress, rings and various other bits and bobs and we have booked a date for 7th May 2020 and have paid the first big instalment towards it. I do still have horrendous doubts but overall I'm very happy about it. Hopefully I'll manage to carry on as I have been doing and not give into any compulsive urges. Hope everyone is doing well

Bobfish is right. Literally all of your posts are exactly the same, Lily. You come here panicking that you've touched someone or wanted to touch them for "sexual reasons", whether it be a friend, family member, professional person etc. You then repeatedly request reassurance that you're not a sexual deviant. We don't give you that reassurance and tell you that what you're experiencing is OCD, and that you need to stop carrying out your compulsions in order to get better. Then you disappear until a new thought enters your head and the cycle repeats again.

The Law of Attraction is nothing but a clever marketing concept designed to sell books and make money. It's absolute nonsense in my opinion. I'm all for the idea of having a positive mindset about life but that's about as far as it goes. Don't waste anymore time thinking about this, Ryukil, would be my advice.

I agree I think like anything for some people it can be a positive thing but others an addiction. Take alcohol for example, many people enjoy the occasional glass of wine with friends or with a meal etc. with no harmful effects, yet many are also terribly addicted to alcohol with devastating effects. I think the same is true for phones, but that phone addiction is probably a lot more common.

I do this type of yoga for my bad back and it helps a lot with that. I'm not sure about its effectiveness for OCD at all. Like most exercise it probably has a feel-good factor when doing it that may reduce anxiety, but yoga on its own won't do much for OCD in my opinion.

Thanks GBG . I am indeed. I had a chicken nugget meal from McDonald's with a chocolate milkshake as soon as I came out and I'm a happy bunny again haha. Thanks Gemma . My goodness I know. If anyone is ever struggling with obsessions, take a ton of laxatives and watch those worries drain away (literally) (joking obviously, please don't take laxatives guys haha).

Thanks everyone. It went ok today. It was a bit of a strange procedure but it was over quite quickly and I should get the results next week, but the radiographer said he can't see anything obvious that could be wrong. Last night was awful. Didn't sleep at all cos I was up and down going to the loo all night , but at least it's over now! Thanks for all of your support everyone.

Thanks BelAnna. I've actually got automatic 5 day extensions for my assignments due to my disability support plan for my OCD, but I hate using them as I feel like I'm failing somehow (yes I know I need to nip that one in the bud!). So far I've only used my extensions once and that was recently, so I think I've done pretty well to not need them until now. My average mark for my first and second years was in the 80s too so I do realise I need to cut myself some slack! I'd never thought about pregnant women and if you get the flu etc. but they are good points. Ultimately I think I need to try and forget about it and get on with my day as best as I can (but stay near a toilet ).

Thanks Gemma I'm over an hour into the fasting period now and so far it's not been that bad. To be honest I've been distracted from the eating thing due to the very effective laxatives that I've had to take Wish me luck guys haha.

Yes of course you're right . Unfortunately I can't go out as I need to be by a toilet all day because of the laxatives (oh joy...), but I'm planning on watching Netflix to distract me and maybe do a bit of uni work if I feel up to it. My partner is off work today so at least I'm not on my own.

Thanks Malina. Yes you are right. I do think a lot of it is about control and the fear of losing it (i.e. losing control of my eating and developing an eating disorder). On the other hand, having to consume lots of sugary liquid drinks/jelly etc. is also making me worry about how unhealthy it is to have that much sugar. I keep telling myself that it's only for today and therefore not likely to have any ill effects at all. Pah, OCD sucks

Hi friends, Like always I'm very good at giving advice to others but rubbish at listening to that advice myself. I was hoping you guys would be able to help me with this problem I'm having. Basically, I have to have a procedure tomorrow called a barium enema. It's a type of x-ray where they insert liquid barium into your colon in order to be able to take images of your bowel to look for anything that might be wrong such as tumours, inflammation, polyps etc. I've been having some GI symptoms for a while now and although my consultant doesn't think there's anything untoward happening he just wanted me to have this test to firmly rule out anything else before confirming my diagnosis of IBS. Now I'm not actually worried about the test itself at all, and I'm not overly worried about the results. I'll probably find the test itself a bit embarrassing but it'll be over really quickly and then I can forget about it. What is making me really anxious is having to do the preparation beforehand. I have to take laxatives today which empty your bowel (not too bothered about that), but I also have to effectively fast (i.e. go on a clear liquid diet) for 24 hours prior to my test. My test is at 2pm tomorrow so I'm only allowed white bread at 2pm today (I've had my breakfast as normal) and then I can only have things like clear soup, clear jelly, honey, bovril, clear liquids, sugary drinks and boiled sweets for 24 hours. This is what is making me so anxious as I have issues when it comes to food to do with my OCD. I often get thoughts that I might develop an eating disorder and I then have the urge to monitor my intake to make sure I'm getting enough calories. I also worry about not getting "the right" nutrients or nutritional balance, and I also worry about being hungry. For example if I have my tea a bit early in the evening and then I go to bed, if I'm a bit hungry in bed I find this completely intolerable and so I have to get up in the night to have some cereal or toast or something like that. If I think I might be hungry in the night even when I'm not I'll have some toast before bed "just in case". I'm aware that these are compulsions and I have been working to try and stop them, but they are way down the list of compulsions that I need to stop as other obsessions have greater priority at the moment. Basically I'm just worried about having to do all of this and I'm unable to just get on with it and not worry about it. I think part of it is to do with the fact that I'm in my final year of nursing training and I have tons of exams and assignments coming up, as well as having to do loads of placement hours. I have an assignment due in next week, and worrying about this test and having to do all the preparation for it is distracting me from my uni work, which as you can imagine causes a vicious circle to be established. So far I've been trying to see these worries as just thoughts and not pay any attention to them, but it's really difficult. Any advice or support on this would be welcome. Thanks everyone.

I'm so sorry to hear this, Saz. I agree with everything else that has been said. Stay strong, take time to look after yourself and do fun things with your children. Remember, it's onwards and upwards from here

I suffer from this to an extent, not because of any worries of contamination or feelings of disgust, but rather due to an overwhelming fear of becoming pregnant. I've had this since I first became sexually active when I was 18 (so 12 years now), and logically I know that there it is practically impossible to get pregnant from traces of sperm left on bedsheets, hands (even after washing them) etc., but I still find that I can't quite shake the worry off. This particular fear has taken a bit of a backseat in comparison to my other obsessions but I think it's time that I dealt with this one now too.

BelAnna be careful it really sounds like OCD is trying to suck you back in here. You're still doing compulsions around this issue even though you've been given the all-clear. You've obviously still been googling hence the comment about the biopsy. Also asking your uncle would be reassurance seeking. It's brilliant that you've been given the all-clear and I'm really happy for you, but I honestly think you should try and forget about it. Benign breast changes happen for all sorts of reasons, and it doesn't usually matter what the reason is as there is often no treatment for benign changes, hence why there's been no further investigation. I really think you should let it go now.

You're right Emsie. My partner is only 31 and he's had shingles twice in the past 5 years. He's fit and healthy and there's nothing wrong with his immune system or anything like that. It's rare for someone so young to get shingles especially twice but it's just one of those things the GP says.

Hi Saffie. I also think the contraceptive pill has negatively affected my mental health when I've been on it. I've been on various different ones over the past 10 years or so, and 2 years ago I also decided to stop taking any kind of hormonal contraceptives and within about 3 weeks I started feeling so much calmer and less anxious, to the point where my partner had started to worry as I acted like "a completely different person" but in a good way and he just wasn't used to it at all. I don't think it's helped my OCD much, as that has always been bad, but certainly my mood and general anxiety levels have vastly improved since being off the pill.

Congratulations Kaheath! I've always had fantasies about writing fiction and getting it published. Maybe because alphabetically my work would stand next to J.K. Rowling in bookshops . I've never actually had the confidence or time to do it though so I take my hat off to anyone who manages to do it. BTW I've only just seen this post now so I echo what GBG says about posts sometimes falling through the gaps.

Also happy to help

Gemma is right. It's standard procedure to be referred in 2 weeks. I was referred to have an odd mole looked at by dermatology even though the GP said it was unlikely to be malignant. I was seen in 2 weeks and the mole turned out to be nothing. Similarly I've been having some GI bleeding recently which the GP has put down to benign causes but I was referred just in case. I was seen in 2 weeks by a consultant who is sending me for further tests but he's almost certain they'll be fine too so I'm not worried. You're making some crazy leaps here for which you have zero evidence for and which are very unlikely. You've basically gone from 2 week referral = cancer = going to die prematurely = not being able to get married or have kids, when really all you have to deal with is the 2 week referral.

Psycho-sexual therapy is generally for people who are having sexual difficulties such as women who tense up before intercourse due to anxiety/trauma etc. and it therefore causes them pain. I've had it in the past to get over something similar when it came to getting gynaecological examinations. Men can have it for things like erectile dysfunction caused by performance anxiety and that sort of thing. In short, I don't think psycho-sexual therapy will do anything for you because you have OCD, and need therapy to treat that, i.e. CBT.

Happy birthday Ollie! I often have problems with my OCD around birthdays/Christmases etc. too for as long as I can remember. My OCD/health anxiety effectively ruined my 30th birthday in August this year, as me and my partner went away to Snowdonia for a couple of days, but when I got there I was convinced I had appendicitis and needed to come back home so I could go to hospital. I was so distressed and had crippling pain in my lower right abdomen, that after 2 days we came home early, and would you believe it (not), by the time we'd got home my "symptoms" had disappeared. I just felt for my poor partner who'd tried so hard to make my birthday a good one so that I could relax and enjoy it but unfortunately that didn't happen