Any POCD/HOCD Success Stories? Need help!

Hi guys, so i am currently suffering from POCD and it is absolutely killing me . I have lost all hope that this is curable and that i one day might move on. So i really need to know that it is possible to move on from this mental prison. Has anyone here ever suffered from these sexual obsessions and over come them? And if you have how did you go about fighting it? ( Therapy? Exercise?)

Hi Dayandnight,

I'm sorry to hear you're going through this. I had some degree of POCD until a couple of years ago, along with obsessions that I might have a bunch of other paraphilias and taboo fetishes as well (I don't actually have any). I think what caused me to completely snap out of it was when a few people I knew, one of whom I was previously very close to, actually hooked up with underage teenagers. The thought that these people (all of whom were my age, early 20s) were actually attracted to these kids and acting on it was something I couldn't even begin to wrap my head around, not to mention I was completely disgusted and enraged. I knew I couldn't do such a thing even if I was being paid or forced. I guess that was the final reassurance I needed that I wasn't the p-word.

I'm almost asexual and have a lower sex drive than most, but around that time I experienced a really strong sexual attraction towards another person for the first time in my life (a woman my age), which probably also helped. This meant I finally knew what people meant when they talked about attraction, and I realised if I had been feeling it towards kids or any of the other groups of people I was afraid of being attracted to, I would have known.

I think for a lot of reasons that entire period of my life helped me to finally figure out the differences between real attraction vs. worrying you might be attracted vs. just thinking someone's cute or whatever, and being "into something" vs. worrying that you might be into it vs. just being curious. All of that was a very grey area in my mind because it was so rare for me to really be attracted to/into anything, but I'm a lot less confused now.

I don't know your exact circumstances, but I wanted you to know it is possible to get past these things, even if it sometimes happens in strange and unexpected ways.

I have however developed a lot of other obsessions since, some if which are just as unsettling. So I would really recommend trying to treat your OCD as a whole rather than just trying to get rid of this one specific obsession.

Thanks for the reply, I'm actually currently looking to get into CBT therapy, I'm just not convinced it will work. I'm quite the pessimist .

I actually used to obsess over turning into a homosexual. At the time it was hell for me but now i actually miss it. Thinking I'm gay is a blessing compared to thinking you might be a pedophile. Also i have lost all my attraction towards women and now i sometimes think i might also be asexual ( which makes no sense). It's just hard you know? I can't be around children anymore, i go out of my way to avoid them. Can't even watch a movie with kids in it without the obsessive thinking kicking in. It has totally ruined my life. Therapy is my last hope.