Homosexual OCD Help

[beyourself]

I have been suffering from "HOCD" for about 3 months now, and I agree it *****. I have intrusive thoughts that are not pleasant to me, and my feelings toward being a person that likes men, wants to be with a man, and have sex with a man are the EXACT OPPOSITE of pleasure. As a 19 year old college male, these thoughts are especially debilatating, as the college years are some of the best in terms of having fun with the opposite sex, and even possibly finding someone that you could spend the rest of your life with.
The key with this disorder I discovered with my therapist  is finding out within yourself WHY YOU WOULD BE SO AFRAID OF BEING GAY. This was the toughest question for me to face when speaking with my therapist, but I eventually decided I had to. After a few sessions, we came to the realization that my fear of being gay was associated with the fact that I DIDNT WANT TO BE- I HAD NO INTEREST- IT WAS NOT WHAT MY HEART WAS TELLING ME. We also explored that if in fact I decided I was gay, how would this affect my life? Would it be harder, maybe a little, but it would not change the type of person I was, except that it may make a stage of my life a little bit more difficult.
To make a long story short, tackling this "HOCD" is not about trying to figure out the crazy and unwanted thoughts your mind throws your way, but rather, to accept them with understanding that a gay life isnt the end of the world. NOTHING IS MORE IMPORTANT IN TREATING A FEAR RELATED DISORDER THAN FINDING OUT WHY THE FEAR IS SO GREAT. Once you realize that there is not a whole lot to fear, you can be more clear about your true intentions FROM DEEP DOWN about your heterosexuality.
njespo at udel dot edu --- feel free to e-mail me as I continue my journey to recovery maybe I can help you out too

[lainie123]

My son has had the same intrusive thoughts since Oct. He has a steady girlfriend that he truly loves and I will pass on your words of encouragment.Are you on any medication? He is seeing a psychiatrist who has him on celexa, lexapro, resperal and atavan. Much more than I like. He has days of being better, but has relapses. He even has days where he's fine one minute and then gets terribly anxious the next and the thoughts reoccur. He sometimes developes separation anxiety and anxiety when changing environments (home to school or vice-versa). He never had problems with anxiety or thoughts before this. Did your intrusive thoughts come on suddenly? I hope the two of you have very successful recoveries.

[aliya77]

I'm writing this here, in case this could help you, I know what kind of hell ocd is. I searched everywhere for natural remedies, because I was really desperate, I tried everything, and I did get better.  Here's everything I used, maybe it could help someone else, too: i used st. john's wort, passion flower and valerian, and E-EPA fish oil (flaxseed oil is supposed to be good, too, since it has lots of omega 3 in it as well, and Udo's oil) with some vitamins (zinc and magnesium). I read a lot about orthomolecular medicine, in which mental problems (bipolar, ocd, schizophrenia, depression, panic attacks etc.) are treated with vitamins, minerals and fatty acids (like fish oil or flaxseed oil) to balance the nervous system and hormones (ocd is thought to be caused by low amounts of serotonin and dopamin, and the vitamins and fatty acids naturally balance the hormones). Gluten-free diet is also important, and a diet free from additives, just a very wholesome healthy diet is recommended. I start feeling worse after ingesting gluten, so being gluten-free helps me a lot. i also got reflexology treatments and bach flower remedies helped me immensely (white chestnut for repetitive unwanted thoughts that won't go away, cherry plum for fear of going crazy, losing control, fear of doing something horrible you don't want to do, agrimony for deep anxiety and scleranthus helps with indecisiveness and "whether or not"-types (common with sexual ocd, always obsessing in "am i or am i not"-type of thoughts)and when you can't make up your mind, cerato is helpful with indeciviness and not trusting your decision but going over and over it again and again, and crab apple is helpful with cleaniness obsessions and fear of dirt, sin, germs etc.). maybe this could help someone, who feels really hopeless. don't give up! there are lots of herbal/vitamin remedies on market ( i just googled for natural remedies for OCD) that included remedies called amoryn, mindsoothe, purecalm and so on, i didn't use any of them, but reading the testimonials, there were many from previous ocd sufferers who got help from the herbal products, maybe they could help you too. Also, a woman called Mary Reed cured her own ocd with natural remedies and now helps others with the stuff that she used on herself to get better.
i'll pray you all can get better, i know how painful this thing is, but don't give up! god bless!- mary reed ocd, you'll find a personal testimony of a woman who was cured from her ocd with natural remedies.

[Roger Gould, M.D.]

thanks for your comments