Do these symptoms relate to ocd?

Mental Health

I’m wondering if I might have OCD and I’d like to hear from people who have experience with it. I know Reddit can’t diagnose me, but I’m trying to understand whether what I’m experiencing sounds familiar.

I have really bad intrusive thoughts that can feel like they never leave. When I was younger, I used to get intrusive thoughts that were really upsetting to me. For example, when I believed in God, I would get thoughts that I thought would take me to hell even though I didn’t want to think it. I was terrified of going to hell and hated myself for having such thoughts

Another example from when I was younger: I would sometimes get an unwanted mental image involving a relative. I absolutely hated having the image and imagined that she could somehow read my mind and know I had thought it. I was scared because I thought the thought itself said something about me.

Nowadays I still get intrusive thoughts. I usually try to push them out of my head, but they tend to come back.

I also have a weird relationship with time and getting things over with. For example, I have a really hard time watching videos/lectures at normal speed. I get a strong urge to put them on 2x speed, even if it’s something I actually want to watch. I physically have to stop myself from clicking 2x sometimes.

I constantly want to check how much time is left in a video. I also automatically divide the remaining time by two because of the whole 2x thing. I do this with in-person lectures too—I’ll look at how much time is left and calculate how much it would be if it were 2x speed.

The strange part is that I can feel this way even when I have absolutely nothing else to do. It’s not like I’m rushing because I have somewhere to be. I can have an entire day free and still feel like I’m wasting my time and need to hurry up and get things over with, even when I’m doing something I genuinely like.

I also do this with games. Sometimes I’ll look up gameplay/walkthroughs online just to find out how long it will take until I finish the game.

When I check the time, I don’t really feel a huge rush of relief. It’s more like I get this feeling of “okay, now I know when I’m free from the responsibility of watching this.” I also don’t seem to naturally get used to the urge if I don’t check—I basically always end up checking.

I also have really strong disgust reactions to certain things.

I absolutely hate toothpaste. It’s not really about the flavor, although I do hate mint. I feel intensely disgusted by toothpaste even though I KNOW logically that there’s nothing inherently gross about it. Sometimes I feel like I need to wash my mouth with soap because of the disgust (I don’t actually want to do that, but the urge is there).

Gum is even worse. Seeing someone chewing gum can make me feel extremely disgusted. I don’t want to be near them or touch them, and I can feel like I need to spit out the saliva in my own mouth just from seeing a video of someone chewing gum or thinking about it. The disgust can feel stronger to me than things that I would normally consider much more gross.

If someone has touched a bottle/object that I associate with this disgust, sometimes I don’t want them touching me afterward. I sometimes wash/avoid things because of the feeling. The disgust comes back again later even after I clean or avoid the thing.

I also sometimes have other repetitive behaviors, checking, or things I feel like I have to do, although these aren’t always present. Sometimes they seem to completely switch off and I don’t care about them at all.

The biggest thing is that I KNOW some of these reactions don’t make logical sense. I know toothpaste isn’t objectively disgusting. I know having an intrusive thought doesn’t mean I actually want something. But my brain still gives me this overwhelming feeling that I need to avoid it, check something, get something over with, or get rid of the feeling.

It’s starting to affect my ability to enjoy things and sometimes affects school.

Does this sound familiar to anyone with OCD, especially the intrusive thoughts + checking/mental calculations + disgust/contamination stuff? Or could this be something else?

I’m not looking for someone to diagnose me!!! I just want to understand whether this pattern sounds familiar to people who have actually experienced OCD.

Posted Aug 27, 2026, 1:03 PM UTC

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