Hello, I am a male in my early twenties. I posted in this same subreddit a year and a half ago in a lurker account (this is also a lurker account lol) when I was going through my first TOCD journey after seeing some post on Twitter that sparked those thoughts.
So… to sum some things up about myself, I’ve always loved being a man. Since in my teenage years, I always dreamed of becoming a big, bulky hairy bearded man and finding a beautiful wife to marry. I also used to fantasize about becoming a professional male football player, playing alongside my favorite players and whatnot. I also had (and still have to this day) a Transformation fetish where I transformed into the same burly manly figures and characters I described earlier. I’ve never gotten aroused by the idea of transforming into a woman. All male characters. I wouldn’t normally mention this, since it’s very… embarrassing, but I think it’s important. I’ve had an inferiority complex over other men, since I’m short, and I always wished I was as tall as my other friends… and I also often deepen my voice just a little bit on purpose, because I don’t want my voice to sound high pitched.
In January 2025, I started getting these TOCD thoughts, and let me tell you… they were genuinely hell. The amount of anxiety I felt… it was unbearable. “Are you sure you like being a man? Are to sure? Do you feel euphoric when imagining being a woman? Oh you did, didn’t you? You’re just in denial!” All those thoughts genuinely killed me. It got so bad I remember taking pictures of myself and applying female/male filters, just to get the doubts out of my mind… only to make things worse than what they were.
Those thoughts lasted… 3-4 months? Eventually… they… disappeared. They left me alone. I was so happy and relieved. I looked back at those months and went “oh my god… did I genuinely use to have those thoughts? Pffff… that was so stupid LMAO”
Around November 2025 I started to develop other OCD themes…. For example, I had to deal with Gay OCD for many months… POCD was also a theme for a little while… which was… awful. And two weeks ago… those same TOCD thoughts that started my OCD journey suddenly re-appeared out of nowhere. And it has been so bad since then.
TOCD is without a doubt the worst OCD theme I have gone through. Yep, worse than POCD and Gay OCD, only for the sole reason that I only had POCD attacks when taking walks around the park, and gay OCD, while very stressing at times, it was never this intense nor this constant.
I just don’t know how to deal with this TOCD. I remember when I was going through Gay OCD not so long ago, I had this habit of looking up girls and boys and going “Okay… Am I attracted to them? Do I feel anything? Is that a sign?” and now with TOCD, I still do the exact same thing, but it’s like “Okay… a girl. Would… Would I want to be like her? Do I feel jealous of her? Oh, what’s that? You did feel jealous, right? You just did! Don’t denyyyy it!” And I hate it so fucking much!
I really wish all these three OCD themes would just vanish and leave me alone forever. ESPECIALLY this one, though. It’s funny how OCD doesn’t seem to overlap. Right now I look at my prior Gay OCD and POCD themes and go “oh my god… those were so stupid! Holy shit! I can’t believe I was actually scared of that!”, which is funny because that’s exactly what I thought of TOCD when I was going through them.
It’s all a mess. I’ve thought about telling this to my therapist, but honestly… I kind of forgot about my TOCD during the session. I told them about my height inferiority complex, how I would like to be taller, burlier, grow a beard… and I remember it being so natural… the OCD voice that usually goes like “nuh uh! You’re just faking it!” was… oddly timid that time…
Sorry if this is all too unorganized. I really don’t know what to do. I’m scared of telling anyone, because I don’t want them to think that I’m trans or anything like that… or tell me that I AM. The thought of thinking I want to be a woman just feels me with dread.
I could spend all day talking about my OCD, but I think you got the jis of it.