Bookworm91
- Date posted
- 3y
ViVampire🧛🏻♀️ViVampire🧛🏻♀️
- Date posted
- 3y
Yeah, it's scary but it helps a lot of people
Daniela!Daniela!
- Date posted
- 3y
I think when people put it that way it comes across as very insensitive and ignorant of how bad the thoughts actually are. I think it’s more about learning to gradually pay less attention to the thoughts over time by sort of accepting that they come and go naturally, and when understanding the thoughts overcoming some of the anxiety by realizing that they’re purely the result of a disorder with no relevance to the real world. I think? But like it’d be nicer if people were polite and considerate about it. Maybe some people say “sit with it” and omit the complexities just because that would be a mouthful. Idk
Bookworm91Bookworm91
- Date posted
- 3y
Yeah I understand
Bookworm91Bookworm91
- Date posted
- 3y
I hate to ask this like a creeper but is there any way you could look at my recent posts. The last one was from 2 mins ago. I need some guidance please
Lms526Lms526
- Date posted
- 3y
I know it sounds cruel and impossible. I'm not saying its easy, but when it comes to intrusive thoughts the best thing you can do is acknowledge it "This is an OCD thought" Then dont engage with it. Dont try to replace it with a "good" thought. Don't try to push it out of your head. Don't try to reason, argue, or disprove it. Yes, your anxiety will go crazy for awhile. But then it will peak and decline. Every time you give into a compulsion you are telling your brain the threat is real. It responds by giving you the thought more often. Doing compulsions does relieve your anxiety, but it also makes your OCD worse. Everyone has intrusive thoughts. The real problem is the meaning we give them. Letting the thoughts be is tough, but it is the only way to break the OCD cycle. You have no control over the thoughts that come, but you DO have control over how you respond. Doing compulsions is learned behavior. You are making that choice. I know it doesn't feel like a choice, but it is. You can choose NOT to do compulsions. At first, your OCD will throw a temper tantrum, but the more you do it, the easier it gets.
Anon Y. MousAnon Y. Mous
- Date posted
- 3y
Well, that’s the widely accepted solution. But no one’s forcing you to do it.
Bookworm91Bookworm91
- Date posted
- 3y
Helpful.
Anon Y. MousAnon Y. Mous
- Date posted
- 3y
@Bookworm91 Glad to be of help
Forest13Forest13
- Date posted
- 3y
It’s like how am I supposed to sit with horrible intrusive thoughts they are by nature horrible to me in particular how am I supposed to ignore them
Bookworm91Bookworm91
- Date posted
- 3y
Yeah the instinct is to attack it and keep it under watch at all times
sean93sean93
- Date posted
- 3y
I think ok sit with it.. but how am I supposed to carry on the the day and complete tasks enjoy films and just live.. to me I feel like I cannot and don’t want to carry on until it’s gone
Anon Y. MousAnon Y. Mous
- Date posted
- 3y
It is difficult, but we have to come to a point where we have to decide whether to live our lives according to our values, or to let OCD rule everything. The uneasy feelings are something we must learn to live with.
Related posts
Patrick McGrath
- User type
- Therapist
- Date posted
- 20w
Learning to sit with uncertainty and intrusive thoughts
Here is what I say to people: I wish I could make it stop. I really do. I also wish I could stop tinnitus. What is tinnitus, you may ask? Well, have you ever gone to a loud concert and after it had a ringing in your ears. Or, in movies when a loud explosion hears, first it is often muffled, and then there is a very loud ringing sound. Well, I have hear that sound for over 30 years. Turns out the medications I took as a kid for allergies and all the antibiotics I was on for Strep had a side effect for some people - tinnitus - that sound that I have heard every decade, year, month, day, hour, and second, for the past 30 years. I have learned to live with it. As I type this, it is REALLY loud, because I am paying attention to it. But, in a few minutes it will fade into the background, and, while I will hear it, I will not pay much attention to it, and therefore I will go on with my night. I will listen to music, practice my story for the MOTH radio hour, and work out. I will clean up the kitchen and load the dishwasher, and I will eventually get ready for bed. I will go to bed hearing that sound, and fall asleep for a few hours until tomorrow morning when I start the day all over again. I cannot make the sound stop. There is nothing to do for it - no surgery or medication. Just learning to live with it, and that is what I have done. It is the thing that I hate the most in my life, and, if granted three wishes, it would be the first thing to change. For now, as I have for 30 years, I will live with it, and I will ask you to live with your noises in your head - the thoughts, the images, and the urges, and we will practice together accepting that things are not always as we want them, but we can handle that. We got this.
Anonymous
- Date posted
- 18w
I can’t tell anything real anymore
This situation just happened and I can definitely remember how it went but my brain is telling me otherwise and I know you guys said to sit with the uncertainty but what if the intrusive thought is so bad like disgusting, I can’t sit with that. Maybe it’s false memory but this just happened. I don’t even know how to live with this
ocdsuxxx
- Date posted
- 13w
Drowning
Intrusive thoughts are unwanted and cause stress which mine do but also when I’m mad I get this rage feeling and say I wanna stab someone like that feels like a. Want not intrusive why am I saying “ I wanna “ :(
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