- Date posted
- 3y
- Date posted
- 3y
You can treat unplanned time as an exposure! “Maybe my obsessions will get louder, maybe they won’t.” Schedule enough stuff for yourself to do so that the amount of unplanned time doesn’t feel totally overwhelming, but also treat it as an opportunity to practice your ERP skills. Setting regular times for waking up, having meals and snacks, and going to bed could provide a helpful sense of routine.
- Date posted
- 3y
I live in DC so I’m actually looking forward to going to the museums I’ve never been able to get to!
- Date posted
- 3y
@betsy1212 That sounds lovely! Enjoy :)
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 3y
I feel this so so much and am in the exact same boat. I have a month off too. I try to make a list of things I'd like to do for the day. Like today I'm hoping to go grocery shopping. Maybe attend an NOCD group.
- Date posted
- 3y
Are there NOCD groups?
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 3y
@betsy1212 Yeah! On the community page at the top, click groups. They have them almost daily. You can sign up.
- Date posted
- 3y
@akshu Oh great!
- Date posted
- 3y
Oh @betsy1212 I hear you! It can be tough for people like us to have a gap in routine. I was off for about 8 months at the start of the pandemic (airline) and at first my OCD was telling me that it would be so awful because I'd have nothing to do but be stuck with my intrusive thoughts and uncertainty about my future. I was very wrong. I embraced the heck out of it. Sure, my OCD came up, especially in the first week. And sometimes the "what ifs" sidelined me. But I also reminded myself that I had been overworking myself for the past couple of years and decided to take the time for me. I sat outside, I read, I took extra walks. I spent the summer trying new things with my favourite safe person. I know that grad school must have been taxing for you at times and you've probably worked yourself ragged sometimes too! My suggestion: plan one or two things a day for the first few days or the first week. Maybe one thing a day after that. It will give you some structure, something to do, somewhere to be, people to see. It may help anchor you. But also, let yourself decide to take a little extra time to do something you might have normally rushed through. Do something you've been saying "after I'm done this degree" about for a while. Take a day trip somewhere new. Or go away for a couple of nights if you can. Be there for you! Create a new temporary routine until work starts. You can do this!
- Date posted
- 3y
This is great advice! Thank you so much!
Related posts
- Date posted
- 23w
Often times I find myself spiraling out in the morning about all sorts of things. When I try and catch myself and figure out what I am obsessing over it’s like it goes away. I haven’t moved. I have been sitting frozen on the floor because I can’t go to work because I am behind on work and I hate being late and I hate being messy but I am frequently late and my room is cluttered and full of stuff. I want to be good and move and go to work but I don’t know what is coming today and I hate my job so I know I will get bored and when I have nothing to keep me busy and engaged I like start thinking and taking an inventory of what is going on and then I will feel a sensation and what is the sensation? How did it happen? And I know that I will pick up the bad emotions in the office and get contaminated, I was really worried about things like this as a kid too I cried because I had to touch dirt in kindergarten. I know I am this way and I have been this way for a while but at the same time I think I might just be normal and like I don’t know why I get stuck in thinking like this. Then I begin to doubt that OCD is real because everyone has a brain with wiring and everyone gets stuck in thought sometimes. I feel disabled from whatever this is because I am stuck. I literally cannot move because I don’t know what’s wrong and I know I have to go to work even though I feel like every moment I spend there is making everything worse because other people are so stressed and I get it from them. And I don’t feel ready because I just feel off and something is wrong and I just don’t know what to do because if it’s OCD or not OCD everything anyone knows about me is coming from me and I worry that I am often masking all the thinking I’m doing because thinking all the time is rude and inconsiderate and inconvenient for those around me, but I can’t stop. I just don’t feel right, right now - and I want to know WHY?? Why is everything off all the time? How do I even know that I am not making up the experience of OCD in my head to cover up something really wrong with me and now I am taking on the symptoms of OCD like an actress, because this could be something that I can latch onto as a final hope for explaining why I am stuck. So stuck so deeply and terribly stuck sitting on my floor next to my bed just scrolling to avoid thinking because any time I start thinking I am left with no answers or help or anything just this swirly feeling. I know I am trying, maybe not my best, but as much as I possibly can. I want to be a Special Education Teacher but I have so much so so so much doubt and uncertainty about every decision I make and everything I know that I can’t get there right now. I can’t do anything right now until it feels ok and then I will. It never feels ok. I know I have to be ok not feeling ok about it. I can be unsure and still be ok. I know it’s just my thinking and my body but I just can’t get past this feeling. And then I know that because I can calm myself and be ok even though I spent 2 hours of my life today already feeling stuck and spinning around and around and around in my head - I don’t feel sure about my OCD and I think it’s a bit of a scam made up by people to cultivate pathology around deep human thought because one day I might figure it out and we all think a lot.
- Date posted
- 21w
I'm wondering if this is a common OCD experience: does anyone else find that when you have idle time, your mind just spirals into endless rumination on negative "what ifs" & intrusive thoughts? It's been happening to me for the past three years, which coincides with starting a really high-stress job. Weekends used to be my time to relax, but now I dread weekends...I only feel relief when I'm sleeping because it's the only time my mind seems to quiet down. It's honestly so depressing to lose that enjoyment. Does anyone else relate to this, and if so, what helps you cope?
- Date posted
- 15w
i’m in college and on my summer break now. i don’t have a job yet or much to occupy myself with and im finding it really difficult to keep my ocd under control. if i have nothing to do, i find myself sitting around and ruminating heavily and getting severely anxious and my thoughts just keep wandering. i don’t really feel peace of mind unless im with my boyfriend or my best friend, both of which i don’t get to see often because they’re very busy or live far away. im not sure how to keep myself busy and how to occupy my brain with something other than worries :(
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