- Date posted
- 3y
- Date posted
- 3y
Seeking reassurance is a compulsion. It doesn't matter if you get it from your counselor or give it to yourself. Doing a compulsion does relieve your anxiety, but it only lasts a very short time. It also teaches your brain that the thought truly is a threat. Your brain will respond by giving you the same thought even more. It also makes your OCD words. More intrusive thoughts leads to more anxiety, which leads to more compulsions. Also, you can NEVER satisfy OCD. No matter how many compulsions you do, OCD will always say "Yeah, but what about _______?" Does your therapist understand OCD? The fact that she is willing to give you reassurance tells me she probably doesn't. A therapist that understands OCD would not give you reassurance. Traditional talk therapy does not work for OCD and does more harm than good
- Date posted
- 3y
Two things: 1: This is what ERP is for, by exposing yourself to a situation that OCD is telling you is bad acknowledging, but not responding to the thought, over time A) you will have the thoughts less B) you will be able to function C) If you still have them, they will seem less scary 2: Over time, I have come to notice when my brain is anxious and I may not be able to think fully rationally. Sometimes I can feel (or it seems like I can) whatever chemicals/hormones/whatever are being released that make me anxious. Sometimes I know Im in a situation where I cant see the way out, but it is at this point I have to acknowledge that there probably is a rational way to think about it, and simply wait it out until my mind has cleared up to the point where I can think clearly. So I carry on with whatever normal activity I was doing before that occurred and try not to fixate it too much.
- Date posted
- 3y
Absolutely. I am just trying to get to a place where I don’t have the thought and immediately feel the need to share with my therapist so I can get my reassurance. I agree with you though!
- Date posted
- 3y
I can relate so much. I think I have to work more on my willingness to lean into the uncertainty, to allow the discomfort of not solving the "problem."
Related posts
- Date posted
- 25w
I struggle so bad with intrusive thoughts. They can be so bad that I'll cry because I KNOW that's not how I feel or want to do. (Too embarrassed to say what they're about) I'll constantly try to figure out why I have them, and constantly figure out what they mean, causing me to constantly circle around and around. I had to get on anxeity meds, which helped a little but the thoughts still happen. How do you help yourself with this? How do you know that you're just not some physcopath? 😅
- Date posted
- 17w
Does anyone else experience a moment of clarity where you feel strong relief that the intrusive thought isn’t true, only to then immediately start questioning if you’ve only convinced yourself that because you don’t want the thought to be true? I’m pretty confident it would take some crazy mental gymnastics to actually successfully convince myself I didn’t do something that I deep down knew I did, but every time I resist the compulsions and try to sit with the uncertainty or tell myself to think about what is logical, I usually briefly know that this probably didn’t happen but am unable to move on out of fear I’m just in denial and have convinced myself of that.
- Date posted
- 11w
My mom will sit and listen to me for quite a while, but she interrupts a lot and gets angry/upset. While I appreciate her passion, it's often stressful. Every time I come to her, if I even *mention* OCD, she gets frustrated and says, "Everyone deals with these issues, you know. It doesn't mean it's OCD." And I repeat, "I'm not saying my issues are unique — I'm saying the way I respond to them is a problem." But she just shakes her head and says, "Okay, I need to get back to my day." Full context, I'm an adult, and I live with my boyfriend, but I'm staying at my mom's for the next month. After living away from home for years, I went back to living with her during the pandemic, and I only recently left to live with him. Honestly, I think living with her for so long in my adulthood really messed with me and made me feel like a teenager all over again. I feel like my mental growth is stunted, and that's part of why my OCD is so bad lately. Not blaming, just noticing. She doesn't seem to understand how relieving the OCD diagnosis has been for me, because it explains so so so many things I've struggled with for years, and it's exciting to have more resources that can help me. But I think she sees it as me finding an excuse to *not* work on myself, which is just untrue. I'm not going to let OCD hold me back or use it as an excuse, but I'm also not going to pretend it's not a problem when I know it is — I was even diagnosed through NOCD. The whole point being to fix it, not use it as a crutch. When I have an issue, it's unbearable. Any issue, big or small, feels just the same. I feel a sinking feeling, my mind races, my heart beats out of my chest. I end up running to my support systems, crying, ruminating for days on end. Then, months later, the same exact issue can feel like nothing anymore, because it's no longer an obsession. I'm sure everyone deals with issues in a similar way, but I *know* there is something specific and debilitating going on with me. This is reassurance seeking, but in the face of being told I'm making a big deal out of nothing, can someone diagnosed with OCD tell me if they relate to the specific intensity of these feelings??
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