- Date posted
- 3y
- Date posted
- 3y
Amazing question, journaling is what led me to NOCD (literally joined this community today). I’ve been journaling for 3-4 months but kept on going in a loop. My therapist (not NOCD therapist) told me journaling is good so I just started it but it never led me anywhere, it wasn’t productive at all!! That being said, I’m curious after my first few sessions if theres helpful journaling tactics for people with OCD using doing ERP!
- Date posted
- 3y
Welcome :) Yeah I LOVE to journal as I love writing but in the past when I’ve journaled about my intrusive thoughts it didn’t help. Now I realise it’s OCD I know that’s probably because I was just feeding the thoughts! I’d love to do morning pages for example (where you just write 4 pages of your thoughts randomly) but again don’t want to do anything that’s going to make things worse.
- Date posted
- 3y
Hi! My OCD IOP therapist LOOOOVED it when I journalled, and my NOCD therapist has encouraged me to keep up that work. As with most things, it *can* be a compulsion or something that feeds into rumination, but it doesn't have to be. It all comes down to approach and intention. If you're writing as a way to seek certainty, or to reassure yourself, or if you're going back and reading what you wrote over and over and getting caught up in it, those are red flags that compulsion is involved. If you're writing to process your feelings around a fear, or explore and understand your responses to it, or just to get it out onto the paper so it's not all in your head, those approaches are less likely to lead to compulsion. I think it's definitely valuable and worth trying--you just have to check in with yourself occasionally about how you're doing it. Best of luck!
- Date posted
- 3y
Thanks that is SO Helpful!! Yes definitely have been guilty of re-reading in the past to seek certainty/check! So will be sure to not do this. Thanks again!
- Date posted
- 3y
I’d like to know too
Related posts
- Date posted
- 17w
So, my brain brought up a question that really affected my worldview. I solved the obsession, and gained some good wisdom on that could be useful towards unconditional loving self acceptance. Maybe I was being OCD about recovery, and tried to find logical reasons for why progress is important no matter the outcome when I should've just embraced uncertainty. So now I have an answer to the Obsession. But this obsession took me to a pretty dark place. And I know OCD is just gonna throw and equally Bad one at me if I use this information to my benefit because it will essentially be reinforcing the OCD cycle. "Oh, he got the solution he needed to now I need to throw a new obsession at his way." So what do I do with the wisdom I gained from ruminating here? It's useful and practical information, so I don't want to throw it out. But I can't reinforce the ocd cycle.
- Date posted
- 17w
There’s this one situation that I haven’t stopped thinking about from last night . So basically, I was reading 'The power of Now' which is a book that I love so much and really got me into spirituality. It’s been so helpful for my OCD and rumination but it’s also been pretty triggering for it as of late, so I’ve taken a long break from consistently reading it. The excerpt I read was about abundance and how its not about being bountiful, necessarily in material things but realizing and being grateful for the things that exist in your life now and in doing so, you will open yourself up to more good things. I understood it but I re-read it a lot because I didn't feel confident enough to explain it to someone else. but otherwise I LOVED IT. It made me feel so at peace, I agreed with it, and it gave me hope to start focusing on the good things in my life rather than the bad. So when I went to bed I rehearsed myself explaining it to someone on a podcast and then all these questions started flooding in like “why should I only focus on the good and aren't we supposed to accept the good and bad? Aren’t those the values of Buddha and spirituality” “Ya, we're supposed to accept the good and the bad but why?- so we can feel more good??? And isn't the point of OCD to not label things as good and bad? and why should I focus on the good- so I can feel good? why should I feel good? because I'm worthy of it? why am I worthy of it? because I'm a good person and do good things? well I’ve also done bad things so why shouldn't I consider that. I just don’t understand why I should feel good without it being selfish. And then this went on for like 2 or 3 hours. Like holy shit. I over explain these ideas and concepts that I resonate with to the point where they don't even make sense to me anymore. It becomes very existensial very quick. And I’m not suicidal but these questions make me feel hopeless in society for some reason?? And myself. Like if everything contradicts everything then what’s the point to life? If nothing can be understood or explained in a senseful way, then how do people move forward and make decisions, like AT ALL? There’s never a right or perfect answer and I feel like with any decision I make in regards, I’m doing a compulsion either way. If I don’t answer them, then I’m avoiding it and if I do then I’m checking and seeking reassurance. I’m sorry if this was way too long and over-explained I just need some advice or to know if anyone can relate in any way. Also, I’m sorry if some of those back-to-back questions were triggering.
- Date posted
- 14w
Curious.... the news has been terribly distressing for me and has stirred up OCD. Compulsive rumination and checking (news stories) are my go-to when OCD is triggered. Today, I purposely did not listen to my news podcast as I do every morning. I feel better-ish. Is this avoidance, or is this self care? Would continuing to listen to a podcast be exposure with response prevention applied to the compulsions that go with it? Thanks in advance!
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