My intrusive images have gone away but now every day I feel anxious and cannot stop thinking about “if my intrusive thoughts” come back. It’s almost like I’m having anxiety about anxiety 😞. Been struggling for almost two months and just started medication yesterday for the first time. Will this constant anxious feeling and thinking about it all day everyday ever go away? Really struggling today.

Hey! I would just like to throw some words of advice to you. I’m someone who struggled with OCD for years and I’m recovered. Try to remember the concept that our brains are very helpful and very nice to us. Your brain is just being very helpful in regards to “trying to make you feel good” if you’re constantly judging anxiety as a bad thing, then your brain is just trying to help, by constantly bringing up thoughts, sensations or feelings you don’t like, because your brain wants to “solve” those problems, so you feel better. That’s all that is happening in layman’s terms. Your brain isn’t evil, just consider it a watch dog that’s always looking out for you. You can tell the brain thank you for everything you do, but I’m not going to perform compulsions to feel better. I’m just going to sit with this anxiety and carry on with what I value and what matters to me. This teaches the brain, that there is no danger and that anxiety is ok to have. You can have panic attacks. You can have fear. Anxiety is a natural feeling, just like any other feelings we experience. If you’re number one goal in life is to have no anxiety, your brain picks up on that and will give you sooo many things to ruminate on, check on or try to control. Try letting those thoughts be with you, by not engaging with them or trying to control them. Follow your values and do things that matter in your life with thoughts and sensations you don’t like. Another tip: when you say “if my intrusive thoughts” I consider “intrusive thoughts” a compulsion. Because you’re judging those thoughts as something bad. Thoughts are bad, they aren’t good. They’re just thoughts. They have no meaning. They are like clouds passing in the sky, you don’t put meaning to the clouds in the sky, so don’t put meaning to your thoughts. They are just something your brain does. That watch dog keeps coming up with thoughts that it knows you’ll react to. That’s why you’re stuck in this cycle. 😊

I’ve experienced this as well, and I think it’s very common. OCD is such a horrible feeling, and so it makes sense that people would be scared of it coming back. I would suggest that you treat the thought of “what if my OCD comes back” or “what if my intrusive thoughts come back” the same as you would any other OCD thought. You should tell the OCD: “Ok, you’re trying to tell me the intrusive thoughts might come back. I don’t really care what you have to say. I’m going to live my life, and I’m not going to let you control me anymore.” If you do this, that fear of intrusive thoughts and anxiety coming back won’t be so bad anymore. Hope this helps!

i feel anxious and depressed for what’s coming next, one week im okay then for the following 2 weeks im drowned in all my thoughts😞