- Date posted
- 3y
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 3y
I’ve bounced back and forth between thoughts of harming others and harming myself when I’ve been alone the last few weeks. It’s incredibly dehibilitating and I’m sorry you’re dealing with this. I believe getting the anxiety under control is a good step but it’s also hard because to an extent you can’t really control it. Because as a result, it’s not the thoughts that cripple us but the anxiety that comes with it. But anyways, talk to a friend, get out of your home, go for a walk, exercise, play a video game, those are my first recommendations. Medically, I’d say an antidepressant combined with therapy will help lower the anxiety, but some people can find relief in doing just one or the other. However, with antidepressants, they can make you feel worse at the start before you get better as your body is adjusting to the medicine. And it can be a game of cat and mouse trying to find a medication that works for you because there’s so many meds out there and our bodies can have reactions or side effects to any of them. Lastly, for the thoughts, as much as they suck and as terrifying as they are, the more you try to run away from them and tell yourself “they’re not me, I don’t want to do anything bad” the more the thoughts will keep coming in and attacking you worse. And with harm, trust me, accepting these thoughts is extremely tough, I just was dealing with this and I still am to an extent, but it’s less about actually “agreeing” with the thoughts that you’ll do them and more about just acknowledging their presence in your hand and then remembering and saying, “hey, I can’t control the future, but I’m just gonna keep it moving anyways. Maybe something terrible would or could happen, but I’m not there and I can’t predict it” and also get yourself into an activity or routine everyday. The more you shift your focus to other things, the less time you’ll spend ruminating. In doing this, you may even hit a point saying, “well I haven’t been thinking the thoughts as much lately, so does this mean I want to do them now?” And in essence, that’s just your mind telling you to keep focusing on the fear when you know deep down it’s not a threat because thought doesn’t automatically equal action. If you hit this point, you’re already improving because you’ve already been taking less time obsessing over the intrusive thoughts and ruminating. You’ll get there, it’s hard for me to say those words to myself even but we will.
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 3y
*in your head
Related posts
- Date posted
- 25w
So my OCD has been bad lately. I’ve been ruminating and obsessing over my sexuality again. And it just keeps getting worse. I hate it so much. I try to sit with the discomfort but then my ocd does the backdoor spike. And the groinal response is what keeps me looped. It SUCKS. I am not attracted to men, but my OCD is trying SO hard to convince me that I am. There have been days where I’m just so mentally exhausted that I “accept” what my ocd tells me and I just walk around a hollow, lethargic shell. But then I rethink it and I feel better. It feels like I can only find my TRUE self when I tire my nervous system out enough that it literally breaks down and has me suicidal and hopeless. And then accepting my OCD’s “truth” (that I’m attracted to men) feels like a burden and a chore. I woke up today from an OCD dream, tried to go back to sleep, and my stomach kept cramping bc I was so anxious and ruminating over my intrusive thoughts. I’m starting to doubt it being OCD anymore. My brain is too tired to fight and cry about it anymore.
- Date posted
- 25w
I’ve recently been struggling a lot with OCD. I have had OCD for a long time I just didn’t realize it until more recently. About seven months ago I developed panic attacks one day randomly at work. I thought I was having a heart attack and went to the hospital where they told me it was just a panic attack and I assumed I would snap out and be better within a few days. However it didn’t. Here’s where it gets scary, I was staying at my then boyfriends house while dealing with blurry vision, anxiety attacks everyday, and more (unsure of what was going on). But at some point I saw my bfs (pew pew 🔫) on his table and it sent me into an anxiety attack after sudden thoughts that I was going to hurt myself with it. I begged him to put it away when I’m not looking so I didn’t know where he put it. He did. These thoughts lasted for about four days but began to go away. (I thought that was it and I would be back to normal). Unfortunately though I ended up moving back in with my family when we couldn’t get my panic attacks under control in time for me to get back to work and pay bills. However, coming home brought up a lot of trauma from when I was kid. My anxiety got worse but I didn’t have those thoughts again. About two and half months ago though, I got sick and went to the hospital where they gave me steroid pills and a steroid shot but sent me into some kind of psychiatric event. Ever since then though, I have been suffering from harm OCD, I have had moments of intense anger that I usually have to completely walk away and go on my own because of how intense they are, and it feels like it’s getting worse. Today I felt fine until about and hour and half ago where I started to dwell on the fact that my suicidal thought was influenced by my OCD and at the moment my OCD is at the worst it’s been. This caused me to get suddenly really depressed and I started crying thinking about how I can’t handle this. I then saw a post talking about how suicide rates are high for people with this form of OCD and it made me question if I am mentally strong enough to pull through this. I fear that at times I’m getting worse. I have good days but I have a lot of bad days. Unfortunately this sent me into such a bad panic attack I went over to my nanas crying about how I can’t deal with this. I took a 0.25 mg Xanax which helped calm down the panic attack portion of it but my brain is still uncomfortably active. I guess I just need hope. I’m so saddened by this. It’s like my life took a total 360 in 10 months and got even worse since the steroid shot. Idk what to do about it. I can’t stop the spiral. I talk to two different therapist weekly and start more next week, making it 5 times a week. I feel no improvements…
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 18w
I feel horrible! My anxiety over my obsessive thoughts is 10/10 right now and no matter what I try, I cannot seem to relax my body and mind. I had my 2nd therapy apt this morning. I watched a support group this evening, took a walk, did a 20 minute Prgressive muscle relaxation video, sat in the hottub, nothing is making my thoughts less intense. My stomach has been in knots for days and it’s only been getting worse. I have been trying to accept my anxiety and reason and let my thoughts stay all day they still have me super wound up.
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