- 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
- 22w
Basically long story short, ive been dealing with anxiety for a very long time all my life I'm 23 now but about 5 months ago my anxiety started to get really and I overthink a ton and get worried to easily. So my chest hurt for a while from stress at work made me worry why it was hurting, then me worrying and thinking worse case scenarios was making it worse. So i and to go to the doctor and got diagnosed properly with anxiety and I have a med now that I take when I really need it called hydroxyzine but I also have another med that is Zoloft that I have been taking for a about a month now, to help with my intrusive thoughts I have sometimes i only get them when im stressed or when I'm by myself or when i just overthink in general, my loneliness depression is one of the reasons for my anxiety because I wish I had someone as in partner wise to love me and for me to love them. But anyways I've had intrusive thoughts about possibly hurting myself and family, or even my dog. Ive never acted on any of my thoughts in the past and I don't want to but I have had anxiety attacks when everything feels to real and really scares me. I constantly have the thought of am I crazy or am I becoming crazy and stuff and I've done a lot of looking stuff in the past about symptoms but most of them are identical to what anxiety is so it's hard to tell the difference. It's been probably 2 weeks since we last talked. I've been mostly doing good. But I just was wondering if had a little Harm OCD intrusive thought happen yesterday that targeted my Aunt at work she was complaining all day and when it got closer to the end of the shifts for us. I was already annoyed with a situation that happened earlier in the work day. But she came into my department and then went back over to hers and I said it out loud to myself and said you better get back over there or I'll, I tried to say something else because the word I was going to say was kill you. Obviously I don't but that's what my intrusive thought wanted me to say. And made me think thats why i got to hurt her to stop her complaing So the rest of the night I was saying she is safe I am safe I'm control, like this is just anxiety lying to you, it's just because I'm tired and got annoyed earlier. I can't tell if it was working or not because I was so tired and just wanted to go home. But after work her and I spent time together at our house she was on the one couch and I was on the other with a bunch of our dogs in the living room. I tried to keep my mind off of what happened, and I was fighting some stomach achyness already. But I obviously don't want to hurt her and we had conversations just fine. But I went to my other aunt house at night after work to go to bed because she has to watch my aunts dogs because my other aunt and family is on vacation. But anyways I'm trying to get over that word Kill, that word is what is scarring me and sticking. Like my anxiety is lying saying kill, or basically do harm. I don't want to do anything bad but I'm trying to shake that feeling and stickiness of that word. I'm just so scared and worried.
- Date posted
- 21w
harm ocd is the bane of my existence. people always tell me that if you have anxiety over a thought, that’s ocd. and these intrusive thoughts cause me IMMENSE anxiety. i’m constantly looking for reasons why i’m not what these thoughts tell me i am. but WHY DOES IT FEEL SO REAL?? it’s like i can’t reassure myself that this isn’t me and i don’t want to do it, but i also look for reasons why it’s not me. my brain is constantly telling me “if you don’t act on this, you’ll never feel free”. WHAT EVEN IS THAT?? and why does it feel real?? anytime i think about getting therapy, i constantly think that it’s not going to help me positively but help me realize i am this person. i just wish someone with harm ocd could get into my brain, understand me, and tell me everything will be okay. i wish someone in recovery could tell me that they’ve been where i am, felt the same feelings, thought the same thoughts, and got through it when they thought they wouldn’t. i feel like i’m drowning in it. another thing is i think about how my mom knows a surface level understanding to this form of my ocd, but if she knew it all, i’m scared she’d never look at me the same. i’m scared she’d be scared of me and think i need psychiatric help. IM TERRIFIED.
- Date posted
- 18w
What if this and what if that. It’s all harm related and the urges feel so real I just can’t stand this anymore. Does anyone have any advice that has conquered OCD harm intrusive thoughts. I have them 24/7 and they are so scary.
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