- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 3y ago
I know how hard it is to battle OCD. It is definitely one of the toughest things I have dealt with. What really helped me was the motto to do 1% better everyday. If you do just 1% better everyday, then in 100 days you will be 100% better. I know it can be discouraging to refuse ruminating and doing ERP and not seeing much results. You have to dig deep and trust the process. Progress is progress no matter how small! How have you been responding to the thoughts? Do you try to ignore them and move on with your day? Or are you ruminating and doing compulsions constantly?
There is always hope! I would suggest doing ERP with the items you are talking about that you feel stuck in. Part of ERP is not figuring out those thoughts... like the thought that you may desire it... Maybe you do, Maybe you don't... but guess what, it is just a thought and you do not have to figure it out. The thought pops in, acknowledge the thought. Allow it to be there, all the discomfort to be there and move on with your day.... that is erp with a thought. Hope this helps. And if you haven't done ERP and need help I highly recommend NOCD. They helped me so much. Reach out and see if they can help.
I just have a hard time with letting it go. Especially sometimes I don’t even have a horrible reaction to a thought, but then I’m like I have to think about this and I trigger myself even more because I’m like the thought didn’t scare me.
But you have the choice not to engage... not not think about it.... Basically ERP is doing the opposite of what our OCD wants... oh, let me give him a thought that he's not triggered so he will wonder about it and try to figure it out... so do the opposite... don't try to figure it out. You have the choice to stay stuck in the misery of ocd or to start pulling yourself out. Only you can do it! (I also used "he" as an easy way to just type this out... idk who you are... so don't be offended lol)
When an intrusive thought comes I can’t just say “that’s not true” and just move on. I always feel like I have to disprove the thought and be able to say it with confidence but the problem is that the ocd doesn’t allow me to feel and say it with confidence so I get stuck for hours or even days. How can I stop feeling like I need to do this?
This might contain triggering content, but I'm also wondering if others have dealt with this similar thought, and if so, how to deal with it? Overall, I've been doing so well these past few days. I'm able to eat again, which I hadn't been able to do because of how much anxiety I'd been experiencing. I'm spending time around loved ones and not just rotting in my room, and I've been able to wake up without immediately being bombarded by intrusive thoughts. When things first got really bad, I'd wake my mom up every night for reassurance, but I haven't done that in a while either. I'm really proud of myself, but there's still this nagging thought in my mind... While looking through others posts on here, hoping to find advice that'd fit my situation, I ended up making things worse. Someone mentioned how they had a fear that they'd purposely search for illegal content (related to POCD). I panicked, and "what ifs" flooded my thoughts. "What if the intrusive thoughts affect who I am as a person, and I do that?" I'm terrified that I'll search for those things, which I know means I wouldn't do it. But then, another person on here said they'd actually looked for those things, and that freaked me out even more. Does that mean it's possible for that to happen to me? I don't want to do that, but I keep having intrusive thoughts surrounding it. I've been doing so well these past few days. I'm just... stuck. I don't know what to do. I've spoken with other people who have the same fears, but how do I manage this? It's not something I've even thought about before seeing those posts. I've been practicing accepting the uncertainty, but I'm really struggling with this one. I hate this. This morning, I woke up, and the intrusive thoughts were back. It's just disheartening.
I’m sharing this bc I need advice or even support from anyone who can relate. If you can’t relate and don’t think you’ll say anything helpful or kind pls don’t comment anything… I’ve been struggling with somethings that’s making me question myself. There has been moments while self pleasuring when I get intrusive thoughts, in those moments it feels like I’m enjoying or even self pleasuring myself bc of the thought. Right after I immediately have an anxiety attack and my HEART drops bc it feels terrible I feel like a disgusting monster :( ppl have told me I haven’t done a bad bc of how intense my guilt and panic are but I keep thinking that MAYBE I made a horrible decision in the moment and the guilt is just realising that it’s just wrong this doesn’t make sense to me because I’ve always told myself that I would never act on this in 1 million years and I’ve been known that these things are wrong so I’m just like constantly questioning myself these feelings and exact same situation has happened two times already I even promised myself that I wouldn’t act on anything beforehand and yeah, I still felt like I did act on my thought during my alone time I’m genuinely convinced that I’m a horrible and it’s even got into the point where I don’t wanna be here anymore and I don’t even think this is my OCD :( tbh
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