- Username
- lets_be_happy
- Date posted
- 2y ago
I used to believe it was. I now be careful with my phrasing when I talk about my mental disorders. I think of my disorders as a seperate thing from me. They are not my identity, they are not a part of me, but moreso I battle with them or I have it. I like to think of my disorder as like some type of little annoying goblin that follows me around. I replace "I keep thinking about" with "my OCD keeps telling me-". It has helped tremendously with my self confidence, and it keeps me from hating who I am because of those thoughts. This is what has worked for me, It was weird at first but it helped
Thank you for this comment, its nice to have another perspective about this!
@Solaris Definitely! Everyone has thier own way of dealing with mental illness & identity. It's my own little way to boost my self confidence.
I love that! A “little annoying goblin” 🤣
Yes a lot. I literally cant dissociate myself from ocd since it's a part of me and it will always be. And thats okay
Yeah, even though it’s not who we are, we do have to accept that it’s a part of our life. I’ll have to try out balancing that line
Yes! I used to feel like my anxiety and ocd were my identity. I get what you mean with the processing phase cause for awhile I felt like all I did was do ERP exposures, listen to anxiety podcasts, read books, etc. There's this quote by @anxietyjosh on instagram that was really good, he said "you've got to stop making anxiety the centre of your life. Our threat response thinks it's being helpful when you give it attention, so when you make "recovery" the focal point of your life, you unintentionally tell anxiety that it's still important." That way of thinking helped me stop identifying with my anxiety, however for OCD, it's a little trickier. I did do what Bluusticks said and named my OCD something (I chose OCD Demon). Idk if you've heard of Dr. Patrick McGrath but he says "There is no 100 percent ability to get rid of your OCD; it is a treatable disorder, and you must always be working to fight it." ...and I'm just like 😐 how is OCD not going to be my identity then? 🤔 😂 So what I do is I keep both of these ways of thinking in mind and try to keep things simple. I have anxiety, but I'm not going to let it be my identity, I'm going to be smart with my resources and not make recovery from it the focal point of my life. I have OCD and while I can't get rid of it, I'm going to continue to face what I can't control so it doesn't control me.
Yes, that is exactly what I’ve been doing! But I never connected making “recovery the focal point of your life” as a way to actually make the anxiety worse. But I guess we could consider that a compulsion in itself 🤷🏻♀️ Thank you so much for those resources too! I will use them wisely 😁
When I was younger, yes. But you can’t let anything take over your life and indenting that way because it’s not healthy and it could even ruin your life and relationships.
Does anyone else feel that OCD can be defeated with mindset adjustment ? It’s pretty clear that I suffer from negative thoughts and have severe self doubt and uncertainty. It’s like I don’t even know my own identity. Over the past few days I’ve become more confident in myself by not caring what others think of me. The effects on my mood were very unusual but much appreciated. It’s almost like we can teach our brains new thought patterns. Anyone feel the same or heard stories of similar value?
I have only recently come to terms with OCD and decided to do something about it. I have found that I no longer have any desire to be around anyone who isn’t part of the OCD community. I don’t want to talk to anyone else. I want only to be around people I can share things with and not face judgment or the “Oh my god, that’s insane” response I know I will get from anyone on the outside. I don’t know if this is just a normal part of early recovery but I really feel like disappearing from the rest of the world and only engaging with this new community I have become part of (albeit against more than 30 years of resistance). Has anyone who is farther along in recovery experiences this and come out of it? Is anyone else also in the early stages and feeling this way? I can’t decide whether or not it’s healthy but I can’t help but think I shouldn’t be isolating from friends and family to spend all of my waking hours focused on this. Maybe it’s just part of the agreement we have with OCD that anything new becomes an obsession… Anyway, I just wanted to share and see if anyone else has experienced this.
So I’ve been getting treatment for about 3 months now and it’s been slowly starting to work I think and days are slowly getting easier. There are still plenty of bad days and days where I just feel completely defeated but I’m gradually learning how to deal with these emotions. Part of me is really relieved and excited as OCD was absolutely awful and the worst thing I’ve ever experienced. It held me back from so many things and I felt so trapped and I never imagined I’d be in so much agonising discomfort everyday. However part of me is also really uneasy as OCD is what I’ve known for so many years and I don’t know life without it. It’s almost unsettling integrating back into the ‘normal’ way of life as part of me doesn’t know where to start and I feel like I lack foundation if that makes sense as I have been unable to do so much for so long. I’m also finishing school soon which makes things even harder as I don’t know what comes next, or who or what I’ll become and do with my life. I guess my question is, is life beyond OCD worth it and is it worth climbing out of this hell hole? I also know that I’ll probably always have OCD and there may always be bad days but it’s just becoming less disabling and time consuming which is so exciting but sort of terrifying at the same time. I also am worried that I’ll live a boring and miserable life because at least dealing with OCD left me with something and made life more interesting, much more painful but It almost became my identity. But I guess there has to be something more beyond this life I’m living. Sorry this is long.
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