Can anyone tell me difference about certainty and confidence.. Eveyone says that everyone get doubting intrusive thought about past and future but they are able to live with uncertainty and move forward with confidence .. I also get thought about past or things just happened a hour ago , my mind tells things that something bad happened or someone hurt you and i know thats my imagination and i am also confident , but i didnt get satisfaction.. but i know if i ruminate it will get worse and i well get nothing from it .. So living with uncertainty is the only solution and does really every person leave with this... This thing always confuses me please help me this...

tomtom45

Date posted: 3y

Are you asking here for discussion of difference between confidence and certainty? Confidence is like "it's probably this, I don't need to spend more time thinking about it". Certainty would be "I 100% know this, there is no doubt". Confidence it's possible to get to, certainty is impossible to get. There's always a "but what if?" Or "how do I know for sure?". With ocd you *want* certainty on some things, particularly if they're important to you. But like you say, it's never satisfying enough for ocd to be pretty confident, it wants to *know for sure*, so it gets you to go back over everything, check again, etc. The thing about moving forward with uncertainty is recognising that you want certainty on something, but you're never gonna know for sure, so it's practicing telling yourself "yep, maybe, maybe not, I'll probably never know for sure", sitting with the uncomfortableness of that and then hopefully over time being able to let the anxiety come down by itself. Takes practice tho!

Jassraj singh

Date posted: 3y

Means every person has these types of thought ,but they are comfortable with uncertainty they didnt 100% sureness. While person with ocd needs certainty,after knowing this it is not possible , means digging that hole where you never get water... Accepting uncertainty =Freness from ocd

tomtom45

Date posted: 3y

@Jassraj singh Hey, yeah 100% what you said. Everyone has loads of random, weird, tricky, difficulty thoughts all the time. Even people with ocd will have lots that they just, let go. But with ocd some of those thoughts you latch on to. I think cos you're *really* scared they're true, so you try and find ways to be sure they're not true. Digging that hole when there's no water is really good way of putting it. One way of thinking about ocd is trying to find sureness for things it's not actually possible to be sure about. So you keep trying harder and harder but it doesn't work, so you try harder. So key to treatment is practicing being ok with not knowing. Taking a different approach even though you really want to keep trying your normal approach. Think that's why ERP works, and why it takes a while

airbear

Date posted: 3y

I do the same thing.

OcdDude1

Date posted: 3y

This is me, sometimes it could’ve literally happened 10 seconds ago

allieandscrup

Date posted: 3y

I think in some context confidence and certainty are different and in some places they’re similar. If you aren’t certain something didn’t happen, you may still feel confident it didn’t happen, or you may not feel confident at all it didn’t happen. I’m not quite sure what they mean by “move forward with confidence.” I’ve never heard that phrase in relation to ocd, actually. I guess I’d just say don’t focus on it. Toss it out. You can move forward without feeling confident. Maybe they just mean you’ll feel more confident in your recovery eventually?

Ih8ocd!

Date posted: 24w

Uncertainty

Hi All, just wondering if anyone here has any tips with dealing with uncertainty? My OCD centres on my being worried that I have committed a crime and can’t remember doing so, I was out last weekend and my mind is telling me I attacked somebody as I got an intrusive thought to do so when passing them in a bar, my therapist says I need to sit with the uncertainty that maybe I did and maybe I didn’t and have to be ok with that But if the answer is yes then how can I be ok with committing a crime and going to jail??, it’s affecting my relationship and I’m going on holiday on Friday and I’m worried it will ruin that, any tips would be greatly appreciated.

Lemon1995

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 17w

Uncertainty

Why does ocd make you feel uncertain about everything. Even the things you knew were 100% certain before. Its so bizarre. All the subtypes like Rocd, Pocd, Hocd you should be 100% certain about these things but ocd makes you feel like you dont know. I sit here know saying in my head I DONT KNOW. its so hard and confusing. I just want to know who I am. Am I a good person like I thought I was and have been my whole life or am I someone else. I just dont know. Its awful

Anonymousss101

Date posted: 14w

How do you handle uncertainty

How do you guys handle uncertainty? I keep having so many what if thoughts and I feel so bad. The worst ones are what if I act on my intrusive thoughts or actually want them and I can’t tell if they’re me or not. It just feels so real and at this point I don’t even know if they’re intrusive thoughts anymore. I just want to not be a bad person and not feel like this anymore.

Be a part of the largest OCD Community

Share your thoughts so the Community can respond

Related posts

Be a part of the largest OCD Community

Be a part of the largest OCD Community