Success treating existential ocd?
Has anyone had success recovering from existential ocd? I’m so sick of the constant thoughts and anxiety around death and non existence. I’m doing ERP but I’m finding it challenging to find good exposures. Just looking for some hope that it’s possible to get better to keep me going. Also and tips on exposures would be appreciated!
I’ve been there and back and there and back my whole life. Usually spending a couple weeks a year having severe issues with this. The ERP has helped. I’ve spent the last two weeks feeling lost again, likely because I never tried ERP on this before and I don’t have a good formula for exposures yet. I will say this, I went from having two concussions, the second putting me in bed for months, plus existential OCD holding me down harder, so two inpatient hospital stays, months of recovery and being afraid to leave my house or able to do more than walk because the post concussion syndrome was so bad. I’ve been in absolute hell and guess what, I’m here, I’m healthy, I started a business, I bought a house. That was without ERP. So times get tough once in a while, I have PTSD to contend with now too. But I did it, I proved to myself I could. And you can too. It’s hard, it’s so very hard, but I’ve been off meds for 3 years and doing just fine and relearning how to keep going. I can’t speak for exposures to that, other than accepting your thoughts, and that it’s impossible to know the answers to any of this, so might as well have fun. Remove your self judgement and pressure to be well, just be. You’ll do it, I know you can.
Really hard to accept and thats something that will take a long time to feel atleast for me… that makes me feel hopeful! Did any certain meds help with that ocd component?
@lauraheits I actually was only officially diagnosed with OCD last year. SSRI’s don’t work for me, they give me weird effects. I use klonopin during the hardest times and it usually bounces me back out of it. I used a mood stabilizer for a while after the concussions which helped me feel more level
Hi! Sorry to hear you're having a difficult time with this theme. And, yes, having a swirl of non-stop ruminative thoughts can be extremely painful and just downright exhausting, so I fully sympathize with you on that. Exposures are built around our obsessions (the things we fear and are anxious about). For me, if I have thoughts about hitting someone with my car, an exposure for me would be to watch YouTube videos of people getting into car accidents where the driver hits a pedestrian. Another exposure would be for me to get in my car and drive and not engage with any thoughts that may come up while I drive. Maybe I'll hit someone, maybe I won't, but I'm going to keep driving anyway. In your case, maybe it would be helpful to watch death scenes in movies on YouTube? Or maybe taking a walk through a cemetery? So think of your fears and create exposures around those fears. Imaginal scripts always worked well for me too. You can write out your worst fears and thoughts and just read them aloud over and over and over again without engaging in any of your compulsions. Nathan Peterson is a therapist who makes really helpful OCD-related videos and here's a link to one about existential OCD that may be helpful to you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDJI0hS4_Oc Also, here's a helpful article that my NOCD therapist had me read when I first started treatment at NOCD: https://www.sheppardpratt.org/news-views/story/how-to-respond-to-unwanted-obsessive-thoughts/#:~:text=There%20is%20no%20one%20right,if%20you%20wish%20to%20entertain. Lastly, if you're trying to do exposures, it really does help to have a therapist help you build a hierarchy. I suggest looking into working with a NOCD therapist. I wish you the best, you got this! :)
Ditto- i did two session & ERP starts this satruday. I feel for you
I’m about to start treatment & ERP, feeling very scared. I’ve been told it really helps but its not an “all cure”. I hope someone can share a success story!
Please comment from or advise me from personal experience if you’re currently seeing a therapist and undergoing ERP to treat existential thought OCD. I don’t understand how ERP could work on thoughts like ‘what if my own family or kids aren’t real’ I know with contamination ocd they expose you to your fears by making touch objects or things and with harm ocd they might get you to hold a knife but low does the same principle apply to Existential thought OCD? I’ve been on the ocdf website and couldn’t get any answers …. Please comment
Any tips on this theme? Some of my thoughts with this them are bizarre. To someone who has been through it what did you do ab your thoughts
I'm currently experiencing really bad Existential OCD and I'm looking for ways to practice ERP for it. My intrusive thoughts are "What if life isn't real" What if you don't really exist" "What if your family is just imagined" "What if it's all pointless" "What if life is just a dream". I'm horrified of believing these thoughts and I'm afraid ERP will convince me that theyre they're true. I'm reaching out in hopes of tips and possible ideas and scripts for my OCD. Thank you.
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