Is it necessary to go back and heal childhood trauma issues in order to fully heal from anxiety and depression? My therapist (not thru nocd) always wants to go back and address this stuff and idk
Yes, absolutely necessary. You take on each mental illness as needed. I did trauma therapy for my PTSD, then did ERP for my OCD. The other 2 mental illnesses I have, I worked on those with my therapist but they EXTREMELY decreased in symptoms because I handled the 2 main mental illnesses that were causing the most issues for me. I’ve been recovered for 3 years now. It took 6 years in intense therapy.
Omg so recovery is possible ?? Like fully recover ?? That’s what I want so bad but sometimes I’m scared I can’t and my Brain is just ruined. I haven’t tried meds yet but thinking about it . I definitely have trauma to work thru. Ugh. So you feel like therapy really helped you ?
@NrseKris Of course it’s possible. Recovery doesn’t mean cured though; I still have all my mental illnesses and my brain is physically different than those without mental illnesses. I still have issues but they don’t affect my life because I know what to do whenever an issue pops up.
@Nica If there’s one tip you could give me on recovery what would it be
@NrseKris Start practing mindfulness and reading all you can about it now. It takes a while to rewire your brian, but it’s worth it.
@Nica Thank you 💕if there’s any specific books about mindfulness that you recommend please share
@NrseKris There aren’t specific books, just teachings on mindfulness. The best person to go to is Thich Nhat Hanh.
I did EMDR for trauma then later ERP for my ocd
I’ve heard of EMDR, how’d it go for you
I know that they say on here that past trauma isn’t really discussed for ocd treatment. But I’m my opinion having at least an idea of why your certain anxieties exist make me feel like I’m not so crazy, and I can give myself more compassion when I’m having a hard time. That’s my experience. Trauma has a huge effect on who we are and in some cases it really drives a lot of anxiety and depression. So I wouldn’t discount that therapy. I don’t think it helps to dwell on it continuously though.
Yea I agree it kinda helps me feel less crazy to know there’s probably a good reason behind my anxiety. I just wana heal and don’t know the best route but I guess I could always work on things separate like the intrusive thoughts and also do past trauma therapy
@NrseKris I think thats totally fine, I suppose it might be problematic if you start constantly look back instead of forward and healing. This is a journey and I hope you find your way through
Really long vent sorry 😣 I don’t think I’ve experienced any specific or intense traumatic events but I do feel like I might have trauma. I particularly struggle with religion and idk how much of it is ocd and how much might be trauma or if they overlap? Maybe I’m just overeacting? I’ve been raised Christian (and I’m still really young ) I have an amazing supportive family and amazing friends and I feel like my life is perfect and I’m just complaining and everyone has it worse and that I’m invalidating their experiences!? But also my life is not perfect and my family IS a mess. I think I have body dysmorphia but maybe I’m just ugly and I sometimes wonder if I have Bpd but I’m too young to get diagnosed. How I see myself and how I feel changes so regularly and it’s really distressing! I constantly feel guilty for sinning and feel like I don’t deserve anything good. I constantly label everything I do as good or bad and whether I deserve love because of those things. (Particularly sexual thoughts and desires make me feel impure and disgusting) (I keep thinking sex=bad but idk if that’s true and idk who to talk to cos it’s embarrassing and my family is Christian) I feel a huge sense of relief when I think about not being Christian but then I feel guilty for feeling relieved. Idk how much of that could be ocd and how much could be some complex trauma? But I’m pretty sure I don’t believe Christianity but that I SHOULD believe but then that I’d be doing that for selfish reasons! I don’t want anyone to know how disgusting and sinful I am but I feel like I’m being manipulative if I don’t tell everyone everything and give them enough information to make their own decisions. I just want to stop existing because the constant spiralling and back and forth of my thoughts is just too much. The thing is that I would understand and care about anyone else going through similar things but I cannot bring myself to feel compassionate for myself because I must be perfect. I also recently watched Ginny and Georgia and triggered my body and eating issues and sh thoughts😭 I feel so weak all the time and I keep seeking some kind of validation or reason for my pain. I feel like I’ve left out too much and I’m just seeking reassurance here but that any reassurance I get will be fake or I’ll make heaps of people mad or something 😭😭😭 I feel so stuck right now I feel like people should hate me but I don’t want them to.
Anyone else here with complex trauma and ocd? How did u find they correlate with each other? Possibly the trauma causing ocd? Have you found any mind blowingly obvious connections? Healing your trauma helps with ocd symptoms? I recently found out I have cptsd and have been abused by my family growing up physically and verbally. Btw still living with them and my ocd gets significantly worse or better sometimes.I have so many questions.❤️🩹
I have some past trauma but don’t currently qualify for PTSD. My NOCD therapist sometimes chooses videos and things for exposure off google on the fly. I initially asked for someone familiar with PTSD. Her profile says trauma- informed care. When I asked her recently to preview instead to not potentially trigger my PTSD she said I should get a PTSD therapist that she isn’t going to do that. Doesn’t feel like what I thought trauma-informed care would mean. Is this typical of NOCD therapy and therapists? I’m wondering if we’re not a match over this as it makes me feel unsafe and unsupported. Or if this is something I would encounter with any NOCD therapist?
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