Managing OCD

Hello, What do you do to feel better when experiencing ocd worries? I wanted to share that I am starting to practise a bit of mindfulness based on my understanding so far of it and it may be helping me. I know prioritizing difficulties to discuss with a therapist or someone I trust can be good. I know ocd can really cause a certain amount of distress, so I want to keep my life balanced. Being disciplined to rest when I can and lay down or sit to do meditation can be challenging at first. I know self-care and this app are important in my journey wi ocd right now. As well as learning to practise lightheartedness and stress reduction before and when ocd symptoms flare up. What do you do to prevent your ocd flare ups? Thank you! Much love.

Antique

Date posted: 3y

Hello, I personally experience OCD flare ups during holidays were I'm not as distracted from my intrusive thoughts. Generally, my goal is to acknowledge the discomfort and intrusive thoughts, and to use my increased anxiety about a subject to do exposures with, instead of reducing the anxiety I'm experiencing by doing compulsions. Long-term wise, my goal is to recover and decrease my anxiety. Howeve, short-term wise, I like to take advantage of the unfortunate situation and convert it into a useful exposure. :)

Antique

Date posted: 3y

*where

GlowingStarS...

Date posted: 3y

Thanks @Antique! Yes, right now is a sort of informal holiday in life for me… Ive been experiencing cycle of overthinking, stress and fatigue... feeling kind of tense and unhappy earlier, and the action urge was to nap… I am glad I had a moment to nap… I have committments being added to my schedule and aim to rise to the occasion, prepare (any advice?) and also want to enjoy being busier and even reconnecting with family eventually. I have been suffering with various ocd and am not currently equipped with how to practise specific ERP techniques or any formal ocd therapy for r-ocd, pure-o, sticky thoughts with number anxiety, contamination ocd, etc Sometimes I am so overwhelmed I feel like I am losing a bit of sanity and get unfocused or preoccupied perhaps? Do up you or anyone have specific exposures and the steps of the exposure for r-ocd, etc? Thanks for sharing compassion. Right now I have opportunity to do downtime and try to relax or do coping. How do we optimize and increase enjoyment, considering our struggle, plus if going through a particularly transitional time? How do you all build resilience in your days? Kind vibes and wishes

Antique

Date posted: 3y

I'm sorry! But I have no advice on how to prepare, I'm a very unorganized person and am also finding it difficult to balance the stresses of life. ERP, especially without a therapist, can be very difficult to get started to a consistent level because it takes an enormous amount of effort I find. I don't have r-ocd, thought I do have "pure" OCD, and a variety of sexual themes. I'm not a professional, so please listen to people who are more knowledgeable about ERP then I am, but at the beginning of my ERP I started by making a list of my general themes, in order of how anxious they made me feel. Afterwards, I would pick the least-anxiety provoking thought and write it down either digitally or manually, and read it over and over again untill my anxiety hit a spike, and slowly decreased. Or, you can voice record your intrusive thoughts in detail and play it back. This is only advice surrounding "pure" OCD, seeming as I don't have any other themes. Though, for any theme starting from your least anxiety-provoking themes and working your way up is the way to go to ensure it isn't too overwhelming. I try to do some exposures each day, and recently ive been doing a 5-10 min long exposure after each episode of a series I've been watching. Doing them in sections really helps me do more exposures, since doing a 30 minute long exposure can be sometimes dull, and seemingly consumes up so much time. I hope ERP works out for you if you try it!

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