- Date posted
- 3y
Bad habits
How do I get rid of bad habits. I often bite my gums and it’s painful but I can’t stop. This usually occurs when I’m stressed and have a lot of intrusive thoughts.
How do I get rid of bad habits. I often bite my gums and it’s painful but I can’t stop. This usually occurs when I’m stressed and have a lot of intrusive thoughts.
And pick my lips
Firstly, talk to your therapist if you have one for a more detailed plan and strategy tailored to your specific personal needs and situation. In short, you've identified that it is harder to stop when you are stressed, but it is not impossible. The next time you are stressed or intrusive thoughts are heavy, resist the urge to bite your gums for just one minute. Then notice that if you can go one minute, you can go two. Small steps lead to big gains over time! I cannot stress the importance enough the value of doing Habit Reversal Training with a therapist who is trained in the approach, which includes every therapist at NOCD.
Same
I used to profusely bite/pull at my nails, cuticles, and cheeks inside my mouth until I would bleed all over the place. It was painful and horrible. One thing that really helped me was finding a way to prevent the action. My therapist told me to paint my nails, and although that partially worked (because I couldn’t bite my nails), I could still destroy anything I put my nails into (literally). She then suggested I start doing dip polish on my nails which made them indestructible and bulky so I couldn’t pick ANYTHING orrrr bite them at all. I don’t recognize my hands anymore, and even when I don’t have my nails done, I bite and pick a looooooooot less. It’s almost never now! I also wore some mouth appliances when I was/am alone to control biting. You can’t tear things with Invisalign or bulky things in your mouth! The physical prevention paired with mental work is awesome. Don’t know if something like that would help! Good luck, I’m so sorry you’re going through it right now!
I need advice for intrusive thoughts. I used to feel like I could handle them. They weren’t nearly as bad as the things that related to my actual life. But now, I’m suffering. I haven’t had a sexual experience in over a year that didn’t involve constant intrusive thoughts. Most are somehow related to kids and I keep chasing off the thoughts but it’s so bad. I know you’re supposed to ignore them but I don’t know how I can just ignore that and continue what I’m doing. But they’re coming on stronger. I had one earlier I could not get rid of just as things finished so the thought came on strongly just before my orgasm hit and now I feel absolutely disgusting. I hated the thought and I know it’s not me and it was not enjoyable but it still feels like I was getting off to it. I feel sick. I’m so fucking tired of these thoughts. They’re in my every day life too and it’s all the time. I just want it to stop but ignoring it feels so wrong. What should I do?
I need help stopping my compulsive thoughts and worrying
Hi Everyone! I hope whoever is reading this is having a good day so far :) So for years now I’ve had very bad intrusive thoughts about things that I have done or embarrassing things that I’ve said or have happened and it’s mortifying and debilitating on a daily basis. Specifically these thoughts are mainly things that have occurred from 2018-2020 and some are more simple just as a stupid joke I made or being way too loud on calls while my family was trying to sleep and others being way more complex such as past relationships and how I’ve hurt some of the people I care the most about and when I have acted on intrusive thoughts and these thoughts will appear with no triggers at all I’ll just wake up and already have something I did just nagging me. I don’t want to live like this anymore and I’ve tried working through it with self compassion but sometimes the things I said or did back then it’s very hard to forgive myself for and I’ll reminisce on it for hours on hours, gaslight myself into believing that’s not how it happened and try to change the memory itself, or just suppress it entirely. I know those habits aren’t healthy and truly I want to get better but I don’t know how to overcome some of these thoughts. I have talked to my fiancé about this a few times and even today we talked about it and he fully supports me and is helping me work through it. I might also contact my sister too, I don’t talk to her overly too much but ever since I was little she’s thought I’ve had ocd and was one of the people who made me consider that I might have it (I’m still undiagnosed but I’ll try to when I have the money and time) and I know she could maybe provide some insight. Another thing that is troublesome about the situation is my other family members specifically my mom aren’t the most helpful and can trigger thoughts. To put it in perspective on how her thought process is and some background info she is an ER nurse and has been for 30 years due to this she believes she knows mainly everything there is about mental health and she gets extremely upset when I don’t take her advice or set boundaries. She’ll force me to talk to her about my problems and when I don’t want to she’ll pin me in a corner where I’m forced to and last summer I had a really bad episode and was really overstimulated and I just finished taking a shower and due to the water on me, my hair being wet (my hair is naturally curly and it takes forever to dry and it’s very draining taking care of even with a keratin treatment) and all the intrusive thoughts I was having and she forced me to talk to her and I did open up for the first time about my thoughts and brought up how sometimes I have thoughts of hurting my animals and it makes me physically sick. Her response to this was threatening to call the cops on me saying it was a behavioral thing and I was doing it for attention. I have never hurt any of my animals but later that day my cat came into my room and a few minutes later she comes up just gives me the death stare and after a few seconds just asks me “are you going to go kill snickers?” In the most condescending tone and she’s always like this daily where she’ll force advice onto me or get upset and yell and then reinforce thoughts I’m having. I just want to know first how to stop the thoughts from so frequently and how to heal in an environmental where it keeps reopening wounds despite trying to place boundaries? I’m sorry this is really long I usually do go really in detail about things and it’s just how I’ve always been. If anyone has any questions feel free to ask and I’ll answer them to the best of my ability. I really appreciate the time you took to read this and thank you for your help! 🥰
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