- Date posted
- 3y
- User type
- NOCD Alumni
- Date posted
- 3y
Hello Emma! I know that this theme can seem so heart wrenching and tiring. Hang in there because there is HOPE! Are you currently practicing ERP? If you do not have a therapist NOCD can help. They helped get me out of my bed and out of being stuck in my house and into the world functioning again. There are also great groups NOCD offers and I find it so helpful to relate to other people with the same OCD struggles as me. Let me know if I can help and check out NOCD or have your parents check them out since you are 17. Good luck!
- Date posted
- 3y
Thank you!!
- Date posted
- 3y
Hi , I’m so sorry you’re dealing with it I currently am to and it’s awful so exhausting like you said I hope the best for us and everyone else ❤️
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 3y
Hi Emma. You are so right that dealing with OCD is exhausting, and it is very natural to want it to stop. I have had OCD for many years, and through ERP therapy, I have been able to retrain my brain on how to treat intrusive thoughts when they enter into my mind. I am able to accept the thoughts, and do nothing with them, i.e., no compulsions. That does not mean I do not feel anxiety, I do, but I do not allow OCD to be in charge. If you are able to do ERP therapy, that is the gold standard for treatment. I will also emphasize that compulsions will only make the OCD STRONGER. Yes, it may help in the short term, but doing a compulsion tells the brain that the intrusive thought is important - when in reality it is a false alarm. I hope this helps. Please feel free to respond if you need some clarification.
- Date posted
- 3y
I have done ERP and it has definetly helped in the past but it seems to come back eventually anyways
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 3y
@Emma17 I would encourage you to Continue to do erp. OCD is manageable not curable.
- User type
- NOCD Alumni
- Date posted
- 3y
@Emma17 - It is recommended to do a scheduled ERP daily even when in recovery and to continue to do response prevention- no compulsions anytime you are triggered to maintain your recovery. So I encourage you to think of some ERP you have done in the past or come up with some new ones you think you can handle and give it a go.
Related posts
- Date posted
- 21w
Hi ❤️ I’m really struggling right now I’m in my sophomore year of Highschool and I’ve finally started planning or thinking abt my future (for context I was extremely depressed and suicidal from 6-9th grade) After conquering my depression this is a huge leap for me and I’m proud of myself ❤️ But there’s something still holding me down :( and I’m not sure what to do anymore that thing is OCD. Since 6th grade I have had strong and invasive intrusive thoughts all the time they scare me so bad and make me feel as though I’m not even real anymore :( I’m sick of taking the time to do ridiculous compulsions to rid or ease these thoughts it’s a waste of time and energy and it hurts me so bad I feel like I will never get to just live my life without this :( How can I plan my future when I can’t even find myself in this mess of anxiety 💔 I’m so tired of fighting my mental health it’s been years from anxiety attacks to sh to survived suicide attempts (I got help dw❤️🩹) and recovery there. Just to be thrown into a storm of awful scary sickening thoughts day and night-when can I just be a normal teenager and possibly a happy adult? How do I conquer this so I can love myself to the fullest and live my life free and happy? :( ❤️❤️🩹 I’m so scared to talk to my parents about it I’m ashamed of my thoughts and every time I bring it up they just say I shouldn’t be diagnosing myself or it’s just ADHD. It really really hurts me they have no idea how awful this feels and it makes me feel so alone sometimes 💔
- Date posted
- 19w
WHY is it so bad?? who was gonna tell me 16 was just DREAD, my ocd has flared up worse than ever and i can’t go to therapy weekly anymore. im getting worse and i can’t do it. I just want to give up.
- Date posted
- 17w
I’ve recently been struggling a lot with OCD. I have had OCD for a long time I just didn’t realize it until more recently. About seven months ago I developed panic attacks one day randomly at work. I thought I was having a heart attack and went to the hospital where they told me it was just a panic attack and I assumed I would snap out and be better within a few days. However it didn’t. Here’s where it gets scary, I was staying at my then boyfriends house while dealing with blurry vision, anxiety attacks everyday, and more (unsure of what was going on). But at some point I saw my bfs (pew pew 🔫) on his table and it sent me into an anxiety attack after sudden thoughts that I was going to hurt myself with it. I begged him to put it away when I’m not looking so I didn’t know where he put it. He did. These thoughts lasted for about four days but began to go away. (I thought that was it and I would be back to normal). Unfortunately though I ended up moving back in with my family when we couldn’t get my panic attacks under control in time for me to get back to work and pay bills. However, coming home brought up a lot of trauma from when I was kid. My anxiety got worse but I didn’t have those thoughts again. About two and half months ago though, I got sick and went to the hospital where they gave me steroid pills and a steroid shot but sent me into some kind of psychiatric event. Ever since then though, I have been suffering from harm OCD, I have had moments of intense anger that I usually have to completely walk away and go on my own because of how intense they are, and it feels like it’s getting worse. Today I felt fine until about and hour and half ago where I started to dwell on the fact that my suicidal thought was influenced by my OCD and at the moment my OCD is at the worst it’s been. This caused me to get suddenly really depressed and I started crying thinking about how I can’t handle this. I then saw a post talking about how suicide rates are high for people with this form of OCD and it made me question if I am mentally strong enough to pull through this. I fear that at times I’m getting worse. I have good days but I have a lot of bad days. Unfortunately this sent me into such a bad panic attack I went over to my nanas crying about how I can’t deal with this. I took a 0.25 mg Xanax which helped calm down the panic attack portion of it but my brain is still uncomfortably active. I guess I just need hope. I’m so saddened by this. It’s like my life took a total 360 in 10 months and got even worse since the steroid shot. Idk what to do about it. I can’t stop the spiral. I talk to two different therapist weekly and start more next week, making it 5 times a week. I feel no improvements…
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