Why do some thoughts that are potentially obsessive i.e., that can become an obsession are ignored by our minds at first glance, but later on become an obsession? I'm struggling with the idea of having Fatal Insomnia. I havent slept last night, and I think I'll never sleep again. The thing is, this thought has popped up in my mind several other times, but never got my attention. Why did this happen now?
I’ve had this issue. You’ll sleep again, your body will force you to, at worst. You were likely in a vulnerable mental state and your OCD saw something to latch onto
I was so fine until yesterday :/ But thank you so much!
Well, you’re ignoring it at first, not your mind. Your mind is like a radio with many different station. Those stations are thoughts. You can be cruising through the radio station and hear something in particular you don’t like. Your mind notes it as possibly being “bad”. So then it shows you it again, and you react, which makes the radio station signal turn up louder and louder until you now have a new OCD theme.
Hi, new here. I'm struggling with the same thing. I've had it a few times in my life where my anxiety and panic got so intense that I actually couldn't sleep for days/weeks. I just got back on prozac about a month ago (went up from 10mgs to 20mgs 2 weeks ago) and all of my disorders have been much worse ever since I upped my dose. The past few nights I only got a tiny bit of sleep here and there because of the insomnia side effect and also from the heightened anxiety. I'm really struggling from the moment I wake up in the morning until I go to bed with thoughts and fears about not sleeping. I'm afraid I won't sleep again and that I won't be able to take care of my kids. If I could just let go of this fear and constant ruminating and catastrophizing I'd feel so much better but I just can't. How do we deal with this in ERP?
Exactly!! How are we supposed to practice ERP here?
Im literally keeping myself from sleeping because of the fear of not sleeping and I'm having difficulty breaking the cycle. This is very scary for me because as I've said I have kids I need to care for. I don't remember how I eventually ended up being able to sleep the past few times this happened to me. All I remember is the intense fear and discomfort I felt.
Anyone here obsessing about whether or not they'd be able to sleep at night? And that in turn causes you to stay awake?
this is a rlly rlly dumb question and i feel like i know the answer but i’m gonna ask anyways in case i’m wrong but, if u know ur obsession isn’t true why do u keep getting anxious about it? like shouldn’t ur mind just move on like it does with literally any other thought? what makes certain thoughts stick and others not stick?
So last night I tried some ERP and tried as hard as I could not to give into the compulsions of my thought, I didnt do well, but I was able to do it for at least a little bit until I fell asleep. Guess what was on my mind as soon as I woke up?! That same obsessive thought. I obviously dont expect things to change overnight, but I feel like I'm never going to catch a break. As much as I try not to give my OCD attention, it always prevails. Has anyone experienced this? Like any "unfinished" thought or obsession always creeps back in? They just seem to always resurface whether I have tried for ten minutes or a day to not give into them. I'd love to hear anyone's thoughts. Thank you!
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