Accepting the fact that everyone will die one day seems the only way i can deal with this but when i do erp and accept that we are all going to die i really lose hope.. if im gonna die why should i even do recovery work? why should i even be happy? could i be experiencing sign's of depression with my ocd?
I used to struggle with this occasionally, but then I decided to believe that the meaning of life is to experience as much as we can. To be truthful, none of us know what will happen after death, so if it's nothing then surely we should make the most out of life before it all goes? And if you're feeling hopeless because we will forget about our lives when we die, just think about how memory works. We forget things all the time but we don't feel upset because we don't remember what we have forgotten. So even when we die, it'll all just go perhaps and we won't think about it. Surely you would rather think "I'm glad I lived life to the fullest" than "I wish I made the most of this life" yk? Sorry that's really not jolly at all lol
that exactly is what i get anxious about, "it just goes and we wont think about it". i dont want to lose it. there is a positive way and negative way to look at the same thought , the fact that it just just goes away and i want tips to switch my perspective.
I am so sorry that you are experiencing these feelings. This can be so hard and magnified when you have this often debilitating disorder. I think the question is, how do you want to spend your time here on the earth? To what degree do you want control over your life versus OCD? For me, I want to live this life to the fullest and do the things that move me towards my values- not let this illness define me. Recovery is accepting that you don't need control and that you cannot know with 100% certainty the fears that OCD tells you. Have you tried SSRI's as well? Sometimes a medication prescribed by your prescriber can help alleviate some of the high anxiety and depression so that you are in a better place to do the hard work of ERP. You may want to discuss this with your doctor. Best wishes.
im on first week of ssri's(prozac) but i know for a fact that cant fully fix the way my brain work, it will just help me lower anxiety and focus better on erp. i wanna live my life on this earth like normal people do, they are also scared of nothingness but they dont lose their brain over it they dont ask themselves every second "am i happy enough today" they dont check times and see how much of it they are wasting. they dont let their death ruin their life. i feel like every single thing i do has no meaning and accepting it makes me feel depressed
Perhaps you need to discover your purpose here on earth.
There is no way to know your purpose here on earth, ruminating on it actually increases existential ocd
@icloudyl You don't ruminate on what you're purpose is. You find it by going out and finding issues that need to be resolved no matter their size. Biologically humans are designed to solve problems. If you are not solving problems then you are not performing your most basic biological functions.
You shouldn't let death define your feelings. I remember when I'd get worried if one day I won't be able to wake up again but that's why they always say to live in the moment
i shouldnt but i cant help but feel hopeless when i think of it... what is the use of doing anything if we're all going to die..
i had other themes of ocd and ive done recovery work before. with pocd the thing that helped me was maybe i am a pedophile maybe not, same with hocd and sensorimotor.. but there isnt an uncertainty with death.. its accepting, we all are going to die and forget every second we lived life, so why should i put myself through a hard job and work, why should i learn stuff? also "living your life to the fullest" can actually develop another theme, what if im wasting time?
How do you know you will die? How do you know death isn't the end of some simulation? How do you know there isn't an afterlife? Will you see death coming or will it be a screeching car? Pardon my morbidity, but there is very little certain about death especially when so few of us have actually returned from the other side.
@yup_its_ocd - i can think of an afterlife but thats a compulsion cause im scared of nothingness, i might get thoughts like "what if there isnt an after life?"
@icloudyl The point is that there is no certainty of what's afterward if at all. You will never know.... or maybe you will. It is not a compulsion to acknowledge the grey area, it is a compulsion to come to a certain conclusion on what happens afterward. Death has no certain conclusion or guarantees, therefore you must acknowledge that you may never know anything about your death. Heck, maybe you can't die. Who knows?
@yup_its_ocd - you think living without knowing helps me? i might try it if you think it will.. i just wanted the face my fears but facing the fears and accepting the fears removes any meaning my life has
@icloudyl If you are truly treating OCD then uncertainty is how ERP is performed. You should seek a specialist who understands OCD if you are having a hard time sitting with uncertain thoughts.
@yup_its_ocd - there is no ocd specialist in my country and no one who does erp, no one i can talk to about this stuff, ive searched for 2 years now. im actually from a super religious country so alot of therapist try to tell me after you die this and that but my brain is not gonna accept that, im gonna question everything. if i wanna get my life back i have to start using this kind of community posts to get a bit of help with recovery, this is only way i can recover from ocd
@icloudyl If you can get it "Freedom from Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder" by Jonathan Grayson is a book designed to build an ERP program centered around your themes. There are also plenty of YouTube videos that can help you understand how to treat this disease. The OCD Stories is a good podcast about OCD. Ali Graymond has a channel where she talks about how she treated her OCD and what you can do to better your condition. Mindfulness meditation is also mostly free on YouTube and a good way to unwind after stressful ERP sessions. These are just some of the resources I can recall.
@yup_its_ocd - ali greymond is great, thats how i did erp and recovered from a bunch of my themes and i was feeling so good for two years, im feeling down again but i have hope i can defeat it again, im just confused a bit about some of my responses, i cant say the difference between avoidance and uncertainty and alot of this small stuff Thanks alot for talking with me <3 im alot calmer now
@icloudyl Yeah sure. Sorry for the confusion too. OCD can be super hard to unravel and with something like existence it can get complicated on what might be a compulsion and what might be an exposure.
Has anyone had success recovering from existential ocd? I’m so sick of the constant thoughts and anxiety around death and non existence. I’m doing ERP but I’m finding it challenging to find good exposures. Just looking for some hope that it’s possible to get better to keep me going. Also and tips on exposures would be appreciated!
I really need help. I’m suffering from existential ocd and I want to hear experience from those who are suffering from the same thing. I don’t feel real. I dont feel like I’m really here and if I am I dont really see the point in doing anything if I’m just going to die. I hate this feeling of feeling like I shouldn’t do anything at all because I’m gonna die and it’s gonna be erased anyway. I hate this. I cant stand this and I should be grateful for my life because there others that will never experience it. But it’s becoming dreadful and I feel like I’m going crazy. I feel sick. This feels worst than my other themes. I hate it so much.
Been diagnosed with ocd since I was 12. I’m 26 now. I’ve had many themes but this one won’t give I get repetitive thoughts of “what’s the point if we die” anything I do.. my brain goes “why you doing this what’s the point” if I see something fun I wanna do my brain goes “what’s the point”. I don’t consider myself depressed but maybe I am? Is this depression? These thoughts give me immense anxiety. I feel isolated and scared. I honestly feel like there’s no way out. Like I discovered something I can’t undiscover. I know this is super weird guyss. It’s super distressing for me. Is this existential one or something more? What if there is no cure to this? I’m so scared guys. I’m graduating nursing school in 20 days and I’m having a hard time trying to be happy with these thoughts.
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