- Date posted
- 2y ago
- Date posted
- 2y ago
An important distinction: accepting it doesn’t mean dwelling on it! Accepting that it’s there doesn’t mean that you have to (or that you should) spend your energy thinking about it. This is rumination, which can be a compulsion. Instead, accepting it means accepting that the initial intrusive thought (or series of thoughts if it’s gone that far) occurred to you, knowing that that’s ok/doesn’t have to be significant, and moving forward with whatever you’re doing. Accepting that a feeling (anxiety) is there doesn’t mean focusing on that feeling being there. It’s just trusting that the feeling will pass, even if you don’t DO anything (a compulsion or rumination) to make it pass more quickly.
- Date posted
- 2y ago
Wow! That was a great explanation of how to deal with accepting intrusive thoughts! :)
- Date posted
- 2y ago
It will prolong it because you’re not giving OCD what it wants. The anxiety belongs to OCD. Imagine it like a kid in a supermarket asking for sweets - you’re carrying on shopping not giving them sweets & they’re getting more and more agitated - that’s what’s happening to OCD & that’s honestly the best way to RETRAIN your brain to not let the OCD win. I know it’s so hard tho X hope you’re okay as soon as you can be xx
- Date posted
- 2y ago
I’ve taught myself not to pay any attention to my thoughts going on through my mind, so though I have intrusive thoughts, they don’t become themes anymore. I have accepted I am not my thoughts/they don’t define me, everyone has horrible thoughts and I’m not alone, and interacting with my OCD will only make things worse—it is futile to try. So, it “wins” in the sense it can shoot out any and all images, thoughts, urges, etc. but I do absolutely nothing in reply to them. I go about my daily routine and I never stop for one second in response to any of them. They do not matter; what matters is my actions and the present moment.
- Date posted
- 2y ago
Wow! That's inspiring! I don't know how you do that but I think that's really cool, good job. :) I find it so difficult to not respond to my intrusive thoughts. Any one intrusive thought can tend to sit with me all day, and I tend to ruminate on them at different points throughout the day.
- Date posted
- 2y ago
@Drew777 ERP, patience, and mindfulness kicking in 😉
- Date posted
- 2y ago
Wow thank you all for such thoughtful replies. I appreciate it so much and am very thankful :) ❤️
Related posts
- Date posted
- 21w ago
I’m confused when people say accept your thoughts why would I accept the thoughts that are making me feel disgust and filth what if I start accepting them and then the thoughts actually become true?
- Date posted
- 14w ago
Hi everyone, I wanted to reach out to see if anyone else has experienced something similar with OCD and intrusive thoughts. I’ve been struggling during moments of intimacy because intrusive thoughts, particularly ones related to POCD, feel so ‘sticky’—like they’re all I can picture. Even though I really want the thoughts to go away, they persist, and I’ve been trying not to avoid intimacy because of them. However, that makes me feel like I’m somehow ‘enjoying’ the thoughts or images, which I really dislike. It’s like my brain is playing this awful trick, and it’s leaving me feeling confused and gross. I guess I’m supposed to not let the thoughts bother me and continue as if nothing’s wrong, but I’m scared that by doing so, I’m almost training myself to get off to them or something. This fear makes it so hard to trust myself in those moments, and it’s been overwhelming. If anyone else has been through this, how do you handle it?
- Date posted
- 11w ago
This might contain triggering content, but I'm also wondering if others have dealt with this similar thought, and if so, how to deal with it? Overall, I've been doing so well these past few days. I'm able to eat again, which I hadn't been able to do because of how much anxiety I'd been experiencing. I'm spending time around loved ones and not just rotting in my room, and I've been able to wake up without immediately being bombarded by intrusive thoughts. When things first got really bad, I'd wake my mom up every night for reassurance, but I haven't done that in a while either. I'm really proud of myself, but there's still this nagging thought in my mind... While looking through others posts on here, hoping to find advice that'd fit my situation, I ended up making things worse. Someone mentioned how they had a fear that they'd purposely search for illegal content (related to POCD). I panicked, and "what ifs" flooded my thoughts. "What if the intrusive thoughts affect who I am as a person, and I do that?" I'm terrified that I'll search for those things, which I know means I wouldn't do it. But then, another person on here said they'd actually looked for those things, and that freaked me out even more. Does that mean it's possible for that to happen to me? I don't want to do that, but I keep having intrusive thoughts surrounding it. I've been doing so well these past few days. I'm just... stuck. I don't know what to do. I've spoken with other people who have the same fears, but how do I manage this? It's not something I've even thought about before seeing those posts. I've been practicing accepting the uncertainty, but I'm really struggling with this one. I hate this. This morning, I woke up, and the intrusive thoughts were back. It's just disheartening.
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