As soon as I booked an appointment for ERP, my OCD decided to fade away after months of dealing with it. Now my mind is telling me to cancel the appointment because I’m “better” now 🤦♀️
No, don’t cancel it! It’ll always be with you and it’s better to get help now than cancel and have it come back even worse.
@Nica I definitely agree!
Oh Lord this is literally it. It's like the clarity of super fear.
It sounds a bit like your mind is trying to trick you. Hope you remember that your OCD doesn't want to go away, so it will be sneaky making you stay away from treatment.
@Emilhaagen99 You’re 100% right! OCD can make any feeling feel so real.
This happened with me ! I was really bad for a long period of time and then when I started getting help I felt “better” and I wasn’t really passionate about ERP or therapy in general because I thought I didn’t need it. Then when it finished and my therapist sent me on my way a few weeks later it was all back 🥲😂 it was some sick joke but it is what it is I guess
@markson This is exactly how I feel right now 😭 since I’m feeling good at the moment I feel like it’s not necessary to go through with it, but if I don’t it’ll probably get worse.
I had the exact same thing!! Ocd was so bad then booked an appointment with an erp therapist for the first time, and felt so much better and spent the whole first session saying how I didn't need therapy ... therapist saw through it (thank god) and I spent 6 months in Erp therapy where I had numerous relapses. Go to the appointment 🙌 even if you feel better the whole time, it's good to get the tools in case you ever relapse!
I’ve been feeling this exact way I thought I was gaslighting myself into thinking I have ocd! I have over a week before my first session and wake up everyday thinking “I’m not bad enough” when my thoughts before making the appointment were “I’m so bad!” I guess the ocd always shows you what you don’t “want” to see. When I admitted this to my partner, I started the sentence with, “I’ve been obsessing over if I have ocd or not” and then realized saying it outloud… it’s an obsession no matter what it’s trying to disguise itself as. I feel proud when I make connections like that and feel I am looking ocd in the face and saying “HA!”
From my experience, I’ve done this many times with different things and it didn’t work out very well lol.
I've been in and out of talk therapy for OCD-related issues for years, but it hasn't been effective long-term. I am struggling with body image / eating disorder adjacent obsessions and I am really hopeful that ERP might actually give me some relief. I had my first session with my NOCD therapist a few weeks ago. It felt like a good match and I was ready to unpack my obsessions and compulsions to try ERP for the first time. The day of my second session she canceled due to personal illness. Then this happened a second time. Yesterday all of my future booked sessions were canceled without explanation. I went to schedule with a new therapist and the ones that seemed could be a good fit are filled up until at least early April. I booked a slot and sent the therapist a message letting her know I would be interested in starting sooner if a slot opened up. I am just disappointed. I could just meet with another therapist who has earlier availability, but it's most important to me that the therapist be a good fit since I've been through therapy so many times. I feel like I'm in limbo until I have an ERP plan set up and I'm not sure how to move forward in the meantime. I'm planning try out a support group but I need a personalized exposure plan and I'm not sure if that's something I should just try to set up myself? Anyone have something similar happen to them? Any thoughts or advice would be helpful.
This is kind of a weird question, but I recently increased my SSRI dosage and have experienced tremendous relief. It has quieted my intrusive thoughts so much and my compulsions are no longer as all-consuming. However, I don’t want to be on this high of a dosage forever and know that medication alone shouldn’t be my only fix. I’m seeing a new psychiatrist on Wednesday and am wondering if the recent decrease in frequency of my symptoms will be a bar to my getting ocd treatment? In other words, if in this present moment I’m doing better, but up until a few days ago my compulsions were taking up pretty much every moment of my waking day, will I still be classified as having ocd? I start getting worried when I feel better that I don’t actually have ocd and just use it as a defense mechanism to avoid consequences of my actions/I’m secretly a terrible person
I was just thinking about how OCD tries to be tricky and switches themes on us!! The amount of times I have said to myself in the past, IF ONLY I HAD THE OLDER THEME I USE TO WORRY ABOUT BECAUSE THIS NEW ONE IS SO MUCH WORSE!!! Has anyone ever experienced this before? Once I started ERP therapy, I began to really start understanding what mental/physical compulsions I was doing to really keep my OCD alive! While I did this, I would also tap into my self-compassion bucket, even when it felt like it was dry at times, because it was SO easy to judge myself for because of the sheer presence of my thoughts. I would also have the most self-compassion for myself for those taboo intrusive thoughts that really felt so strong, ego-dystonic and real!!! My OCD would hop around from theme to theme and just when I thought I figured it out (compulsion) it would hop again and make me discouraged! I noticed for me that once I really understood my compulsions, it didn't matter when the theme switched as I could tackle it at its core. If I was able to stay steadfast and resist compulsions the best I could, I started to notice that my CONFIDENCE increased in the long run! I also noticed that some of the core fears were the same for different OCD subtypes. OCD treatment is hard BUT living with OCD is harder. I have experienced subtypes including Harm OCD, ROCD, Moral Scrupulosity, Sensorimotor, Contamination, Perfectionism/Just Right, Hit and Run, Magical Thinking, Real Event/False Memory. ERP therapy allowed me to really work on stopping these compulsions and switching from theme to theme. I was fed up with what OCD took from me and I needed to do something about it. I talked to an ERP therapist and it was one of the best decisions of my life. If you are struggling, keep pushing and get the help you deserve!! You got this!!!
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