Anyone else dealing with just a negative mindset. After having multiple ocd themes everything feels so negative. If I see something happy my mind automatically turns it into a negative thought. Does anyone know how I can change this ?
Well it was the same for me for a long time. Anytime i felt happy, a voice in my mind would automatically say something negative. Then i realized if OCD could teach my mind to be negative, then i could teach myself to be more positive. There is no specific way for this i believe. You just need to try and replace negative with the positive. For example, every morning when i wake up, i say "today is gonna be a great day." Sometimes my morning anxiety is too high but it doesn't matter. I just keep saying it.
When you have the thought, do nothing to get rid of it like trying to avoid it by watching videos etc. Just observe it like an outsider. Know that there is a negative thought and your body experiences anxiety because of it. After you recognize it, do nothing to avoid it. Let the thougt stay there and you keep doing your daily tasks. Keep living your life despite the anxiety.
@zzyyxx Thank u sm :( that helped <3
That is exactly what started my ocd cycle. Didn’t realize that’s even what it was at the time I just thought I was depressed. Honestly doing erp on that helped me a lot. Like doing scripts over the negative thoughts your mind is throwing you and not engaging, just feeling the shitty feeling without ruminating. Allowing it to be there
I do the same but I don’t know how to stop it
That’s good to hear. How would I let it be there though ?
Never feels like I can fully put my mind to rest. The problem with OCD for me is once I'm over one worry there's another buried deep into my mind that I'm not fully over. The two events I'm not completely over is when I tried to help a 17 year old with POCD when I was 19 and the topics unfortunately were detailed and even then I explained to them I wasn't comfortable with talking to them. I guess I just had a hard time saying no to someone needing help but it eventually made me so uncomfortable that I stopped talking with them altogether at some point. Then the other thing is being so worried that I committed a crime because my elbow touched someone's behind when I didn't want that to happen at all. I didn't want to listen to my OCD by saying move my arm or something horrible is going to happen so I didn't and then something bad actually did happen. I thought it would just be a light touch while zipping a bag up but then it was worse than I ever wanted it to be and it was so awkward and I hated it. I feel like I just won't be able to get back to the way I was before OCD started all of this. Aside from that I've just had extreme health anxiety but am too afraid to reach out to a PCP even though I need to. Something deep down is telling me I should do this but I'm just so anxious and embarrassed about sharing things to them. I can't even enjoy the things I used to do because this is constantly just messing up my life. I'm hoping I get a start of positivity next time I see my therapist. This just sucks. Feels like others around me are doing so much better than I am and I'm just kind of stuck on these same problems and feeling absolute shame and guilt from the past over and over again. I'm just so sick of dealing with this every single day so I just use escape whenever I can. Even that doesn't really work. I just wish I could go back in time.
Hey fellow OCD warriors! Wanted to ask if anyone else’s OCD tends to latch onto change and catastrophize with all kinds of worst-case scenarios. There’s a lot going on in my life, and even though they are all exciting things that I truly want and am happy about, I’ve had moments of deep fear at so much change happening and even a sadness that I can only think is a kind of grief of entering a new stage of life/a new me and leaving the old one behind. I am in my mid-20s and a lot of this centers around nostalgia and fear and intrusive thoughts of changes like my parents getting older, myself aging, friendships growing apart leading to loneliness, etc. I know I need to treat it as any other OCD flare-up and do ERP, but it also feels different than other OCD themes because I feel blue and like existentially sad. Even as a young kid, I always hated change and the thought of growing up (even if exciting things were happening) - like I cried when I turned 10 because I was leaving the single digits behind forever! 🤦♀️ I feel like I’m preemptively mourning things like losing my parents or my health even though I am healthy and my parents are too. I don’t want to waste the time I have ruminating about the future. I haven’t heard this kind of theme mentioned a lot so just wanted to see if any others could relate.
I know everything im dealing with is OCD. I have accepted that, but I just feel down. I don’t want to live the rest of my life like this. I just want to be free from this horrible illness. Any positive stories and recovery journeys will help. What did recovery look like for you? I used to be so happy, I miss it so much. This feels like it’s taken everything from me. How do you just live your life despite how you feel? Any hope will help!
Share your thoughts so the Community can respond
