Has anyone had their theme change and they no longer cared about their previous theme? I used to have harm, and now that I have POCD I don’t care about my harm theme. I’m not triggered by it really at all.
yes, i'm the same. almost like OCD is saying "oh that theme? that wasn't real. i was just tricking you. but this new theme? THIS ONE is real, and you should be worried!" it's ridiculous.
@Anoni-Mouse This 🙌🏻 this describe perfectly what i feels like.
@Anoni-Mouse So true.
@Anoni-Mouse Yeah it’s crazy just how fast your mind will move on to the next thing, and the previous thing seems so small and distant.
@AnonCDub So true!!!
yes, and I always “regret” my previous theme, because it seems easily manageable, while the current one seems the worst ever. Same old story :(
@Nonso 10000%. I’ve been missing my old theme which is awful because it was a terrible theme , but somehow this one feels worse
Yess! I also used to have harm ocd and it has switched to health ocd. Now that i have health ocd nothing that triggered me before triggers me now. It’s honestly crazy because i was so distressed about certain things and now it’s like oh i forgot it even bothered me.
@Anon17 Yes I remember because we had harm ocd at the same time! It’s so weird cuz now I literally am like, how did that bother me... but I can’t convince myself that this is OCD too.
@Sam-OverOcd That’s exactly what I’m struggling with too. I can’t convince myself that this is ocd/anxiety sometimes. The physical symptoms feels so real.
How did you both overcome your Harm OCD? It’s been my longest theme for over a year and I can’t seem to shake it.
@——— I’m not completely sure if I overcame it since my theme just changed, but ICBT (inference based therapy) was really helping me. It’s a different OCD treatment.
@Sam-OverOcd Thank you
@——— Let me know if you wanna know more about it
@Sam-OverOcd I would like to know more about it if you wouldn’t mind sharing please
@jonathanberry73 Here’s the site! https://icbt.online You can find a list of therapists using this method on the site as well (let me know if you can’t find it) I would definitely recommend finding a therapist rather than doing it yourself. ICBT focuses on how we get to our obsessions rather than the compulsions per say. The idea is if we understand how we get to our obsessions, we can see they aren’t rooted in reality and let go of them. This DOESNT mean challenging the thoughts - we never do that, more so just realizing they aren’t relevant to reality if that makes sense.
@jonathanberry73 Let me know if you have more questions. This has been my therapy for the last two months as opposed to ERP. My therapist does both though. ICBT helped with harm theme but hasn’t helped with POCD yet, but it takes tiem
@——— Like said above I’m not sure if i had completely overcome it yet but more so just a theme change. I’m hoping i overcame it because the thoughts that i was having were very disturbing and gruesome. I have only been dealing with what i believe is ocd (not diagnosed) for about 4 Months. With that being said since I’m so new to it this app is all i have so far. I have not joined therapy to do erp training or anything like that. I am solely doing this on my own right now because I guess i am just so in shock that this randomly happened to me in the first place. I heard that fast theme changes are good so i am going to continue what I’ve been doing to see if i can get through this next hurdle on my own as well. If not then i will consider therapy. But to try and answer your question i think my way to potentially overcoming it was doing want you could call natural erp training. I am a cook for my job so i am constantly touching knives and sharp tools daily. That being said i think my mind finally realized since i always have a knife in my hand and have never done anything like my thoughts were saying that it finally realized like oh this is okay with her let’s move in to something else. I also was so shook when these thoughts first appeared that i was so determined to make them go away and get better. So i immediately cut soda out of my diet because i read online that caffeine ( pop specifically) can make your mental health so much worse. I also said phrases in my head when thoughts appeared. I told myself “ i can see that you are there but you do not define me” over and over and eventually the thought left and didn’t bother me for a while ( came back eventually but i continued to do the same thing). So fingers crossed 🤞🏻 that what i am trying is actually working considering the theme change that ive had already in the course of a few months. I hope anything i said helps you and if you have anymore questions I’d be happy to try and Answer them :)
@Anon17 Thank you very much.
I remember back when I studied to be a kindergarten teacher i had pocd, really intense. Then my theme because So ocd and u struggle with this theme for two years now. Between these themes though i had and still have intrusive thoughts that has to do with different themes.
Same here!
It likes to switch
Anyone else feel that when they aren’t experiencing a theme that their ocd is almost non existent. It almost makes me feel like I’ve been faking it, and also makes me feel ridiculous for obsessing over things. I feel sorry for myself :/ I know that my themes are valid and felt very real in the moment, but after I “get over” them I just can’t believe that I was obsessing over something that either wasn’t true or didn’t apply to me. I would also like to know how to prevent themes from reoccurring. Health, religion and existential OCD themes tend to take turns throughout my life, I just didn’t know that was it ocd. Trying to break the cycle.
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!!!
I’ve had different themes of ocd throughout my life. Can they all differ such as how the thoughts may present? Currently my thoughts feel so true immediately (like they genuinely feel like what I think) but in the last theme I feel like it may have been more of a “what if I think this” type of situation
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