Hey guys, please read this, it is very long but maybe it will help you and give you hope cause I know there are people who need it! :) So the last maybe 10 days it seems like my OCD is finally gone. All I did was, everytime an OCD thought/idea/story popped into my head, treating it as a LIE, cause that's what OCD is - a liar. At first it was extremely scary cause everything OCD says seems so real and so convincing and I had a feeling like I'm ignoring a serious life threatening problem, but I knew it was the right way so I endured the anxiety and with time OCD turned from screaming voice into a whisper 'till it almost completely faded away. Now, few days ago I had an unexpected exposure, and I'm not gonna lie, it scared me and I did feel OCD attack again, but it lasted for maybe one hour. Again, it was because I said to it: "I recongize you OCD, and I choose to disregard you and what you're saying to me and I accept I don't know what future will bring but neither do you! So I refuse to listen to your false alarms and your fake exaggerated stories!" It's all about disregarding it. You hear it, but you literally refuse to react to it. It is a choice. You can stop it anytime just by recognizing it and separating OCD thought from yourself. It's saying to yourself: "Ok, so that is now stupid OCD talking...well, talk whatever you want OCD, I'm not buying it, you're annoying. Bye." I did that even when it was so, so, so convincing. I was saying that to the OCD with tears in my eyes, hands shaking, and heart beating out of fear, but with time it really started to work! You need to understand that the more you react with fear to shitty lies your OCD it trying to convince you, the more of the intrusive thoughts your mind will send to you cause your brain thinks you're in danger and is trying to protect you. When you stop reacting to OCD's shit with emotions your brain will stop thinking those thoughts are dangerous and eventually it will stop sending them to you...but slowly, with time so be patient. Fear is what is fueling OCD. Once you cut our the fear, once you stop treating what OCD is telling to you seriously it will stop. When I hear OCD I literally do the eye roll ? like..."Not you again...you're really stupid and annoying. Fuck off." And I continue to do whatever I was doing. My brain then saw that my reaction to an OCD though was like "eh, whatever" and it started to send me less and less of that thought. What is also very important to know is that people with OCD think in black and white. If something isn't 100% perfect than it is 100% bad, when in reality 99% situations in life are in gray area. What would you think about a mother that steals a medicine/drug for her sick child? You're not a monster if you did a mistake, that is what makes you human, and in most cases mistakes that people with OCD did are not so bad at all, it's OCD that is blowing them out of proportions and the black and white thinking is what is making them see the mistake as something so terrible they don't deserve to be loved and to feel happy which is also FALSE. You deserve love anyway. Cutting out the physical compulsion is not always enough cause a lot of people still ruminate which is in most cases a reason why so many people have trouble with recovery. Sometimes you analyze and ruminate and you're not even aware of how much you're doing it, so it is a good idea to pay a bit more attention to it. The reason why you have OCD is because people who develop OCD are beautiful, gentle, sensitive and caring souls, so scared they would hurt someone when in reality that is the last thing they would do because they are so kind. Eventually when you start to recover you will stop believing OCD and start to believe yourself cause you will know who you are. You will know what your beliefs are, you will know what you would do and what you wouldn't do, you will stop doubting yourself in any way. OCDs voice will be silent and yours will be loud. You will hear yourself just as you heard yourself before OCD made you doubt everything about you as a person. I feel a lot better now. I gained weight that I lost because of stress that OCD caused me, I can concentrate when I study, I started to drink coffee again. My life is back just because I started to disregard OCD. It's not that I don't get OCD thoughts anymore, I do definitely, but I refuse to take them seriously and that is what saved me. Also the theme isn't that important cause every OCD theme has a fear in its root, and the fear is what you need to stop giving to that monster. Recovery is possible, you just have to be very, very, very, very, very persistant and patient. Never, ever give up no matter what emotions it sends you, no matter how extremely convincing it is (liars can be very convinving too, don't forget that), no matter if it gives you physical responses, DON'T GIVE UP, DISREGARD IT IN SMALL STEPS BUT CONTINUE TO DO IT EVERY DAY AND WITH TIME YOU WILL WIN! ❤