Life after recovery

@Nica I will stop getting those intrusive thoughts once I recover right? As in I will at least stop getting them every single day, maybe only once a week or once a month?

@DillonLee No, you’ll always have intrusive thoughts. Everyone on this planet has intrusive thoughts. That’s not the point of ERP and recovery ❤️‍🩹

@Nica but you can’t be getting the same intrusive thoughts everyday if you’ve recovered. Of course they’ll come back but just not everyday

@DillonLee Bold assumptions there 😂 I’m not keeping up with tracing all of them *every single time* they pop up because I simply don’t care about them. But they do pop up every day.

@Nica but my thoughts are about something that actually happened before, so I don’t know how to deal with them. and it’s just that same thought everyday, not a bunch of random ones

@DillonLee And what’s obsessing over something in the past actually doing for you? Absolutely nothing. You need to let it go and do better in the present and future. That’s legitimately all you can do that’s PRODUCTIVE.

@DillonLee When I said “random” I mean every single OCD known because I’ve had them all. I don’t have any obsessions or do compulsions because NONE of my thoughts matter. They’re Jay there in the background as I go about my life. They only become en issue when YOU make the thoughts an issue.

@Nica what is the difference between negative self talk and intrusive thoughts? For example, if my brain says ‘I’m a bad person’ doesn’t that also count as negative self talk, not just as an intrusive thought? I can’t tell the difference cus u can counterbalance negative self talk but not intrusive thoughts

@cantstopthinking Don’t react to any of your thoughts; let them be present and go about your life. People with OCD don’t get to react to any thoughts because that can EASILY become an issue.

@Nica recently I have been managing thoughts well until my mind started automatically saying ‘no!’ everytime that thought pops up. How do I stop this? I didn’t plan on responding to it but now my mind is responding by itself

@Nica or is it OCD itself thats saying ‘no’ to its own intrusive thought to make me think I’m doing a compulsion to trick me into rumination?

@cantstopthinking Just let it do whatever as you go about your routine. Don’t feed into it or take it seriously.

@Nica but I thought saying ‘no’ to your intrusive thoughts is a compulsion? I can’t stop my brain from saying ‘no’ cus it’s saying no without my consent

@cantstopthinking You said you aren’t actively saying it and that your mind is. You can’t control your thoughts, so you need to let it be.

@Nica but it’s making me feel anxious that the ‘no’ in my head is a compulsion that I can’t stop and will make the intrusive thoughts worse

@cantstopthinking It’s going to happen no matter what because it’s just happening, so let it go. You’re making it WORSE by what you’re doing right now.

@Nica what if my brain also suddenly says ‘shut up! is that all you got ?’ to the thought? Should I treat it like how I treated the ‘No!’ and just let it be? I’ve heard that saying ‘is that all you’ve got?’ can make thoughts worse

@cantstopthinking Don’t reply to it.

@Nica I can’t control my brain from replying to the thought so I should just not do anything abt it right?