does anyone else find that as your ocd symptoms get less often it’s like triggers get way worse. like you don’t have constant thoughts but to compensate when u do get triggered bad it’s like really bad anxiety and way more difficult
I wonder what you’re thinking in the moment: when that happens to me it’s like “oh yes the anxiety is getting better I must be healing” and then when I get a triggering intrusive thought it feels worse, not because it’s worse than what I have dealt with before, but because I have this type of thought in a fraction of a second after, “oh here we go again maybe this is the start of a new episode” or something of the sort which triggers worse anxiety.
@Scoobertdoobert That’s interesting for me it’s more distressing because it’s caught me off guard, if thoughts are constant when i get triggered it’s not overwhelming because i’m already being bombarded 24/7 but when it eases up it’s like i’ve put down my psychological shield abit and don’t feel so prepared to deal w it
@Roccoxx555 on top of that if i spiral i defo think “oh here we go again”, so annoying haha
@Roccoxx555 Yup I think that plays into it too, like it’s such a stark difference between the feeling of calm and then the sudden hurricane.
@Scoobertdoobert it’s so difficult it takes like 3 hours for me to properly calm down again but at least i get more breaks ish
Literally for two weeks I felt like I was in a better mind frame literally like I had a whole two weeks of feeling like myself but the minute I was triggered everything felt ten times worse
@Habu yes i was kind of similar and it’s ranked up my avoidance because i don’t want it to happen again now because i felt better when i wasn’t triggered although just gotta keep exsposing
Maybe the fear of OCD episodes is something to confront in ERP.
@Anonymous yes i’m going to try do imaginary exposures of me having an episode but tbh it’s mostly still the content that scares me
Yea me too, i feel like it’s never get better
@JüsTAn0nÿm0uš it’s really confusing but keep up hope, i think what will be useful is doing imaginary exsposures of you getting triggered so your more prepared when it happens
I feel this too. I'm very careful about what I look at now
@MushroomStew it’s good to get triggered even though it physically hurts haha, if we don’t respond then the anxiety can come down (not matter how long it takes, it eventually passes ) i think it is just super scary especially when you’re not expecting it but with practice it will get easier !
I was actually was told not to do as much erp because my grandma had passed away, so it was quite a shock to me despite the fact that she did pass away those two weeks I had gotten some god given strength like out of nowhere, eventhough I was told not do erp I was confronted with natural exposure so for example I have a fear of death so I was actually there when she passed at that time it didn’t effect me but now omds literally I’m getting visuals, nightmares the whole lot
@Habu why were u told to do less erp? ocd can rank up when you’re stressed too, the death of a loved one can be very overwhelming, this may explain why you’re finding it harder to deal with
Does anyone else feel like they’re OCD turns off for a couple days? Like you go through an intense period of having intrusive thoughts and feeling the need to confess and then you only start to get thoughts here and there? And you try to keep yourself from having the thoughts but you’re not sure if it’s avoidance? Like I have felt sooo much better the last couple of days, especially in the morning, I live for those times of quiet in my head. But I still haven’t been able to accept myself for the things I might have done, like I can’t accept myself still because of my OCD. This probably sounds a little jumbled but I would like to think someone can relate lol
I experience OCD in what feels like cycles. I have a couple of good days or weeks and then something out of the blue will trigger a flare up. I’m just wondering if anyone else goes through the same thing or if it’s kind of a constant state for you.
has anyone else done this? today i got presented with one of my triggers, but when i first saw it i didn’t immediately feel the feeling i’d grown to associate with being triggered. normally had i been confronted by my trigger, i’d get a pit-like feeling in my stomach, heart racing, anger, and dissociation. today i looked at it and thought “huh, i don’t really feel triggered, but i know i should be. should i be mad at this?” the nature of my trigger is one that concerns my relationship, and this is where i made a mistake. i told my partner, “i can’t decide if i should be mad about this or not.” and that opened the flood gates to a 2hr long conversation surrounding my obsession and triggers. i feel really bad for not taking the opportunity to disengage from my habitual response. i didn’t feel triggered initially, but i triggered myself out of habit, because i “should” be triggered. i feel like recently my ocd has been dying off, at least this particular obsession. i haven’t really been doing any of my compulsions, and it’s not on my mind as often. regardless, i’m still really scared to accept that it is what it is and it’ll always be there. when given the opportunity to disengage or stay, i chose to stay. i hate that i did that. it felt like an aha moment, though. maybe this was necessary. a fight with my partner over something i chose to be upset about because it has historically been upsetting. do you ever feel like your ocd tries to get your attention even more when it’s dying off? how do you proceed without reaffirming the ocd when presented with a circumstance like this one? do you ever trigger yourself out of habit rather than because it really strongly bugs you ?
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