How do you guys cope with a bad ocd episode without performing compulsions? I’m having a hard time right now, getting a lot of intrusive thoughts
When it's happened accept this. Open exposure in this app. Rate you distress level. Be with this. Don't make compulsion. Brainstorm copping thought like "its OCD now", "i can handle this". Watch you amigdala and body calm down. Its take time. Rate you distress level after. It's how you cope. Make step further And Provoke you OCD episode in day when it's not happening. Make exposure same way. It's how Heal youself completely.
What helps me is going outside for a walk or watching Netflix while doing something else. It's normal to have an episode and know that it will pass.
Breathing deeply. Mindfulness. When I am able to calm down enough ERP.
I’ve been stuck in this cycle for the last month or two and am not sure how to get out of it. Basically, I will work on ignoring the thoughts and not responding or engaging plus limiting/completely eliminating compulsions. After a week or two of constant work, the amount of intrusive thoughts in a day goes down. The anxiety each thought causes also goes down with some, but not all, thoughts passing without notice like they would for a normal person. The thoughts that do stick cause anxiety and make me want to ruminate or do other compulsions but I make sure to limit them. After a bit, I’m in a pretty good head space. This is usually when it goes down hill. I’ll start to question if I even have ocd because some of the thoughts (once again not all) pass without notice. The difficulty resisting compulsions goes down and so does the anxiety, only increasing the questioning. I spend a while questioning if I’ve ever had ocd in the first place and then something sets me off or the questioning itself becomes a trigger and I get stuck back into the same ocd cycle with constant rumination, anxiety, and other compulsions. This lasts for a week or two before I know I need to stop and try and work hard to get back to ignoring the thoughts. And the cycle just restarts over and over again. Does anyone have any tips to stop this from happening? It’s really harming my recovery as every few weeks I dive back into the same negative place I was.
How can I stop thinking about my OCD? I’ve had a very bad day today and now it’s the only thing on my mind. Thing is, when I have it on my mind, I’m so hyper aware of my situation, everything begins to be victim to my OCD. How can I get my brain to stop obsessing over my OCD so I can get back to doing the things I like without stressing over my ocd getting to them?
How do you guys handle uncertainty? I keep having so many what if thoughts and I feel so bad. The worst ones are what if I act on my intrusive thoughts or actually want them and I can’t tell if they’re me or not. It just feels so real and at this point I don’t even know if they’re intrusive thoughts anymore. I just want to not be a bad person and not feel like this anymore.
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