I know w ocd you need to accept the uncertainty but if I have the Intrusive thought: what If I kill myself- am I supposed to really accept that uncertainty ? Or is it accepting in general ?
Well at some point you’d want to at least be comfortable with the fact that life eventually ends for everyone. There’s always the possibility that we could die. Maybe I will die, maybe I won’t. It actually can be very freeing to accept that life is temporary and we have to live in the moment and appreciate what we have when we have it. As cheesy as that sounds lol. The more you do the ERP the more the fear will decrease and you’ll learn to accept it. But I’m no therapist, I’m just a guy with OCD trying not to check if I locked my car.
@Don’tCheckMate This is perfect. I too feared/ sometimes still slip up with being afraid of suicide.. erp works/ worked wonders. I had to get comfortable with accepting uncertainty on I don’t really know how my life is going to end, I really don’t ever want it to be suicide, but I cant have certainty that it won’t be. I can move towards my values and work on my erp skills and get better.
No, you accept or acknowledge your having the thoughts, not agreeing with them & just let them go by giving them no attention. 🙏😍
With Gods help & my therapist here I have learned that they are just intrusive thoughts & to let them go by & move on about your day focusing on what’s important. A relationship with God has helped me to know & believe in him, Heaven & that I’m saved & have eternal life. So, I don’t worry about death & dying anymore as much or at all. 🙏❤️
@Anonymous So I don’t have to accept that I don’t know how I’m going to die?
@KTSylva I apologize I don’t have this theme so I don’t know what it’s like. You want to know how you die?
@Don’tCheckMate No, I have suicidal ocd- so I always thought I needed to accept that “maybe, maybe not”- I dont know how I’m going to die.
I had this theme, just accepted I had the thoughts, cried about it a lot but then my theme changed
This was really difficult for me to understand for a while. It's not that you are supposed to accept that you will die by natural means OR that you will die by suicide, its accepting that you DON'T KNOW, and letting the question remain unanswered. It's hard for OCD sufferers to handle this, because we really want to resolve these obsessions one way or the other. Leave them unresolved, and they will lose their power eventually.
Sorry I should have clarified I have suicidal ocd
@artsygirl Yes I do too.
@KTSylva So you don’t actually have to accept that you may die by suicide ?
@artsygirl I would love to have a friend who also deals with this ! It’s really hard when people don’t understand.
@artsygirl I would love to have a friend as well. I definitely understand suicidal ocd and the difficulties in talking about it with ppl that don’t understand it. I am still learning how to navigate ERP so I may not be the best person to say what you have to accept or not.. but I did think I was supposed to accept the uncertainty of not knowing how I was going to die. But this guy down here on your post seems to maybe have a better understanding. I’d love to learn together. I’m Katie, by the way, and my walk with the Lord has also been the most instrumental part of my walk through recovery.
@KTSylva Hey! How are you doing? Really struggling with suicidal ocd
Ladies! Do y’all have any suggestions for ERPS for suicide OcD?
@JessieB It really depends on how far in you are to give you a good idea- I did an exposure right off the bat which was way too high. I’ve done some in the beginning like writing in red pen (which reminds me of blood) to then writing suicide on a notecard in red pen and walking around for five minutes up to a whole day. Then there is looking at photos of a knife or a gun or rope or tall building or whatever. For me, my biggest difficulty is not avoiding the thoughts or trying to get rid of them.
@artsygirl Wanted to explain more: writing the word suicide in red pen on a notecard and putting it in my pocket…
@artsygirl Thanks! I’ve only done 2 erp sessions. Watched movie, watched videos, wrote script, read articles. The script got me the 1st couple times with some tears. But now that’s not causing anything anymore. And none of the other stuff has gave me anxiety. So I’ve been searching my butt off for ideas.
@JessieB You’ve only done 2 ERP sessions with all of that and it didn’t cause anything ?! Umm do you have really mild ocd ?
@artsygirl I dunno. Cause when we started my anxiety had gotten better. But after the last session (with the script) my anxiety and thoughts revived up to feel like a spike again. I had to read it at least 3x a day. I do think the fact that I realize these thoughts are irrational that it’s easier. But when the spike initially started around Thanksgiving my anxiety was bad. I dunno. That’s why I’m searching for ERPS.
@JessieB What movie did you watch
@artsygirl Girl interrupted
This is my new, and most debilitating theme - I am new to therapy and struggling to understand this particular theme. Any support would be appreciated ❤️
I try to let it run in the background like background noise.
Accepting uncertainty feels like I'm accepting my intrusive thoughts (that I know are false) as truth. Does anyone else deal with this thought and have any tips to avoid thinking this? (I know it's my OCD telling me this so I can continue ruminating and "proving intrusive thoughts wrong", but it's a thought that makes me feel like ERP will make things worse)
how could you accept uncertainty? just how tf do you accept that? to me, that's like accepting something i never am, will never do and would never want to be. i dunno, sounds like accepting that you are your intrusive thoughts.
When people tell me to accept it, do they mean accept the thought or accept that you have these thoughts. Because I have Suicidal OCD and I get these thoughts and just can’t accept that I could do something like that
Share your thoughts so the Community can respond
