Q&A

@Catlove9 I’d consider it another intrusive thought and leave it be.

@Catlove9 Omg! This happened to me yesterday. I made a mistake and felt so guilty and bad about it anxious too. Right away, I thought maybe my ocd is also true 😭

@Trish1014 Absolutely true! Sometimes it’s going to be hard. Been going through a really tough time and that means increase of mental illness symptoms. But what matters is your REACTION. It doesn’t need to matter what pops up in your mind.

@MushroomStew They only mean something something when you assign meaning to them.

@Erin P 😬 I find that when I’m feeling anxious about my thoughts, I tend to hop on here too. It maybe a compulsion now because I feel better after

@68273 I can see that. For me I was feeling like I had to go back and start from the last one I read and respond to ones that no one / too few people had answered all the way until current time - now I am just looking at the most recent and the header to see which ones I want to respond to instead of feeling like it’s an obligation and feeling guilty about not doing more. 🤪

@Erin P I think it’s become a compulsion for me too. ☹️

@Erin P Thank you! It’s good to take a break and help yourself and decompress ❤️

@gt123 Yes, anything can be a compulsion if you are trying to stop the stress/anxiety from an obsession. Obsession comes first, then the compulsion to try and stop it.

@lilliiii Compulsions are what you do in order to try and stop the anxiety or stress from an intrusive thought, feeling, image, or urge. But you can never stop OCD, so you cycle and make your OCD worse by giving into its whims 🔁

@Anonymous This is a great and I depth article about this topic that’s helped me a lot! https://positivepsychology.com/how-to-practice-self-compassion/

@Nica Thank u so much!

@Applecore You have to treat it like any other OCD theme even if you feel guilty for something you’ve actually done that’s bad in the past. Depending what it is—and I don’t know what you feel bad for—it could also be worth seeing a trauma specialist.

@Nica I'm seeing a therapist now. I'm trying to work through one thing at a time.

@Applecore Great to hear! 👏🏻 You might need to or might not and if the OCD specialist thinks you do have some sort of trauma enough to see one and get a diagnosis.

@Daniel 1980 I’ve been recovered for almost 4 years, so of course it is 😉 Recovery is not caring about the thoughts. You will always have intrusive thoughts just like every person on this planet does that’s just the human condition, do you have intrusive thoughts the brain is smart and stupid at the same time, and we have to realize that as conscious beans that are able to look inward and out word and detach from our brains, and the simple biology of what human beans are and what we do on a daily basis.

@Nica Thank you @Nica. I’ve been doing ERP for 3 months now, and a lot is coming up. I knew I had OCD, but had no idea how many themes I had playing all at once. It’s been a journey of discovery so far, and some slight progress, but as you can imagine, becoming more aware of the OCD is very confronting, and difficult to see a way out.

@dan_star Doing an exposure even if you think it’d be bad luck is an exposure in and of itself. So, going through any type of exposure and sitting with the discomfort is how to get through it. Don’t run away from it no matter what your OCD says. Do the opposite of what your OCD says but let it be present without hiding or fighting it.

@Nica I think my biggest fear is that because it's associated to something I use in the house often that I'll just keep getting reminded of it and will always be anxious about it and never forget and then anytime something bad happens I'll think it's because I kept the object for an exposure

@dan_star It’s going to continue to be if you keep fighting against it. Everyday items are just that and you can’t escape it. Might as well embrace it now since what you’ve been doing isn’t working.

@Anonymous Nope, I’ve just been recovered for 4 years and have stuck around to help whenever. The therapists on here will state in their name that they are therapists.

@Tee10 No, medication doesn’t work on me, so I did it all without medication.

@Anonymous Let’s not 😂

@blazed I’ve been with my fiancé for quite a few years and haven’t dated in a long time. But you need to focus on getting better and healing/recovering.

@Nica Hello Nica...question for you while you struggled with SO-OCD, did you have constant that thoughts that due to you not experimenting with your sexuality that's why you have some doubts. I am at the point of my ocd in which I am unfortunately dealing with thoughts that are telling me that experimentation will give me the answers that I am looking for which I have no interest in doing and I am in a loving relationship.

@Anonymous Not really. I am not a sexual person so I didn’t date or have many relationships. But you know you don’t want to do those things, so anything tied to “experimenting” is OCD. Don’t give into that.

@mbasner Obsessing over relationships, and they don’t need to be romantic.

@Justtryingtogetbetter Yes

@Pennyroyal Reading, baking, hiking, yoga

@Nica Oh cool!

@httpbx Stay present. The only moment that actually exists is now. I would read a book called “The Power of Now”.