OCD can take a lot away from a person, because they are consistently living in fear. It's difficult to do anything you enjoy, or to feel any motivation at all to accomplish goals. What has OCD stopped you from doing?
Enjoying the moment
Having a relationship, travelling, socialising
Me too!
Letting go of the past
Going to certain places, watching certain TV shows and movies. Feeling normal in general 😅
Avoidance is huge, something I experienced greatly as well. Do you try to expose yourself to these things using ERP by chance?
Enjoying life
Doing activities that I once loved doing
OCD has such a tendency to latch onto the things we love the most!
Medication and meditation has helped me get my confidence back.
I'm so happy to hear that! I am a huge advocate of meditation and mindfulness. It helps me greatly..
It has stopped me from continuing/growing my private practice. It has stopped me from going out with friends or going in-person to church. I know He is healing and restoring me.
Having a relationship, and staying present in the moment
Same here! Do you practice ERP, or do you have any certain techniques you use for staying present?
@ I do! Along with ERP, I’ve been doing EFT/tapping therapy (on my own) and it has helped me immensely
@blazed - Amazing😃
Spending time with friends, doing my best at work, leaving the house
Socializing.
It's hard to engage with others when the thoughts are so loud.. it took that away from me as well!
Talking to my friends, which I know love and care about me, but what if what if what if what if and so on.
It's so hard to fight for our values! I hope you can challenge those what if's!
Not trusting a partner who hasn’t done anything to hurt me
That's very hard. Are you familiar with ERP, or have you practiced before?
@Kyle Lucas ERP is such a scary thing in my head. I sometimes start to obsess about what ERP will do to me 😞
Living in the moment, being present with others. This fact has been made apparent to me as of recent. It hurts.
Living my life. I dropped out of school, lost so many friends, I’m not even making new memories anymore
Having a girlfriend for many years.
I'm sorry to hear that - I've also been many years without anyone, and I do think OCD played a big part at times.. I hope you can overcome it!
Getting a new job/ going to college
It's terrible how much OCD affects your entire life. I failed a few classes while in school, and never finished my Master's because OCD was rampant, and I just couldn't do it. Have you ever tried therapy?
Assignments for classes, pursuing activities I once loved
I failed some classes and wasn't able to finish my Master's due to OCD.. I'm sorry it's messing with your schooling as well. OCD wants us to make decisions out of our fears instead of our values. It's so hard. I hope things can get better for you! I highly recommend ERP if you have yet to try.
@Anonymous Yeah that’s a big one for me too. I feel ya
Fear if trying new things and branching out of my comfort zone. I have definitely become more of a homebody.
The unknown is already hard enough without OCD, so I truly look at those with OCD as warriors, because it's much more difficult for us to branch out and do those new things - that may seem so simple and easy to others!
Living in the moment.
This was so hard for me as well. Are there things you do that help you?
Having a healthy sleeping schedule. I'm working on it🫣
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I hope exposing yourself to those risks can help!
Fear of losing friends and acting in ways that make it too late
EXACTLY! And if they were REAL friends, that couldn't happen, but our darn OCD...
Enjoying the little things
It's stands of the way of loving my husband.
@jemcu812 In what way love?
Sleeping and general productivity. Living without fear.
an endless circle of "what ifs" ... perhaps, with some aspects it has become a little easier... but still difficult to socialize; it's difficult to be here and now to enjoy the moment; hard to concentrate etc.
Being around ppl I care about, peace in my mind, and concentration
Going outside, getting decent sleep, talking to family and friends
Everything. School is almost impossible to do and it’s literally my last semester of college
Getting back time and accomplishing more in the day
Taking care of myself and focusing on work I need to do
From having hobbies. I have no interest to do anything that I use to love. I’m so sad about it. It’s stopped me from fully engaging with life.
@amy3810 Same. I avoid places like the gym because of contamination.
Having a full time job or career
Going shopping, showing my kids affection, leaving my house unless to work or absolutely necessary like appoiments.
I'm sorry to hear it's affected you in this way. Have you ever tried ERP by chance?
Now that I have been diagnosed, I have noticed that is has affected me in f…g everything and I hate it! School, studies, friendships, love life, sosializing 😶
Having a relationship, going out with friends and family, and not feeling like myself when I have these compulsions
It’s stopped me from having peace and confidence in myself. It’s so exhausting
Appreciating the gifts around me. I feel I will lose everything and it will be my fault. Lost so much confidence in myself as moral person
Is it OK to do erp on my own
Great question! It is best to work with a specialist, as ERP is difficult and quite complex. I did try some on my own before therapy, but I didn't know how to properly resist compulsions, so my anxiety would just rise and I didn't find relief unfortunately. It's tricky! But I also think there are others who have some success, depending on resources used and proper direction. Is there a barrier you are facing by chance that is making it hard to work with a specialist?
Eating, taking meds, going places and trying new things.
Living in general. It like to run rampant with every negative thought possible about the things I love the most.
Trusting myself and my intuition
Socializing for sure
Its hurting my relationship with my girlfriend. She had a lot of relationships with other guys and it’s always on my mind even tho I should be able to forget about it and move in cause I still love her. But I have such a hard time not obsessing over it. To the point where I’m always wondering if we need to breakup cause I don’t want to always feel like this. I get intrusive thoughts if her doing explicit things with those other guys and it’s so bad it makes me wanna throw up. I hate it. It hurts so much
honestly everything
It’s made it hard for me to put myself out there and meet new friends. I feel a bit lonely because of it.
performing in theatre for sure
I can’t seem to back to work full time after Covid. I keep waiting for it to get worse again.
Taking a deep breath, being intimate or having a relationship
Another way to describe it is a loss of ability to let uncomfortable thoughts flow through our minds. It's like a fire alarm going off in our heads and an urgency to work out what these thoughts mean and what we can do about them and it's the exact reason why going to talk therapy is the worst thing that someone with OCD can do.
One of my best coping mechanisms somedays is to remember that while my OCD causes a lot of mental distress, it also can be a strength of mine. OCD has allowed me to thrive in my job, I tend to pay attention to small details and be in very good control of my work. I know exactly what is going on and often think before I say or jump to anger. I tend to apologize when something is truly wrong and be more genuine. I just know we all get in the habit of OCD being this absolutely terrible thing,,; and often it is,, but it also can be a strength in some. It shows I have empathy, am loyal, and a hard worker based on my attention to detail and want for control (even with my thoughts) ♥️♥️
I think I have mild OCD. Maybe that's why I can't relate to many of the difficulties experienced by other posters. My OCD is more on the compulsion side performing certain rituals at key transitions or points during the day. I honestly cannot figure out what the underlying obsession is other than some kind of weird mental hoarding to acknowledge and cherish a moment but also to protect my family and even my pets. I get little or no anxiety (I used to when I was younger). Even mild OCD absolutely sucks and is debilitating to an extent.
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