- Username
- BootsyCollins
- Date posted
- 5y ago
I just had to keep reminding myself that the thoughts I was having were just from my OCD and they were thoughts that didn’t mean anything about me. It never fully went away but now I’m at a point where it doesn’t bother me as much anymore because I’ve been working to separate myself from my OCD.
Also, this sounds funny but if you give your OCD a name then it’s easier to separate it from yourself. So you can say that the thoughts are just from your OCD and not from you.
I think once I stopped telling myself to read into it and stop making my self any excuse or reasoning or compulsion that I was attracted to men, I just understood that was that however I felt I felt and if the ocd was making me anxious as fuck well I’ll feel that too. It was also summer time so I made sure to stay preoccupied by exorcising and swimming and being around people who’d love me no matter who I was. Funny enough I even realized that I was extra confused because a part of me was healthily and naturally curious of the opposite sex, I never went anywhere with it but I got a laugh out of it when I saw a man that was attractive and I might be attractive too and no HOCD thoughts came. It just dissolved, there’s always a difference because ocd will make you feel so much confusion anxiety and guilt. But I’ve also gotten over other themes like POCD and harm ocd. I still have a lot to learn on bettering myself I have other themes now
Yes! When I started doing exposures for contamination OCD, my other forms got much worse.
Yes! Me right now. I haven’t had this theme in months and I finally felt like I beat it but then randomly it hit me. I’m feeling anxious over it again, after not feeling anxious for awhile. Hoping it’s just a little set back. I worked so hard to be back a square one. It’s ok though, we will make it through. We just have days that are harder then others. OCD tendencies are always gonna be a part of us. It’s how our brains are wired, we just have to learn the tools to help ourselves. Sending you positive vibes❤️
How’d you overcome hocd and how long did it take?
How have you guys dealt with your stickiest / most long lasting theme? For me this is HOCD; I had other themes popping up in the last few months but I was able to get past them quite quickly with acceptance and a sort of shrugging manner, like ‘the probability of this happening isn’t enough for me to waste my time obsessing over’. However HOCD has always been different, it was what started my ocd and what I obsessed over for a year before discovering I had this disorder, and it often feels like when I decide not to obsess over it, I’m just sweeping the issue under the rug and not thinking about it. I’m better with a lot of the triggers but the big ones, like ‘comphet’ and my relationship nerves, are so hard to ignore. A part of me is always saying ‘you’re just ignoring this, you shouldn’t be!’. This is always been the theme where I find it so hard to distance myself from the content and look at it from an ocd perspective because when something relates to your identity say, I find it harder to ignore than obsessions about health or existentialism for example.
I first sought help for SO-OCD in 2017 after a sudden onset of the thought, "what if I'm gay?" I had been reading an online college fiction story that included a sex scene with two women, and that idea sent me into a spiral of sleepless weeks (literally), constantly checking my level of attraction to women, comparing it to my attraction to men, reevaluating past events, checking to see if my physical behaviors were "straight." It was awful. Fortunately I found help online when I realized that I wasn't alone and that countless others found themselves obsessing over a "sudden change" in their orientation. I was able to get therapy, though out of network and very expensive, and worked through CBT/ERP to overcome my most significant challenges. After about a year, through therapy and eventually on my own (costs, again smh) I felt I'd successfully managed my SO-OCD and experienced no distress on the rare occasion a thought did come to pass. Now, 5 years later, I've found myself back in familiar territory. I can't figure out what the trigger was here, and I've been experiencing immense distress as my brain constantly throws doubtful thoughts my way, and I unfortunately do my mental checks of reviewing memories, seeking online reassurance, and trying to "prove" to myself what is true by constantly thinking about proof one way or the other. Has anyone else experienced a spike after a long time of having managed their SO-OCD? And if so, was it difficult to get back on the recovery track? Is it normal to backslide like this?
I’ve had the same themes of ocd on and off for years. I have a new theme i’ve never had before now. Has that happened to anyone else?
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