Tips to stay in recovery?
Hi all! I did 2 months of intense ERP and I have felt great for the past few weeks. Not anxious at all really anymore and the thoughts have reduced/don’t bother me. I feel so happy and free again. So now, I am asking for those in recovery —- how do you make sure you stay well and don’t relapse? Any tips? Thanks! 😊
Hmm I was just in your shoes a couple months ago and then went through a significant spike and relapse. I think something I learned is to accept that there will be a time when your anxiety and urge to do compulsions will come back stronger. But I think the key is when that happens to recognize it and really resist the urge to do compulsions and sit with the anxiety. I made mine worse by giving into compulsions again and it took awhile to recover from. Better to accept that you’ll have a shitty day, or several, but know you can get through it without compulsions. Also when the thoughts start to bug you again I think that’s a good time to start doing ERP again for awhile.
@Ocdeeznuts55 Amazing!! Thank you for this
I would say it’s important to recognize certain events in your life or triggers that can make the OCD worse-for me, it’s when my routine changes significantly and I’m going through big changes in life. This is when I usually increase or get back on my medications, start scheduling appts with a therapist that helps, decrease caffeine-whatever has helped you before. Remind yourself that if you are able to conquer it once, you will do it again and it will most likely be easier than the first time.
@Anonymous1208 True! but I’m also in the constant fear of it coming back when I’m pregnant and all and in the future when I have kids and actually snap and hurt someone ( ‘sun theme is self harm, suicide harm ocd, harm ocd)
@Anonymous I definitely think this is a great point to bring up to your therapist! Having a plan for if it does happen (and I’m emphasizing the “if” here) is great because the thought of it potentially coming back isn’t as anxiety provoking. Which, in turn, can decrease intrusive thoughts.
I completed the program and it really helped me! However I didn’t do the program how my therapist told me to, I spaced apart appts etc. also talking to my therapist was actually a trigger for me to try and stay present so I honestly didn’t start getting better until the end. I am going to do the program again because I saw how much it helped me. Completing the program doesn’t mean you won’t struggle ever again. It just gives you the tools to now know how to deal with your ocd and get control of your life. I’m finding though that I will likely talk to my therapist a lot through my lifetime to get reminders and help.
Also I’ve had points in life where I haven’t had symptoms of ocd at all. Life can be great! But ocd is your brain chemistry so it doesn’t just magically disappear if that makes sense?!
@Jennica B. It just makes me more upset when I’m in constant fear of harm ocd coming back … I’m continuously pushing myself trying to do exposures but the thoughts won’t calm down and it’s been almost a month. I’m exposing myself to fears and I’m just so gutted
@Anonymous I get it! I still struggle but talking to a therapist helps soo much!
@Jennica B. yes I only two sessions w NOCD but idk we haven’t rlly started anything
@Anonymous There’s a few things that can be happening. Are you sure you are eliminating all your compulsions? Also the fear of OCD returning can also become a theme so be aware of that. Lastly, sometimes it gets worse before better. For me it got worse for a month before I finally felt relief. Keep going
I did the program - it helped a lot with my theme at the time - I was finally free! But then it latched onto (or I noticed finally) that I had other themes so doing it again. It really is an amazing life changing therapy! So glad I’m not where I was before.
@Honeyshark what program?? Is it possible to get another flare up of the same theme even if you did erp? mine is rumination lmaooo and I just can’t stop
@Anonymous The NOCD program! Yeah it basically helped me get through my SOOCD and then I realized I have ROCD.
@Anonymous I don’t tend to have flare ups of SOOCD anymore. OCD has jumped to a new themes for me.
can you give me tips on how to start ERP please?😕
@manuh ⋆ ˚｡⋆ Get a therapist on here asap! I don’t recommend doing this alone. It is scary alone. My therapist did wonders for me!!
I’d like to hear what people have to say about staying well/ not relapsing
So this means that you’ll always get a flare up no matter how much treatment you do/ erp? So sad 🥲
@Anonymous Well there is no “cure” for ocd meaning it will always be there, but you can manage it really well with therapy!
@Anonymous Maybe but I think the better we get at managing the less frequent and intense they become and it becomes easier to deal with
@Jennica B. well for me I had harm ocd and the darkness I felt … I felt so traumatized by it … it’s back after two years and this is the first time I decided to do erp… it just kinda went away on its own. My issue is more mental rumination than compulsions. I’m in such a dark place I can’t seem to get out of it. What do I do :(
@Anonymous I’m sorry to hear that. I also mostly struggle with rumination. But that is also a compulsion, just like all other ones. It is tougher than physical compulsions to stop but it is possible just like with other compulsions. I think for ERP you can write worry scripts about your fears ‘maybe I could hurt that person’ ‘maybe I am dangerous’ etc and sit with the anxiety that brings without doing the mental rumination. The goal is to learn to sit with the discomfort of your fears without ruminating about it. If you catch yourself ruminating just notice it and bring yourself back to the script. If you’re just starting, I think it’s helpful to write down a list of your obsessions/fears and the different types of ruminating and other compulsions you do in response to those fears.
@Anonymous I am sorry you are suffering. Harm was my biggest theme ! Just practice ERP daily and sit with it. I have gotten to the point where I can just laugh at some of the harm thoughts my brain throws at me. It’s just a story your brain came up with. But you can always put the pencil down and not continue to write it.
It’s been a few months since I’ve been on here and I’m happy to say it’s because I am pretty much pure o, ocd free! This app really did help so much! I want to share the things that helped me get a grip on ocd. I don’t want to use the words “recover or control” because ocd is a part of our brains but it doesn’t mean it has to be a distressing part. I had my first ocd flare up in Nov and it hit me like a ton of bricks. I was crying and panicking almost every night for weeks, looking back I can’t believe I made it through the things I needed to do in life because I was a mess. But now I look at things like atleast I know what it is and how to deal with it when it comes. So here are my tips. 1. Reading about intrusive thoughts and pure o online and in books. I consumed as much knowledge about ocd as I could. 2. Starting erp therapy on my own and with a therapist. Though I do have a therapist to guide me 100% of erp is the work I put in. I would try all the recommendations of erp from accepting the thought, to making myself have the thoughts as practice, resisting compulsions, changing the way I reacted and thought about an intrusive thought, now this isn’t easy... but I did it all the time even when I felt the panic feeling and even when the ocd was strong, even when I didn’t believe it. I faked it until I made it 3. Practice is helpful, it took days of hard work especially in the first few months but that’s what I did, I considered every day, every intrusive thought as practice 4. Once I stopped the compulsions, (luckily mine weren’t very strong and I cut them off quick) I began thinking the thoughts that bothered me, and slowly added more disturbing content into my life (my ocd was harm ocd mainly) 5. I told myself that “yes that bad thought is real” and didn’t try to comfort my intrusive thought or push it away, if ocd said I was crazy and going to be locked in a facility then I agreed, I would say it in my head and sometimes out loud “yup your right ocd I’m crazy” 6. After acceptance and exposure I began working on being kinder to myself, I didn’t think that this step was crucial but it is.... ocd wants us to suffer and in a way it’s like by giving it power I wanted to suffer too, I told myself that ocd is a liar and I don’t want to suffer, it’s ok that I have ocd I accept it but now I must be gentle with myself 7. Learning to always default to these things when an intrusive thought happens, so much so that my brain does it naturally now ...a) hi ocd that’s cool but I’d rather not think about that and I continue doing what I’m doing, this is hard in the beginning but gets easier b) sure ocd I am definitely crazy but again I think I’d rather keep watching this show c) I am okay with the possibility of that happening but now is not the time for me to figure that out d) you are a liar and separate from me but thanks for the interesting thought ...8. Remembering these things: ocd is a liar, a thought isn’t sumthing u control but what u do with it is, if you don’t want to do something you won’t because of your morals and free will, this concept took me awhile to grasp but repetition is key. Almost everyone get intrusive thoughts so you aren’t unique or alone. I’ve learned through the ups and downs of erp how to combat my intrusive thoughts, how to be kinder to myself and how to change the way I think in order to live a better life. I still get an intrusive thought occasionally when I’m sticky but the way I think about the thought is so automatic now and so relaxed because of the work I’ve put in! If you are working towards erp don’t stop, keep going! I feel you, I know it’s hard and exhausting... 11 months ago I thought I was going crazy I was in the worst place of my life flash to today and it’s like I never even had ocd! You can do this I promise xx
Question for someone that's fairly far in recovery: Do you still so ERP every day? Or just when you feel like ocd is taking overhand again? I sometimes have weeks (or even over a month) where I feel absolutely fine. Then out of the blue its there again for a few weeks etc. I'm wondering if I should do ERP even when I'm feeling fine for a while. Bc doing it is kinda re triggering and I'm happy when I can get my mind of it. Thoughts? :)
Hello, So with ERP has anyone noticed how anxiety weans and wanes the first few days you put your most effort in. For my anxiety has subsided by about 80% and it hasn’t been to the same levels it was before. One thing that does drive me a little mad is when OCD or intrusive thoughts try to catch you back into the loop and will try to throw anything at you to bring you back. How do you combat the waves I feel like the battle is easy but sometimes there was intense boss battles.
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