Not sure if it’s allowed here but what lifestyle choices (diet etc) books and lifestyle choices in combination with erp worked for you :) would love to hear from those on the other side
Not fully recovered yet but I’m at like 80% since March so I’ll share what is currently working for me :)! 1: staying active is important. I try to go on walks or do yoga at least a few times per week. 2: Don’t change your schedule for OCD, keep making plans with friends and doing school, work, or any kind of daily errands and chores you would normally do. 3: Finding a hobby as well, for me it’s crocheting. It keeps my mind active and gives me something to focus on when I’m in a cloud of rumination (Also it’s important to choose to do things that make you happy even if the thoughts are there). 4: Meditation and mindfulness is important to me because it is training to get better at letting my thoughts be there and not trying to control them. Sitting with them and giving them space to leave when they want to. 5: being aware of OCD’s tricks. I watched informative videos on YouTube (I recommend Ali Greymond and Nate of “OCD and Anxiety”) 👍 hope this helps, I’m sending my best wishes to you on your journey!!
@joseymagosey Wow thank you for sharing. You are the second person that mentions crochetingI’ll definelty look into this and everything you mentioned :)
@Anonymous Awesome! I’m glad to hear that :) crochet is amazing
My psychiatrist told me to bring as much routine as I can to eating at the same times everyday, going to bed at the same time every night, and waking up at the same time every morning. Exercise (aerobic, walking is fine at the start) for at least 45 minutes daily. Drink lots of water. I tried different diets but found that limiting foods that caused a reactions to be most helpful (breakouts, upset stomach, coffee jitters, or keeping me up at night with acid reflux). Listen to your body. Maybe it doesn’t want restrictive clothes or the shoes you’re wearing. Give it as much calm as you can in music, shows, games. Maybe spend less time with people who cause you stress. Hope this helps.
@Ann Onymous Thank you so much! I will keep that in mind :)
Also congrats on you both for getting so far in your healing journey :)
I pretty much hit rock bottom in September 2023 and it’s been so hard to climb out of. Especially with PTSD, Depression and undiagnosed ADHD. But I did it. And you can to. There is hope and as someone who has rebuilt herself back from OCD, I want to support others on their journey. Ask me anything 💜
Hello! I'm new here and have a nice, big grab bag of OCD sub-types, but the one I struggle with most is health anxiety. I would love to hear from folks who have had success with ERP and this subtype! Maybe without many triggering details 😉
I had just posted a summary of ERP for a group member, and I thought it might be useful for everybody. Here it is below (with a little extra added)…. ERP therapy is researched-based. Most other therapies don’t work. There have been people who have been literally stuck in their houses (from their OCD) who gained their lives back through ERP therapy. NOCD does ERP therapy exclusively. You can find it in other places too, but you have to ask around. There are two tenants of ERP therapy: The first one has to do with the repetitive thoughts inside our heads. These thoughts are actually defined as “obsessions”. You are not supposed to do anything with the obsessions. You are supposed to let them run through your head freely, without trying to fix them or stop them. Imagine a tree planted by a river. The leaves fall off and float down the river. You can see the leaves falling, but you don’t try to stop them or pick them up. You don’t try to fix them. You just let them float away. This is really important to do with your obsessive thoughts. The more you try to fight them off, the worse they get. I used to have blasphemous sentences running in my head 24/7. I felt like I had to put a “not” next to each sentence in order to “fix” it. But this just took hours of my time every day, and it was very scary, because I was worried that if I messed up, that I would go to hell. It was very freeing to learn later that I could just let those sentences run freely through my head without trying to fix them. The second part of ERP therapy is all about “denying your compulsions.” Every time OCD tells you that if you don’t do things a certain way that something really bad will happen, that is a compulsion. Once you recognize what your compulsions are, ERP therapy will have you practice stopping doing all of those things. For some people, that will mean stopping washing their hands or touching lights switches or, in my case, putting “fixing” words in their head. Compulsions are safety behaviors. During ERP therapy, you will practice stopping engaging with safety behaviors. All this is very hard to do and scary, so during therapy you will be given tools to help you deal with the fear. Often ERP therapy will take people from being non-functional to functional. I highly recommend it. ————————————————- PITFALL #1: After you have been doing ERP for a while and become somewhat successful, the OCD will try subtle little tricks to bring you down again. The first one is to tell you that your thoughts are REAL and not OCD, and therefore you can’t apply ERP therapy. Don’t fall for this trick! All thoughts are just thoughts. They are all meaningless. Don’t try to figure out what is real and what is OCD. Just treat all thoughts with ERP therapy. PITFALL #2: The second pitfall is that OCD will tell you that you can’t move forward unless you have absolute certainty that you will be safe. Hate to tell you this, folks, but there is no certainty in life. You will never know for SURE that you or your loved ones will be “safe” from the OCD rules. Therefore, you have to move forward in the uncertainty. It’s hard, but it gets easier with time and practice. We got this, guys !!!!!!
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