My therapist keeps telling me to do nothing with the anxiety. Just let it pass on its own. It seems like everything is considered a compulsion: Slowing down your breathing Going out in nature Doing yoga Anything you do to “manage” your anxiety is a compulsion. So what does “do nothing” actually mean?
Acknowledge your thoughts and feelings, and sit in them until the anxiety subsides a little, and then go do something else. I think they just mean to be mindful of anything that really takes you out of your discomfort and to learn to tolerate it, and only be focused on the discomfort it’s causing you. Of course there’s a line. If you’re hardcore panicking, then it’s not productive to sit in your panic. So bringing yourself down to a more reasonable baseline is okay, I think. But depends on the person.
I agree and that's why I don't really like this "do nothing" statement. If an exposure is too much it's just going to cause worse compulsions than being mindful. Not sure what the approach is but I think OP should I quite further.
@McDucko *inquire
@McDucko Yeah and she couldn’t quite explain what doing nothing meant. She also tried to make a distinction between when my anxiety is triggered and my ocd is triggered and I’m like THEYRE THE SAME
Anything you do to directly neutralize an intrusive thoughts is a compulsion. Technically that means mindfulness activities to combat feeling bad can be compulsions. If you are starting one of these activities or in the middle of doing them then do not let a thought stop you, but do not do them specifically to get rid of a bad thought. Let the thoughts in and let them do what they want without engaging them. When you get intrusive thoughts and you feel the urge to do something to make it stop, don't do that. Doing "nothing" is just feeling the thoughts, acknowledging them, and continuing with whatever you're doing. The idea is to show OCD that you're not going to listen to it when it tells you to perform a compulsion.
@McDucko Okay but I also got told I’m “avoiding” when I’m at work and I have to do a presentation and I just push through the anxiety and do it anyway. It’s so confusing. Like what do you want me to do? Just sit around doing nothing? lol
@ambrOseCD I can't really say what approach your therapist is taking. Maybe they're really trying to get you to accept exposures on the spot but perhaps treatment needs to be dialed back a bit. I would really ask them what the thought process is with this approach.
Does your therapist use ERP?
Good question. I'm starting to wonder this myself after OP's last response.
@McDucko She’s from NOCD.
@Steven55! She’s doing exposures. She’s from NOCD.
@ambrOseCD If they're on here then I'm sure they're qualified, but you need to understand your treatment if you're going to get better. Next session you have with them tell them that you do not understand your treatment and that you need it explained more thoroughly.
@McDucko Thanks :) I think I made it abundantly clear today 😂
I’ve seen people mention sitting with the anxiety and not trying to solve your thoughts. What does this do/help in the long run?
So much of the advice I have heard about treating obsessive/compulsive behaviors and anxiety is about "letting go". What does this mean? Does this imply I am "holding onto" something? What does it mean to "hold onto" something? How did I "pick it up" in the first place? Is "letting go" a positive act, like deciding to do something, or a negative act, like deciding to not do something? Is this something I can just decide to do, or does it require practice or preparation? Are there studies in psychology about people who practice "letting go"? Is this related to the ego? Where can I find answers to these questions?
This isn't an overly urgent matter or anything just curious what you guys think. So a compulsion is anything you do to reduce ur anxiety in response to obsessions. But is there anything you can do to ease ur anxiety or make it more manageable at the time while you do ur erp? Or I can't do anything to make myself feel more comfortable at risk of it becoming compulsive? Just curious about ur experiences
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