Does anyone feel constant dread in the morning? Like they can’t get out of bed and just feel paralyzed to the bed with their thoughts? I’m supposed to start work soon, this can’t happen anymore! Any solutions?
I check first thing in the morning to see if OCD is there. That’s what sets it off for me. Try to get up as soon as you wake. Get ready. If you’re still ruminating, maybe do an exposure. Then leave the house. You have a beautiful life to live!
@Anonymous Thank you!
Try to recognize what triggers the thoughts, then know that the thoughts are a compulsion. No ruminating or mental review. Recognize the memory that causes the thought, allow real emotions and uncertainty to remain. Again, no ruminating!!!
@Mike in PA Thank you, it’s like I don’t want to get up. I’ve struggled with this before in the past. Just want it to go away! I was so happy before these thoughts ugh 😩
@Mike in PA It’s like a feeling in my stomach too, hard to explain
@Bella Is it a real event trigger?
@Mike in PA I struggle with TOCD right now but keep doubting it’s OCD, everything feels real. It’s so scary. What is real event?
@Bella I get this!!! I know exactly what u mean Even if the thoughts ain’t there that feeling in the stomach remains x
@Anonymous It’s the worst!
You can do this, you're more than your OCD!!!
@Mike in PA I struggled with HOCD 10 years ago and beat it but think it came back too idk anymore ugh
@Bella I understand. I struggle with hocd and socd, underlying my real event. Real event is when memories trigger compulsion of ruminating for me.
@Mike in PA Is that when you ruminate like things in the past for like proof or logic validation?
@Bella Yes. And I replay the event and say different things to change the outcome even. I've had a major crisis 5 years ago and they never mentioned OCD. So a few months ago I was in a crisis with a coworker and I didn't know what was going on and ended up losing my job. Three months later I'm still stuck in my head replaying everything. 😢
@Bella Did you beat it in the past with ERP therapy?
@Mike in PA I’m so sorry to hear that! Yeah I keep ruminating who I was before the thoughts and trying to use logic but it doesn’t work :( I’m fearful 24/7 it sucks. It’s like the thoughts have changed me hard to explain. I just want my old self back you know?
@Mike in PA The HOCD I was seeing a therapist and the conjunction of meds and that the thoughts just went away like that.
@Mike in PA But this one feels more real and scary you know
@Bella I completely understand. I don't know who I am. This morning I went to church and was thinking that very thing. I don't think I'll be the same from here on.
@Mike in PA It totally sucks, but we can beat it!
@Bella But I've learned tools to cope. Sometimes it's more difficult than others, sometimes the uneasiness is there all day, but that's a good thing. Learning to live with uncertainty and not demanding to know all the answers and fix everything immediately.
@Mike in PA Are you in ERP?
@Bella Yes for 4 weeks now. It's helped tremendously with the recent real event, which is why I got the "conquerer" badge. Lol. But I'm digging deeper and discovering more layers of my OCD.
@Mike in PA Oh that’s good!
@Mike in PA Yeah OCD sucks for real
@Mike in PA I’ve had it since I was 7
@Bella I've just learned I have it, looking back I've had it as far as I can remember. So much of my life has been the obsession/compulsion cycle. That's why I feel like I don't know who I am. Puberty was a nightmare. Lol
@Mike in PA Awww I bet
@Bella Are you doing ok now? Are you able to start your day?
@Mike in PA Just watching TV feel really anxious, this is everyday though. I feel completely paralyzed most days. I have isolated myself it sucks.
@Bella I tend to isolate too. I think thats a compulsion for me. What triggered this most recent episode, if anything?
@Mike in PA I started questioning if I thought stuff was cute or girly like I’ve always been girly, it was after I self medicated on an adderall, so my mind was like doubting all the stuff I normally liked. Then I read something and the what ifs popped up now it’s been a living nightmare.
@Mike in PA Just really scared, I cry a lot it sucks. I get no relief can’t even do compulsions anymore. It just feels real and I hate to even think about it or talk about it. I haven’t eaten in like days. My whole stomach is tore up over this 🥹
@Mike in PA It tends to calm down at night for some reason
@Bella Probably because the day is done and you're back at home. This sounds very difficult for you, I'm so sorry.
@Mike in PA I'd be glad to be a friend to you if you'd like. :-)
@Bella It is, I keep doubting it’s OCD 🥹
@Mike in PA Thank you, does this sound like OCD? I’m constantly obsessing ugh
@Bella Sure sounds like it. It seems to hit us where we're most vulnerable, things we value most
@Mike in PA Yeah it’s awful 😢
@Bella It is. You're not alone
@Bella I feel alone. No one in my life understands
so sorry for hear that:(, mornings is the worst for me too, I read that you are going throught by TOCD, I'm in a support group, if you wanna join, send me a message!
@noaarios Yeah it’s been awful
Do you wanna join?
@noaarios Ok
@Bella My ig: noaarios
@noaarios I have to redownload my IG but ok thank you
Yes I do. I also usually feel more exhausted than when I went to bed despite 8 hours sleep…
Yes
i woke up with my heart racing this morning. i feel like the Lord wouldn’t treat me that way. i feel guilty and i feel like i just keep messing up at every step in my walk w the Lord. i literally just woke up feeling bad. i hadn’t even done anything. i had just opened my eyes!! i’m glad i got called into work so i can do something to take my mind off of the thoughts.
Often times I find myself spiraling out in the morning about all sorts of things. When I try and catch myself and figure out what I am obsessing over it’s like it goes away. I haven’t moved. I have been sitting frozen on the floor because I can’t go to work because I am behind on work and I hate being late and I hate being messy but I am frequently late and my room is cluttered and full of stuff. I want to be good and move and go to work but I don’t know what is coming today and I hate my job so I know I will get bored and when I have nothing to keep me busy and engaged I like start thinking and taking an inventory of what is going on and then I will feel a sensation and what is the sensation? How did it happen? And I know that I will pick up the bad emotions in the office and get contaminated, I was really worried about things like this as a kid too I cried because I had to touch dirt in kindergarten. I know I am this way and I have been this way for a while but at the same time I think I might just be normal and like I don’t know why I get stuck in thinking like this. Then I begin to doubt that OCD is real because everyone has a brain with wiring and everyone gets stuck in thought sometimes. I feel disabled from whatever this is because I am stuck. I literally cannot move because I don’t know what’s wrong and I know I have to go to work even though I feel like every moment I spend there is making everything worse because other people are so stressed and I get it from them. And I don’t feel ready because I just feel off and something is wrong and I just don’t know what to do because if it’s OCD or not OCD everything anyone knows about me is coming from me and I worry that I am often masking all the thinking I’m doing because thinking all the time is rude and inconsiderate and inconvenient for those around me, but I can’t stop. I just don’t feel right, right now - and I want to know WHY?? Why is everything off all the time? How do I even know that I am not making up the experience of OCD in my head to cover up something really wrong with me and now I am taking on the symptoms of OCD like an actress, because this could be something that I can latch onto as a final hope for explaining why I am stuck. So stuck so deeply and terribly stuck sitting on my floor next to my bed just scrolling to avoid thinking because any time I start thinking I am left with no answers or help or anything just this swirly feeling. I know I am trying, maybe not my best, but as much as I possibly can. I want to be a Special Education Teacher but I have so much so so so much doubt and uncertainty about every decision I make and everything I know that I can’t get there right now. I can’t do anything right now until it feels ok and then I will. It never feels ok. I know I have to be ok not feeling ok about it. I can be unsure and still be ok. I know it’s just my thinking and my body but I just can’t get past this feeling. And then I know that because I can calm myself and be ok even though I spent 2 hours of my life today already feeling stuck and spinning around and around and around in my head - I don’t feel sure about my OCD and I think it’s a bit of a scam made up by people to cultivate pathology around deep human thought because one day I might figure it out and we all think a lot.
I always feel the most anxiety and dread in the morning. That’s when I start overthinking a lot, and it becomes really hard not to seek reassurance on the internet and so on. What do you all do to ease the morning anxiety a bit?
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