I've done 6 months of just letting my intrusive thoughts come and go without any attention and they still fire off every 10 seconds. Usually when I do the opposite of the thought like "I don't deserve to enjoy a hug with my girlfriend". No matter who I speak to about intrusive thoughts nobody has seemed to reduce the severity of them and I'm starting to question if it's even possible...
OCD feeds on resistance. you don’t want the intrusive thoughts and that’s exactly why they keep coming. the reason you do ERP is to give yourself the opportunity to realise that it doesn’t matter if the intrusive thoughts are there or not. what you resist persists; the more you care about them being there the more there gonna keep coming. you have miss-appraised the threat; there is no threat in intrusive thoughts. everyone has them; not to the degree that we do but it shouldn’t matter. the more you try to seek safety from your intrusive thoughts, the more your brain goes ‘oh they just be really bad’. you need to give your brain the opportunity to realise that they are not a threat, that it doesn’t matter if intrusive thoughts are there or not.
the ‘severity’ of an intrusive thought is just an opinion. the thoughts and amount of thoughts that you have might not bother someone else as much as they do you. why? because they have learned that they’re just neutral things that you’re aware of and they don’t have to have any power over you.
That makes alot of sense, thank you for putting into a logical way so I can understand why this is happening. OCD is shit like that, the more I want it to go away the more it annoys me. It's especially annoying when I'm trying to do things that I love and it's trying to ruin them. I got alot of learning to do still I suppose.
@Nate_093 if anything, OCD forces us to either drown or become extremely well developed people.
@Haikumbra That's true, the drowning part scares me though haha
o reduced a severity of them ane intensity also
Yeah ok, how long did it take you?
@Nate_093 I had major flare up before year...first 2 month I was really stucked...then started applying ACT therapy and it became better - like whole life satisfaction with OCD and also severity and intensity...but I had my ups and downs... before 4 months I had another flare up it was horror for me... but I learned another therapy MCT and now I feel I have tools to deal with OCD...and it came in waves, but these waves are lasting shorter and are of lower intensity...but recovery is not a straight process... but at beggining I had OCD all day - in work, in relationships, before sleep...nowdays I is so much better...maybe I have only 20% of symptoms I had in flare ups
@drak4 Yeah ok, well done mate. What sort of OCD do you have if you don't mind me asking?
@Nate_093 mainly pure O - all my compulsions are mental...but themes are all tabboo thoughts - harm, incest, pocd, demons, blasphemy, eternal damnation, also fear of snapping, going mad - fear od schizophrenia, fear of being possesed by demons or being evil person
@drak4 Yeah ok, all the best man and thanks for sharing.
@Nate_093 thanks veey much :D are are very "pure" themes... there is a joke in it
I know this sounds silly, but have you tried challenging your thoughts, telling yourself to give you more of them, mimic the thoughts, etc. it has helped me with physical symptoms related to panic and ocd, just a suggestion.. hope things get better for you!
Nah I haven't, do you mean arguing with them?
I'm actually getting more depression these days because the "I don't deserve" thoughts are so limiting my quality of life is gone
Hi everyone. I’ve been doing therapy for about two months now and I would say it’s slowly helping me a lot. I explained to her the breathing techniques and “sitting in the anxiety for a bit” and I feel like those are helping. But then my therapist said “don’t sit in the thought because then you might act on it”. I don’t “sit in the thought” but rather i sit in the anxiety to comdition my brain into thinking it’s not a threat. But ever since yesterday, my therapy appointment, I’ve been really shooken up. Even though I don’t “sit in the thought” I feel like a bad person that she even had to bring it up even though I explained it wrong. I’m so upset I feel like I just took 3000 steps back from my progress and this little thing is really scaring me. Am I a bad person? I don’t want to act on any of my thoughts and it scares me so bad I hate living.
How do I stop letting my intrusive thoughts control me? Ive been having them for almost a year, once I graduated, become more isolated and lost more friends they've become worse. I feel like when I had friends and was still going to school they weren't as bad probably because I was living more so I didn't take them as seriously. But now that Im home all day and alone they've gotten worse and it feels like they're starting to control my life. Theres times where Im on social media and eventually I forget about them but then when I realize I forgot about them they come back. Sometimes the thought just lingers it doesn't even just pop in my head and go away. I can't tell anyone in my family because they'd judge me for the thoughts and they don't really believe in mental illnesses. I also sometimes think of what other people may think of me if they knew the thoughts I had and it makes it worse. How do I stop letting these thoughts control/trigger me and stop reacting or feeling some type of way about them.
I need advice for intrusive thoughts. I used to feel like I could handle them. They weren’t nearly as bad as the things that related to my actual life. But now, I’m suffering. I haven’t had a sexual experience in over a year that didn’t involve constant intrusive thoughts. Most are somehow related to kids and I keep chasing off the thoughts but it’s so bad. I know you’re supposed to ignore them but I don’t know how I can just ignore that and continue what I’m doing. But they’re coming on stronger. I had one earlier I could not get rid of just as things finished so the thought came on strongly just before my orgasm hit and now I feel absolutely disgusting. I hated the thought and I know it’s not me and it was not enjoyable but it still feels like I was getting off to it. I feel sick. I’m so fucking tired of these thoughts. They’re in my every day life too and it’s all the time. I just want it to stop but ignoring it feels so wrong. What should I do?
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