Tips for Real Event OCD

I'm sorry you're struggling! REOCD is really, really hard—it's my main obsession too. I promise you'll learn to get over it eventually, but I won't lie that it'll be hard. Nonetheless, there are some tips that will help you. Let me lay them out for you here. 1.) Obviously, ERP and therapy if you can afford it. If not, you can do ERP on your own: you start by lining out your worst fears in order, or things that scare you. Ex: if your fear is, say, that you bullied someone in the past and caused them severe harm, you can start by saying out loud, "I hurt them; I bullied them", then you can write down how exactly you hurt them and how they're struggling, you can then imagine / write how people might shun you for this, etc. Only move onto the next action once the first is starting to feel more manageable. And again, this works better with a therapist, but you can technically do this on your own. 2.) Medication, again, if you can afford it. You need a psychiatrist for this, and I believe you need an OCD diagnosis for this, but I might be wrong, since I only went to a psychiatrist after I was diagnosed with OCD. 3.) Practice mindfulness, especially when bad thoughts enter your mind. Allow the thoughts in with one breath, hold them in your head, breathe them out. Do this again and again. DON'T do compulsions. It'll be hard, but the more you do compulsions, the worse your OCD will get. 4.) Practice self-love! OCD is really anxiety, which is really a defense mechanism from our hunter-gatherer, the-world-is-against-us days. We jump when we hear a loud noise; we flinch when someone touches us; we're afraid people are out to get us. Social anxiety is a function of this, where your mind tries to protect you from being ostracized from society. OCD does the same thing, except REOCD worries about your morality. It's trying to protect you from your worst fears, but it goes about this in the wrong way. What it wants you to tell it isn't actually that they never happened, but that it doesn't matter, because you can never be sure that something didn't hurt someone, but you can be sure, if you forgive yourself, that you still love yourself. Tell your mind that you'll love yourself no matter what. Yes, even if you did something bad. Yes, even THAT, whatever THAT is for you. I promise that when your OCD goes away, you can wallow in your deserved guilt, but 99% of the time, you don't deserve nearly as much guilt as OCD gives you. You're only human. 5.) Make schedules! I have really bad REOCD; I can't just let the thoughts sit. Instead, I write down every fear I have throughout the day, and then I only think about them right before I'm about to sleep. Most of the time I fall asleep before I can get through them, which is actually better, since it stops me from reassuring myself, but if it's a huge deal, then I can actually soothe myself and move along. This is hard because I can feel OCD tugging at me throughout the day, but it is incredibly helpful. If your OCD is worse, choose a time during the day too for you to think about your OCD, but you need to stick to it. If you break it, it's fine, we all struggle; but you'll need to push harder to go back to your original schedule. 6.) On those days you feel like nothing will help you, you're literally drowning in guilt—go outside. Hang out with someone. Watch TV. Read a book. Do something that'll completely take your mind off it. Keep in mind this isn't the best option, since OCD only stops when you learn to keep the thoughts in your head and deal with them, but it's better to shove them away than to give into them. 7.) Keep talking to us! It's better to rant on this forum than it is anywhere else, except to a therapist or psychiatrist / a licensed medical professional. People elsewhere might not understand, but we typically know what to do / what not to do. We'll try not to reassure you, and we can give you helpful tips. This is a good place; I've never had a bad experience here. 8.) As for some resources that can help you, I can only give you some that have helped me. Dunno how useful they'll be, but here you go anyway: https://ocdspecialists.com/real-event-ocd/ https://theocdandanxietycenter.com/real-event-ocd-symptoms-and-treatment/ https://www.treatmyocd.com/blog/real-events-ocd https://www.youtube.com/@ocdandanxiety https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKaIPW3xG9I https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1qeEI9khAj7YpYXUDuADIw https://www.reddit.com/r/RealEventOCD/ https://www.reddit.com/r/RealEventOCD/comments/145g5g4/real_event_ocd_resources_mega_thread/ - A MASTER THREAD OF REOCD RESOURCES https://www.reddit.com/r/RealEventOCD/comments/vk9lfy/step_by_step_details_for_writing_erp_scripts_and/ - HOW TO WRITE ERP SCRIPTS ON YOUR OWN