- Date posted
- 1y
Ideas for exposure therapy
-social anxiety -existential ocd -religious ocd
-social anxiety -existential ocd -religious ocd
- challenge yourself to talk to 1 person each time you leave the house. (i.e at the grocery store find a stranger and tell them you like their outfit - helps you gain courage and compliments make both people feel good). - if you're afraid of death, ME FREAKING TOO. I think about it daily multiple times a day. My therapist had me write a script about what it would be like if I lived forever. It was very hard and scary at first, I was bawling my eyes out actually so I recommend starting this with your therapist in session. But later it helped me put things into perspective. Living forever sounds horrible too, if not worse than dying when my time comes. It didn't cure me, but it got me to be able to eat and go back to work again (yes it was that bad). - ah, as an ex-christian I know this well. Not sure which religion you're referring to (or maybe it's all of them), but you are simply a human being and you can not possibly know all that God knows (assuming you believe in a God at all). A key element to almost all religions is faith - lacking the concrete knowledge and choosing to move forward in your belief anyway. It's hard, your going to have doubts, but if you choose to believe you have to rely on faith and uncertainty. If you don't believe, that takes some level of faith as well. You have to trust that you're an intelligent person that is making the informed decision with all of the evidence you have so far that there is no God and leave it alone the best you can. I hope this helps ❤
You're* ignore my typos if there are more lol
@aquamarinoo This helps!! Thank you
-Talk to people In person more often constantly - no clue -agree with your ocd and you will feel very anxious and eventually the anxiety decreases.
I struggle with existential ocd and when i’m working with my therapist on it she will show me videos about like being in a simulation, clips from the truman show, or videos about how the earth is created
@jack27 That’s cool
Social anxiety, I'll give you examples I used. After I felt triggered, all I wanted to do was go home but chose to go to a store and do lots of erp that day. I purposefully embrassed myself when asking staff for help to find something, even though I was next to the thing I was looking for. I saw a woman who was stunning and my intrusive thoughts said if I said anything it may come across as creepy, so I challenged it and said hear earings were nice (feedback was good). I think someone saw and they had a quick joke with me later in the store about something probably because I looked approachable, I dunno but felt good. Chose the longest queue to pay to keep me as anxious as possible for as long as possible so I could sit with it and then did grounding techniques. Later on I went for a walk through a local forest and challenged a phobia of mine, also said hi to a few dog walkers. Had to get something for lunch and when I was in another store there was the most intimidatingly beautiful woman and it scared me to go talk to her but I had to get something near her, I complimented her tattoos and she was genuinely thankful for it like it made her day. All of these could've went horribly wrong but then you just deal with it. I did this after what I knew what would be my last time seeing my best friend 😩my ocd wanted me to go home, curl up into a ball and ruminate about how crappy of a friend I was because of my ocd which is mental if you think about it.
@Invalid You’re a strong one
@Rumpelgoocher Thank you for the ideas
@Rumpelgoocher We all are, it's just taking the leap to believe it ourselves that's scary.
1. give random people compliments 2. not sure 3. go to a church maybe
My NOCD therapist (who has been awesome) and I are both struggling to identify ways in which I can practice exposure therapy while in-session, because the vast majority of my OCD symptoms are mental compulsions. For example: indecision and inability to commit to a choice; seeking reassurance on decisions from friends and family; mental review of things that have just happened / social situations; over-thinking and catastrophizing. I also have some other hallmark symptoms (contamination fears, moral scrupulosity, etc) but those tend to be inconsistent too. It’s hard to really practice these during my sessions because so many are in the moment and fleeting. By the time I join my session they are no longer active. How can we establish exposure responses during my sessions, if most of my OCD involves mental rumination and overthinking patterns/thought loops that only occur “in the moments - rather than specific or consistent compulsions (such as hand washing)?
This is my first time posting - I have a fear of throw up and I’ve been told it is cause from my OCD (repetitive thoughts) which makes sense because if someone gets sick it replays over and over again and I can’t get it out of my head. It’s gotten a lot worse in the past maybe two years. I’m always on edge that someone is going to get sick around me. I’ve heard the “best or most common” way to help with this is exposure therapy and OBVIOUSLY I don’t want to do that. Anyone have any tips or anything for this (or maybe have done the exposure therapy)?
I realize this may not work for everyone, particularly those who are struggling with moral or existential forms of OCD, but as someone struggling with relationship OCD, here’s my proposition and what’s worked- 1. ERP and resisting compulsions involves intentionally exposing yourself to distress and not trying to do anything about it, but just sit with it. It is a fundamentally ascetic and meditative practice. 2. Resisting compulsions also means overcoming your bodily desire (because more than anything OCD is a nervous system response, not a rational one) for relief from distress, and instead aligning yourself with a higher principle that overcomes your temporal state. 3. OCD also operates similarly to addiction, and recovery outcomes for addicts are significantly improved through belief in a higher power. Higher power is actually one of the core elements of AA programs because it makes self discipline a lot easier. 4. ERP/CBD is effective, in part, because it already fits within the psychology of someone with OCD. What I mean by this is that it involves homework, specific procedures done at regular intervals, intense self discipline, and is overall pretty formulaic/ritualistic/somatic in nature. And we know that it works, and this method of addressing OCD tends to really excite and appeal to those who suffer with it. We act like the totality of OCD psychology is bad, but it also seems to be the key to reversing OCD, and may be a kind of superpower when properly utilized. 5. We have countless religious traditions that are thousands and thousands of years old which have developed techniques and rituals precisely for what OCD recovery needs- Getting out of a reactive state, getting into a state of gratitude and meditation, developing ascetic skills to overcome temptation (compulsions), being okay with uncertainty, creating a place of inner peace and compassion, having a system of accountability and reminders which keep you from slipping back into compulsive patterns, and doing all of this in community with people who experience the same struggle. So far, religion has been *the most* helpful thing I’ve done for my OCD. Here’s how this has played out in my own life: -Hesychastic prayer. This is an Eastern Orthodox tradition where you project the Jesus prayer, in repetition, channeling it not just from the mind or mouth but from the heart. It is deeply psychosomatic, with the goal of creating ego death and achieving a state of seeing God in all things. It creates a calm, warm feeling in my chest that feels identical to a psychedelic afterglow. It takes me out of my head and into my body, and the first time I tried it, with a prayer candle lit beside me, I experienced very rapid relief and was able to sleep for the first time without having any nightmares. I now do this consistently, along with other kinds of prayer and hymn recitation, and gratitude before meals, and it’s something I genuinely enjoy and look forward to. Since doing it, my compulsions have gone done by like 70%. Every time I feel myself slipping into compulsions, instead of doing them, I pause and pray. Prayer fills me with warmth, gratitude, and comfort. I feel connected to something greater than myself, my body becomes calm, my heart stops racing, and afterwards, I no longer feel compelled to perform my compulsions, because I know that it is harmful to myself and those around me, and that God is watching over me guiding me to act in a more thoughtful and wise way. This has single-handedly brought me more long term relief than any other OCD technique or treatment has. Not only has it relieved my OCD, but I have so much more energy, motivation, and self discipline in other areas of my life. It’s like I can feel my neurochemistry balance itself in real time. I’m eating healthier, my relationships are richer, I’m a better student, I feel more creatively inspired, and I have so much more self discipline to resist habits that are bad for me. I hope this may be helpful to anyone else who might be struggling. I’ve searched online and there’s really no information out there that I could find on religious ritual being an effective OCD treatment, but it’s been completely revolutionary in my life.
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