Accept uncertainty and question your assumptions about worst case scenarios. Recognize all or nothing thinking and practice taking a step back. It's tough, but we can do this!
Be willing to "experiment" with your treatment, approaches to intrusive thoughts may vary for instance. Some might welcome the thoughts, some might mock them - a bit of both is possible. Expand that toolkit and see what works for you š
I have primarily health OCD, and my biggest issue is that Iām not sure Iām capable of accepting uncertainty. Iāve been in a massive spiral now for over 2.5 months. I just keep jumping from one health thing to the next and Iām absolutely driving myself crazy. Not to mention the constant feeling of absolute terror and panic I have just about every day. Itās no way to live š how does one accept uncertainty?
@emilytravelswild Have you cried telling yourself these things might happen?
@nate01 Tried*
@nate01 Yes. Iāve gone the whole āmaybe it is, maybe it isnāt trueā and also just āyep, this will probably happen!ā It heightens my anxiety and then my anxiety doesnāt lower. (Iām having a difficult time with certain aspects of ERP)
@emilytravelswild I see, anxiety eventually falls but it does take a while. When a fear comes at you and you say I might get sick or whatever your specific one is. You have to sit there and breath as you let the thoughts run through your mind. Then it gets weaker
@nate01 That just feels like absolute torture. I donāt believe my anxiety will lower and Iāll be stuck with those awful feelings forever
@emilytravelswild That comment made me smile. Yeah it sucks but the way I see it if we donāt do something now than itās either a little torture or a life of torture
@nate01 Lol. I really have a hard time with ERP, particularly when trying to trigger it on my own. Itās like my body shuts down and I canāt get the anxiety to rise. Also, I have PTSD and was told not to go full in on ERP until that is managed? So I just donāt know what to do
@emilytravelswild Yeah PTSD probably makes it a little tricker to tackle. What my ocd therapist told me was if the treatment doesnāt lower anxiety than you to expose harder. You should look into worry scripts maybe that will help the exposure really cause anxiety
@nate01 I wonder if itās my subconscious trying to protect me. Because I have SO MUCH anxiety and panic throughout the day that when Iām trying to practice exposures, itās just like no. We need a break. I do treat the rest of my triggers with ERP so I feel like Iām still practicing. I just have a hard time triggering it on purpose.
@emilytravelswild Ocd is a safety mechanism. Before I ever noticed my ocd symptoms I went through a traumatic experience and they came out. So it was almost as my brain was defending me. Yeah erp is hard and it takes a lot of experimentation to get places. But you can do it!
So this is contamination specific, but I like to think something along the lines of "well I have an immune system so that can protect me from these germs" or whatever it may be
Those of you who have overcome at least a bit, if not all, of your OCD. When you went through the CBT and ERP, did it feel like the end of the world? And how did you face the fact that your fears and uncertainties might actually come to life?
This might contain triggering content, but I'm also wondering if others have dealt with this similar thought, and if so, how to deal with it? Overall, I've been doing so well these past few days. I'm able to eat again, which I hadn't been able to do because of how much anxiety I'd been experiencing. I'm spending time around loved ones and not just rotting in my room, and I've been able to wake up without immediately being bombarded by intrusive thoughts. When things first got really bad, I'd wake my mom up every night for reassurance, but I haven't done that in a while either. I'm really proud of myself, but there's still this nagging thought in my mind... While looking through others posts on here, hoping to find advice that'd fit my situation, I ended up making things worse. Someone mentioned how they had a fear that they'd purposely search for illegal content (related to POCD). I panicked, and "what ifs" flooded my thoughts. "What if the intrusive thoughts affect who I am as a person, and I do that?" I'm terrified that I'll search for those things, which I know means I wouldn't do it. But then, another person on here said they'd actually looked for those things, and that freaked me out even more. Does that mean it's possible for that to happen to me? I don't want to do that, but I keep having intrusive thoughts surrounding it. I've been doing so well these past few days. I'm just... stuck. I don't know what to do. I've spoken with other people who have the same fears, but how do I manage this? It's not something I've even thought about before seeing those posts. I've been practicing accepting the uncertainty, but I'm really struggling with this one. I hate this. This morning, I woke up, and the intrusive thoughts were back. It's just disheartening.
Iāve been thinking a lot about how OCD changes the way we see ourselves, but I recently realized that I am not my thoughts. Just because a thought pops up doesnāt mean itās true or that it defines me. Iāve started learning how to see OCD for what it isājust a disorder trying to trick meāand Iāve become stronger in dealing with it. Has anyone else here had a similar realization? How do you handle these thoughts when they show up?
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