When you realize that your thoughts will never go away, but that you need to create a world where you and those thoughts can exist in harmony, is where you find peace. ✌️
Plus sometimes engaging less intrusive thoughts or a theme can slowly decrease the prevalence... so when people treat the OCD with acceptance + ERP, they can possibly reduce intrusive thoughts and "themes"
*less with
@A23 100%. This is what it’s all about!
It’s taken a long time to get there, but I think I’m slowly but surely starting to accept that
@mseb10 Absolutely! And you also will stumble along the way. I’ve found having a simple mantra like this helps me when I stumble a little!! Peace and love to you!!
Yessss ❤️👏🏻
I’m stumbling at the moment but trying to remember there have been times even recently where the thoughts haven’t been so loud or scary and so I know I can get back to that place. Trying not to engage in back and forth conversation with OCD right now. So hard to stop the mental compulsions though.
@BMAnon Can relate to that. I am currently living in a very stable situation in relation to OCD. There are still days where I get visits from the thoughts that, not so long ago, really terrified me. But it is such a good feeling to know that they are now there with every other thought, just passing through. I even laugh about them sometimes. There may come a time again when it will be worse but even then, I dont have to erase them, I just have to accept them. They are not the problem, neither am I. Just the way I value them is a bit off. Long story short: Its worth it, keep up the good work🎉 Greetings from Germany
@BMAnon Keep working at it. Journal, meditate, exercise, try to eat healthy. You got it!!
@WalterWhackstick Love this! You got it right! Peace and love to you!
@MindfulMan4 I'm really, really struggling right now and my husband can't take me complaining about it. I feel physically sick to my stomach. I can't let this terrible image go. I don't know what to do. It's been debilitating for me. Nothing is getting done here. It's all a mess. I'm really losing hope and can use some kind of support. I feel I'm losing my mind. Scared
@Speckles If you aren’t on medicine or seeing a therapist, my immediate advice is start there. You are likely in such a pitch that your brain needs some help with its chemical balance right now!
@MindfulMan4 Thank you for responding. I am on meds and have tried so many and they aren't working. That is why I feel so desperate. Just started with NOCD and just started with a therapist too.
I find that the intrusive thoughts that hurt me the most are the quiet ones. The ones that, at a glance, can be hard to differentiate from your own thoughts. The louder thoughts are easy to diffuse, to say "maybe, maybe not" to but the quiet ones leave me ruminating for hours trying to figure out if they're mine or OCD's. They leave me feeling disconnected from those around me and even from myself. I can go from happily thinking about marrying my boyfriend in the future to feeling like I have never actually loved him in a matter of minutes all because a thought was a whisper rather than a scream. This is my first post and I'm not sure what I'm looking for in making it. Advice? To know I'm not alone? I guess if there's anything you feel the need to share I'd love to hear it.
I’ve 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 doesn’t mean it’s true or that it defines me. I’ve started learning how to see OCD for what it is—just a disorder trying to trick me—and I’ve become stronger in dealing with it. Has anyone else here had a similar realization? How do you handle these thoughts when they show up?
Here is what I say to people: I wish I could make it stop. I really do. I also wish I could stop tinnitus. What is tinnitus, you may ask? Well, have you ever gone to a loud concert and after it had a ringing in your ears. Or, in movies when a loud explosion hears, first it is often muffled, and then there is a very loud ringing sound. Well, I have hear that sound for over 30 years. Turns out the medications I took as a kid for allergies and all the antibiotics I was on for Strep had a side effect for some people - tinnitus - that sound that I have heard every decade, year, month, day, hour, and second, for the past 30 years. I have learned to live with it. As I type this, it is REALLY loud, because I am paying attention to it. But, in a few minutes it will fade into the background, and, while I will hear it, I will not pay much attention to it, and therefore I will go on with my night. I will listen to music, practice my story for the MOTH radio hour, and work out. I will clean up the kitchen and load the dishwasher, and I will eventually get ready for bed. I will go to bed hearing that sound, and fall asleep for a few hours until tomorrow morning when I start the day all over again. I cannot make the sound stop. There is nothing to do for it - no surgery or medication. Just learning to live with it, and that is what I have done. It is the thing that I hate the most in my life, and, if granted three wishes, it would be the first thing to change. For now, as I have for 30 years, I will live with it, and I will ask you to live with your noises in your head - the thoughts, the images, and the urges, and we will practice together accepting that things are not always as we want them, but we can handle that. We got this.
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