- Username
- madaraa
- Date posted
- 5y ago
One strategy I am learning in therapy right now is agreeing with your thoughts and accepting the uncertainty. For example “Maybe I do want to look like a man. Maybe I don’t. I’m going to keep going about my day and accept the uncertainty of not knowing for sure.” I thought my therapist was crazy when she first told me this technique because I have spent so much of my life trying to counter and say the opposite of the thoughts I am having and reassure myself that I do not feel that way. But my therapist said that is fighting with the ocd monster, and that’s an endless fight because it never ends and you will never come to a conclusion or answer. Another technique is agreeing to a worst possible scenario. For example when I have triggers related to physical illness or getting sick and I have a headache and I worry it’s something seriously wrong with me...I can say “I have a headache, I definitely have brain cancer.” And move on. It sounds awful, but I tried it several times and It has been working! I think sometimes saying it almost makes you realize how absurd the statement is. It also helped me come to the conclusion that I don’t know for sure and that’s okay. And if I do have brain cancer than I’ll deal with it. Basically living in the uncertainty!
Yeah his is reassurance Maddy. Try thinking ‘I’m going to acknowledge this thought and let it go’ - for now it just has to be about successfully observing your thoughts and not reacting to them. Or you can also try this when you have a tocd thought: step 1 ‘this is an obsession/obsessive thought’ when your brain reacts to that, step 2: ‘I’m having this thought because I have a brain disorder called OCD, where my brain sends me false messages and signals’ and then tell yourself you’re going to refocus on whatever you’re doing. I’m ONLY JUST learning these types of behaviors now and it’s been almost a year and a half I’ve been dealing with this, but I’m noticing improvements, like I can go to work, get out of bed, function at least somewhat to what I was like before. You’re gonna be okay, it’s just constantly remembering this isn’t you it’s intrusive thoughts.
thank you so much!! ?
This*
No problems. This is hard, but we got this❤️❤️
thank you for the advice! ?
idk how to explain this but i’ll try the best i can lol: ok so one night i was in bed and scrolling through this app and focusing on not doing compulsions for my HOCD (hearing other ppls stories can trigger me sometimes so i use them as exposures). anyway i read a post about someone who had HOCD & TransOCD. i thought “poor guy, that must be really hard”. then of course i thought “am i trans?” but i didn’t even worry about it because it’s one of those things that just isn’t something i need to worry about you know? it almost seems silly to worry about haha. anyway, the thought didn’t give me anxiety—almost at all (because for me it’s just a no brainer). then i started to get all worried about getting TransOCD, even if i really wasn’t fearful about becoming trans. so basically, i know i’m not trans, i’m not questioning who i am, and the thought of being trans doesn’t really make me nervous or afraid (because i just know it’s not true)—i’m just worried that this will turn into another OCD type...and THAT is what i’m obsessing on. how do i help that???
Why am I suddenly now wondering if I am transgender? Like I look in the mirror and do not feel pretty at all anymore and when I talk I feel like I worry about sounding masculine, as well as if people think I look masculine, etc. I am a straight woman and have been battling with intrusive thoughts about my sexuality for some time now, and I am now suddenly questioning my gender identity too. Has anyone else with SOOCD experienced this, where you develop TOCD as a result of endless rumination cycles surrounding your SOOCD? Like I look into the future and know that I want to be a wife and mother and I want to have a husband and kids, but my OCD is telling me that I will be and act like a man and that will never happen. This is literally 10000x more distressing to me than my SOOCD was because I have honestly never understood the concept of being transgender but now I fear that that is who I am and who I have to be. Please help I cannot be the only one suddenly feeling like this. I want to feel confident and pretty and feminine again and I feel like I am never going to be able to. How do I know that this isn’t gender dysphoria/that I really want to become a man
I have hocd hopefully and also some tocd thoughts but its not that bad. I am obsseded about my body hair "do i have too much body hair for a woman?", broad shoulders " They have to mean something?", I really hate them but everyone on my family has broad shoulders. I have checked all my bodyparts and i check them over and over again. Like do i have manly face and everything. I want to go test my testosterone levels so badly but i dont if its reasurence. I feel like verything proofs something and it is making me crazyy. How can i just accept that fact that my bodyparts and my looks doesnt make me gay or trans.
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