- Date posted
- 5y ago
- Date posted
- 5y ago
When you think bad thoughts or thoughts you label as bad remember this. "Thoughts are just thoughts until you assign meaning to them". Everyone on the planet has bad thoughts. The difference in us and them is we analyze the thought and try to find meaning in them, and there is none. You can't control your thoughts, so quit trying. The key is learning to let those thoughts pass and move on. Then if you have a thought that gets stuck challenge it. Don't challenge it in the sense of weather its true or false necessarily. Challenge the logical evidence of the thought.
- Date posted
- 5y ago
When one has OCD, challenging thoughts as in traditional CBT is not very helpful and it may turn into a compulsion. The ACT approach is better, acknowledge them, let them be and don't give them any more air time.
- Date posted
- 5y ago
Your values, morals and ethic system have nothing to do with your thoughts. That is a very common misconception, that we choose moment by moment based on what we are told by our brains right then. The fact that you don't go on punching random people on the street when you are angry is not because there is a thought telling you that it's "bad" (hurtful to others). You already know that, it is part of your value system. It turns out that turning "evil" is not that easy to accomplish. You would have to have severe intensive cognitive restructuring for someone to drastically change their value system, which takes many many years.
- Date posted
- 5y ago
Yes. It's hard to make sense out of your brain lying to you. But with OCD it does! OCD typical prays on what means the most to us consciously and subconsciously. So for example a person with OCD may have a thought about for example "Beating an animal". This thought might be so strong it almost feels like an urge. In reality the person probably cares alot about animals and there well being! Therefore the thought is very distressing to them. The thought goes against there very nature.
- Date posted
- 5y ago
i guess my question is if we just label thoughts as thoughts how do we know if what we are doing is good or bad?
- Date posted
- 5y ago
This is a great conversation/explanation ?
- Date posted
- 5y ago
Ok cool, yeah I need to work on that. I often get into asking myself if the therapy is working, then sometimes i get commanding thoughts telling me to do things I don’t want to do. Those are the ones I should challenge the evidence I think.
- Date posted
- 5y ago
that makes sense, what about positive thoughts? same idea to just let them pass?
- Date posted
- 5y ago
Your mind does not distinguish between positive or negative - You are the one giving them those labels. So if you hang onto "positive" thoughts compulsively then the same pattern will apply to the "negative" ones. Best thing to do is just regard thoughts as thoughts.
- Date posted
- 5y ago
good point! then maybe overtime i won’t hang onto any thoughts too long
- Date posted
- 5y ago
So I have HOCD and I conquered it for the last two years with the help of my specialist. Unfortunately, I am currently in a relapse because of life changing etc. But what gives me strength sometimes is knowing, hey you’ve seen and proven that this stuff can be managed and that it’s not real. That wall is scary, but you gotta break through it because on the other side is mental greatness??
- Date posted
- 5y ago
yeah that makes sense, i think sometimes ocd makes it hard to believe that sometimes because we see a trigger like a knife or gun and all the sudden we are telling ourselves to hurt others.
- Date posted
- 5y ago
Do you work with a therapist that does ERP therapy ?
- Date posted
- 5y ago
No they are just starting to do ACT and suggest ERP.
- Date posted
- 5y ago
Do you mean CBT?
- Date posted
- 5y ago
essentially along with talk therapy
- Date posted
- 5y ago
Talk therapy helps some but learning good CBT skills along with some ERP therapy I think works best. ERP though I don't reccomend trying it without the aid of a licensed therapist helps tremendously with OCD. At least it did for me.
- Date posted
- 5y ago
ok cool. i think from my experience challenging my thoughts makes things worse. i want to get way better at thought passing, that way i don’t tie down to anything
Related posts
- Date posted
- 13w ago
I’ve noticed that I’m somewhat happier also ignoring my thoughts than I am instead of doing compulsions (I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired atp) but I’ve heard you’re technically supposed to do erp rather than pushing under the rug. But idk if I have a thought I just refuse to think about it again and im fine even if I want to do compulsions
- Date posted
- 10w ago
Sometimes I notice my intrusive thoughts cause me to spiral and sometimes not. I've been practicing ERP for quite a while so it's a bit easier for me to not spiral. But I wonder why that happens. Does anyone else have it? Also I'm on medication idk if that plays a role.
- Date posted
- 9w ago
I don’t know how to deal with the thoughts that come and barely gone. Usually, the brain often remembers and forgets things. People with OCD however struggle with trying to forget the intrusive thoughts because of the imbalance trying to convey what is real and if the thoughts in your head will come true. Just for the past few days, I was having fun and suddenly hit with a wave of obsessive thoughts and making me stuck with nowhere to go.
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