- Date posted
- 5y
- Date posted
- 5y
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
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
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
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
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
This is a great conversation/explanation ?
- Date posted
- 5y
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
that makes sense, what about positive thoughts? same idea to just let them pass?
- Date posted
- 5y
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
good point! then maybe overtime i won’t hang onto any thoughts too long
- Date posted
- 5y
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
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
Do you work with a therapist that does ERP therapy ?
- Date posted
- 5y
No they are just starting to do ACT and suggest ERP.
- Date posted
- 5y
Do you mean CBT?
- Date posted
- 5y
essentially along with talk therapy
- Date posted
- 5y
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
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
- 22w
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.
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 16w
I used to get caught in a loop with existential thoughts very frequently. Every question made my stomach drop: (TW: existential questions) … … ... "Why does anything exist at all? What will death be like? Is anything even real? Is there any meaning to this? Is the universe infinitely big, and if not, what's beyond it? Are there multiverses? Has the universe been around forever? Will the universe end for good, or will it keep going forever? What is forever like? What even IS reality?" It would get so overwhelming that I remember lying on the floor in a fetal position for hours because I felt like there was no escape. I spent most of my days reading articles and watching videos about theoretical astrophysics and philosophy in a desperate attempt to "figure it all out." Of course that only made me more anxious, raised more questions, and kept me trapped in the cycle. Things started to improve once I learned to turn TOWARD reality, rather than away from it, and ERP really helped me do that. I learned that these questions weren't the problem. I learned that I can actually handle the anxiety that arises when exposed to these ideas and concepts. I don't have to figure anything out to make the anxiety go away; it arises and passes away on its own. Ironically, bringing myself into the present moment and becoming more aware of reality helped me escape the cycle of existential dread. Because of that, this topic no longer takes over my life. If I'm triggered by something I see, hear, or think, I may still feel a little twang of anxiety, but then it just goes away. "Maybe, maybe not" has been the single most useful phrase of my life. Do you ever get trapped in a cycle of existential questions? Are you worried that the ERP approach would be too scary to handle? If so, I'm happy to give my advice.
- Date posted
- 7w
Hi - just for some context, I have OCD and ADHD. I hate bringing this up, but with these diagnoses, when intertwined, there is ALWAYS a thought. I never stop thinking. This is really hard, especially because I feel like I always need to be talking to someone. Whether it’s my friends or family, talking to people brings me down to earth from certain kinds of thought spirals. However, when I’m alone it is the hardest. When my friends don’t reply I have this compulsion to text again or I need to constantly check my notifications so that I have none left to check. But then to them or new people I talk to, this behavior probably comes across as overwhelming or too much. I’m trying to control it and use erp, but also, I have my moments where I’m just vunerable and give into the compulsion. It’s genuinely so embarassing and maybe not as big a deal as I’m making it out to be but, how do I manage? And how do I relax?
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