Thoughts

@Tea and Honey I’m with you all the way

@Tea and Honey I’m not nuts then

@Anonymous You are absolutely not nuts!!!!!!! This is actually completely normal for OCD

@Tea and Honey Thank goodness I really was not sure. Thank you

@Anonymous It is the defining, classic, hallmark of OCD. You are in the right place!!!

@bebecoll30 Yep!! That’s exactly it!!!

@Tea and Honey You are so right I have to convince myself now

@Anonymous lol! I understand that so much!!

@Anonymous I really think this is the first step of healing for many people with OCD. You take hold of the truth that “The thoughts don’t mean anything about you” This might not FEEL true. It doesn’t have to feel true. You just go forward and ACT as though it is true. You keep all your decisions in line with this truth. When you practice this and act according to this, life gets easier and easier

@Anonymous I have suffered a lot. But God has been helping me get better, a little at a time, for years now. :):):)

@Tea and Honey Any suggestions for my OCD if I tell you about it?

@Chad Stewart Love to give suggestions

@Chad Stewart I am here

@Tea and Honey I’m afraid of forgetting things like driving down the road and seeing a sign and forgetting it, watching tv and forget the name of the hotel they were staying on vacation, etc. My fear is if I don’t remember them the anxiety cycle won’t end and I’ll end up in an institution. I make notes, take snap shots with my phone because I’m afraid of forgetting random that don’t mean anything. The thoughts come randomly. I never know when they will come. The fear of not remembering is debilitating. Does that make sense?

@Tea and Honey Did you see my message

@Chad Stewart Yes, makes sense! This is classic OCD. So, the first thing to do is define terms (label everything). It sounds like you have a thought like this: “If I forget this [random fact], then I will end up in an institution.” This thought we can label as the obsession. Now, all the things we do to try to “fix” the our obsessions are defined as compulsions. These are all the things we do to try to mitigate the anxiety caused by the obsession. This means that taking pictures and taking notes are actually compulsions. So in Exposure and Response-Prevention (ERP), you want to let the obsessions rattle around in your head, but prevent yourself from doing compulsions. Your ERP might look like this: You would not worry about when the next trigger (obsession) will come up. If it comes up when you are watching a movie or walking down the street, it doesn’t matter. You actually WANT the trigger to happen. Why? Because it gives you the opportunity to practice overcoming your OCD. It will make you stronger and stronger, the more you face the triggers. Once the trigger comes up, you refuse to do the compulsions. You tell yourself you are going to forget the facts (of the motel or the sign) on purpose if you want. In ERP, you are going to train your brain that you are still safe, even if you forget the facts of the hotel ir sign. Therefore, you are going to not try to remember the fact at all. Forget it on purpose if you want. This will cause a spike in anxiety. Your OCD will say, “Oh no!! You are going to end up in an institution!!” That’s okay. Let the OCD scream at you. Let the anxiety spike. After a time, the anxiety should recede. But even if it doesn’t, it doesn’t matter. You are going to practice doing nothing when you face a trigger (an obsession). You practice this every time the obsession comes up, over and over, until your brain gets used to the fact that you are not actually in danger. As a side note, you don’t have to practice perfectly. It’s okay if we give into our compulsions every once in a while. This OCD recovery is a journey. But the goal is to practice ERP with all your triggers :):):):)

@Chad Stewart Took me a while to write it all down. :):):) Am I understanding your dilemma right? I want to make sure I am listening to everything you want to say and that I understand. :)

@Tea and Honey Thank you for taking time to answer my question and you did understand my dilemma perfectly. Do you meet with a ERP therapist on here and if so how long? It sounds like you have a lot of knowledge. Also, are you a Christian? Not that it matters but I thought I saw you mention that God has really helped you with your OCD.

@Tea and Honey And how do we DM on here lol?

@Chad Stewart Yes!! I am a Christian! We need God to help us with all this.

@Chad Stewart So I have done NOCD twice. They are super user-friendly. You meet with them through zoom meetings. They are all trained in ERP. I don’t think there is a DM? I am not very techy. Would love to talk more though! You can message me anytime. Maybe there is a DM feature I haven’t seen

@Tea and Honey How many sessions did you do and I’m a pastor. That’s why I was amazing. Recently diagnosed with OCD. I e dealt with anxiety, panic attacks, GAD and PTSD but this OCD has really been very debilitating.

@Chad Stewart The first eight sessions gave the basic training and then you can sometimes go on and just practice on your own. That’s awesome you are a pastor!! Yes, OCD is very debilitating:(:( Many Christians have it. If you are interested, I have some good Christian resources. Will try to send tomorrow if you want :):):)

@Chad Stewart I think the most important step is to learn ERP. It will get you functional for each day. The basic training for ERP can take 6-8 weeks with a good therapist who knows it. All the therapists at NOCD are trained to teach ERP to clients. Some are better than others. I originally learned ERP from Jeremy Honsowetz. It was extremely helpful. I am not sure he is there anymore though.

@Tea and Honey I recently sent my resources to someone else here on the app. I can cut and paste. One minute

@Chad Stewart @tylermatthewsnead These are the best resources I know. You might want to check them out!! Book: “Can Christianity Cure Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder?” by Dr. Ian Osborn. In this book, Osborn describes several key people in history who suffered from OCD, including John Bunyan, who wrote “Pilgrim’s Progress.” (As a side note, when I read John Bunyan’s autobiography, it described my OCD! I couldn’t believe it!) Osborn talks about a “therapy of trust.” Since OCD revolves around inflated-responsibility, a therapy of trust allows us to “transfer responsibility to God.”

@Chad Stewart @tylermatthewsnead YouTube channels: ——————————————- Mark DeJesus: Mark DeJesus is a Christian who suffers from OCD himself. He recognizes the great hole OCD sufferers have in their heart for God’s grace and mercy and love. He talks a lot about avoiding pitfalls, such as Christian perfectionism, having a punishment-based view of God, having a “performance-based” view of the Christian life, etc. I soaked up his messages because my heart was so broken over the OCD that I didn’t know how to feel God’s love and grace. ———————————————— Nathan Peterson: Nathan is a licensed OCD specialist who has a whole online course for OCD that includes ERP. His videos are ESSENTIAL for OCD sufferers. He goes over all the essential information for OCD recovery, such as how to respond to thoughts (“Maybe, Maybe not”), how to disempower the thoughts (training your brain that you don’t care), how to stop ruminating, how to resist compulsions, and so on.

@Chad Stewart @tylermatthewsnead Jaime Ekcert (spelling??) is Christian who does group therapy for $60 a month (last time I joined) , and she had an awesome blog over many themes (like blasphemy). https://scrupulosity.com/

@Tea and Honey Thank you for all of the help on here. My 8yr old daughter recently started really struggling with this and I’m at a loss. Idk how to help her. Where to turn to. So this has helped a lot. Thank you. I also want someone to help her who is a Christian. That’s very important. So I thank you.

@Chad Stewart Sure:):)

@Chad Stewart What’s up?

@ Vivian What’s going on?

@Tea and Honey I miss you so much. You have been so kind. I am glad you got back to me. Your thoughts are always with me. You’ve helped my thoughts. Waiting for the Prozac from Hers site. Stay with me. ❤️

@ Vivian I am here for you ❤️💙❤️!! And I am cheering for you in all this!!!! 😀🥇

@ Vivian Message me anytime if there are things you want to talk about or if you have questions you want to talk about. I love to talk about this!

@Tea and Honey How do I text to you?

@ Vivian Ummm…I wish this app had direct messaging, but I don’t think it does. If you reply to anything I have posted, then I get a notification on my phone that you responded. So I should be able to see whenever you text

@ Vivian I wish there was a more efficient way, but I don’t think there is. But I am not that techy, so I might not know

@Tea and Honey By the app is fabulous at notifications, so I always know when anyone replies to me :):)

@Tea and Honey Do I just put @Tea and Honey in front of text? I don’t get it

@ Vivian I think if you hit the reply button under anything that I have texted, then I should see it :):)

@ Vivian Shipley Hello!! I wanted to see how you are doing? How are you? Anything you want to talk about?

@ Vivian Shipley Hello!! Just checking to see how you are? How is everything going?

@Tea and Honey What is ERP?

@Anonymous ERP might save your life. I’ll try to summarize it

@Anonymous What is ERP. HELP

@Anonymous ERP is the gold standard for OCD. It really works. If you find a therapist, you have got to get one trained in ERP. Otherwise, there is a chance that you might not get better. ERP stands for Exposure and Response-Prevention. This means you expose yourself to triggers, and then you prevent yourself from doing any compulsion. I’ll explain more… OCD is made out of two things (obsessions and compulsions). The “obsessions” are actually the intrusive thoughts that repeat themselves over and over and over in your head. The compulsions are the things we do to try to “fix” the obsessions. Some people have Pure O, which means they have only obsessions (intrusive thoughts) and no compulsions. But most people have a ritual or an activity they do in order to bring down the anxiety caused by the thoughts. (Sometimes the compulsion is just AVOIDING triggers.) I’ll put more down. One second…

@Tea and Honey You know you really got me nailed. Right on the head

@Anonymous I am going to tell you the biggest secret of OCD recovery. This is the one thing to really take to heart and believe all your life. THE INTRUSIVE THOUGHTS DON’T MEAN ANYTHING. When we have OCD, we are always afraid that the intrusive thoughts (obsessions) are dangerous or that they mean something. Spoiler alert: They don’t. Imagine your intrusive thoughts like leaves from a big tree that fall into a river. Just let them fall and get swept down the river. You see that they are there, but you don’t fight them. You just let them be there and float down the river on their own.

@Tea and Honey You are so precious!!!

@Anonymous I have lived through this. I am so so happy to help someone else with this suffering :):):)

@Anonymous If you have Pure O, then your “exposure therapy” might look something like this: 1.) Make sure you aren’t doing anything mentally to fix or fight the thoughts. Some compulsions are done completely in our brains. You have to challenge your initial belief that the thoughts are dangerous. OCD wants desperately for you to believe that the thoughts are dangerous. But you have to remember that the thoughts are MEANINGLESS and are not dangerous. Take that truth and drive it like a stake in the ground, and never let go of it. 2.). Try not to AVOID anything that triggers the thoughts. Try to expose yourself to the things the OCD wants you to avoid. Then your practice letting the thoughts run through your brain without trying to fix them or fight them. You practice going on with your life, even though you have this awful “music” in the background.

@Anonymous Part of ERP is the idea that going through “exposures” will cause anxiety. That’s okay. You can expect Anxiety to rise when we sit through our “exposures.” By the point is that, after you practice over and over, the anxiety will eventually go down. We get desensitized from our triggers eventually.

@Tea and Honey I’m fighting myself with my thoughts, how do I stop

@Anonymous Okay. You want to get to a point that you are not fighting. Fighting will make them worse!! You have to let them be. Maybe it would help to talk about what the thoughts are?

@Anonymous Sometimes talking in specifics can help. But if you don’t want to talk specifics, that’s cool. Because the answer will always be the same. Don’t fight with the thoughts! Let them go, like leaves in the river.

@Tea and Honey Stop the Music making me nuts

@Anonymous I don’t think you can control the music. Medication can turn the volume down, though. You can take away the power of the music when you decide that it is not dangerous. You tell yourself it doesn’t matter if it plays or not.

@Tea and Honey Live your life the way to want to if the music wasn’t there

@Tea and Honey What is there to take I don’t have medication

@Anonymous Love that so much

@Tea and Honey You are a very thoughtful and caring person. I want to thank you for all your support

@ Vivian There are several medications. Their job is to turn the volume down on the intrusive thoughts and also to help stabilize our mood when the OCD wants us to plunge down in its spiral. I have taken Prozac for a really long time. There are others too :):)

@Tea and Honey I got medicine Prozac 20 ml. Thank you for your support ❤️