- Date posted
- 1y
accept uncertainty
how do you accept uncertainty I find it impossible and so distressing? It’s ruining my life😔
how do you accept uncertainty I find it impossible and so distressing? It’s ruining my life😔
I have found it tremendously helpful to actively try to challenge some of my black-and-white thinking on my themes. I have found that I can’t really “live with the uncertainty” if that means trying to straddle an extremely sharp good-vs-evil or hell-vs-heaven line. That simply doesn’t work. You must try to soften that line, learn and think more deeply about your fears, and try to identify grey areas where you can perhaps find some peace when required. Check out OCD Recovery videos on youtube for helpful advice on this. By the way this is not at all an exercise in abandoning your values or moral judgement, it’s more about trying to see things more clearly, calmly, compassionately.
If it helps, as a starting point, here are some irrational beliefs you might find helpful to try to challenge: - I am my thoughts - This thought/ urge/ bodily reaction means I want this - OCD is not the reason I am obsessing about this - If people knew, they would totally reject me - If people rejected me, my life would be over - Etc. Etc. Etc. If you’re anything like me, you probably have a whole range of these waiting for you back there! I hope this helps!!
I’m really struggling with this too. Something that has been helping me is Matthew Marshal on YouTube. He has some shorts about his ocd that relate to accepting uncertainty. I’ve yet to achieve acceptance for the uncertainty but really striving to hopefully one day be there
I struggle with false memory ocd and accepting uncertainty makes me feel sick
Do you ever feel like people without OCD have an easy time just saying “you need to accept uncertainty” only because they’re not subject to the same level of fear and anxiety as an OCD sufferer would? I feel like they don’t really accept uncertainty, they’re just naturally more certain about things. For example, if you ask anyone whether they think their loved ones are real or not, they will never answer with “maybe, but I’ll never know for sure”. They’ll just say “of course they are”. Isn’t that what certainty is? For me, as I’ve been suffering from existential OCD most of my adult life, such a question absolutely terrifies me. The mere thought of my loved ones and the world not being real sends me into a spiral of anxiety and depression and never ending certainty-seeking behavior. I just can’t stand the thought of that horrible scenario being true. How can one accept uncertainty about such a thought, when it completely undermines all my values and beliefs and world view? Can non-OCD sufferers really accept those nighmarish scenarios? Am I misunderstanding what ERP and therapy is about?
I hit the SOS, and I’m just scared. If I sit with the uncertainty, then I could honestly sit here all day crying. I just can’t accept I’m not a bad person and ruined my relationship, no matter how much grace I give myself. What makes me feel better is knowing that I’m not a bad person, and trying to rationalize my mistakes - understanding everyone makes them. But then it feels like i can’t validate my good feelings because it’s “bad” and I should just accept I COULD be a bad person. It honestly sends me into a full panic. Please help!!!!!!
I need tips on how to really accept the uncertainty the ocd causes, even if it feels so bad like I might get in trouble for something , do I wanna be okay with that?
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