Wow life feels so good again

I've had mild pure OCD my whole life, always worrying about unlikely outcomes, despite being such a logical thinker. It wasn't consistent or disturbing, so I never saw it as an issue in my life, until 9 months ago. I felt a sudden overwhelm and OCD about many things I thought were unimaginable, things I could never imagine myself doing, or things I just could not bear potentially happening to me. I did so much research and suffered for months, crying, not knowing why this happened to me and why I am having these thoughts during every waking moment of my life. Eventually, through all my countless hours of research on how to stop intrusive thoughts (which was technically a compulsion), I came upon hearing about non responsive messages like saying "maybe, maybe not", etc, essentially doing ERP by myself. I tried these out and it would work for a bit, then I would lose hope or be unsure about how to respond to certain thoughts. Being unsure about whether this self-ERP effort is working on whether it's correct, or if I am doing it right made me lose hope. I was in a dark place, extremely depressed even though everything in my life from an outsiders view was perfect. This is when I decided to join NOCD, with an immense fear that I can't share my thoughts with my therapist because they're "crazy". Silvia, my therapist was an angel sent from heaven. She was so kind and made me feel understood. I was so sick of OCD and I needed a solution, so I opened up with everything to her and she immediately knew it was OCD taking over my life. Now, after 3-4 months of therapy, I can say I have finally regained control of my life and I feel like my old self again. I can finally feel happy! I know the goal of ERP isn't to stop thoughts, but ERP has led to the frequency of the thoughts diminishing by ten-fold. There is hope for everyone! If I had one piece of advice which worked for me, outside of your practice, you need to get creative with your day to day thoughts, and use non responsive messages in your every day life. That is like having way more practice, inadvertently. Keep practicing and keep going. You can never fully get rid of OCD, but it will be way better eventually.

SJS34

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 1y

So happy for you!! This is inspirational for someone that the beginning of their journey!

Robyn🪴🧘🏻‍♀️🧠

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 1y

Awesome! 👏🏻👏🏻

Pluriel

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 1y

Can you give more examples of non engagement responses that have helped you? Did you struggle to use them in the beginning? My OCD is telling me that using them is silly and that it can't be that easy.

maybe-maybenot

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 1y

@Pluriel My rule of thumb is that if it makes me uncomfortable and I can't do anything about it, it's OCD and I need to devise a non responsive message for the thought (if it's a new one). Once you figure out it's OCD, you've half way won the battle. The key is to respond with non responsive messages even if your OCD tells you not to, don't be fooled! Some general ones that I always tweak to my active thought: "This may happen, this may not happen...there's no way to know for sure". "That may be true or it may not be" "Maybe, maybe not" Or sometimes you need to lean into it. "Yup, that's exactly how I feel" "Oh yea, for sure that's true" "I would love for this to happen to me" The bottom line is, no matter how much you feel like those statements aren't working, they are! Don't let OCD tell you otherwise. Also, a few sessions with your therapist and you can come up with response prevention messages together for your most common thoughts and worries. Hope that helps.

Pluriel

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 1y

@maybe-maybenot - Thx a lot for your detailed response!

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