I struggle to think of ERP messages to anchor myself to when trying to avoid mental compulsions. Anyone have any to recommend, especially in regards to ROCD fears and moral scrupulously?
Yes. I think it's the hardest ones to do. Most of my relationships issues are do I love my partner, are they going to leave and they can spiral from there. I have a thing w being honest to a fault and worrying I overstepped a boundary or did or said something wrong. Quite honestly I'm not sure if what I do will work foe you. When I have these thoughts I do the following in the order. I tell my partner " hey my ocd BOB is saying a ton of shit now about you. BOB is a pain in my ass. And my partner will respond yeah he is a jerk. That usually will stop me from getting into a 5 plus hour long discussion about our relationship and from asking for reassurance. If the thought pops up again, cause come on BOB is nothing but persistent I will journal. Then outlook I say maybe, I don't know, omg your annoying me I'm going to listen to an audiobook. But that's foe that thought. Keep them coming BOB. For the other stuff like lying, did I hurt someone's feelings etc I again tell my partner " hey, BOB is telling me I lied, hurt so and so etc" and my partner will say we'll who know, or maybe. I say yup, I'll just wait and see. That's what I do. Idk if it will help. And no matter what I do not go seek relationship advice from Dear Google or my friends. Noone can give me the answer I want because there's no answer so I just don't go there.
@Anonymous This was honestly really helpful, thank you! My OCDs name is Clarence. 😆
@danielle421 Well honey, Clarence is a jealous jerk and wants you all to himself or themselves. Bob and Clarence should get together and leave us alone.😏
I try and think of the things that bother me everyday and then purposely put myself into a spiral to habituate out of it
i would like some advice please and i didn't get any responses 😭.. apologies for reposting but just need some thoughts on this 🥲 //// after frustrations with erp not working, i intentionally brought up the intrusive mental images as well as sensations during an exposure in trying to practice desensitizing myself to them. but now im scared that me purposefully bringing on the images and especially the disturbing outward sensations means that i did something bad or acted on my thought since i took the action to purposefully create and bring the disturbing intrusive images and thoughts and feelings. now it feels like not just a fear but reality. and my anxiety levels are just too much. i'm just feeling terrible and would like some thoughts or support
I’ll list some key things with my main subtype, and I hope that I can get some erp advice, but it’s okay if not, I know nobody is my therapist..! 1. I have this thing where when I feel false attraction about a k!d, I will be immediately convinced and say “that means I am?” “I am attracted” “I feel attracted?” “He’s attractive” not to be weird but I panic and say these because I don’t want them, and I feel like I agree with it, this makes me feel like a bad person when I say them (sometimes I can’t help it when I get really stressed) what can I do for this to be better? 2. My brain will give me an intrusive question, asking if I’d do this,this or that, and I feel like agreeing or saying yes to this, sometimes I will hear a yes and I’ll freak out 3. When I get triggered by a photo, I have to keep checking and checking (this will always last forever) till I’m sure that I think the photo is cute or adorable and not in any way that I feel false attraction Whenever I feel convinced, I feel bad that I feel convinced and it’ll say “well if you were a good person, why do you allow yourself to get convinced even if you know you aren’t this”
I have contamination OCD that causes me to excessively wash my hands/clean items with disinfectant wipes. I know I just need to start with small exposures but how do I do that without spiraling? I tried a while back by just touching the outside of my dishwasher and not washing my hands after and it led to me being unable to even exist in my house. I basically lived on my couch for three weeks as it was the only 'safe' space that I had not touched with my dirty hands. I had to take a week off work to clean my house to make it somewhat liveable. I still haven't got round to cleaning everything though so things like my kitchen are still no-go zones that I don't enter. I just don't know how to start ERP without it making everything worse. Any advice would be appreciated. I am not seeing a therapist at the moment due to financial constraints.
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