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'm thinking of trying some ERP on my own while I wait for treatment, but I'm having some trouble knowing what is a compulsion and what would be good exposure. For example, I have huge fears of being a narcissist and/or a generally bad person. So whenever I watch a movie or read something that has an evil character in it I automatically compare myself to that character and stress over if I'm like that person. A couple of things I do when this happens is Google other people's experiences, seek reassurance, rumination, etc. Sometimes I'll also google different symptoms of narcissism, freak out over things that I relate to, then get relief over things I don't. So my confusion is, would researching people who have narcissism be an exposure, or a compulsion since it's something I sometimes do during a spiral? Or, would the exposure be watching movies/living life hearing these stories, and refraining from the spiral of rumination and no Googling at all?
Hi! I've been on my OCD healing journey for about half a year and I have seen a lot of success. I'm reaching out for advice, I am very willing to do exposures because I know the more I do them, the more I get better, but I struggle with the response prevention part. I don't know how to control my brain when it comes to facing the fears especially since most of my compulsions are mental. I can tell myself the typical things "I am okay with the uncertainty of this happening", etc. but its like my brain doesn't believe them. I've been stuck in this disconnect for a while and would love advice you have heard from a therapist or learned that has really help you.
Been struggling with existential OCD lately. Very hard to describe the thoughts/feelings, but it is a constant feeling of being stuck in my head. Like what is consciousness and where do I think from? Like I think it’s OCD, maybe it is maybe it isn’t. But if it is, what would be good ERP exercises? Just existing (lol)? And what would be my response prevention? I’m not even sure what mental compulsions I may be doing.
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