Lightbulb moment 💡

What if? < What is!

When I finally realized that I have to accept uncertainty.

All the googling, library researching whether subtle or in-depth along with endless hours, turning into years of rumination, were all forms of compulsions.

I also feel that it can be tricky because OCD so often attaches to your values and makes everything seem urgent and gives you guilt if you don’t give in. But the trick is to be patient and find when you want to genuinely do things as opposed to because of OCD, which can take a long time. And it can be so hard to know the difference. This is uncertainty, the playground of OCD!!

“I am uncomfortable but I’m not in danger; this is just what anxiety feels like in my body”

When I could go do the things I loved again.

Building on exposures gradually over time, and giving myself compassion, grqce and love even for imperfectionsbor flaws

Maybe it will happen or maybe it won’t. Another was my Exposure to do my homework incorrectly as well as BS my through it. It was so exciting and empowering to be “allowed” to do something wrong as an assignment. So freeing 🥰🥰

When erp is done with purpose and a goal in mind. Otherwise it's just exposure and will make ocd worse like any other stressor would. Also, nobody was to blame for me being the way I was, not even myself.

Diagnosed due to excessive handwashing. Ten years later find out my other problems stemmed from OCD too.

when my therapist said im going to be anxious anywayssss

When I first found out I had ocd and was like “oh so everybody else isn’t doing what I’m doing”

That my tendency to not say certain things is actually a compulsion. My mind was blown. Now I can work on that.

When I had to realize im ERP that no amount of analysis would be enough.

The first session „thoughts are just thoughts“, „no one can look into your head and read them“

I was talking too much about what I was focusing on, instead of just accepting it on a surface level and refusing to go any further than that. It's hard to master, but I have high hopes that everyone will make it.

To "not seek rational responses to irrational questions" !

A risky life is much more enjoyable and rewarding to live

When I realized I didn't have to like every post in this thread so people didn't feel unequally loved (or that people would be checking who liked what) haha. I stopped liking them because response prevention haha

I realized that I didn’t need to label myself at all. I was the only one doing the labeling.

Also be a very kind and compassionate person and take people’s talks very seriously. These values kind of taught me what was really important (living actual life) and what was not (OCD) also, it made me revive my trust and connection with other people, and naturally take the kind of risk that OCD will never approve of, to take people seriously.

Things are perfect the way they are. I just cannot notice it so I have to trust it.

learning that my intrusive and obsessive thoughts were just that. and that those thoughts don’t make me a horrible person

Not caring and not focusing on the thoughts

Turning against people or Therapists themselves was a big OCD trick, tackling which made things lighter.

Realizing the obsession over being perfect/excelling in every aspect of my life has always been my OCD, never me. And I just recently realized that it’s likely the root of every other mental health condition I’ve dealt with. Life-changing discoveries!

When I first had a therapist who explained OCD behaviors and that it wasn’t weird… that it was something that a lot of people were dealing with, that doctors had recently begun giving it weight.

That rumination was my brain's way of making me think I wasn't abandoning myself. Once I started experimenting with thinking a bit and then moving to the next task (so risky, I know 🫠), I realized, holy crap. I'm not abandoned/at risk. I still see things realistically. The extra thinking wasnt actually necessary. 😐

Realising my thought was irrational all by myself amd slowly working on that to know what was and wasn’t irrational

With ocd the feeling of just right will never come. 💡

Certainty removes doubt

When I finally made it to the point where I feel I’ve gone far on the road to accepting uncertainty

It wasn't I'm therapy, but u was talking with a friend and they said how OCD can show itself through doing things until it feels right and I just looked back to all the times I was drinking water, or playing with my hair, or working out and went above and beyond so it felt symmetrical, even, or happy and I just went "oooooohhhh"