What should you do when you're *about* to have a terrible intrusive image? Should you just let it happen? Something that I often do probably as a compulsion is to try to suppress the horrible intrusive image from fully forming itself, and when I do that I notice that I always scrunch my eyes and contort my face. Do we have to allow the intrusive image to just happen? Even though it causes us distress?
Suppression is a compulsion. Try to resist it as much as possible, but that said, overcoming OCD is a process not a flip of the switch. If you can’t resist the suppression because the thoughts are too uncomfortable, that is okay, but try to push yourself as much as possible. That said though, the best thing you can do is just to let them happen. It sucks, it’s uncomfortable, annoying frustrating you name it, but the best thing you can do is to learn to not give those thoughts attention. When they do pop up, acknowledge it. Acknowledge that you just encountered something as a trigger and that you are going to/are feeling uncomfortable. If you feel up to it, even agree with it, but that all takes time and practice
Thank you
There is a weird thing that I noticed, there are two types of suppression: 1. one when I fight very hard against it and it becomes an infinite battle that I'm bound to lose when I get tired and the intrusive image just happens 2. one where it doesn't take much effort, where I just shelve the thought away, instead of fighting it I just move it away. Is the second one good? Or is still suppression? I just avoid the intrusive image instead of fully exposing myself to it. I just remove/ignore the thought
@Nameless000 The second one is much better and would be the thing I would recommend to do. I believe you want to acknowledge the thought and let it fade away but also not engaging with it, and letting it fade away is probably okay too but I’m not 100% positive. What makes the first one the bad way to go about it is that OCD does not care about facts. There is no winning against it. What I’ve taken to doing is just agreeing with it. It’s kind of like a school yard bully where if it sees you reacting it will keep it up but as it sees your start to stop caring it begins to leave you alone
It's like a balloon in a body of water, the further down you try to supress it, the harder it'll fight back and hit you in the face. Let it be but don't engage. It's just a thing and will float away eventually if you let it. It's not a threat
that was a very good metaphore, thanks
Yep, just let it happen.
Yes, you have to let it happen. That is how you conquer OCD. Don’t try to fight off the thoughts.
Wait. My intrusive thoughts/images are…well, intrusive. Unwanted. Unexpected. They pop into my head. I can’t stop them. Yours are slow forming and you can stop them? Is that what you’re saying? Because my intrusive thoughts lead into INSTANT, AUTOMATIC rumination. And I’m wondering if you’re not actually stopping the image but rumination about the intrusive image. I’m just curious and trying to understand how our brains work.
I do have automatic intrusive thoughts and images, but sometimes when I'm in an uncomfortable situation I'm aware of the potential intrusive thoughts that can happen, like I anticipate by thinking "it would be bad if i had these thoughts right now". Instead of popping right away there is a potential triggering image but it's not "clear" yet, it's still blurry and not "definite". And I try to suppress it from fully being clear, from happening. Like when you see something briefly, you understand what it is but you didn't get a clear image of it. My intrusive thoughts can get very graphic and detailed, that's what I try to suppress from becoming. So that they remain a small blurry intrusive image and not bigger and clearer.
@Nameless000 Thanks for answering. That makes sense. And if your suppression is a compulsion, then I guess the way to break the cycle is to let it happen like others said, to live with the discomfort until it passes. That sounds really challenging, but others have done it so there’s hope. Wishing you continued healing on this journey. 🙂
@JediMJ Thank you, wish you a steady recovery too
For me it depended on the level of the stress trigger or how much of a thrrimy brain considered the particular theme. It can be instant or ease in.
@Wolfram Threat my brain* thumbs are receiving an order and disobeying today 😂 hate typos
@Wolfram Ha ha! 😆
Thought suppression is detrimental to recovering from ocd correct? Like say if my brain tells me to think of something, and I don’t want to, so I try to prevent the thoughts from entering. But then it does anyways, I end up feeling terrible. Or, even worse- if I just allow it, I feel guilty for allowing it, like I brought it on or didn’t do enough to stop it.
Hey everyone so after having intrusive thoughts for about a year now my theme is changing to images. Does anyone else have super vivid intrusive images that are almost like experiencing a movie just in your head? Like I’ll be sitting in my bosses office and start thinking about snakes and then my mind is creating this whole movie. It’s not happening in reality it’s all in my head but it’s still scary af. Any tips on how to deal with the intrusive images?
Is pushing away intrusive thoughts a compulsion?
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