- Date posted
- 39w ago
Do things get better?
I only see negatives on this page… can anyone share positives? Is anyone getting better from therapy?
I only see negatives on this page… can anyone share positives? Is anyone getting better from therapy?
I've went years between "themes", almost OCD at 0%. So whatever you're feeling now, it won't last. Trust me. :)
Of course. I’ve been recovered for 4 years. What do you want to know?
I have gone years between flair ups where I don’t even think about OCD. It is possible!
When I first found out I had ocd, just before my diagnosis I saw negative comments everywhere on it. All bleak and hopeless. I then looked up the stats for recovery and they're shockingly bad. I said a massive f u to the stats and best them. Don't let negatives weigh you down or put you off. Smile and wave as you surpass all preconceived results and always have your goals in mind
Proud of you ☺️
Just curious, what stats on recovery do you mean? I thought erp had pretty high effectiveness?
@Anonymous Google statistics. I remember seeing 1-2% of the population have ocd. 10% who do, seek therapy. 10% of those who have it get better with an average 6-12months. I'm unsure if they include meds in those stats. That wasn't good enough for me so it made me push harder
@Anonymous Those stats may also include therapies not fit for treating ocd. Who knows 🤷♂️
@Wolfram I've read stats where erp effectiveness was given at like 60-80%. But I of course it always depends on the sample and how you measure more or less subjective things like"improvement in symptoms" and such.
@Anonymous I was aiming for zero symptoms. "Fully recovered". I know a few people with it who have it to the point where its manageable but I wanted to be free of it completely
Yes they can. What would you like to know?
@Wolfram How you’re feeling now vs. before therapy things like that. Is there a light at the end of the tunnel?! I need something to keep me going.
@Bossybacon So bear in kind I was undiagnosed for 27 years. Before therapy I felt out of control and completely confused to who I was. I felt torn and it was affecting every aspect of my life. I lost someone I cared about and lots of others through not knowing what I had. I didn't want to die but didn't want to live like that either. I thought everyone else was the problem and they didn't think enough. I had so many questions and so little answers. I was always searching for an answer but didn't know what the question was. During therapy, everything started to make sense. My questions answered slowly but not the ones I was asking for the majority of my life. New ones. Ones that gave answers. Ones my therapist helped me with. I went in to therapy knowing the recovery stats and wanted to prove them wrong. I wanted 3 months with no meds and to be completely symptom free. My therapist was on board with this. She didn't push me hard enough so in between sessions I did way more erp than she expected (once you get an understanding, run with it. If you make mistakes, learn from them and keep going). After 3 months of therapy I had a few good months with zero symptoms. Then I decided to cut out some distractions in my life and uncovered a mountain of crap I needed to deal with, honestly overwhelming to the point where I felt hopeless. Ocd came back for a bit and this time I dealt with the triggering trauma and the theme on my own. Took longer without a therapist but I did it. Now I'm symptom free. It feels weird at first when you're getting better, especially if you don't have memories of a life before ocd. The silence in your mind is unnerving and I didn't know that was my goal. I think clearly now. My brain isn't full of ocd spam mail clogging it up. I feel as if I've had a massive capacity open up and now I'm hungry for life. All this time I thought if I found out what was wrong I'd be better. I wasn't looking for a finish line after all, I was looking for the start line. That's a very short version of it 😊
@Wolfram In mind*
I got better before I even knew what this was. Just muddled thru it with a program for anxiety. I've gone years in between episodes of what I called "my weird anxiety". If I got better for years I can get better again. Starting ERP here. I see no reason why it won't go away again 😊
Thank you everyone! This gives me hope! I have been thinking it’s not possible to get better. Everyday is a struggle and I forget what happiness feels like. I just want peace again! I will keep fighting.
Having a really bad day with my ocd. Just had a massive meltdown. I’ve had 3 sessions with an ocd therapist and I feel worse. This is very confusing to me. I’ve read online that it’s normal to feel worse at the start of therapy, but i don’t know. I’m asking for a lot of reassurance from people, way more than I have ever done. My doubts and thoughts seem to be getting worse. My mum said if the relationship is making you so unhappy why are you doing it? This was sooo triggering for me but maybe she’s right? She said if I didn’t have the relationship in my life, I wouldn’t be having meltdowns or have an ocd spike, so she thinks I should consider whether to be in the relationship or not! Omg it’s so awful to hear those words. But maybe she is kind of right? If somethings making you anxious or unhappy, you stop don’t you? So why haven’t I broken up with him? That would be the logical step. Im so worried to make myself even more ill so im very scared to carry on with the relationship, because right now, my mind is telling me its the cause of my unhappiness and i would be better without it. But is that my ocd speaking? How do I know?! My life without him would be so bleak, or is it my life without the idea of someone in it? I have so many questions, it’s overwhelming. What if I’m not listening to my gut? Maybe I’m not. That makes me feel sick if I’m ignoring myself again. This is torture. What can I do to stop all these doubts and feel better about things!!! I would love some advice 🙏🏻🙏🏻 (this is my ocd talking, but comments that agree with my ocd are very triggering like ‘yes if you feel like that that is a major red flag’. Just comments that maybe give some hope, thank you 🙏🏻)
I feel like in some ways receiving a diagnosis for OCD has in some ways made things worse. I’ve always had what I called “phases” throughout life, which I now know were ocd episodes, but I didn’t really make too much of them and even if it was over several long difficult months, they’d always seem to kind of just pass. Recently I’ve begun my worse flare up in the last few years and now that I’m older I seemed professional help which led to my diagnosis. This all sounds great of course but I can’t actually afford therapy right now so I kinda just have the diagnosis but not the support so now that I realize these phases are actually this incurable mental illness I just feel like I’ve lost all hope that I’ll ever be happy and I feel like I basically obsess about obsessing at this point and it just sucks. Has anyone else had this or a similar experience?
I feel really scared and worried that the therapist I find on NOCD might not be effective, and instead of getting better, I might end up feeling worse. I’m afraid that if I don’t feel any progress, I’ll want to switch therapists, but my mom might get impatient with me. I worry that she’ll lose faith in therapy, stop paying for it, and think it’s a waste of time and money. I know therapy takes time and it’s not a quick fix, but I’m scared that things won’t go the way I hope. What if I don’t connect with the therapist? What if they don’t understand my OCD as well as I need them to? I’ve already been struggling so much, and the thought of going through another disappointment is exhausting. I’m only 14, and I feel stuck because I can’t manage this on my own. I need help, but I also need my mom to stay patient and supportive through this process. I’m scared that if things don’t improve fast enough, she’ll give up on paying for therapy. I don’t know what to do, and it’s making me feel really anxious. I just want to get better, but what if nothing works out?
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