Journey of recovery

Even tho I still experience symptoms from time to time, my ability to handle them, and use strategies learned both from here at NOCD and my own readings of books has drastically changed how I respond to them and how I can accept them. I want to also share how important it is to feel comfortable about sharing what your OCD is about, I suffered from real event OCD and I struggled with talking about it (kinda part of the theme right?) but nobody here is going to judge you or “report” you. They are here to help.

Brenna - NOC...

User type: Staff

Date posted: 1y

Talking about my OCD is what helped me a ton as well. Congrats on this huge milestone!

Anonymous

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 1y

@Brenna - NOCD Team Member Totally agree Brenna! Talking about OCD is very important. I just need to be sure I’m not talking about it just to get reassurance from others.

Anonymous

Date posted: 1y

Book recommendations?

Robert734

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 1y

@Anonymous How to stubbornly refuse to make yourself miserable about anything by Albert Ellis is a great one to start with

Anonymous

Date posted: 1y

@Robert734 Wow thank you, definitely a title that I resonate with heavily

Robert734

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 1y

@Anonymous Of course, and keep in mind that it’s not a book about OCD.. but there is a lot of good stuff that you can use to help with OCD. You got this!

Anonymous

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 1y

What would you say helped you the most with real event? I also struggle with that theme. Thank you!

Robert734

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 1y

@Anonymous It depends on what the core fears are related to the real event. For some of us it’s the simple fear of being a bad person, for others it’s the fear of jail (consequences of the real event) and sometimes it’s moral issues with a higher power “Will I go to heaven because I did this?”. The main thing with all of these are your perspective on the fears. For example if you are worried you won’t get into heaven, you could move closer to that thought. What’s something else that will keep you from going to heaven that isn’t going to hurt someone or break a law lol.. maybe it’s drink a few beers or something like that.. so drink a few beers. This approach takes time. It is basically the ERP approach to OCD. You can also gain perspective changes simply from learning to look at life as a whole differently. Think about researching stoic philosophy and see how you could adopt that. Lastly give yourself time, these changes take time.. I feel a strong part of OCD is you want the feelings to go away right now.. that’s why compulsive activity is done.. to stop the feelings right away.. but they are not effective and the issues come right back.

Anonymous

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 1y

That is so spot on!! With my real event the fear of going to jail/losing all I have is definitely there. Even though us sufferers know that the probability is not high, OCD sneaks up and tells us it is. Definitely going to look into this core fear and continue with my exposures. Would you recommend a book on real event/core fears? Thanks again!!

Robert734

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 1y

@Anonymous There is a YouTube channel called “OCD Recovery” and they have some great videos on adjusting perspectives and learning to accept these fears. I will say I am not 100% recovered, and I’m not sure I ever will be, but I have learned to be okay with this. Every once in a while I have a small flare up, and that’s okay. I have a gut feeling this is what OCD recovery looks like, you still might have the emotions and feelings.. but you have learned how to manage them so much better, and in turn this reduces the magnitude they effect you.

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