Acceptance

Can someone please tell me at what point did you finally accept that it’s OCD? When did the ERP click for you? When did you just stop buying into the lies of OCD and finally let go? Like what does it take. It’s been 2 years of this for me and I’m in ERP currently and it’s just not clicking 😣 is it just me???

Hi came to vent. Sometimes people tell me to stop overthinking and that I need to change that. And I try to give myself grace because I know ocd is real. But then I think “Or am I just lacking accountability?” Because then I hear stuff from people like “you’re just not helping yourself.” Or “you think so negative.” This and that and sometimes I really do feel like it’s just hard, because it feels so automatic… And it hurts my feelings when I’m told that I’m too much, or too negative. Or I need to work on this and that. Then I feel MORE guilt for not being able to accepting criticism well. Because the criticizing voice gets stuck in my head constantly.

Do you ever feel like people without OCD have an easy time just saying “you need to accept uncertainty” only because they’re not subject to the same level of fear and anxiety as an OCD sufferer would? I feel like they don’t really accept uncertainty, they’re just naturally more certain about things. For example, if you ask anyone whether they think their loved ones are real or not, they will never answer with “maybe, but I’ll never know for sure”. They’ll just say “of course they are”. Isn’t that what certainty is? For me, as I’ve been suffering from existential OCD most of my adult life, such a question absolutely terrifies me. The mere thought of my loved ones and the world not being real sends me into a spiral of anxiety and depression and never ending certainty-seeking behavior. I just can’t stand the thought of that horrible scenario being true. How can one accept uncertainty about such a thought, when it completely undermines all my values and beliefs and world view? Can non-OCD sufferers really accept those nighmarish scenarios? Am I misunderstanding what ERP and therapy is about?