Pls help

@Tea and Honey Thanks sm for ur reply, i’ve been going to therapy since february and the eyebrow ocd started in may- now. i haven’t really don’t many exposures with my eyebrows- is that why the problem is still there?

@Anonymous7779 done*

@Anonymous7779 Yes, I think that’s probably why the eyebrows are a problem. I would talk to your therapist and start some exposures with edge eyebrows!!:):) Yay!!!! Sounds perfect!!

@Tea and Honey i’m really concerned about doing exposures with my eyebrows because if i see them in the mirror it could lead to very lengthy compulsions. Also, i’ve always been a perfectionist with them since a few years ago but this year, it’s turned into ocd, so i don’t think i can’t handle seeing hairs sticking out and not fixing them.

@Anonymous7779 Maybe you should explain the whole thing to your therapist and tell her your concerns. Then see what she has to say about it :):)

@Tea and Honey Yea. Do you think i should look at myself in the mirror to check if the hair is actually sticking out when i feel it with hand that it’s sticking out

@Anonymous7779 I don’t know for sure, but this is what I would try: First, I would practice DELAYING ACTION. I would tell myself that for one whole week, that I am not allowed to fix my eyebrows. I am guessing that eyebrows don’t change much in one week, so if they started off okay, they can’t get too bad in a week. But EVEN IF they do look bad, I am not allowed to fix them for a week. This relieves all pressure from me. I am just not going to fix my eyebrows for a week. It will be okay!!!! Your eyebrows will be just fine!!!! But tell yourself that you can accept having your eyebrows be imperfect for a few days. If your anxiety spikes, practice some drastic acceptance. Tell yourself, “They really might look bad.” Then tell yourself, “Oh well.” Tell yourself, “People might say something bad to me about my eyebrows.” Then tell yourself, “Oh well.” Tell yourself, “I am not going to do anything with my eyebrows for a week. Then, at the end of the week, I can fix them if they are bad (which they probably won’t be, but I can accept it even if they are.” The purpose of this strategy is to DELAY COMPULSIONS of needing to fix your eyebrows constantly, every day. It’s okay to fix them when it’s been a long time since the last time you fixed them, but only if they really need it. So it’s good for you to practice not doing anything for a period of time. SECOND, I would practice TRANSFERRING RESPONSIBILITY to someone else. Get a friend or family member to help you. Tell them that if your eyebrows are out of place, it is their responsibility to tell you. If they don’t tell you, then you are not going to worry about your eyebrows and you are not going to try to fix them. In this case, it would be useful to enlist the help of someone who understands OCD. You tell them that they can let you know if there is a problem with your eyebrows. Then you no longer have to take responsibility to decide if you need to fix them or not. Other people (who don’t have OCD) are often a good judge of whether or not we need to take action. :):):):):)

@Tea and Honey Thank u so much. It’s been a couple weeks since i’ve looked at them in the mirror (because looking at it and fixing them triggers me), and i usually compulse through touching them and pulling out hairs and having to touch hairs a certain way. i’ve been asking my mom to fix them when they need to be fixed but sometimes i get a bit scared because not looking at them for more than a couple weeks could make them look really bad but at the same time i can’t look at them cause i get so triggered in the mirror.

@Anonymous7779 Sounds good!!! Yes, I think that is great!!! If your mom is helping with that, they can take the pressure off of you. And if you leave them alone for a few weeks, they is great!!! Keep practicing being able to tolerate it if they are not perfect. Sounds like you are doing great!!

@Tea and Honey no i’m not doing great bc of the constant compulsions with my hands and physical sensations and i’m also having other ocds. thank you for all ur help tho i appreciate it

@Anonymous7779 Is the ERP targeting those compulsions? I imagine that your therapist should be working on these eventually

@Tea and Honey The good news is that once you conquer some compulsions, the others open become easier to defeat

@Tea and Honey no we aren’t rly doing much erp because i’m first trying to minimize compulsions and the erp with eyebrows is rlly scary for me

@Tea and Honey but how has your ocd been?

@Anonymous7779 A lot better than it used to be!!!!! Every day there is some struggle

@Tea and Honey oh good! :( yea i get that. what hv u been struggling with recently ?

@Anonymous7779 Hard to explain. I feel like a certain percentage of things that I want to do each day would send me to hell if I did them. This includes things I want to talk about or things things I could watch on TV

@Tea and Honey For this i think you should slowly start to try to do them anyways and seeing that the anxiety goes away. You could do small exposures like talking about what you want to for a few mins or a couple mins, and watching tv for a couple mins

@Anonymous7779 Thank you!!!!!!:):):):):)