- Date posted
- 1y
Fear of myself and its thoughts. That Iam not my thoughts! I lifetime of getting to this small but large step🥰
- User type
- Staff
- Date posted
- 1y
Incredible! Keep it up!
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 1y
Being able to use a large kitchen knife around my family and myself. 🙏🏼
- User type
- Staff
- Date posted
- 1y
Amazing!! We know how challenging that might've been at the beginning - keep it up! You're so much stronger than OCD.
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 1y
the unknown, i still struggle sometimes but erp had been an amazing tool
- User type
- Staff
- Date posted
- 1y
Agreed! ERP is a great tool when faced with the unknown.
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 1y
I used to be triggered by the very word “devil.” Not anymore! 😈
- User type
- Staff
- Date posted
- 1y
Love the progress!
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 1y
@Brenna - NOCD Team Member Thank you ❤️ it has been louder than usual today because I’ve been doing hard exposures. Sometimes I need to remind myself not to take the content too seriously
- Date posted
- 1y
@dirholly So proud of you!!
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 1y
@MrBobaBear Thank you 🥰so am I, of you
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 1y
Enjoying my freedom as a Christian rather than an he fear of condemnation.
- User type
- Staff
- Date posted
- 1y
Yes - living the life you want to live, not the life OCD wants you to live!
- Date posted
- 1y
Yes!! Working on this myself!!
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 1y
Being able to take a bath, wash my hands fewer than 5x per day, touching items outside my home without the use of barriers, pumping gas without gloves, leaving the house without hand sanitizer, going to public places like the grocery store again
- User type
- Staff
- Date posted
- 1y
Wow, so much progress! Keep it up!
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 1y
Fear of something happening to my husband. I have obsessive worrying for sure.
- User type
- Staff
- Date posted
- 1y
You're not alone!
- Date posted
- 1y
Not believing my fears and thoughts any more.
- User type
- Staff
- Date posted
- 1y
A lot of times, thoughts are just thoughts. Nothing more, nothing less!!
- Date posted
- 1y
Fear of possibly snapping and harming someone I love. I've learned through erp thought do not equal actions. Thoughts are not manifestations. I cannot control my intrusive thoughts but I can control my reactions
- User type
- Staff
- Date posted
- 1y
That last sentence is so true! Keep it up!
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 1y
I don’t fear my thoughts like I used to…. I can live with them.
- User type
- Staff
- Date posted
- 1y
YES! Being able to live alongside your thoughts without much reaction from you is awesome!
- Date posted
- 1y
Flying in an airplane ✈️
- Date posted
- 1y
If my dog is sick, it probably doesn’t mean he’s dying.
- User type
- Staff
- Date posted
- 1y
Living in the uncertainty can be challenging but so worth it!
- Date posted
- 1y
I feel comfortable around my boyfriend now and don’t ruminate often :D
- User type
- Staff
- Date posted
- 1y
Incredible to hear!
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 1y
Fear that my identity isn’t what I’ve always known it to be (SOOCD). This has changed my life!!
- User type
- Staff
- Date posted
- 1y
You aren't alone here!!!
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 1y
The my Unwanted thoughts have resulted in my soul being lost forever
- Date posted
- 1y
Any one overcome the fear of disease and going to a new physicians? Working on this but not quite there yet. Thank you
- User type
- Staff
- Date posted
- 1y
You're stronger than your OCD!
- Date posted
- 1y
@mazzy I am also working on this and telling my doctors (and dentists) about my OCD. Some have been amazing allies in my health care.
- Date posted
- 1y
@gixmo Thank you. I am going to a new doctor tomorrow and I am going to tell him.
- Date posted
- 1y
@mazzy That’s great!
- Date posted
- 1y
Fear of cheating on my wife even though I know it’s irrational and not cheating. I’d spend hours searching on google if it was
- User type
- Staff
- Date posted
- 1y
You're so much stronger than your obsessions!
- Date posted
- 1y
Driving and getting my license after 4 years with a permit 💖
- User type
- Staff
- Date posted
- 1y
INCREDIBLE! Congrats!!!
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 1y
I no longer ask family if they are seeing and hearing the same things that I am 😊
- User type
- Staff
- Date posted
- 1y
Keep it up!!
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 1y
@Brenna - NOCD Team Member I kind of went back to it the last couple of days. So discouraging
- Date posted
- 1y
Soccer intense university camp! I had so many thoughts because I had been sick for the previous month and my energy was low but I knew it would be a good experience. My thoughts told me I mine as well not even try because I’ll be so bad and die of embarrassment and shame. Observing my spiral of thoughts and looking at them over and over again in a paragraph helped me to see them as just words. Although I struggle with these things a lot still I’m so glad I went! OCD is scary because IT knows that anything is possible and uses that to its advantage. It always asks “what if?” But “what if not?”
- Date posted
- 1y
@marisacobbb *but I like to ask “what if not?”
- User type
- Staff
- Date posted
- 1y
"It always asks “what if?” But “what if not?" What a great perspective.
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 1y
Oh...that's still a work in progress..
- User type
- Staff
- Date posted
- 1y
You got this!
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 1y
Uncertainty around health related topics. After spending a lifetime with health anxiety, therapy with a NOCD therapist gave me the tools to handle these fears. Forever grateful!
- User type
- Staff
- Date posted
- 1y
Amazing to hear!!! Keep it up!
- Date posted
- 1y
emetophobia and agoraphobia!!
- User type
- Staff
- Date posted
- 1y
Woohoo! Those can be challenging, you've shown a lot of bravery by using ERP to help manage them!
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 1y
@emmagrace i struggle with the same thing. i’m glad i’m not alone
- Date posted
- 1y
The Big Garbage Can IYKYK
- Date posted
- 1y
I used to have obsessions about my orientation. That was a few themes ago, but I noticed my progress last night when watching a TikTok about someone who was born male but transitioned to female. I truthfully thought damn, both versions of this person are hot! No anxiety, and so in love with my hubs!
- Date posted
- 1y
Being able to get and accept bad news
Related posts
- Date posted
- 20w
I had just posted a summary of ERP for a group member, and I thought it might be useful for everybody. Here it is below (with a little extra added)…. ERP therapy is researched-based. Most other therapies don’t work. There have been people who have been literally stuck in their houses (from their OCD) who gained their lives back through ERP therapy. NOCD does ERP therapy exclusively. You can find it in other places too, but you have to ask around. There are two tenants of ERP therapy: The first one has to do with the repetitive thoughts inside our heads. These thoughts are actually defined as “obsessions”. You are not supposed to do anything with the obsessions. You are supposed to let them run through your head freely, without trying to fix them or stop them. Imagine a tree planted by a river. The leaves fall off and float down the river. You can see the leaves falling, but you don’t try to stop them or pick them up. You don’t try to fix them. You just let them float away. This is really important to do with your obsessive thoughts. The more you try to fight them off, the worse they get. I used to have blasphemous sentences running in my head 24/7. I felt like I had to put a “not” next to each sentence in order to “fix” it. But this just took hours of my time every day, and it was very scary, because I was worried that if I messed up, that I would go to hell. It was very freeing to learn later that I could just let those sentences run freely through my head without trying to fix them. The second part of ERP therapy is all about “denying your compulsions.” Every time OCD tells you that if you don’t do things a certain way that something really bad will happen, that is a compulsion. Once you recognize what your compulsions are, ERP therapy will have you practice stopping doing all of those things. For some people, that will mean stopping washing their hands or touching lights switches or, in my case, putting “fixing” words in their head. Compulsions are safety behaviors. During ERP therapy, you will practice stopping engaging with safety behaviors. All this is very hard to do and scary, so during therapy you will be given tools to help you deal with the fear. Often ERP therapy will take people from being non-functional to functional. I highly recommend it. ————————————————- PITFALL #1: After you have been doing ERP for a while and become somewhat successful, the OCD will try subtle little tricks to bring you down again. The first one is to tell you that your thoughts are REAL and not OCD, and therefore you can’t apply ERP therapy. Don’t fall for this trick! All thoughts are just thoughts. They are all meaningless. Don’t try to figure out what is real and what is OCD. Just treat all thoughts with ERP therapy. PITFALL #2: The second pitfall is that OCD will tell you that you can’t move forward unless you have absolute certainty that you will be safe. Hate to tell you this, folks, but there is no certainty in life. You will never know for SURE that you or your loved ones will be “safe” from the OCD rules. Therefore, you have to move forward in the uncertainty. It’s hard, but it gets easier with time and practice. We got this, guys !!!!!!
- Date posted
- 19w
I’m thinking about doing erp but my ocd is so severe the thought of accepting my fears happening to me makes me sick to my stomach. I also believe in the power of my words and saying I accept this Bad thing will attract it into my life. I’m not sure what I should do🥲
- Date posted
- 19w
I have, alongside my other OCD themes, an intense fear of insomnia. Although this has been improving somewhat — partly thanks to medication and The sleep school on YouTube — I still find myself ruminating about it throughout the day when I have something important the next day, I get stuck in the fear that everything will be ruined — for both myself and others — because my mind is so preoccupied with sleep. + a fear of depression coming back. It honestly feels like a form of sleep OCD. I'm not sure if that’s an official thing, but that’s how it feels to me. A form of erp is the idea of befriending wakefulness. That works great tbh. Things like sleep hygiene, meditation, etc. — tend to backfire because my OCD latches onto them and becomes too obsessive about “doing them right.” I’m genuinely wondering whether ERP — for example in the form of a worst-case-scenario audio loop (imaginal exposure) — could be helpful in this case. I’m hesitant to start unless I know it can actually help. Is there anyone who has experience with this or thoughts about it? I’m not looking for reassurance or tips to fall asleep — only for ideas on how ERP might be applied in this situation.
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