How to recover without help

I'm sorry to hear this, just know you're not alone. Have you reached out for therapy? Therapy with a NOCD therapist was life-changing for me. There is effective therapy, tools to use, when these thoughts come. It's in stopping the behaviors (rumination, overexagerating-catastrophizing, etc.) that we get freedom. Therapy can give you those tools. A really great book that truly had everything I ever learned in therapy in it is "Needing to Know for Sure" by Winston and Self. Explore NOCD's website and YouTube channel, so much great info there, as well as the IOCDF website.

Hey! Good on you for looking for some guidance, that’s one of the way you’re looking for help right now :) I’ve recently started my journey with OCD, and started to look into therapy, as I wanted to be able to understand my thoughts and get some guidance and perspective on how to cope! Everyone is different, so it really depends. Before I could access therapy, the ways I sought for help, was through: Dance and music. Literally your favourite songs, in your headphones and dance in your room for hours, it helps with emotional regulation and gets you busy and active! New hobbies: cooking, as it’s a critical one that involves your mind to be present and grounded! Painting and drawing, just with even a pen and sticky note, go for some light hearted things like animals, nature or even doodles Mediation: this can vary for everyone! I’ve found that podcasts on Spotify truly help, whether that’s on crime, self care or even just game theory! Also, mindfulness meditation, which I recommend to search online some techniques. These are methods used to help when having a spiral or when you need to try and get your mind to be present rather than ruminate on OCD. My favourites that have worked so well, even just for a second for me to grasp that I’m having a spiral is; math! (Count backwards from 100 using 7s, do timetables with hard numbers to really centre you in, spell your name backwards several times and.) the senses method (breathe with each of these things as you acknowledge them: 5 things you see, 4 things you hear, 3 things you touch, 2 you smell, 1 you hear) I’ve learnt these methods through going online to some well-being live counselling text chats, that last for about 20 mins. It helps to talk to someone, who can have a different perspective and give you either advice to help you cope, or just to listen to your current OCD situation Lastly, this can take some practice, as I’ve only developed this with myself over the last few months. But acknowledging your thoughts, as rational and irrational. Rational can be general concern and curiosity that doesn’t give you such grave distress. While irrational are ideas and thoughts stemming from OCD that push you into the spiral of overthinking and doubt I hope these methods help a little, feel free to reply back if you have any more insight to share, questions or just want suggestions! You got this