- Date posted
- 6y
- Date posted
- 6y
Thanks so much for your wonderful advice! I think I can speak on behalf of the entire community of nOCD when I say; we’re so happy that’ve you’re experiencing recovery after all your hard work! I just wanted to point out that, after all your hard work, you’ve reached a point where you can witness the mechanisms of your own OCD and recognise when it’s driving your thoughts and actions. This is fantastic! But just remember, not everyone on this community is in recovery just yet. They will be some day, but for now they’re doing their best with what they’ve got. Medication works but inhibiting the processes known to cause OCD in the brain. It’s not a band-aid. I know you might not have meant it, but it came across (to me at least) that your weak relying on medication. That’s not the case. I owe my life to medication combined with therapy, and if it means I have to remain on it for the rest of my life to fix the imbalance in my brain then I’ve accepted that. Please don’t think I’m being critical, I’m so, so happy for you! I just didn’t want others to feel weak because they’re yet to experience an epiphany like you :)) Have a wonderful day! d a i s y
- Date posted
- 6y
We all just need to keep fighting in whatever form that takes. Maybe someday none of will need to be here. That's my hope for everyone anyway. Until then let's just share and support each other one day at a time. I'm so happy for you Tabbykittycat!? Go get 'em!
- Date posted
- 6y
This is completely true!! Great statements! Agree with every word!!
- Date posted
- 6y
I’m so sorry, I felt instantly guilty posting that worrying that you’d think I meant harm. Please know that was not my intention at all! I’m soooo happy for you and appreciative of your advice! d a i s y
- Date posted
- 6y
@ d a i sy No no I completely understand! I know medication is an incredibly helpful tool! But on other forums, I’ve seen people talk about being on medication for years and then coming off it and becoming frustrated by resorting to their pre-medication habits, which really makes me sad! I think its really important for people to use the tools we’ve been given properly to see results! But I totally get if what I said sounded a little harsh!
- Date posted
- 6y
Of course being on medication is not a weakness, I truly believe the sign of strength is doing whatever YOU need to do to improve, but in my experience, medication is best used with therapy :) I’d be really interested to see your thoughts on this though, I’m always interested in learning more!
- Date posted
- 6y
Thanks so much for all of your help and support here, we’ll miss you! Good luck on your continued recovery ???
- Date posted
- 6y
thank you!!
- Date posted
- 6y
Well put!!
- Date posted
- 6y
Hi Tabbykittycat! You weren’t harsh, I promise. I’m so glad I didn’t offend you! I’m truely ecstatic you’re recovering! I completely agree with what you’ve said :) You’re awesome! Best of luck for the future :) d a i s y
- Date posted
- 6y
Couldn'tve said it better! Thank you so much God bless you the victory is already ours!
Related posts
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 18w
As a 20+ year OCD vet and OCD conqueror. I wanted to share some tips and tricks that help me. 1. A thought is not the same as a belief. You can think something, and not believe it in the slightest. 2. Thoughts DO NOT represent ANYTHING. They are not indicators to who we are as people, they are pop up ads for the brains computer. 3. We DO NOT control our thoughts! The average person has about 60,000 ( yes, 4 zeros) a day! NONE of which are controlled. 4. We DO have control over which of those 60k thoughts are important. i.e. thought A. I could murder my entire household- survey says? not important ( because yea, sure, you could, but you probably don't really want to) thought B. i need to do my laundy-survey says? important... unfortunately, i hate laundry. which brings me to number 5. 5. Emotional reasoning ( where you let your feelings impact your decisions) is a COGNITIVE DISTORTION. It is a flawed thought process and should NEVER be used. "wanting to do something" does not mean you SHOULD do it, same and sometimes NOT wanting to do something doesn't mean you shouldn't do it ( picked what is important) my brain might tell me i WANT to break up with my husband, ( unimportant) and it might also say i don't want to get up and go to work in the morning ( important). 6. YOU-ARE-IN-CONTROL. Not to be confused with HAVING control. We don't control our thoughts, we control which ones are important, we don't control our feelings or emotions, but we control how to react (or not react) to them. We don't control our OCD, but we can control how it affects our lives, and that can mean that is has all the power, or none. 7. If the action you want to do ( confess, get reassurance, check, analyze, avoid, re-do) are to gain relief from anxiety, IT IS A COMPULSION. DO NOT DO IT. Sit with the anxiety and train your brain to realize its not dangerous or important with ERP ( this takes time, but practice makes perfect) 8. Know your enemy. NOCD has a HUGE amount of articles and information on ALL subtypes of OCD and how to respond and how to treat them. OCD is MUCH easier to combat when you understand how it works. 9. BE PATIENT. BE KIND to yourself. Prioritize healthy habits, a healthy body is better equipped to handle OCD. Good sleep, whole foods, sunlight, social interaction, exercise ( walking especially). When the mind feels weak, make the body strong. 10. You are not alone. OCD is classified by the World Health Organization as one of the top 10 most distressing disorders. Reach out to people, seek medical help. Medication is not evil, it can be life-saving, TALK to people. Bonus Tips * if the question is " What If" its OCD. * Total certainty does not exist, be content with 99%* *"But this feels different, this feels like its not OCD, that its real*- emotional reasoning... its OCD. Hang in there. You got this. Im here for any advice, questions, or support. Today is a great day to have a GREAT DAY.
- Date posted
- 17w
I am FINALLY starting to (somewhat) recover from this last existential spiral, which admittedly, was probably the cruelest my OCD has ever been to me. Only thanks to you all. You were all able to provide me with kindness, understanding and support… without the kind of reassurance that feeds OCD, of course. When I downloaded this app, I was genuinely terrified. I was so scared that I was permanently doomed to the endless whirlpool that is the thoughts produced by my own brain and that life as I knew it was over, that I would never be happy again. For anyone who might be feeling that way right now, your OCD is LYING to you! Whatever you may be going through, it CAN get better. As hard as it may be right now, HAVE FAITH! Get up and do that thing you want to do in spite of the fear and discomfort. Take the fear with you like a whiny, unwilling toddler and do it anyway. Watch the movie, read the book, order that takeout you’ve been craving, bake the cake, wash the dishes… Please do it anyway! It will be hard at first, I won’t lie. But the OCD part of your brain, like a toxic partner, WANTS to win. It wants you to give up on those things that you love, all those things that make you happy so that there’s no space for anything but itself. Don’t let it win. The more you push yourself, the more you rewire your brain to realize that as much as it may feel like, the obsession doesn’t matter! Thanks to you all, even without therapy (YET - I’m starting that journey on Tuesday because there’s still a lot to unpack, and I know that OCD won’t just magically go away), I was able to get a basic understanding of ERP and learning to sit with discomfort and how to live life in spite of it, rather than letting it take over my very being. So for that, I thank this community. I think I would be in a very different place right now if it weren’t for the people I’ve met here who truly understood my experiences. I hope you have a wonderful day. Please don’t give up. You deserve to be happy, no matter what your brain is telling you ❤️
- OCD newbies
- Religion & Spirituality OCD
- Young adults with OCD
- "Pure" OCD
- Magical Thinking OCD
- Existential OCD
- Date posted
- 16w
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 !!!!!!
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