OCD Worse in the Morning

My intrusive thoughts flood in generally every morning around 4-5 am, and I find myself ruminating until I’ve made it to work. It’s like clockwork. I realize it could be cortisol related, but for the last 8 months, it has set the tone for my day. I deal with a variety of themes, and they ultimately leave me feeling nauseous and trapped forever. Curious if anyone else experiences this in the mornings and if something has worked to derail those thoughts first thing in the AM. Sleeping in isn’t an option… 😞

"Pure" OCD

Chelsea🌿🐝

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 42w

Definitely experience this in the mornings. What helps me is to try to get up and get my day started despite them. It’s hard at first though. Definitely a cortisol thing in my opinion but there’s no way to really get rid of them . Just try to be willing to allow them to be there and go about your day. It’s super hard to do initially but it takes practice. We will have the thoughts whether we like it or not, but fighting them only keeps them there and gets us tangled in the web of rumination.

Kintsugi321

Date posted: 42w

@Chelsea🌿🐝 Thanks! Yes, staying in bed isn’t helping anything. I just spiral away. I’m working on the allowing them to be there, but they are quite disturbing, so it feels like I’m stuck in a terrible version of Groundhog Day right now with the way the thoughts loop. I’m very tangled, so I’ll try to get up and do something. It’s just so early!

Chelsea🌿🐝

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 42w

@Kintsugi321 Yes I totally understand!!!

Samuel1

Date posted: 42w

I don't know how much sleep you are getting, maybe you are getting enough and this is meaningless. But I find that if I havn't gotten enough sleep, my OCD is worse in the morning. So try going to bed earlier if you don't already get 8-9 hours. And if you like having a morning coffee, try cut back. Caffeine can make anxiety worse. But if you already dont drink coffee and get enough sleep, I find podcasts really help. Probably ideally a funny one. As your getting ready and going to work, put on a funny podcast you like. It really helps me to distract my brain and only requires the attention of your ears

Kintsugi321

Date posted: 42w

@Samuel1 Thank you! Part of the problem is that I can’t sleep for 8-9 hours anymore. I average 4-5. This has been a major catalyst in my OCD! Wish I could sleep longer. I cut out coffee and replaced with a milder tea too—no change. The funny podcast bit first thing is a great idea! I need to get out of my head, and music and podcasts definitely help.

Samuel1

Date posted: 42w

@Kintsugi321 I really hope you can get to a point in life where you are able to get a full night sleep. I feel you, it really sucks when you have to run on little sleep. And I hope the podcasts serve you well 🙏 I listen to them while cleaning, and it helps so much to replace that loud OCD voice in my head, with the voice of some funny people

Kintsugi321

Date posted: 42w

@Samuel1 Much appreciated! That OCD voice is no joke, but at least I know what it is now, so that’s a step in the right direction. I’ll see what I can find for podcasts. I just need the funny voices to be louder than the OCD. 😅

Crook

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 23w

OCD in the morning

Each night I go to bed determined to stop compulsions and start beating this disorder. Then I wake up and it smacks me in the face first thing and I’m doing a compulsion before I know it. I told my therapist that I would try to handle it like we do in session, but I’ve already failed. It seems like I can’t bring ERP into my “real” life.

uncertain_Aly

Date posted: 21w

Does OCD impact your ability to get to work?

Often times I find myself spiraling out in the morning about all sorts of things. When I try and catch myself and figure out what I am obsessing over it’s like it goes away. I haven’t moved. I have been sitting frozen on the floor because I can’t go to work because I am behind on work and I hate being late and I hate being messy but I am frequently late and my room is cluttered and full of stuff. I want to be good and move and go to work but I don’t know what is coming today and I hate my job so I know I will get bored and when I have nothing to keep me busy and engaged I like start thinking and taking an inventory of what is going on and then I will feel a sensation and what is the sensation? How did it happen? And I know that I will pick up the bad emotions in the office and get contaminated, I was really worried about things like this as a kid too I cried because I had to touch dirt in kindergarten. I know I am this way and I have been this way for a while but at the same time I think I might just be normal and like I don’t know why I get stuck in thinking like this. Then I begin to doubt that OCD is real because everyone has a brain with wiring and everyone gets stuck in thought sometimes. I feel disabled from whatever this is because I am stuck. I literally cannot move because I don’t know what’s wrong and I know I have to go to work even though I feel like every moment I spend there is making everything worse because other people are so stressed and I get it from them. And I don’t feel ready because I just feel off and something is wrong and I just don’t know what to do because if it’s OCD or not OCD everything anyone knows about me is coming from me and I worry that I am often masking all the thinking I’m doing because thinking all the time is rude and inconsiderate and inconvenient for those around me, but I can’t stop. I just don’t feel right, right now - and I want to know WHY?? Why is everything off all the time? How do I even know that I am not making up the experience of OCD in my head to cover up something really wrong with me and now I am taking on the symptoms of OCD like an actress, because this could be something that I can latch onto as a final hope for explaining why I am stuck. So stuck so deeply and terribly stuck sitting on my floor next to my bed just scrolling to avoid thinking because any time I start thinking I am left with no answers or help or anything just this swirly feeling. I know I am trying, maybe not my best, but as much as I possibly can. I want to be a Special Education Teacher but I have so much so so so much doubt and uncertainty about every decision I make and everything I know that I can’t get there right now. I can’t do anything right now until it feels ok and then I will. It never feels ok. I know I have to be ok not feeling ok about it. I can be unsure and still be ok. I know it’s just my thinking and my body but I just can’t get past this feeling. And then I know that because I can calm myself and be ok even though I spent 2 hours of my life today already feeling stuck and spinning around and around and around in my head - I don’t feel sure about my OCD and I think it’s a bit of a scam made up by people to cultivate pathology around deep human thought because one day I might figure it out and we all think a lot.

Hexxi

Date posted: 20w

Intrusive thoughts 24/7

Any one else deal with this? Like from the moment they wake up to the second they fall asleep, the intrusive thoughts are there?

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OCD Worse in the Morning

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