I am sk scared

@Tea and Honey Yes please it feels so real like i want this but i keep repeating to myself that wouldnt happen that wouldnt happrn and im nervous when i feel like that

@carol.xxx It sounds like your brain is feeding you intrusive thoughts and/or compulsions. Don’t worry about it! This is NORMAL for OCD. You can expect this to happen. It’s how we respond to this that makes all the difference. Let’s talk about what to do when this happens

@Tea and Honey Okay thank you is this normal for a constant intrusive feeling in your head when it feels like u want to / feel like your about to 🥺♥️

@carol.xxx Yes!!!!! Totally normal. I’ll link you some videos

@carol.xxx This is the essence of what OCD does

@carol.xxx OCD consists of two parts: Obsessions and compulsions. 1.) obsessions are the intrusive, disturbing thoughts that get pumped in our heads (like to throw someone over a balcony or stab someone with a knife, etc., etc.) 2.) Compulsions are the actions we take to try to make the obsessions not torture us so much

@carol.xxx ERP training will help you identify the obsessions and compulsions, and then respond the right way (which is basically by doing nothing, by the way, and just living your life). Remember, YOU CAN’T DO ANYTHING ABOUT THE OBSESSIVE-COMPULSIVE STUFF that gets pumped into our brains and bodies. You can’t stop the intrusive thoughts or urges. But here’s the solution: YOU DON’T HAVE TO TRY TO STOP THEM. In fact, the harder you try, the worse they get. You need to accept that OCD is going to bring total garbage into our brains, and we can’t do anything about it. But what we can do is ERP therapy. It really works.

@carol.xxx Try this video. If you like it, there are a lot more by Nathan Peterson which could be helpful https://youtu.be/3aOjh_CPydc?si=StG5AVhKyAJld5t8

@Tea and Honey I have a question is it normal if it feels constant intrusive feeling in your brain like its just CONSTANT no break and is it normal to have intrusive thoughts that say” you need to “

@carol.xxx Yes to both. This is normal. ERP will help with this

@carol.xxx The thoughts or urges are constant

@carol.xxx This is what OCD is. It is classic OCD

@carol.xxx Are you ok now? Let me know if you want to talk

@Tea and Honey So by doing nothing, do you mean just let the thoughts be? I am currently taking medication for the first time, and it helps but I still get some intrusive thoughts. I typically struggle in the morning which is weird, but in the evening I am okay. I struggle with the ERP because I am unsure what compulsions I am doing, or if I am doing it right.

@Mario1532 Yes, by doing nothing, I mean that you just let the thoughts be. You don’t try to fight them off. You don’t try to fix them. My therapist at NOCD explained it to me like this: Your thoughts are like leaves on a tree, which is planted by a river. You can watch the leaves fall off the tree and float down the river. You don’t try to prevent the leaves from falling or floating down. You can watch them , but you just let them go. In my life, it looks like this: I used to have constant blasphemous sentences towards God, running in my head every minute of the day. The sentences basically said, “You are a _____” (bad word) , or something like that. I felt like I had to put the word “not” into each sentence in order to cancel the sentence out. (I didn’t know at the time that this was actually a compulsion!) In my journey with OCD, I found out that the thoughts don’t actually mean anything. And God doesn’t require me to go around fixing these thoughts in my head. In fact, God wanted me to just let those thoughts run (because they don’t mean anything). Was scary at first to let those sentences just run in my head without trying to fix them. It was a step of faith for me to do it. But it was a gateway to freedom for me. Later on, I learned that ERP (which is one of the best ways to treat OCD) teaches to allow the thoughts to “run.” It’s a major tenant of defeating the OCD. If you go around fighting the thoughts all the time or fixing them, you will get lost and feel like you are dying in all the rules and fear. It is actually a huge step for people to realize that their intrusive thoughts are meaningless, no matter what they are. They could be blasphemous thoughts, or POCD thoughts, or harm thoughts, or sexual thoughts -– it doesn’t matter. A major foundation of OCD recovery is learning to let the thoughts run (whatever they are) and realizing that you are still safe.

@Tea and Honey Thank you so much for the clarification. I always thought we had to face the thought and say something to it to stop it. I didn’t understand how to approach ERP and was confused of what to do. You clarified a lot. Now I must learn to stop rumination, overthinking, and especially checking.

@Mario1532 lol, checking is a hard one for me too

@Tea and Honey Yea that one gets me, especially in the morning to see how I am feeling.

@Mario1532 ERP basically has two pillars: Number one: You allow the thoughts to run in your head without fixing them. Number two: You have to practice denting the compulsions. You can do this over time, starting with the least scary and working your way forward. Let’s talk about compulsions for a minute. Compulsions can come in different ways, but they often come as a way to “fix” or “cancel out” the thoughts. You see, your brain wants to seek for some way to “fix” the thoughts. It will devise some sort of compulsion. Sometimes that compulsion seems to make sense (even though it ultimately does not make sense because it is derived from OCD). Other times the compulsion is somehow “magically”connected to fixing the thoughts. I’ll give you an example. Besides my putting a “not” inside my head every other second, I had other compulsions too. When I had the blasphemous thoughts in my head, I thought I could also fix them by following “rules”. These rules were were things like, Don’t eat chocolate for a day, or Don’t go to the park for a day, or Don’t watch a certain movie, or Don’t buy certain things at the store. In reality, chocolate and popcorn have nothing to do with bad thoughts. But my brain had devised a way for me to “fix” the dangers I felt from the thoughts in these silly, disconnected ways.

@Mario1532 Lol, totally!! I’ve spent years checking in the morning to see if I’m still saved. Lol NOCD has a great training for you in ERP, by the way. All the meetings are on zoom with a therapist. I think it’s usually pointless to get a therapist who is not trained in ERP. Outside of NOCD, it’s probably hit or miss to find a therapist who is trained in ERP; however, I think it’s become more and more well-known these days that ERP is a therapy that works, and more therapists use it now

@Tea and Honey Yea I had one through NOCD but maybe we weren’t a match. If anything I developed more triggers. I am always afraid to switch because I don’t want to hurt their feelings.

@Mario1532 I had one good therapist through NOCD, and then I didn’t get a lot out of the second therapist that I had, so I understand not getting a match sometimes. NOCD lets us switch it up if necessary. They don’t mind. Was the person you talked to useful in talking to you about ERP? I also really like Nathan Peterson‘s courses on YouTube . He has an online Master course that you can pay for and go through yourself. Also he has videos almost everything, and I find them very useful too.

@carol.xxx Carol, yes... it's normal to have the thoughts constantly. I was before. But am feeling a lot better since I've been on meds. Are you talking any meds?

@Speckles No :(

@Tea and Honey Thank you today I feel less anxioys but im just thinking of it constantly i want it gone

@carol.xxx Would you be up to taking them? You'll need a psychiatrist

@carol.xxx It’s okay if it’s not gone. Make up your mind that you are going to live your life whether the thoughts/urges are there or not. You can’t put any pressure on yourself to have them gone. Tell yourself that it doesn’t matter if they are gone or not. Even better, tell yourself that the thoughts are WELCOME to be there if they want to be. They can stay all day if they want to. You don’t care! You are going to let the thoughts do whatever they are going to do. You can’t control them. But whether they are there or not, you are going forward with your life. This is the best mindset to have about the intrusive thoughts and urges. If you are always focused on having them gone, they usually get worse.