Going through a ready hard time rn. Anyone have advice for how they get out of rough patches with their ocd. It’s completely taken over my life the past two days and I feel like all I do is sleep and have this knowing anxiety.
Another tip is setting a timer for 24 hours and telling yourself that you're not going to ruminate over a particular intrusive thought for at least that amount of time, when the thought comes up you just say "no thanks brain, I can think about that when the timer is up, but for now I'm going to think about something else" and keep redirecting your attention
@Beaniesquee Thank you this is so kind and lovely. I really needed to hear this because I think I’ve also been so down because I feel like I’m alone in the universe with this
@Beaniesquee How do you get through when everything just feels so hopeless? Like a lot of times I feel so awful that I don’t to do anything
@mjabel25 Me too, I feel you ❤️
@Flamo Yeah I feel like everything is dull and when I do anything other than sit in bed I get huge waves of anxiety
@mjabel25 You are absolutely not alone!
@mjabel25 I can relate to this so much too and I know how scary it can feel. I would say try to be as gentle with yourself as possible, sometimes I need to just let myself feel the hopeless feelings and cry it out. I find that I spend a lot of my time resisting those feelings and I think that doing that only keeps them around longer. Also reaching out for support from people can help 🩷
@Beaniesquee Thank you. My ocd has also been just really fixated on trying to make me feel guilty for every single possible thing in the world even if I’ve done nothing wrong
I have been there! Honestly still dealing with some, but one thing I really had to learn is to accept that I have OCD and the thoughts that repetitively come in my head without logic will be there- maybe forever maybe for a bit. Separate yourself from the thoughts- think of yourself as two different people. The OCD and yourself. It’s hard but I can tell now that it’s OCD and I just have to remind myself that they only have value if I listen to it
@Anonymous Thank you that’s so helpful. It’s just so hard when it’s all so consuming
So sorry you're feeling this way, you're definitely not alone. I recently was in a very bad state with my OCD and anxiety. I can share what helped for me and maybe some of it will help for you ❤️ first I just want to say that I have so much empathy for what you're going through, it is hard. I first had to make sure I was doing what I could to calm my physical body down, which for me meant taking zzquill at night to make sure I was actually sleeping through the night, as well as drinking enough water and eating enough good food. Sometimes it's important to go back to basics when you're in a state like that. Next I found podcasts/books of people talking about the specific ocd obsessions I was struggling with, which helped me to feel less alone. And then working with my therapist and doing exposure work with her was helpful. If you don't have a therapist, there are some people on youtube who talk about exposure work and how to start doing it, which helped me tremendously.
It’s been horrible for me, I have spent so much money on therapists and doctors only to know that that’s what’s been fueling my OCD. Constant reaching out, constant support, has actually fueled my OCD. Constant research, affirmations, basically brain overload.
@ameadows17 I’m so sorry I can’t imagine how hard that is for you
(I’m not sure if this has anything triggering but just in case—know that I bring up my OCD but not what it is specifically so I think it’s fine? ) Just really struggling right now and was wondering if anyone had any words of advice or encouragement? I’ve had OCD my entire life but it didn’t start becoming severe until I was around 14/15. It reached the point of extreme where going anywhere or socializing at all caused embarrassment because I had NO idea how to control compulsions and had no idea that’s what they were in the first place. I would also get lost in intrusive thoughts and physically couldn’t communicate. Fast forward and I was isolated throughout the years important to my development. Didn’t go to school, didn’t go to any social events, didn’t get a job (and then 2020 came along and I literally couldn’t.) and just stayed in my room letting my OCD consume me. It was really bad in 2022 and destroyed a very important relationship I had and set me back once again, it hit me extremely strong and a few months later I was once again just -stuck- these were years I was supposed to get ready for college but I couldn’t, and now this year I’m turning 20 and I have nothing to show for it. I’m still stuck and at this point I just feel like there’s no hope for me. The only job I can muster up anything for is creative writing but I feel like such a failure. I’m in such a dark place and I just can’t convince myself it’ll get better. Any words of encouragement would be nice because I just don’t know what to do.
i’ve made posts in the past regarding the same struggles and i haven’t found any relief. school has started and im managing my grades well enough; but im miserable, suffocating on my thoughts day in and day out with no one to turn to and nothing to numb the pain. my ocd is been preventing me from sleeping and i cant stop the thoughts. i’ve been on medications and tried different types of therapies but i feel so stuck. time is just dragging me along for the ride but i cant stop thinking about everything bad that has ever happened to me. i cant stop the intrusive thoughts. my fingers are raw from the compulsions and i genuinely dont know what to do anymore. i have no one and nothing; does anyone have any advice to dig yourself out of quicksand? how to return to the person you used to be and leave all of the struggles behind? to even get over it all?
Struggling today with my thoughts and maybe some dissociation. I can’t get any clear thoughts. I felt like lately I’ve started to recover and then the past few days have felt so hard. I feel scared for the future. I am scared I don’t have enough hope for living with ocd. I am scared that I’m not gonna be happy. I’m scared I’ll chose to end my life over this. I’m scared I’ll want to end my life. I feel weird. My thoughts are jumbled today. Something feels like it’s going to happen and that’s what is giving me anxiety.
Share your thoughts so the Community can respond
