- Date posted
- 32w
Has anyone overcome magical thinking OCD?
Struggling currently struggling with magical thinking and feeling like I’ll never overcome it. What has worked for you?
Struggling currently struggling with magical thinking and feeling like I’ll never overcome it. What has worked for you?
Our brains have a tendency to seek patterns, even when events are unrelated. When no pattern exists, we often create one because we struggle with uncertainty and desire a sense of certainty. This post might help you understand https://app.treatmyocd.com/community/posts/2030461
I don’t want to say I’ve “overcome” magical thinking, but I am getting much better at identifying what is magical thinking versus other thinking. I notice the reaction I have to magical thinking feels a certain way and I feel more of a physical response when magical thinking is happening. So when the thoughts start building to become grandiose and very “out there” i try to pull myself out of the thought cycle. Hope this helps you.
@Hopefloats227 How do you pull yourself out of the thought cycle? Sometimes I just get so overwhelmed by it that I just wash my hands over and over again without any relief.
@Anonymous Well at this point I believe it’s because I have done therapy and take medication that helps ;)
I'd say I mostly have overcome my MTOCD. I do still get intrusions, but I don't do compulsions anymore. My fear that my MTOCD thoughts come true is mostly gone. When it does pop up, I still refrain from doing compulsions and the fear goes down very quickly. My problem with regards to my MTOCD is, that the triggers are still causing a lot of anxiety. I think it's a phobia now. That being said: ERP had been the key for me. When I started ERP I had been stuck in MTOCD loops for an hour or more per day - which is quite a lot, given that I had/have other OCD subtypes, too. I'd have few intrusive thoughts per minute always followed by a short compulsion and that, as I said before, in an hour long loop. After starting ERP the frequency in which the intrusive thoughts would pop up went down quickly and now there are days, when I don't have MTOCD related intrusive at all.
@Zoë_84 How did you get past the fear to start ERP?
@Anonymous With an awesome therapist and a very slow approach. She had me watch a youtube video of something that triggered my MTOCD. Then we made little short ERP exercises. It'd set it up and she said, that I could put it away after the exercise, but at some point, I left it there even after I has finished my exercise. What was so great about my therapist was, that I felt understood and cared for. She was kind and compassionate. When I beat myself up for not having down all my ERP homework, she praised the homework I have completed. She always said we, she made me feel like her and me are in it together. I no longer fought alone, we fought together. She had been a great support, without ever giving me reassurance. I have never had such a good therapist before I started therapy with her and I had a lot of therapist before her.
@Zoë_84 Wow! That’s amazing. My therapist is also starting low and slow with me but I’m having a hard time trusting the process. It’s encouraging to hear others finding success.
@Anonymous Try listing out ALL the reasons getting better would be worth doing ERP. The write out all the reasons it’s worth NOT doing erp. See what list is longer. Life is pretty awesome on the other side of ERP and recovery. And it’s absolutely possible. Might be scary but you can do hard things: I mean, look how long you’ve been dealing with this crappy disorder and yet you’re still making it every day! take the leap, and take it one day at a time. YOU CAN DO IT. And when you do. You’re doing to feel so empowered that OCD isn’t going to be able to bully you quite as much!!!
@Hopefloats227 Thank you so much for your encouraging words! Definitely what I needed today.
Can someone please tell me at what point did you finally accept that it’s OCD? When did the ERP click for you? When did you just stop buying into the lies of OCD and finally let go? Like what does it take. It’s been 2 years of this for me and I’m in ERP currently and it’s just not clicking 😣 is it just me???
When I was a child, before I knew this was OCD, I struggled with constant "magical thinking" compulsions (don't step on the crack or mom's back will actually break, etc). When I later learned this was OCD, it almost immediately solved it. Any time I got a magical thought, I would say to myself "that's just an OCD thought. ignore it." and it just stopped coming! Like seriously it fixed the magical thinking stuff forever. But of course the OCD has resurfaced in other ways. So naturally, I've tried to use the same strategy since I had so much success with it previously. But I wonder sometimes if telling myself "that's just OCD" is almost functioning as a reassurance compulsion? I hate how meta this gets. For example, I have ROCD that comes and goes. So sometimes I'll get a thought like "what if i'm still in love with my ex?" and then I'll tell myself "that's obviously just an ROCD thought" and will feel relief, almost like reassurance. But it comes back. So is telling myself that it's OCD a reassurance compulsion ?? It's just so weird because it worked so perfectly as a kid with the magical thinking thing.
I’m starting NOCD. I had several years of cbt as a child (well over 20 years ago) and I see a trauma therapist. But now I’ll be seeking further help for OCD and just really scared. CBT wasn’t helpful for me. How has ERP been helpful for you? Do you feel like you’ll finally get your life back? I’m consumed by my obsessions 😢 Would love others feedback if ERP helped you ❤️
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