When you’re ocd tells you that you were thinking something or that you did something that you know you weren’t or didn’t, how do you get past that? I know that it isn’t true but the ocd keeps making me feel like i’m a liar. Has anyone had this happen? How did you get past it?
It's our reaction to the thoughts, not the thoughts themselves. It actually takes retraining your brain to not react. That's basically what ERP therapy does. In time it begins to be a new norm, but it's not easy at first because we go right back to what's familiar.
@Someone99 Whenever I try to just let the thought be there and move on with my day and not engage, my ocd comes back so much worse and then i’m back in the loop.
@hopefulxmess It is tricky. Have you ever been able to get with an OCD therapist? I know when I started erp therapy it was difficult to do it correctly at first. It takes some time and help to get it right. You're in my thoughts and prayers ❤️
@hopefulxmess Try to stay present today. It's a one day at a time type thing. I know it's difficult. When my thoughts are out of control I can't even pay attention enough while driving. I actually drive through red lights. Please don't be afraid to reach out if you need to.
@Someone99 Ty so much
@Someone99 Thank you for responding. Hardly anyone responds to posts on this app anymore. I’m trying so hard but the past few days my ocd has been so bad. I was feeling much better for an entire week before this flare up. They say ocd will get worse when you stop engaging and that’s so true. I think because i’ve dealt with harm and pocd themes and intrusive thoughts for so long that i’m desensitized to them so when they pop up I don’t feel the cringe or disgust I used to feel and that’s now causing intrusive thoughts saying that it’s because I like them. I feel so frustrated and defeated. I know these thoughts are not who I am but my ocd won’t let me believe that and that’s where i’m struggling.
@hopefulxmess I know it can be frustrating because our brains are, well, our brains. Lol. Thanks for sharing and for writing me. Is it possible it's a good thing you don't react to the thoughts when they pop up? That's when you can just let them be. It's like our reaction to them puts us in the frenzy, causes the anxiety and need to do compulsions, so maybe the challenge is to address those thoughts telling you that you like them? Sometimes I'll take a thought like that and imagine writing it on the sail of a sailboat, then just looking at it pass by. That's one of my tools. And yes, it isn't who you are, just the opposite, that's why you react so strongly against them. You can overcome this. :-)
@Someone99 And don't forget to remember who you really are. In the moments in between the struggles. When your mind is calm, remember who you really are and build on that. I call them my "affirmations".:-)
@Someone99 Ty💕
@hopefulxmess Anytime 🙂
Pretty sure most folks with ocd deal with this at some point. Give me an example of something and I can suggest how I would ERP it. It does not have to be real of that will trigger you , but something close to what you are dealing with.
Lemme explain, so quite often if I’m retelling something that happened I will lie about random details because I constantly think that if whatever I’m saying isn’t interesting enough or if it makes me seem like a bad person then the listener will absolutely hate me or think I’m boring and not want to talk to me anymore. I don’t know if that could potentially be based on ocd or if maybe it’s more like pathological lying ? Sometimes I’ll even take it as far as repetitively memorizing the lie details to the point where I actually feel like I remember it happening that way (like I almost gaslight myself into believing my own lies if that makes sense?)
Hey everyone, I’m still struggling a bit with false memory ocd. Mine revolves around my relationship. There are some things I have remembered that occurred early on in the relationship, whether someone texted me on Snapchat or TikTok etc. and it was old friends of mine from a friend group. In the friend group it was me and about couple guys and girls. I remember there being an instance where one of the guys had messaged me on Snapchat after I had posted something about a tv show or I had posted a picture of me and my mom and they reached out to me saying something and I honestly can’t remember at all what they had said to me but I’m pretty sure i remember I responded with “Lol” or “Thank you” , and I think the reason I’m really struggling right now is that I can’t remember hardly anything about the text at all. And of course, my ocd is trying to convince me that it was either a flirty chat, or something else. I also want to mention that I unadded a lot of people off my snap, mostly guys on TikTok etc after dating my boyfriend because I felt like that was respectful. And even after doing that, my OCD was trying to convince me that I un added them because I was hiding something or I was on adding them because I didn’t want my boyfriend to see that they were on my Snapchat, which was not the case at all. I think I’m just really struggling because I think about past events that have happened in my mind is trying to convince me that something else happened, rather than allowing me to remember what actually went on. I just wanted to come on here and ask if anyone else struggles with something like this because it’s been really bothering me the past couple days and I know I would never do anything to hurt my boyfriend because I love him so much it’s just I freak out constantly, and it bothers me a lot.
any advice for when you get false memories that feel really real? especially something that had JUST happened, it’s like ur brain distorts it. i feel like i do something wrong 24/7 then i get over it and ocd latched onto something new
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