Does OCD go away on its own?

@hanysm@gmail.com wow, I pray I can get to this point one day too…

@tlousluvr You can, all you need is try and be regular on ERP and you will master it. I did exactly that. The difference is nobody taught me this, and in your case you just need to commit and do it. I hope you are seeing a therapist.

@hanysm@gmail.com So you’ve been diagnosed with OCD but have been able to overcome it almost entirely?

@issphra 🫶🏻 His kid has ocd. He's well educated as a parent though. He's helped me think differently

@Wolfram I remember that from another post, I was just hopeful that maybe some people fully overcome it after being diagnosed with OCD

Yep I can tell the difference between an intrusive thought- psychoeducational helped me a lot even though I didn't get diagnosed or go into therapy. I will talk to an ocd specialist of course soon I hope, but self help books like Overcoming intrusive unwanted thoughts, PureO the invisible side of OCD these books helped me SO much. I was just curious because I have some days when I don't get the thoughts (one of the good days) and then I think maybe if it's gone so early (2 months in) it wasn't ocd, and maybe I really am BI or whatever. Yesterday I realized I was afraid of labels- straight, gay, lesbian etc etc. Maybe one trigger I have to work with. I have made a list of my triggers, gradually working my way up!

Maybe I engaged in compulsions, then I stopped and let the thought be- just like any other doubt I have In my mind that I can't find a solution too. Let it evaporate on it's own

@Anonymous Compulsions reinforce intrusive thoughts, and are by all means not helpful. Compulsions are like me barking back at the dog, which signals it to bark more.

@issphra 🫶🏻 It's more like remission than being cured. It can come back as it's carved a neural pathway in our head. It will take time. Some themes will be easy and show fast results, others will be frustratingly slower but once you notice the results they are a nice surprise.

@Wolfram And adding to this, our brains have an amazing ability to heal, but it will almost keep that ocd option as a failsafe survival technique. Once you have showed your brain its not needed and other stuff is better and proven to be better, the likelihood of ocd popping up will reduce. Rinse and repeat

@Wolfram Hey! I remember seeing your posts in the past when you were really struggling and just wanted to say how happy I am to see you post this now. I sincerely hope ERP has helped you find some peace. Proud of the work you’ve put in!

I did. I actually can tell when it's an intrusive thought and when it isn't. I know what to ignore now. Doesn't mean the thoughts have stopped. But I know the difference. It took me 2 months of study- from being misled on reddit to finding out I couldn't get my therapy and finally landing on self help books and some self motivation. I read it and now I know about my disease well. I am still planning to talk to an ocd therapist. But I can tell the difference now. I don't react to them. I guess when I sent this post, I was worried that if it went away too quickly it wouldn't be ocd and that it would mean I was actually of some other orientation

@Anonymous If I may add, those thoughts are usually negative, repeating and pushing for compulsions.

@alissaa Thank you. Erp helped massively but I had a few complex comorbid conditions / neurosis which made it more difficult to heal. Other therapies helped too. This last 18 months have been the biggest healing process of my life. 2025 is gonna be the year I unscrew the real world side effects of all of mental health stuff. I have a plan, just need to stick to it. Thank you so much for your kind comment 😊 I hope you are doing well also

@hanysm@gmail.com - I did not engage in a lot of compulsions today- it was just letting the thoughts pass, and the frequency has reduced, now the thoughts are more about the memory of having ocd than the intrusive thoughts themselves, touchwood. But in some ways I was wondering, if it started wearing off in a month was it even ocd? Am I ok with a different orientation does it mean that? Of course I don't feel like it but yeah those doubts persist..