- Date posted
- 18w
Hocd
I haven’t been diagnosed with it, but I feel like nothing else describes me better. If you do have this feeling and thoughts, what are some ways to lower your anxiety ?
I haven’t been diagnosed with it, but I feel like nothing else describes me better. If you do have this feeling and thoughts, what are some ways to lower your anxiety ?
From a long term perspective I found the technique described in the book “Brainlock” by Jeffrey Schwartz to be effective but it’s something you have to practice long term. I stopped practicing this technique for a few years and my OCD caught up with me recently. I need to read it again.
i always tell myself , if the thought or compulsion is disturbing or distressing.. that’s it’s not me it’s my OCD. it seems scary but i promise you’re NOT ALONE !! 🩷 it WILL GET BETTER !
@olivia_123 Be careful with this bc if you’re doing therapy and doing the work, the thoughts become not scary
@Justmesadly huh ?
Hello, At NOCD we use Exposure and Response Prevention therapy. This is method of decreasing OCD symptoms by having you sit with distressing thoughts without engaging in compulsions. What has been found is that by sitting with the thoughts, without engage in compulsions, a person is able to develop the tolerance to sit with distressing thought more easily and resist developing compulsions. A helpful step might be meeting with an ERP therapist to first be diagnosed with OCD since you haven't been diagnosed, yet. I hope this is helpful.
ERP treatment and medication have both helped me a ton with this. Before I was officially diagnosed I remember reading about OCD too and realizing that it described me perfectly and explained a lot!
Be open to letting the thoughts be there. There are also lots of good tips on the Patrick McGrath Wednesday night webinar on the NOCD page on YouTube. Or really any NOCD webinar can be helpful. Go ahead and check out some of the videos. In addition you can contact NOCD for a free 15 minute call to discuss further. They can offer more detail than I can here. https://www.treatmyocd.com/about-us/contact-us
Anyone else with HOCD get thoughts of like "people in denial try to distract themselves" or anything along those lines when just trying to move on from the thoughts. Having a pretty bad episode this morning at least anxiety wise.
Think logically. Literally. Take me as an example. I have hocd and my obsession is “what if I’m gay”. I’ve liked girls my whole life, I can still get aroused by them and I can’t get the same instinctive reaction from a guy. So I can’t be gay. Sometimes ocd will go to something else once you prove it wrong. Maybe like. “What if I’m bi” again I can only get aroused by girls. Sometimes when I’m not thinking about it I can even get aroused when sitting next to a girl or when I’m sitting next to one or even when I’m touching one in a non sexual way. Something that never happens or has happened with a guy in my life. Don’t start panicking. Just “realise” who you are and who you’ve been.
Like I can’t think straight. This is making me doubt everything I’ve thought about myself and even makes me feel like I like the thoughts when I know I don’t. Like I would be less anxious at a time while I still have the thoughts and my mind would go “oh so you like it you must be gay” or the other one where I’m not anxious and I think of my attraction for girls that I’ve had my whole life and my mind goes “see now you’re not into them you’re gay” like it’s so stupid but so effective. I clearly remember being into girls my whole life but my mind is making me believe that all these attractions and feelings for women were all fake or “a thing of the past”. But I can still get aroused by women but I have this weird anxiety going on which brings these sensations/feelings and it’s so weird. Today I’ve spent my whole day thinking about it like I’ve been doing for 5 months now. I know that this aint normal but my mind just won’t let me live in peace. I never cared about my sexuality cuz I simply liked women my whole life but now my sexuality is a fundamental philosophy. I hate this.
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