Remember everyone: the only way to actually beat OCD is to prevent doing compulsions. When you ask for reassurance, remember, you’re doing a compulsion. SCIENCE SHOWS IT’S GOING TO MAKE YOUR OCD WORSE! Also, when you give someone reassurance you are making them worse! Do you want someone to suffer more? Let’s be a community that’s different from others.... LET’S #ResistReassurance If you are looking for reassurance, hit the SOS button on the nOCD app and walk through some reassurance prevention.

I really don’t think it’s good to tell others that posting on here for reassurance is good. I mean, if they’re finding comfort in knowing others understand them, and they’re learning new methods of coping... why is that a bad thing? OCD is a part of us, we can only learn to cope with it; not “beat” it. Some of us have always had OCD due to chemical imbalances.. others have it from traumatic events and such. Unfortunately, in case of chemical imbalances... it’s not going to just go away. You can’t beat a chemical imbalance without some kind of external and internal help; whether it be support systems like these, or medications, meditation... whatever it may be. I know you mean well, but saying things like “when you give someone reassurance you are making them worse! Do you want them to suffer more?” Isn’t helping anyone. A lot of people can’t keep things inside... whether you want to call venting and asking for support “making them worse” is up to you... but I’d rather encourage people to vent and let them express their thoughts and fears compared to telling them to bottle it up because it “helps”.

Here’s a great article from The Mighty on why seeking reassurance is so bad for people with OCD: https://themighty.com/2017/08/reassuring-someone-with-ocd-bad/

English isn’t my language so I don’t really understand what means reassurance, could you explain me?

Lola: Reassurance means seeking comfort and/or confirmation from others. Like, if you ask someone if they think you made the right choice, that’s asking for reassurance.

I respectfully disagree. Reassurance isn’t an effective coping skill. In fact it’s clinically proven to make OCD worse. If someone is deliberately asking for reassurance in a compulsive way and you give it to them, then you are objectively feeding their OCD. Have you been trained to treat OCD?

The part relating to coping I agree with, there are better coping mechanisms, such as teaching someone to accept uncertainty. Also, you can tell someone that you understand them and their experience without feeding their compulsion. If someone who asks for reassurance day one comes back day 3 and asks for it again, then you (not you specifically) are making them worse.

We should definitely encouraging venting here. My point for the post was if someone deliberately asks for reassurance in a compulsive way, we should educate them about the downsides of seeking reassurance and suggest different coping mechanisms that don’t relate to reassurance

Thanks!

I never heard about how bad is seeking reassurance and I always do that..... I can’t imagine myself facing to my ocd omggg!!

@Skarlettrose reassurance is one of my biggest compulsions. Every time I would do it “no I do love my boyfriend which means I’m not gay but that’s obvious etc etc” my obsessions grew stronger. Anytime someone would tell me “you love him it’s so easy to tell” id get massive relief but the obsessions got worse. So technically, you are “making someone worse” with reassurance