Irrational Fears

I do experience this. There often times I don’t feel safe at all. Like someone at any moment will come and get me. I imagine things too that feel so real and certain things through out the day will trigger those thoughts and then I don’t feel safe. I don’t really try to convince myself I am not in danger. I accept that those thoughts will happen and then sit with the distress for alittle and then decide if I really need to act. Do I really need to do this thing to make me feel safe? Most of the time, once my anxiety calms down after sitting with it and doing nothing, I tell myself no, I don’t really need to do this compulsion. In my therapy I learned that there is no way to be 100% safe which sucks but anything can happen at any moment. I realized when I started exposure therapy that no matter what I do; if I lock all the doors, buy things, or clean, my compulsions are never really preventing anything. Most of the time there was never a real threat to begin with and it’s just in my head. Just because you think something will happen doesn’t mean it will. We don’t know the future and that’s the uncertainty that OCD doesn’t want to accept. For example, for me I have had to accept that even if I clean every spot in my house, there still could be mold growing somewhere and I won’t know. Or I could avoid going to the store because I am scared of shooting but there could be a shooter somewhere else too, so why stop living my life and why let ocd take over if I don’t know the future anyways. There are a million what ifs and compulsions we can do to try to “prevent” the future events but if they are taking over your mind and your life then they aren’t really helping you. When I have those thoughts I just let them be thoughts and don’t give them a meaning. They can just be thoughts and don’t have to turn into actions. Some days I am better at this and some days I am not 🫠. it’s work but it is very wonderful and peaceful in your mind when you practice letting those thoughts go. Now my mind is more often quiet and at peace, it’s an amazing feeling and I am just living my life instead of living in my head and in my compulsions. You can get tot that point too, just takes practice! Good luck, and Wishing you a good day 🙂

Hello, This is a tough question, because OCD is always looking for certainty. The underlying reason people tend to practice compulsions is to feel some sense of certainty about their fear. However, this process feeds OCD and will require more and more compulsions to feel relief. At NOCD we practice a type of therapy called ERP, which focuses on resisting compulsions and accepting uncertainty. I'm adding a video below about ERP. Hope this helps! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEWzOAGaypY