How do you sit with anxiety?

It's actually good to mess up on our compulsions. In fact, we should be doing our compulsions wrong on purpose! Try to practice doing your compulsions wrong, starting with one compulsion at at time. Have you heard of ERP therapy? It can help take you out of all of this pain that you are in.

@Tea and Honey I have heard of ERP just can’t afford it sadly. In my head I am saying if I cannot figure out my compulsion it will cause anxiety but I already had anxiety and that caused my OCD! Ugh!

@Perfect Imperfectionist I so get it!! I do that too. NOCD takes most insurance. So I payed $30 ac session only twice a month, but probably could have done once a month if I wanted. I can also try to explain the basics of ERP too, if you want:):) It can REALLY help

@Tea and Honey I don’t have insurance sadly that they accept. Yes, please! I am not in a good place. I hate OCD and anxiety most of all!!!

@Perfect Imperfectionist - Happy to talk about ERP! Okay, let's start by defining terms: The OBSESSIONS are actually the thoughts that run through your head that make you anxious. A lot of times, the obsessions just repeat over and over all day in our heads. They often tell us that IF we don't do this or that, something really bad will happen. The COMPULSIONS are safety behaviors we do in order to mitigate the stress caused by the obsessions. They are the actions we take to follow the RULES set by the obsessions. So, for example, let's say someone has anxious thoughts about germs running around in their head, telling them that someone they love will die if they accidentally get their hands contaminated. These are the "obsessions." The person feels like if they tap the switch the light three times, they will be safe from germs. If they go and switch the light, that's the compulsion. All OCD works generally like this. It just looks different with different themes. However, the roots of OCD are always the same. So....what do we do? First, you ALLOW the obsessions to run freely through your head. Don't try to fight them off. Don't try to fix them. This will only make them worse. This is very important. It doesn't matter if the thoughts are disgusting, sexual, violent, about germs, about people dying--it doesn't matter. You have to let them run freely through your head. Imagine a tree planted by a river. You can watch the leaves fall from the tree and float down the river. You don't do anything to stop the leaves. You don't try to gather the leaves or examine them. You just let them fall and float away. The same is true with your thoughts. You have to get comfortable letting them run in the background of your head like bad background music. But don't try to push them away. Next, you have to DENY all the compulsions that you can. Just don't allow yourself to do them. So if the OCD tells you that you have to tap your head, don't allow yourself to do it, for example. This gets tricky because the OCD will always tell you that something BAD will happen if you deny your compulsions. So it always scary to deny your compulsions. The trick you learn with ERP is to "ride out" the anxiety you feel when you deny the compulsions. So, for example, when you don't tap your head, you have to ride out the anxiety like a wave. In fact, you might experience a big spike in anxiety when you refuse the compulsion. This is normal. However, eventually, the anxiety will recede over time. The more you practice these things, the easier it gets!!! The "wave" of anxiety gets smaller and smaller over time. It's easiest to practice ERP therapy with a therapist, if possible. If not, there are a few good YouTube channels or other online resources you could use also. (Nathan Peterson, who is licensed, is a good one.) People who have been house-bound from OCD have gotten their lives back from ERP. It's awesome! I can't recommend it enough.