Does this happen with you also, just few days or a month before exams ocd tends to increase so much that you can't study even when you sit with books after meditating and with a calm mind. Please tell me how to get out of this anxious feeling and study in a normal course. It is becoming harder day by day for me to get out of this.
Stop trying to get out of it and not feel anxious. What you resist persists. If you keep trying to avoid anxiety, that feeling will only become more pervasive — OCD always demands more. Instead, try studying even even when you're anxious, and even with the intruisve thoughts in the background. Sure, it might not be the most effective studying, but something is better than nothing — and that way, you wouldn't be making your OCD worse in the process.
This is normal. OCD will do this. Yes, if you start feeling anxious before you study, tell yourself, "Yay, here comes my extra anxiety! It can stay all day if it wants to. I hope it does." When you do this, you are training your brain that you don't care. Then go ahead and study anyway, even if you have bad thoughts in the back of your head. Can you share why you feel like you can't study?
I can't concentrate and studying for exam suddenly is appearing to be a very big task for me. Before even starting to study I am feeling scared that again I will not be able to study and complete my syllabus and nothing I am reading is going into my mind.
@Liora If you have intrusive thoughts, you have to learn to allow those thoughts to run through your head without trying to stop them or fix them. I had bad thoughts about God in my head. I had to learn to let them run freely in my head, like background noise, while I went about my daily business. You can let the thoughts rattle around in your head like background noise too. They can play in background while you study. You can just allow them to be there. Do you have intrusive thoughts that run around in circles in your head? OCD usually gives people bad thoughts about harming people, sex, violence, bad thoughts about God, etc. Do you think you can let those thoughts "run freely" while you continue to study?
@Tea and Honey Not sure
@Liora Do you have intrusive thoughts?
@Tea and Honey Yes
@Liora I'm going to copy and paste something that might help you. The idea is that we have to let the intrusive thoughts go crazy in our heads if they want to--while we continue to study or do dishes or hang out with friends, etc. Even if studying TRIGGERS the thoughts, that's just fine. Just let the thoughts flow freely through your mind. -------------------------- Don’t ever fight the thoughts. This is very important for OCD recovery. ERP therapy trains us to never fight the thoughts. If you try to fight them off, they’re just going to get worse. My therapist explained it like this: Imagine a tree planted by river. The leaves from the tree fall off and float down the river. You watch the leaves fall, but you don’t try to stop them. You just let them float down the river. This is the same with ALL intrusive thoughts. It doesn’t matter if these are bad thoughts about God, violence, sex, attractions, etc. All intrusive thoughts are the SAME. You just let them fall off the tree and float down the river. Here’s another analogy: Imagine a swarm of angry bees around someone’s head. The bees can’t really bite or sting, but they are very annoying as they swarm around the person’s head. They’re not really harmful to the person, but they are disturbing just because they are there. This is the same thing as the intrusive thoughts. They can’t really harm anything, and they don’t have any real power. But they are distracting and disturbing because they are there. If you take a stick and try to fight them off, they’re just going to swarm around even worse and get even stronger. It doesn’t work to try to fight them off with a stick. They will always keep swarming. In the same way, we can’t fight off the intrusive thoughts. It’s impossible. Besides, the thoughts are meaningless, and they can’t hurt us anyway. So don’t try to fight them off. Here’s one more analogy: Imagine your little brother is always saying mean things to you. Sometimes he shout means things; sometimes he whispers mean things; sometimes he shows you ugly pictures that he has drawn. He’s always trying to tease you and always trying to get you upset, and he’s always saying horrible things to you. If you shout at him to stop doing it, he’s just going to do it more. You have to accept that you can’t stop what he says. But if you ignore him and don’t give him any response and don’t get upset , he will eventually get bored and stop trying so hard. It’s the same with the intrusive thoughts. You can’t stop them. But if you get upset every time they come into your head, you are giving them power. You OCD (like a little brother) is going to feed you more of the things that “rile you up.” But if you don’t get upset and don’t care if these things are coming into your brain, then you can go about your life as normal. In this way, you are showing that these thoughts really have no power over you.
@Tea and Honey Thank you so much for this. It really means a lot.😄
@Liora I am here for you. Maybe I can help you. You can talk about anything with me!! I know you are suffering. I am so so sorry. Remember, if books and studying TRIGGER your OCD, that means that you have to practice studying anyway. Try not to avoid it. The triggers are the places where you practice doing exactly what you want to do (despite the fact that the OCD is screaming at you in the background). The more you practice this, the less power the OCD will hold over you. Let's talk more ANYTIME you want!!
@Tea and Honey Yes, sure
My ocd gets so loud in the silence and right before bed when there’s no distractions. I always struggled with anxiety since my teens and guided meditation used to help… until OCD. First time trying guided meditation with OCD I had an intrusive thought of “what if you actually lose control and can’t follow these instructions?” And got even more anxious 🫠🫠🫠 had to stop, and haven’t tried to meditate ever since. Just curious to know. Sometimes I feel like I have the worst type of OCD. It will latch onto anything to make me anxious!
i am a freshman in college and i have always struggled with depression, anxiety, and OCD. i have never received help for my OCD despite being medicated for my other two issues. i have noticed that what most of my panic stems from is my OCD and more specifically my OCD around school. i haven’t been able to get myself up for class for multiple days and im starting to panic about everything im missing and think about every little thing i have to fix. i am so behind that it makes me want to panic and i feel like i cant fix this. i just want my mind to feel normal but it feels like my whole world is falling apart all because i am feeling stuck in school. please help me i just want to feel okay but i dont know how to. i have tried doing all the assignments i can do to catch up but it isn’t enough i still feel so panicked
i’m in college and on my summer break now. i don’t have a job yet or much to occupy myself with and im finding it really difficult to keep my ocd under control. if i have nothing to do, i find myself sitting around and ruminating heavily and getting severely anxious and my thoughts just keep wandering. i don’t really feel peace of mind unless im with my boyfriend or my best friend, both of which i don’t get to see often because they’re very busy or live far away. im not sure how to keep myself busy and how to occupy my brain with something other than worries :(
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