- Date posted
- 6y
- Date posted
- 6y
Yes!! Therapy, medicine, patience xx
- Date posted
- 6y
You are dealing with OCD so already you are strong enough to face anything else and that includes treatment. December 2016/early 2017 I suffered a severe post partum spike and I was diagnosed with OCD. There was a point I didn’t know if I’d survive but I began therapy and it was hard, but I kept going, it’s all I could do. Slowly it began helping as I practiced the tools I was learning. After several months I was functioning again. After a year in recovery I hit another spike around 5 weeks ago. It knocked me off my feet with a new theme and I reached out to an OCD specialist and started therapy. After a couple of sessions I again managed to start to feel a little better then bam a gap in therapy and new content and I felt back to square one, I was petrified I’d have to live with my fear and how that made me feel forever, ocd makes it feel real and it can feel absolutely gripping. I’m also suffering with depression and think I hit my bottom around a week ago and I do understand how hard it can be to go through treatment, I have my next session weds and although I’ve been emailing my therapist and she’s replied I still worry about what she’ll say or having to face it all and talk about it and being triggered. Treatment is to help you rebuild what ocd has broken, I’ve used the analogy of being a house before. So if I’m a house, then ocd is the storm and the tools and help to rebuild are treatment. The storm has knocked my house down before and it was hard work rebuilding it but I did because I need my home. So I’ve rebuilt and now another storm has knocked it down and I’m going to rebuild it again with the same tools and I know another storm could happen again but I also know I’ve already rebuilt my house once before so I know I can do it again I just might need more time or more help this time and that’s ok. I hope you find treatment soon, I know how hard it is facing this. Sorry I’ve rambled on.
- Date posted
- 6y
I made it out the other side of ERP therapy. Its definitely a challenge. Self care, good sleep, and positivity are all so important. Your attitude towards your recovery determines so much. Teach your brain there’s nothing to fear here
- Date posted
- 6y
Tulip13 - Mine has waned over the years only to be hit with spikes similar to yours. They come out of left field and knock you down so hard. I like your house analogy. Thank you for your response.
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- 6y
Tabbykitty- That is amazing, I admire you. How long ago and have you relapsed at all?
- Date posted
- 6y
AshleyM, it took most of this year, but I think in retrospect I recovered quite quickly. I think this is because my main theme, ROCD, became non existent due to my breakup (not ROCD related - it just stopped working on both sides) and when my new theme arrived, I started ERP right away and didn’t have much time to turn it into a habit. I haven’t relapsed, but I know when I get into my next relationship I will probably experience ROCD again. However, I also know I have the tools to beat it. If I’d known what I know now while in that relationship, I would have beaten it, I think.
- Date posted
- 6y
That’s fantastic. Yeah when I feel a new obsession/compulsion coming on, I typically try to cut it off right away because I know it’s going to be so much harder to cut it off the longer you do it. Unfortunately, I have been in a downward spiral and haven’t stuck to this, so I am inundated with obsessions and compulsions - both old and new. Funny, I used to think (after dealing with this for over 15 years) that there couldn’t possibly be any new obsessions or compulsions that pop up and whadya know a new one comes along. Can’t let your guard down with this disorder at all.
- Date posted
- 6y
What did you do to cut off the new obsession?
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- 6y
I mean I won’t do the compulsion even if I want to, that usually cuts it off, after a few days.
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- 6y
I mainly have “Pure O”. What’s the best way to stop ruminating?
- Date posted
- 6y
You’ve got me there. I’m the worst at ruminating.
Related posts
- Date posted
- 13w
I’ve recently been struggling a lot with OCD. I have had OCD for a long time I just didn’t realize it until more recently. About seven months ago I developed panic attacks one day randomly at work. I thought I was having a heart attack and went to the hospital where they told me it was just a panic attack and I assumed I would snap out and be better within a few days. However it didn’t. Here’s where it gets scary, I was staying at my then boyfriends house while dealing with blurry vision, anxiety attacks everyday, and more (unsure of what was going on). But at some point I saw my bfs (pew pew 🔫) on his table and it sent me into an anxiety attack after sudden thoughts that I was going to hurt myself with it. I begged him to put it away when I’m not looking so I didn’t know where he put it. He did. These thoughts lasted for about four days but began to go away. (I thought that was it and I would be back to normal). Unfortunately though I ended up moving back in with my family when we couldn’t get my panic attacks under control in time for me to get back to work and pay bills. However, coming home brought up a lot of trauma from when I was kid. My anxiety got worse but I didn’t have those thoughts again. About two and half months ago though, I got sick and went to the hospital where they gave me steroid pills and a steroid shot but sent me into some kind of psychiatric event. Ever since then though, I have been suffering from harm OCD, I have had moments of intense anger that I usually have to completely walk away and go on my own because of how intense they are, and it feels like it’s getting worse. Today I felt fine until about and hour and half ago where I started to dwell on the fact that my suicidal thought was influenced by my OCD and at the moment my OCD is at the worst it’s been. This caused me to get suddenly really depressed and I started crying thinking about how I can’t handle this. I then saw a post talking about how suicide rates are high for people with this form of OCD and it made me question if I am mentally strong enough to pull through this. I fear that at times I’m getting worse. I have good days but I have a lot of bad days. Unfortunately this sent me into such a bad panic attack I went over to my nanas crying about how I can’t deal with this. I took a 0.25 mg Xanax which helped calm down the panic attack portion of it but my brain is still uncomfortably active. I guess I just need hope. I’m so saddened by this. It’s like my life took a total 360 in 10 months and got even worse since the steroid shot. Idk what to do about it. I can’t stop the spiral. I talk to two different therapist weekly and start more next week, making it 5 times a week. I feel no improvements…
- Date posted
- 8w
(Long post warning) Hi, I’ve been struggling with severe OCD for six years now. it started in 2019 with my theme being getting sick/emetophobia. it devastated my life. I almost didn’t graduate high school from it. I remember washing my hands for three hours one day until they were nearly bloody while crying and asking why I could not stop doing it. I remember id have to write and rewrite sentences when I did my English homework and that’s why I nearly failed that class. I remember how I would spend up to thirty minutes to an hour pacing the halls of my apartment while my mom was asleep until I neutralized the thoughts about throwing up and I could finally go to bed. I don’t know when it happened, but my theme switched. Sometimes in late 2020 or early 2021, it switched to POCD. It started with a single thought, and I focused on it and it’s been my theme since then for four years. It has been absolutely destroying me. I feel so disgusted and lost and just tired. My compulsions are severe now. I thought they were bad before, but now they’re ten times worse. I can’t eat, drink, change my clothes, walk, or even do things on my phone normally. I’ve developed so many mental compulsions that it’s so intricate and complicated yet at the same time I’ve done them so much that they’ve become normal. An example I have is if im putting on a shirt and I have a “bad” thought, I have to take it off and put it back on two more times (that’ll make it 3 times I put the shirt back on - odd numbers are my safe number). I have to have a good thought on the third time otherwise I have to take it off and put it on two more times to make it five times I put on that shirt. If not that then I just put on a different shirt because the original is now tainted with my bad thought. I can’t open apps on my phone. It’s with the numbers again. If I open TikTok once while having a bad thought - I have to close it and open it two more times and so on. Sometimes I do it up to 30 times. So I just don’t do things usually. I don’t turn on the TV because I know I’ll redo it. I don’t open a book or grab it off my shelf because I’ll have to repeat the action. I can’t even lay in bed without getting up and redoing it even if im exhausted. I just feel so helpless. I don’t know what to do. I feel disgusting and even now my minds screaming at me that I am dirty and what I think is true. I just wish I was free of this, I wish I could just live my life. I’ve wasted hours and days because of my compulsions. I mask it so well around my friends. I don’t do them in front of anyone or I’ve learned to hide it well. But when im back home alone, it goes haywire. I just want to live again.
- Date posted
- 29d
I have been stuck for 2 months now. I have so much consuming anxiety all day everyday. I can’t take these thoughts and feelings. I took leave at work because I couldn’t even function there. Everyday I wake up in the same nightmare. I tried therapy last month and felt like we got no where. My family is just fed up with me and keeps saying I’m not trying to help myself. It’s feels like this is never going to end. I feel paralyzed, if I’m not doing a compulsion it feels like my thoughts might happen. I wish there was somewhere I could go right now to get the help I need. Ocd is so hard and idk how to stop this endless loop. Now that I’m not working I’m home all day everyday. I’ve reached out to Rogers for residential treatment, waiting for a response. Can anyone relate to feeling this way. It’s 24/7 for me and I’m so terrified my life will be like this forever….
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