So I woke up today and my OCD woke up with a vengeance. It has been trying to convince me I liked my thoughts and sensations it gaves and I want to try them out. Can someone give me some advice on how to deal with this?
Oh man, that is soooo OCD! First off, OCD is a liar and is dedicated to ruining your day. OCD gives you this sensation, and you immediately get the What-Ifs, (what if I like it, etc.), which is how OCD keeps you on its rumination treadmill. The way out of it is to accept uncertainty that it may or may not be true and to stay in the present. Example: I accept the uncertainty that I may like (whatever) because I don' know the future, but I'm not doing it now, I'm not planning on doing it and I have a choice." Are you in therapy with a trained OCD therapist who uses ERP therapy? If not, I recommend you check in with NOCD. They can hook you up with a good one. Your therapist will teach you how to do exposures that will help to neutralize the thoughts and feelings.
I'm going to therapy tomorrow I found a therapist in my area that may help me with this. The problem I mostly deal is because I am secure in my identity and OCD keeps suggesting otherwise. And yeah I need to get out of that mindset
@Viny Be sure that your therapist is trained in OCD therapy. The giveaway is if s/he uses ERP. The trained ones use it.
@Steven55! Very important ERP +AU. Accepting Uncertainty (living in a world where your fear can happen or all ready happened )to tell your therapist tomorrow
@No matric certificate/grade 12 For me accepting the uncertainty means I won't find an answer to the OCD question. Radical acceptance made me worse because it went so against who I am
@Viny That's right, because there is no answer. It's malware in our brains that needs to be unraveled. Once you become mindful of this fact, you'll take a step toward recovery. Trust me, we've all been where you are now.
@Steven55! I've been spiraling since my psych told me he suspected I was autistic and to my brain it meant my thoughts were true and I was a horrible person
I’m here man if you need someone to talk to about this and honestly try your best to get out of that mindset it’s super hard to get ur mind off of it I know but trust me acting on those thoughts and sensations and intrusive thoughts will make you feel 110% horrible just keep trying
Thank you. It has been hard for the past few days
Why don't you contact NOCD for a free consultation. If you decide to try it out, they'll hook you up with a trained OCD therapist who uses ERP therapy, which is the gold standard for OCD treatment. I can only speak for myself, but I went through a succession of standard shrinks who had no clue how to help me. OCD is a peculiar disorder and requires a trained specialist who uses ERP therapy. Once I secured one through NOCD, I began to get better. ERP therapy is hard work, but it does work. It's important to work with a qualified coach to help you along the way, because OCD will throw you a bunch of curveballs to keep you on its treadmill. If you don't like NOCD, there's the International OCD Foundation website. They have a list of approved OCD therapists, based on geography. Hope this helps.
I could... Well it's just that I can't continue treatment
I have just recently realized that I had SO OCD. This began whenever I was watching porn and had an intrusive thought about the guy in the porn. It was more minor at first, it was a majority of what I was thinking about throughout the day but it didn’t feel as distressing at first. If I had downtime to think about it, it would affect me but if I was just going about my day I wouldn’t notice it. I began going through the compulsions of checking myself. This lasted for a while until another obsession occurred. Then it seemed as if my SO OCD took a step back. I would have flare ups but they would seem to pass. Recently, I had a very bad night of constant compulsions and looking at pictures and imagining things to check myself. After that night it was very distressing, it affected me to the point where people around me began to notice and ask me if I was okay. One of the big reasons I was so upset was my girlfriend, we have been together for over 3 years and I want to spend the rest of my life with her. I was thinking “Oh my god, if I am gay I can never be with her.” I would sit and cry about it thinking I would lose her and that might life would change because I was gay. I finally had enough and talked to her and my parents. We did some research and I was so shocked to find out that I had a form of OCD, it was like a weight being lifted off my shoulders just knowing that other people have been where I am and that I’m not gay. However, I may have naively expected the compulsions and obsessive thoughts to go away now that I knew I had an actual problem. But I found that the compulsions and thoughts were still there and I was going to put some effort into getting better. I have researched and now know what to do when experiencing intrusive thoughts, yet I still have been performing the compulsions which is just feeding into the OCD. I find myself having intrusive thoughts and then start performing compulsions to see if they are true. What really bothers me is when I have an intrusive thought that tells me that I do like something. But when I think about it I have no desire to pursue those thoughts. However when I feed into the compulsions they just seem to feed into each other. It is like my OCD ignores all the things that I know I like and goes straight to panic mode. I am also trying to do ERP and am going to start doing my best to get better. Does anyone have any tips for not performing the compulsions no matter how anxious you are feeling and no matter how real the intrusive thoughts seem to feel?
I’ve tried living in the uncertainty today & kept myself busy but I can’t shake this feeling that I’m about to lose control & act on my thoughts. I keep feeling like I need to check in to see how I feel & keep my self safe & when I’m near my trigger it feels like I’m being pulled into doing it & feels like I want to but I’m not using compulsions. My thoughts feel like my own & feeling like I’ll be like this forever. Can someone relate or give advice 😩
Help! My OCD has caught onto this thought for awhile and I keep spinning on it. I know you are supposed to follow your values and what your actions suggest with OCD, but what if that is even blurry right know? For example my whole life I wanted to be with a man, and now my OCD is having major intrusive thoughts about women. How do you tell if those thoughts are wanted or not? I can’t figure out if I like the thoughts or not. I’m trying to live the life “I want” but what if I don’t know what that is?
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