What are peoples experience with meditation and OCD? has it worked? And if so, after how much time did you see results? I've been trying for a month but each time I can't do more than 8 minutes because the thoughts start distressing me and I start FREAKING out.
what helps me is personifying my OCD as separate from me. like a chaos creature has come to sprinkle these thoughts into my head just to upset me. and i can meditate on going up to this creature and telling it to kindly leave my space as itâs not welcome, and iâd like to have peace. i tell it to pack up its bags and go outside of my ârealmâ (which is like field of flowers, protected by a clear dome, and outside of that dome is all black) so when it leaves it goes into the darkness. key thing i think would be creating a âhappy placeâ that you want to stay in, thinking of the people and things you would like the be there that would help keep you grounded.
I think of âfreaking outâ as having intense anxiety. The goal of all of it is to just sit with it and let it be
When youâre sitting there and the thoughts start pressing in on you and you start freaking out, how do you respond to those thoughts?
@Kdmaw Iâm not well versed in meditation, but I believe you just acknowledge them and let them be âI see that thoughtâ âIâm feeling x,y,zâ and then you just let it keep flowing down the river
@r.m.1 Gotcha. When you say you are freaking out what kinds of actions do you take either imagined or performed? What do you define as freaking out? After ~8 minutes do you have to step away?
I usually try ignoring them but I get physical reactions (ex: heart beating faster, adrenaline). Then I feel like I need to move to find a distraction or do some compulsions and it completely makes me completely forget about my breathing. I even get intrusive thoughts about how I'm pathetic meditating and that I'll never get better, It's like some looney tunes villain in my head. đ
@r.m.1 That's definitely the goal but I have such a hard time not giving into the enotions
@twerquie Yeah, that all makes sense. I bring up the questions because meditation can be something that is very difficult to do for someone who suffers from OCD. I think sitting with your thoughts is something that is much easier for people without OCD to do for extended periods of time, and, although our end goal is to be able to do stuff like that, going into something like meditation can be prohibitively difficult for someone with intrusive thoughts or compulsions around rumination. Especially as a method of treatment. If you struggle with âJust Rightâ OCD or sensorimotor OCD (like you mentioned) then doing meditation and trying to get to a point where you just feel unbothered by your thoughts/feelings can be extraordinarily triggering. So yeah, I think you identified some compulsions you have around doing those things, namely avoidance (i.e. finding distractions) or maybe rumination. I know itâs easier said than done, but try to be a little gentle with yourself. Itâs easy to say we should be able to do something that non-OCD sufferers can do easily but thatâs not a fair comparison. Dunking on a 10â rim is a lot easier when youâre 7â tall than 5â
@Kdmaw Yeah I mostly struggle with rumination nowadays..which is torture for meditation. But rn it's the only treatment option I have (recommended by my parents.) I was hoping I could do it more often and for longer intervals but I physically can't. But I'll see a professional soon and ask for their opinion.
Sometimes it works pretty well for me. I usually meditate in more peaceful moments when I'm feeling just a little tenseness in my body (unrelated to Ocd). Because I noticed that when I meditated when I had a lot of anxiety, I was using meditation as a compulsion to relive that distress. So I try to be careful when of when I use it
Hi everyone, Iâm new to the community. I was diagnosed with OCD just a couple of months ago and have been doing some reading and other research to try and understand the disorder. With this, I have been actively seeing a great therapist who has been helpful to build tools to deal with my intrusive thoughts ( contamination OCD is my worst theme). Do help learn to deal with the compulsions, I start on Sertraline or âZoloftâ I believe since November 2024. Currently Iâm on 50mg and have been doing this for just over a month. My question for those who are also taking Sertraline and it has been successful, how do you know it has really provided a benefit and how long did it take to get there? I sometimes feel the medication works, and sometimes I feel it doesnât (maybe thatâs my OCD trying to mess with things). Thanks!
Hello, I have been interested in meditation, but it seems like an impossible thing for someone with intrusive thoughts. Does anyone have experience with meditation or helpful resources for how someone with OCD might start to meditate? Is meditation even helpful in someone who has OCD?
So I've been working to address my OCD for about a month now. So far, I haven't been working on it with a therapist and have instead been trying to create my own exposure exercises. The primary obsession I'm working on is the fear that I'm somehow flawed or invalid on a fundamental level. The best way I can describe it it is that its similar to the feeling you get when you have germ OCD and you feel contaminated, except my whole existence and being feels contaminated, so to speak. I've identified a list of triggers, and a list of compulsions (pretty much all mental) that I've noticed myself performing. I started out by doing imaginal exposures and scripts where I'd write out triggering fictional scenarios and read them over and over, combined with mindfulness techniques to focus on my breath and bring myself back to the present when I noticed myself performing compulsions mentally. At first it worked to some extent, but eventually I started to feel like the stories I was writing about this obsession weren't triggering any anxiety anymore or a very low level. So I stopped reading them and focused solely on improving my ability to stay present and identifying compulsions as I perform them, and disengaging. Now, I'm at the point where it seems like my general anxiety levels throughout the day are lower, and the triggers I've identified are producing noticeably less anxiety. But that makes me wonder if somehow I'm just secretly doing mental compulsions without knowing it? Is only a month of rather disorganized and unstructured ERP enough to produce this much improvement? To avoid giving me re-assurance, I'd appreciate if you guys don't directly answer those questions, maybe just provide some possibilities or your own experiences so I can get a better idea of where I'm at. Any info would be appreciated. Thanks!
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