- Username
- Connor the kind
- Date posted
- 5y ago
Whenever I was around 9 years old (that’s when I got diagnosed with ocd) I had the constant intrusive thought that I was going to get pregnant even though I was a virgin the thoughts started around Christmas time and haunted my life for years. The thoughts were awful and graphic and would cause me to have panic attacks so bad that my body would shake uncontrollably I would cry all the time and I was barley able to function. however I found with therapy and medication I was able to overcome those awful intrusive thoughts. Now even as an adult I sometimes get the intrusive thought creep into my head but now that I have the tools and support to combat it it is way more manageable. And even though I now have new intrusive thoughts that have since taken its place I find that instead of having constant mental pain the frequency is less and more manageable. So don’t give up there is light at the end of the tunnel.
Sure, so its picking an image and or word to use ahead of the compulsion thoughts when you feel them it coming. Right so your after trying to distract yourself away from the pattern behaviour. D’you know our brains develop grooves like a vinyl from doing the same pattern thoughs. So like a record player we lean our thinking to the old grooves. A doctor told me that. But you can imagine then why its hard to change that. I dunno I’m hoping for some breakthrough in medical I’m so tired
Don't lose hope!
Thank you, I like that analogy and thanks for explaining what focal point is. They say that your OCD is as smart and persistent as you. If this is the case, I'm F'ed! On a serious note, success with ERP or living OCD-free (if that's ever possible) I think, depends on the individual. The key is to outsmart it. Remember that movie, 'Cast Away', with Tom Hanks? If you haven't watched it (SPOILER/TRIGGER ALERT) it's about this guy whose plane crashes in the middle of an ocean. He ends up on a deserted island and is forced to fend for himself. After spending God-knows how many days on this island, it becomes apparent to him that no one is going to find and rescue him. He has lost half his body weight. His spirit is broken. He's lost all hope. At one point in the movie, he contemplates taking his own life. The turning point of the movie is when, somehow, he finds the courage to get off the island by building himself a raft, rationing out his food supply, planning his escape. I think he almost gets himself killed when he has to weather out another storm. SPOILER ALERT: He somehow survives the storm and gets rrescued. (Sorry, I'm bad at explaining movie premises.) I know, just a movie. Most importantly, what I remember from the this movie, is that, I think, there is an innate ability in all human beings to WANT to survive, to want to learn, to want to get better despite whatever circumstances or adversity they may be facing. While we can only hope for a medical breakthough or cure, we can start helping ourselves by seeking help from a trusted individual (therapy), learning from others (like yourself), etc. OCD is a chronic - there is no one-size-fits-one-size-fits-all solution, which I find to be incredibly frustrating and at times, demoralizing. With the right help, support, and attitude, we can get on the right path to recovery. I know...
Thanks thats great your positivity:) Oh he was I think years lost there. I think it was true story. But they made fed ex looks so awesome yeah right I cant even get them to ring my buzzer lol or call :)
I would like to know too.
I use to hold my breath in every classroom as a kid because I felt the same air as the people around me would poison me lol I came from where ppl where nice and moved to where they were’nt. Intrustive thoughts for me me changed topics over the years. There’s been hundreds. I use the Focal Point method or whater but it’s still hard. It’s as though the illness fights it.
What is the Focal Point method, if you don't mind me asking? I'm still awake. I know I told someone to get some rest a short time ago in another post...I'm going to bed for real this time.
Anybody have nice recovery stories? Personally I don’t believe the whole “OCD is something you manage, not cure” thing as I think it’s just the medicinal companies looking to have you popping pills your entire life. Anyways, I KNOW that recovery is possible, and I know that it’s very inspiring and motivating to hear from people that has been in OCD hell that got out on the other side. So please, if you have any stories, share! I can give you a little story; my mom got herself some bad Harm OCD when she got her first child, my big sister, and intense amounts of anxiety from the OCD and agoraphobia too. In the last 20 years, she’s had two panic attacks. She’s over it! She’s out and about and haven’t known intrusive thoughts for ages
Hello there! I'm new here can y'all share success stories of harm OCD? It could be from podcast or blogs Thank you so much and I wish you a speedy recovery and inner peace.
Hey everyone! I’m new here and thought that it might help to get my OCD story off my chest. My intrusive thoughts are so bad that I never want to talk about them to anyone so maybe that’s why I’m here. When I was 13 my grandma was in the hospital. She was my best friend in the whole world. I imagined so much life with her. I remember pulling into the hospital one day with my Dad and immediately knocking on “wood” (the car door) to help put me at ease about my grandmas health before going in. I knocked on wood because everyone knows that’s what you do when you don’t want something to happen. I didn’t want anything bad to happen to her so bad that all I could think about in that moment was something bad happening. So I knocked on wood. It made me feel better so I kept doing it whenever I had bad thoughts. But then it going confusing. If this was helping ease these thoughts, why was I starting to have these thoughts more frequently? 13 year old me didn’t understand what I was doing or why these bad thoughts started. It had got so bad that I was knocking on wood every second of the day, every surface I came across that felt right, and if I didn’t I would force myself to turn around and touch that surface. I would have to knock on wood 8 times every single time but the 7 would have two knocks because the word 7 have two syllables. But then the 8 times wouldn’t be enough, I still wouldn’t feel satisfied so I would do it again and again and again until my entire day was overpowered by intrusive thoughts or knocking on wood. My family and friends started to notice, asking why I do it. I would always avoid the question or make a joke out of it because I couldn’t tell them these terrible thoughts I was having. I was so deeply afraid of something bad happening to the people I love the most or myself that it was debilitating. A couple years later I noticed how bad it had gotten and wanted a change. So I forced myself to stop knocking. I would tell myself angrily that nothing bad would happen if I don’t knock. It took me a lot of convincing and small steps to realize this, but it worked. I got better. I went to the doctors office at about 15 and told them everything. How I did this but how I solved this. They told me it takes great mental strength to be able to fight something in your brain like that. I have always been so mentally strong but hearing them say that made me feel so much better. And I was better. For years. Yea I went through times when it was bad again but it was so much better. The past couple years it has gotten worse again. I noticed that it gets worse when my anxiety about things is higher. New changes, new people, new things. Now, at 21 I won’t let myself get back to the point I was when I was 13, but recently I can’t seem to keep the intrusive thoughts out. I am so terrified of myself or someone else getting hurt of getting older that I put the whole toll on myself. I am so so so happy with my life right now that I don’t want anything to change. That is why it’s been so bad recently. Life is amazing which is why I only want it to get better and I’m so scared something might get in the way of that. I realized after talking to my friends that I never want to say my intrusive thoughts out-loud because I believe strongly in speaking things into existence so I only speak good things out loud. That’s how I’ve always been. But when I talked with my friend she said she’s the opposite, she says the bad things out loud because then you jinx them and they won’t happen. Her saying that gave me a little peace because it made me realize that it’s okay to get these things off my chest and that saying these things out loud isn’t so serious, it’s not life or death like I thought it was. Honestly, the weight of getting my story off my chest has already helped me feel a little lighter of a load on myself.
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