- Date posted
- 8d
Help me
Anyone got any advice for ERP for POCD? I relapsed after having a child and I’m having a really really bad time, I don’t know what to do anymore
Anyone got any advice for ERP for POCD? I relapsed after having a child and I’m having a really really bad time, I don’t know what to do anymore
As ugly as the thoughts are don’t react to them. I started laughing or giggling at them because in reality I know how RIDICULOUS they are. I do breathing exercises and just try my best to enjoy the moments. I have 2 children. It attacked them big time. But I’m at a place I get an intrusive thought one or two times a day!
@TrinaL Will this work for beating the groina response too??
@Fcukocd That was a nasty trick it threw at me and I continued to laugh at it still. The reaction to the thought is what makes us freak out. I take a deep breath and continue with what I’m doing
@TrinaL Ill try my best to do that, it just happens at the most unexpected times, eg when I’m looking at photos of my baby or just cuddling her
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@hope2 I will, I’ll be the best parent I can be
My best advice is do all the parent things no matter how uncomfortable or distressing it is. Do what you would do as the best version of yourself if you did not have the obstacle of OCD. My POCD hit when my child was 1.5 years. He is 3 now and it is rare for my OCD to flare up around this. Change the diapers, change the clothes, give the baths, the hugs, the snuggles, the affection. Do not refrain from parenting. Show your OCD who is boss!!
@Stay.Fluid I’ll try my best, thank you, it’s just the groinal response is really beating me down at the moment
@Fcukocd I used to get those also. Once I realized how much anxiety generates sensation in your pelvis I started saying maybe it’s just anxiety, maybe it’s not. Don’t give up hope. I have not had the obstacle of Groinals in quite some time. Which means, there is hope for you as well 🙂
@Stay.Fluid I hope so, can I ask you something?
@Fcukocd Yes
@Fcukocd Did u flag my comment :(
@Fcukocd No, I did not flag your comment. I support everyone in this community.
@Stay.Fluid Okay, sorry I just wondered, did you see the question I asked? :(
@Fcukocd I don’t think I saw it
@Stay.Fluid Did you see it this time I reposted it
@Stay.Fluid Can you reply to my latest post about the dream that i had?😔
@Fcukocd I only see your latest post about phone wallpaper
@Stay.Fluid I’ll try repost it as a screenshot
@Stay.Fluid Can you see it now?
@Fcukocd I can see it. That sounds like a very normal sex dream
@Stay.Fluid Okay thanks, did you ever see this comment? :(
Groinal response is called arousal nonconformance.
I'm roughly 2 months pregnant and I'm struggling so bad with OCD (specifically surrounding psychosis/postpartum psychosis, postpartum depression, postpartum anxiety, etc). I'm so discouraged because I was sub-clinical for over a year and this pregnancy and the hormones are undoing all of my progress. And it actually seems so much harder than BEFORE when I was at a low point. It feels like the hormones are ruining my brain and making me lose my mind. I keep looking over my shoulder, getting intrusive images of scary hallucinations that I might start to get, i fear hurting myself or my baby, etc. Psychosis in pregnancy is 1 in 1000. That's not that rare. I feel like I just upped my chances of my biggest fear happening and I have so much regret and fear around that. I'm also a Christian and I'm relying on God so much more now than ever, but I'm afraid of that too because people in psychosis often have religious delusions and I can't tell if I'm slipping into that or if God is really just using this trial to pull me closer to him. I just feel so defeated. I feel like ERP just isn't going to work for me because the hormones are a whole different animal that "normal" people with OCD don't have. Like they're making me immune to ERP or that ERP isn't for people like me and I'm hopeless.
Hi all. Unfortunately I have relapsed with what I believe is POCD/ REOCD again. Im 33 going on 34 (m) and from the ages of around 23 to 26/27 had terrible OCD / shame and guilt from a mistake made in early teenage years ( Im going to say 11/12 ). It was truly the greatest struggle to make it through those years. From ages 27/28 to ~ 6 weeks ago my OCD was I would say 99% under control with the help of 150mg sertraline which was fantastic and allowed me to live as normally as I could have hoped for. A real event from almost 10 years ago randomly popped up in my mind , and the past 6 weeks have been truly awful with very little headspace for rational thought and certainly no good mood. A few panic attacks thrown in and an inability to hold my job down makes this seem like an impossible challenge to overcome. My mind is telling me its only a matter of time before police show to my door and Ill be socially berated. Ive become a bit paranoid and really do not feel worthy/ able for living a happy life going forward. Previously, on the earlier theme I had confessed to a parent not knowing it would be damaging in the long run and to be honest I dont know what helped to recover. Maybe I could have recovered sooner had I known it was definently OCD I was dealing with and effective treatment options. In the end I think I adopted a " so what" and "it is what it is" attitude after so much internal anguish which helped. With this theme, once again my mind tells me its not OCD and I am just feeling huge amounts of guilt for past actions which may never leave me. I do feel Im looking at this event in a very black and white manner however my mind wont allow anything else. Ive had days where I could function while being able to tell myself " if the worst case scenario happens, it happens " but Ive also had days where my mind tells me I wont survive another week of this guilt, let alone deal with the real life cosequences. I have no experience of ERP but I do intend to look into it. What makes me think it may be worthwhile is that last week while at work I came across an event on social media where someone went to jail for something "similar" ( my mind tells me my actions were worse ) and I just sat with the fear and anxiety which was awful in the moment - however I got some moments of positivy and become almost "carefree" that evening as the bad feelings came and went without giving in to compulsions ( main ones are googling and mental review/ re reading texts ) Of course they came back a day later . I guess Im just showing my face here so to speak, and letting you all know that there are others in the same fight, and that youre not alone. I appreciate all input. J Ps if anyone has had previous success on increasing sertraline from 150mg upward please let me know. I do feel I need a higher dose/ something more effective for this episode as I am not getting much relief from my thoughts. I have heard from some sertraline is more useful at higher doses ( 300/400 mg ) for OCD??? Any thoughts? Thank you
Please read and offer some helpful words if you’ve relapsed before 😭 I have been doing so well in recovery for the last 6-8 months or so with SOOCD. I’ve had my moments where I come on this app and post, but for the most part it has been very manageable. I moved in with my bf a few weeks ago and things are amazing. except my SOOCD is back in fullllll force. It feels incredibly real this time, like I actually want to be with women, like I knew I was into girls when I was young and forgot about it or suppressed it, etc. I feel like I have too much proof in my past childhood exploration / curiosity for me to not be into women. I truly don’t think I have ever had feelings for a girl before even though I explored things through media when I was younger. It’s a constant tug of war in my brain, and I feel so stuck and unable to pull myself out of this spiral. I will have these moments where I’m like “oh my gosh. This is actually true because it feels so real”. And then I will accept it and tell myself everything is real and that I actually do like women, but it only leads to more rumination and questioning. I just seriously don’t know what to do or how to move forward. I can’t go back to therapy unfortunately bc of finances, so I’m stuck trying to go back to erp on my own to get myself out of this. It’s just too much 😭
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