I have learned that even if I went to therapy I would not be able to explain my pure o away to my therapist that is. Only I can understand its twisted logic from within. It is too deep.
Yes, I feel the same way. They understand it’s shocking
To some extent I feel the same, but I think it’s important to make sure to see a therapist who specializes in OCD if you can, especially one that has OCD themselves. You might be surprised by how much they can intuit.
@Dalia H. Interesting take.
We will never be able to fully understand the twisted logic of our OCD. And even when we try to figure it out, we can't figure it out. However, all OCD is the same. And you treat it in exactly the same way. No matter what kind of Pure O you have, you can treat it with ERP therapy just like everything else. That means you just let the thoughts run freely through your head. You don't try to stop them. You don't try to fix them. You don't try to fight them off. No matter how bad or taboo it seems, you just let the thoughts run through your head. That is how you beat OCD. I'll try to send you something that will put that in perspective for you.
@Tea and Honey The key is to STOP fighting off the thoughts. You need to just accept that they are in your head, and that they are MEANINGLESS—so it doesn’t matter if they are there or not. —————— Don’t ever fight the thoughts. This is very important for OCD recovery. ERP therapy trains us to never fight the thoughts. If you try to fight them off, they’re just going to get worse. My therapist explained it like this: Imagine a tree planted by river. The leaves from the tree fall off and float down the river. You watch the leaves fall, but you don’t try to stop them. You just let them float down the river. This is the same with ALL intrusive thoughts. It doesn’t matter if these are bad thoughts about God, violence, sex, attractions, etc. All intrusive thoughts are the SAME. You just let them fall off the tree and float down the river. Here’s another analogy: Imagine a swarm of angry bees around someone’s head. The bees can’t really bite or sting, but they are very annoying as they swarm around the person’s head. They’re not really harmful to the person, but they are disturbing just because they are there. This is the same thing as the intrusive thoughts. They can’t really harm anything, and they don’t have any real power. But they are distracting and disturbing because they are there. If you take a stick and try to fight them off, they’re just going to swarm around even worse and get even stronger. It doesn’t work to try to fight them off with a stick. They will always keep swarming. In the same way, we can’t fight off the intrusive thoughts. It’s impossible. Besides, the thoughts are meaningless, and they can’t hurt us anyway. So don’t try to fight them off. Here’s one more analogy: Imagine your little brother is always saying mean things to you. Sometimes he shout means things; sometimes he whispers mean things; sometimes he shows you ugly pictures that he has drawn. He’s always trying to tease you and always trying to get you upset, and he’s always saying horrible things to you. If you shout at him to stop doing it, he’s just going to do it more. You have to accept that you can’t stop what he says. But if you ignore him and don’t give him any response and don’t get upset , he will eventually get bored and stop trying so hard. It’s the same with the intrusive thoughts. You can’t stop them. But if you get upset every time they come into your head, you are giving them power. You OCD (like a little brother) is going to feed you more of the things that “rile you up.” But if you don’t get upset and don’t care if these things are coming into your brain, then you can go about your life as normal. In this way, you are showing that these thoughts really have no power over you. Your OCD will try to trick you into giving “meaning” to the thoughts by saying maybe you will like them or maybe you will accept them, blah, blah, blah, blah blah blah. Don’t listen to the OCD. Practice strict ERP no matter how you feel and no matter how the OCD tries to tell you the danger you’re in if you start ignoring the thoughts. The truth is the thoughts don’t mean anything, so you can ignore them. You can’t make them go away (like the bees), but you can give them no power by acknowledging that they are meaningless.
@Tea and Honey No you’re absolutely right. Thank you so much though. Dang this is a long response. You’re a real champ here.
I 100% felt that way but then talking to a therapist who understands ocd - I was mind blown that she could follow my rants and make sense of them like she really knew what I was saying. It was a first for me where other therapists (not aware of OCD) would look at me with question marks.
Seeing regular therapists of all different kinds over the years and still having the same obsessions has taught me that I really need specialized OCD therapy. I was basically just bringing my spirals to talk therapists, and they would feed my reassurance seeking by unraveling the spirals with me until I felt "better." Then one week later, maybe two, maybe months later, the same obsession and spiral would come back and id be right where I started. I'm only 4 sessions into OCD therapy and I can see the clear difference. Im excited and hopeful and scared!
Sometimes I feel like nobody really gets me. Nobody knows what’s going on in my head. I try to explain in vivid detail, but my ocd immediately reads the other persons face and registers that they don’t get it. It’s a very isolating experience. Anyone else have something like this?
I can't explain my obsession to anyone without it sounding crazy and no one understands the obsession, so I won't try to here. But has that happened to anyone? An obsession that you can't put into words and no one understands? I was making a tiny bit of progress with my NOCD therapist, but I couldn't afford it anymore. So I'm just feeling alone, scared, and crazy. Just wanted to reach out here. Thank you
What is it called when with ur ocd lets say if ur ocd theme happens like when you watch videos and ur mind comes up with something or your hypeaaware, but you feel like u cant tell ur therapist cus the video is proof because no one else would’ve thought that, and you know its not true anyways you just had intrusive feeling, but i know compulsions wont do anything but ur finding it hard to sit with this really scary thing like ohm ur accepting being this bad thing or if you have reassurance at least you’d know for sure,how can u live without knowing for sure even tho uknoe its deffo just ur ocd idk if this makes sense and what you call it ?:) if anyone could help me out
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