Tips for stopping an upcoming OCD episode?

I'm in the middle of exams rn and my ocd get worse. Usually when I'm in this kind of triggering situation i am able to rake a step back and take some time relaxing, but well now i only have time for studying and i shoud stay this way for a week at least, but ocd is making it much more difficult. It forces me to reread things over and over and convinces me that i need to fix something about a particular text, but i don't get what, to the point of crying out of frustration because i can't move on to he next task until i fix this text and i'm not sure how to do so. If you have any tips for making it better, ideally in the moment, if it's breathing exercises that help you or something else, please tell.

TheAvatoon

Date posted: Yesterday

What I learned is that "it doesn't need to be perfect, it just needed to be finished/completed." That saved me so much stress, but it was a lesson I learned too late. There's no bonus points for the unachievable. Submitted with a few errors is way better than staying sat on and reworked until it feels neater. If you're on break, your only responsibility is to rest, okay? Nothing else is expected of you

Hatter

Date posted: 20h

Thank you so much! It's actually a good advice, but sadly i have the exams till 29th of December, and all of them require me to learn things by memory, so learning perfectly is kind of the goal. But i do agree that your mindset is really helpful, especially in situations like this❤

TheAvatoon

Date posted: 18h

@Hatter You got this! Try the pomodoro technique, so you can balance studying and rest. A broad understanding of most topics might be better than a full understanding of only one topic, maybe? I went through the same thing, and if you're getting frustrated maybe take a step back then try a different approach. Hopefully they have office hours or something. Im not sure what you're studying, but I wish you the best.

Hatter

Date posted: 18h

@TheAvatoon Thanks! All the best for you too❤

Tea and Honey

Date posted: 22h

Right now, the OCD has you trapped in its cycle. It is giving you "rules" (like you have to reread something), and you are listening to the rules. In the big picture, you have to learn to break out of the rules. You have to learn to hear the "voice" of OCD, but choose to ignore it. How can you learn this? ERP therapy will really help. It's a process that takes a long time and a lot of practice and hard work. But it will be worth it in the end!! For now, I would just practice in little ways. First, you need to understand that every time you listen to the voice of OCD and follow the rules, the OCD gets stronger. When you reread something, for example, that is just feeding the OCD monster. When you break the rules, you are starving the OCD monster--and it will get smaller and smaller. Also, you need to learn to allow the triggers. Certain things will be extra triggering during the stress of the exams. That's okay!!! We have to learn to ALLOW the triggers to come. But then we don't respond to them. When we allow the triggers, then we don't have to feel afraid of them anymore. And when we don't respond to them, we realize that the triggers don't have any control over us. ---------------------------- I'm here if you want to talk more about your specifics!!!!! Sending a big hug!! I'm sorry about how hard this is! OCD is truly awful. But once you learn how to conquer it through therapy, you can go back to loving a functional life. :):) Usually OCD functions by telling if that something REALLY BAD will happen if we disobey its rules. Can I ask what is OCD trying to tell you? What really bad thing did it say will happen if you don't reread the text? Maybe we can start the discussion there:):)

Hatter

Date posted: 20h

Thank you! ERP sounds amazing, but sadly i don't have access to it in my country, so i'm doing it all by myself lately. It's slower i guess, but slowly it's working. But right now i just can't do anything about it, everything feels so wrong. If i don't reread i won't properly understand what is being said, so it might backfire during exam. And all of this really focuses on exams heavily rn, one of my themes in ocd is just suddenly getting dumb, which is not exactly the case right now, but it affects what i feel. I'm an all A's kind of student, and having best possible grades is important to me, because if i don't get the best possible grade, i didn't put in enough effort when i could, so if i can't even do that what am i. I know i'm great and all that, but my self-esteem holds heavily on my grades, and if i mess up i'm gonna feel like shit and probably wonder why what i did wasn't enough. The part i just described is what makes me stressed, and that's what my ocd uses to come back full glam. "If you don't do this you'll suck at the exam", "fix it or it'll show up during the exam" ect. It awful. And i can't even blame my ocd if i fail in ang way. It's making things difficult, but not impossible. If i put in enough effort i'll be fine, and i will put in enough effort, it's just stressful and i cry all the time and zone out. I don't even have free time exept a few hours in the evening to eat and unwind, and for some reason that's not enough. It's like two days ago something snapped and everything got so much shittier. It okay, i can do it still, but it would be easier without ocd bugging me. Thank you for offering me to talk. It was nice letting it out even like that)

Tea and Honey

Date posted: 18h

@Hatter Sounds so hard!! You might check out this online course in ERP!! It's awesome!! And you can master your OCD at home. https://www.ocd-anxiety.com/ I really like Nathan Peterson, who runs this online course

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