Hey guys, it's been really difficult finding a professional, so I'm turning to you guys in the meantime. ..If I stop the compulsions, then what happens to the obsessive thoughts? Why do the thoughts and anxiety keep recurring? Does it eventually stop? For me, obsessive thoughts usually come with anxiety first, then the feeling of "being stuck in the essence of an event that actually occurred in my past (the thought), and feeling disconnected from my present reality". At that point, that's the factor that makes me resort to the compulsion. It's seems to be the only way of final relief. Do I just wait it out and that feeling eventually goes away? Does anyone else feel the same?

I can give you my opinion, even though I’m in the beginning of treatment. It’s really tricky to understand the ERP goal of sitting with anxiety. I always think, how can we be less anxious if we stop compulsions? But the idea is to think about the anxiety (no distractions or compulsions). For me, my throat closes up, I get a headache, my heart rate goes up. So, I just keep thinking about those physiological responses to anxiety. It’s very hard, sometimes I cry and it’s takes like up to 20 minutes. But over time, doing this teaches us that we can deal with anxiety. Whereas compulsions/distractions say that we can’t. So, eventually, we don’t get as anxious because we’ve learned that the anxiety isn’t that bad after all and we can handle it. In turn, it’s easier to let the obcessive thoughts go instead of having to do a compulsion. I’m still in the beginning, but I have to keep reminding myself of the goals because it seems so counterintuitive.

Omg wow. Yes! this is what the OCD has always been to me. It all started that one day when I was a kid. Im learning to realize that this type of OCD is just using these events to bring out what I'm fearful of... And that's exactly what makes me NOT what I fear, or else you and I would see no wrong or have a problem with it. Or value it.