- Date posted
- 5y
- Date posted
- 5y
Hello Rylieraz, Be careful of asking for reassurance. This post can lead you into a rabbit hole of pain. The best way to use the app is to get specific advice about treatment, and give support to others. If you get into reassurance, you will be feeding the rat and making life a lot worse for yourself. Have you had any experience with ERP and therapy? Its It's the only way your symptoms will go away. Medication helps for a while but not on its own.
- Date posted
- 5y
Thanks for the advice! I really had never thought about that before. I have been in therapy for about a month but I feel that it’s just making my symptoms more obvious to myself and it makes them feel more intrusive and impossible to get over.
- Date posted
- 5y
That's good to hear. Is your therapist experienced with OCD? Are you going to do exposures? I had a couple of negative experiences where the therapist didnt know how to treat the condition - it was interesting, there was a good chance to talk about things, but my symptoms got worse and it set me back a year or so. Are you alright asking your therapist for evidence they've treated OCD successfully? It can be a little awkward, but you might need to do it to get better.
- Date posted
- 5y
I’m actually not entirely sure. All I can do right now is the free weekly therapy that they offer at my college. I just barely got off the waitlist for it and it isn’t permanent- I’m in the process of setting up another therapist at a practice for once the free therapy is over. I am not quite sure what exposures entail but I will have to ask next time I see him. I’ll also be sure to ask if he has experience with OCD- I can definitely see how if they don’t have experience that it could set me back and I definitely don’t need that this early on.
- Date posted
- 5y
@Rylieraz Basically no matter how much you are suffering, to recover in a serious way you need to commit to a process, and see that process through. ERP is a process. A qualified therapist will get you recovered. It will be like rocket fuel. It depends how serious you are about getting better. If your brain is kidding you, telling you it doesnt really matter, you can sort it out later, or that there isnt help available - OCD attacks its own treatment - then it's likely you wont properly seek help and commit to the process. If you can get your proper realistic self care attitude focused, find a qualified therapist and get going with ERP, then it doesnt take long to shift. It will also help you with your studies, job prospects / income level and other elements to your quality of life. Bear in mind, OCD tends to get worse in mid 20s into 30s. Left to it's own devices, the prospects are not too pretty.
- Date posted
- 5y
i feel like i could have written this post! i have dermatillomania and i also worry about something bad happening to the people i love. it was also what led to my friend's OCD diagnosis—she would imagine bad things happening to her family every night before bed and it was so distressing that she went to therapy. so you're definitely not alone. i wish i had some good coping tips, hopefully we can work on this theme and find some peace.
- Date posted
- 5y
Hey @dandy my derma is really bad rn. Any tips for stopping myself from picking? I’m almost home after being at college for four months and I’m worried that I will be tempted to lock myself in my bathroom and pick away like I did before I left to college.
- Date posted
- 5y
@Rylieraz my derma's really bad right now too, i'm sorry to hear that you're struggling so much. :( i buy non-latex nitrile gloves off of amazon and wear them almost all the time, because my hands look disgusting (i've had people make mean comments before). it also makes it hard to pick other parts of my body, since no part of me is immune to wandering OCD fingers lol. i also try to refocus my thoughts and lay my hands flat or keep them still every time i notice that i'm picking. i do some breathing exercises during that, too. i wish i had better advice, i'm still really struggling. please let me know if you ever want to chat, it sounds like we have some similar fears and i'm happy to support you!
- Date posted
- 5y
Hi I also suffer from dermatillomania. It can be really debilitating. Keep trucking through therapy. I got my picking down from twice a day for several hours to a few times a week.
- Date posted
- 5y
Look for this woman I've been messaging on here. I think you all have an OCD theme in common, about worrying about others. Her name is Dinou.
- Date posted
- 5y
I wish I could have a therapist better trained for working with OCD, but I don't have the luxury or privilege or something. I don't have much choice.
- Date posted
- 5y
I don't even have much choice in what therapist I see because of my insurance being Medicare.
- Date posted
- 5y
Because not everyone in the office where I go can see Medicare people.
- Date posted
- 5y
People with Medicare, I mean.
- Date posted
- 5y
I always have thoughts not to harm anyone. My biggest fear is to cause them something that is coming from me, I know the feeling. I think more or less, we all seek for reassurance here and that’s very bad for us. I do it all the time and it always makes me worse. Believe in your therapy and you’ll get better someday.
Related posts
- Date posted
- 25w
Basically long story short, ive been dealing with anxiety for a very long time all my life I'm 23 now but about 5 months ago my anxiety started to get really and I overthink a ton and get worried to easily. So my chest hurt for a while from stress at work made me worry why it was hurting, then me worrying and thinking worse case scenarios was making it worse. So i and to go to the doctor and got diagnosed properly with anxiety and I have a med now that I take when I really need it called hydroxyzine but I also have another med that is Zoloft that I have been taking for a about a month now, to help with my intrusive thoughts I have sometimes i only get them when im stressed or when I'm by myself or when i just overthink in general, my loneliness depression is one of the reasons for my anxiety because I wish I had someone as in partner wise to love me and for me to love them. But anyways I've had intrusive thoughts about possibly hurting myself and family, or even my dog. Ive never acted on any of my thoughts in the past and I don't want to but I have had anxiety attacks when everything feels to real and really scares me. I constantly have the thought of am I crazy or am I becoming crazy and stuff and I've done a lot of looking stuff in the past about symptoms but most of them are identical to what anxiety is so it's hard to tell the difference. It's been probably 2 weeks since we last talked. I've been mostly doing good. But I just was wondering if had a little Harm OCD intrusive thought happen yesterday that targeted my Aunt at work she was complaining all day and when it got closer to the end of the shifts for us. I was already annoyed with a situation that happened earlier in the work day. But she came into my department and then went back over to hers and I said it out loud to myself and said you better get back over there or I'll, I tried to say something else because the word I was going to say was kill you. Obviously I don't but that's what my intrusive thought wanted me to say. And made me think thats why i got to hurt her to stop her complaing So the rest of the night I was saying she is safe I am safe I'm control, like this is just anxiety lying to you, it's just because I'm tired and got annoyed earlier. I can't tell if it was working or not because I was so tired and just wanted to go home. But after work her and I spent time together at our house she was on the one couch and I was on the other with a bunch of our dogs in the living room. I tried to keep my mind off of what happened, and I was fighting some stomach achyness already. But I obviously don't want to hurt her and we had conversations just fine. But I went to my other aunt house at night after work to go to bed because she has to watch my aunts dogs because my other aunt and family is on vacation. But anyways I'm trying to get over that word Kill, that word is what is scarring me and sticking. Like my anxiety is lying saying kill, or basically do harm. I don't want to do anything bad but I'm trying to shake that feeling and stickiness of that word. I'm just so scared and worried.
- Date posted
- 21w
I am so scared that my *undiagnosed* OCD is going to make me harm someone close to me in my family. I’m afraid of knives, I’m afraid of things that COULD be a weapon like pens, forks or anything like that. My sister is my BFF and my thoughts have latched onto her. I’m so afraid!! I don’t know how to make them stop. How do I stop and will it eventually subside? How do I work on compulsions? I’m on Zoloft 50mg as well for 3.5 weeks and a lot of my other worries have subsided except this one. I feel like a crazy person :( Also does this sound like OCD?
- Date posted
- 19w
I’m new to treatment and only realized I have OCD a few months ago. I went through a tough and abusive marriage and ended up getting divorced. I had my first panic attack several years ago and ended up needing to go on Lexapro. This helped me significantly and allowed me to leave my partner. Several years later and I decided to stop Lexapro because I thought I was good to go. I’m in a very healthy relationship, have a great job, friends/family, go to the gym and have a wonderful life. It’s been about a year off the meds and I’ve had some panic, but I’ve been able to manage it. For some reason, the last three weeks has been really difficult for me. I have different spirals and different thought processes: what if I’m schizophrenic? What if I have a deeper mental disorder? What if I hurt someone? What if I need to leave my partner? What if I end up becoming so depressed that I end up hurting myself? My brain just goes from one what if to the next and once I conquer one, the next one pops up with even more intensity. I started taking NAC and inositol and I’m taking saffron during the day because I really don’t wanna go on back on medication but sometimes my thoughts scare me and I’m convinced that I’m not gonna get better and I know that’s just the OCD loop, but I’m wondering if this resonates with anyone else!
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