- 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
- 23w
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
- 20w
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!
- Date posted
- 15w
hi everyone, i just joined and this is my first time really seeking help for my mental health. i’ve always thought i could handle the thoughts on my own but it’s getting harder every day and starting to becoming debilitating in some aspects of my life. i’m not educated enough on a lot of forms of OCD and i’ve never spoken to a professional (i plan to soon) but i think i may have some form of harm OCD? reading the descriptions of it and learning about others stories, i feel i can safely say i have experienced harm OCD, however the bulk of my thoughts don’t revolve around me hurting someone, instead i have very graphic and intrusive thoughts/ visions of my loved ones dying in all kinds of ways. I obsessively watch my boyfriends location as he drives because i need to be sure he is alive and moving. when he leaves i have to say the same prayer (i am not religious) like a mantra three times. if i see a loved one a “dangerous” situation, say standing at the top of stairs, stepping on rocks at the beach, leaning on a balcony, etc. i will have INCREDIBLY real and vivid images flash in my head of them dying. the images are so graphic and make me have a visceral physical reaction. some images have stuck with me for years and they will “flash” in my head all day, every day. almost every time i shower, walk by a curb, i have a split second image of me or a loved one tripping and hitting my head. i will be sitting on the couch and see the corner of a table and my whole body will shiver hard because i imagined slipping and hitting my head. sometimes this makes me stay up all night because i can’t control or stop the thoughts and i will have a panic attack. I also have always really bad thoughts revolving driving. i drive a LOT and luckily it hasn’t interfered with my ability to do so, but since i started driving almost ten years ago i have had the same little mantra that i repeat three times EVERY time i put the car in drive. i have several items in my car that can not leave or i am convinced something horrible will happen. this year i got a new car and i had horrible panic attacks and anxiety leading up, to the point where i almost considered backing out. i sobbed when i tried to Not transfer my “safety items” from my last car to my new one. i am proud to say that there were a couple items that i was able to throw out, not including a dead, petrified beetle (gross i know) that i have kept 3 different cars (for OCD reasons, im not gross) last thing for this post- for as long as i can remember, i do this thing where i poke my fingernails into my palms very hard until i feel pain so i can assure that im alive. kind of like a “pinch me im dreaming thing”. i will not cut my nails short because when i do, the poking doesn’t “hurt enough” so i cant reassure myself that im alive. i do it every time death is mentioned, i do it every. single. time. a semi truck is driving past me. i do it every time i have an intrusive thought, every time i see a motorcyclist, every time i feel “jinxed”, every time someone is driving too fast, etc. etc. etc. i did not expect to write so much in this first post, it just all kind of came out so if anyone has actually read this, thank you. i think i just want to know what this is and if anyone else has experienced something similar. thank you ❤️
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