Never ending spiral

Hi all. I have severe contamination OCD and I’ve been spiraling for over 36 hours. I’ve tried breathing techniques, sour candy, and other grounding techniques but I cannot seem to get the obsessions down right now. I just started therapy for this and I’m ready to see some relief from doing that work. But what are some things that have helped you all in the meantime? I’m open to trying new things to see if I can find more effective coping skills.

Contamination OCD

Chessmixxd

Date posted: 21h

I'm not sure if this will mean anything to you, but there was one time where I had a severe and sudden urge to give in to a compulsion. It was scary, my stomach hurt, and I felt like the whole world was caving in. So, I went outside, put on the Mean Girls musical, and walked around the circumference of my mom's apartment building several times. I told myself that if, by the end of the muscial I still felt the compulsion, I'd go inside and give into it. I felt it in the back of my mind the whole time, right up until I got back to my room. And I found that... I just didn't want to do it anymore. I didn't run away, I just did something else instead. Sometimes... we just have to continue to live life with it. It's not easy, but you got this!

Steven12

Date posted: 19h

Funny enough one of the best things I did was stop trying to gather “tools” to “make it go away”. It seems so opposite of what you think your supposed to do but the more we are trying to solve or make something go away or feel better, the more our brain sends messages telling us these things are dangerous. Tools themselves became a type of compulsion for me because I was trying to force the uncomfortableness away. The more we do that the more our brain says “ oh your trying to solve all this stuff, that must mean it really IS dangerous” The brain is like an algorithm, when I stopped trying to “solve” things and stopped applying meaning to thoughts, the more the brain saw these things as non-threats. It’s all about how you RESPOND to the thoughts, if you follow them down the rabbit hole you will only go deeper, if you respond differently (try to not give any meaning to the thoughts, let them pass without ENGAGING) you re-wire the brain. Your body will argue at first, it will send more thoughtsand cortisol but that’s because it sees your not listening to it, but that’s actually when you know you doing the real hard work. It sounds so weird but the goal is not to feel good all the time, cause that’s impossible but to be better with being uncomfortable - which is what ERP helps with. Good luck

xmicha

Date posted: 16h

@Steven12 That actually makes sense. I’m a therapist and I am so used to helping my clients identify coping skills to use with triggers, but I do not specialize in OCD so I have to remind myself I don’t have all the tools, nor do I need to know how to do it all on my own right now. I really appreciate your feedback.

Steven12

Date posted: 13h

@xmicha That makes sense, and I absolutely think tools have their place especially as we are trying to implement certain improvements in our lives, but when the amygdala is riding the OCD loop, it is irrational, and it does not help having a conversation with it, the brain does not know better at that point and keeps you in the loop because it thinks if your fearful, your safe. Good luck with implementing ERP!

Steven12

Date posted: 19h

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-real-work-with-maggie-sterling/id1837248018?i=1000758175569

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