how does everyone convince themselves

how does everyone convince themselves not to do the compulsions? I find myself recognizing that I want to wash my hair or my hands or my shoes, and that I should not be giving into the compulsion, but then classic ocd convinces me that this isn’t actually a compulsion and I have to do it. but other times I truly can just force myself to walk away from the compulsion. tips? tricks? stories of success? feeling pretty defeated and at this point i’m just not doing compulsions so I don’t get mad at myself and ruin my day because I “gave in”

squirrelquarrel

Date posted: 21h

i used to really struggle with contamination and hand/object cleaning. one thing i can suggest is trying to delay your compulsion, instead of stopping completely. for example, you get the urge to wash your hands, and you recognise that it's your ocd. now take 3 minutes to sit with that urge. just 3 minutes, nothing more. can you add 2 minutes onto that? amazing! you've just delayed your compulsion by 5 mins. how does another 5 mins sound? i'm sure you get the idea. if you're able to delay the compulsion, the urgency may reduce. it likely won't the first time round. your ocd is gonna freak out a bit. but you are strong and you are safe. good luck 🤍🤍⭐️

chloeeestaska

Date posted: 12h

@squirrelquarrel do you think the longer I delay the more my brain will start to understand or if I eventually do the compulsion after 3 hours is that still progress if I feel less distressed?

squirrelquarrel

Date posted: 4h

@chloeeestaska basically, the longer you delay the compulsion, you might find the urgency to do it decreases. even if you aren't able to dismiss the compulsion, delaying it a little bit more each time shows your brain that you are getting better at tolerating the distress. 🤍

Yoshime

Date posted: 20h

Sometimes, while I am sitting through my discomfort, I will talk to myself out loud about how uncomfortable it is. Be my own whining sounding board. I will whine as much and as loud as I need to. Sometimes I get a lot of relief just openly recognizing how much discomfort I feel dealing with it. Since I struggle with thought neutralizing, I can’t tell myself it will be okay or anything like that, but I can certainly gripe about how bad it feels at the time. 😂

chloeeestaska

Date posted: 12h

@Yoshime I do always say “momma raised a complainer, not a quitter” 😂😂

crabjean

Date posted: 17h

Delay is the only thing I’ve managed to do but the compulsion usually wins eventually. I am able to tolerate longer intervals doing the compulsion with practice. Still working on it. I did manage to stop checking my kid’s breathing a certain number of times by just gradually decreasing the number of breaths I counted until I could skip extra checks entirely (healthy child, checking is one of my compulsions).

brittany41930

Date posted: 20h

I am struggling with the same thing. Constant hand washing, hair washing, wiping everything down. I feel like if I don’t it will be the one time everyone gets sick because of it. Any tips and advice is welcomed!!!

chloeeestaska

Date posted: 12h

@brittany41930 I wish I had more tips and tricks, all I can say is I am so sorry you are going through this as well, it’s so so difficult.

brittany41930

Date posted: 11h

@chloeeestaska Thank you so much 🙏❤️

brittany41930

Date posted: 11h

@chloeeestaska So sorry you’re going through this as well. We just have to hope that things will get better.

chloeeestaska

Date posted: 12h

thank you guys all so much for these comments, it makes me feel much more human. mine is usually over my dogs, i’m a vet tech and struggle thinking anything I touch or the touch could hurt them. but always want to make sure i’m not “subjecting” my family to my own mental illness, it’s so so hard.

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