ocd with the sun

I’m sorry your mom wasn’t able to support you in that moment but you should be proud of yourself for committing to your exposure. 10 minutes is better than 0 minutes. At the end of the day, your biggest supporter should be yourself not your mom. The older we get the more we realize sometimes the people who love us the most, won’t be able to give us everything we need. Personally I love the sun. I love the beach. I love getting in the water. I love sweating. I feel that the sun gives me energy. I look forward to the day you get to enjoy the beautiful sun! Keep going! Also, instead of venting to your mom try writing about it. Making a NOCD post, ranting to your phone in voice recordings and then deleting it, and other self soothing techniques. I’m sure your mom wants to see you overcome your struggles but sometimes she may not know how to help or what to say.

You are doing great and being so courageous by doing your exposures! Maybe ask your therapist if there's a video from NOCD that talks about titration that you can share with your mom? Saying something like you appreciate that she wants to help you get better but really you need time to work your way up to the bigger exposures. You know your OCD the best and as long as you're being honest with yourself and consistent with exposures you are healing and making progress. If your mom keeps pushing this, I'm sure your therapist would back you up and could maybe help to educate her. Your mom may have good intentions but remember she's (probably) not a mental health professional trained in OCD.

it’s like i was already doing heavy exposure and she keeps telling me to do more and more when im obviously anxious from doing my own exposure. so it just makes me feel so overwhelmed and like im not doing good enough. she’s like “okay go to the gym later again with your brother and sit outside for now” like it feels like she’s trying to make me do all my exposure in one day, when i’ve literally been avoiding going outside when it’s sunny for months

First of all, congratulations for going to gym for even 10 minutes, that is a win if it was a sunny day which is a trigger for you. It is also so hard when people don’t understand how hard exposures are and also how exhausting it is to do them. I would talk with your therapist and see if they have some suggestions for helping your mother understand OCD and ERP better. My other suggestion is looking for someone else in your life that can give you the support you need. I have friends that know if I am struggling I can always reach out to them and even though they don’t have OCD. They will listen and be supportive. They have learned how to support me without giving reassurance.

UPDATE: I ended up going again with my brother and i did so well, little to no anxiety at all!!!! i really wasn’t gonna go again, but i did with the encouragement from my brother and reading your guys comments! 🤍