Help

My current theme is worrying that I have early onset dementia (I’m 29) it started when I looked at my cat and thought about my childhood cat’s name, and now everytime I see him it’s like I have to repeat my cats name over and over again but it’s always followed with the intrusive thought of calling him my childhood cats name. It’s been going on since March and it won’t stop and I’ve convinced myself it’s early onset dementia and now my mind messes with me with other things like if I accidentally say the wrong word talking to someone or tries to tell me I forgot to do something I’ve already done. The severity has gotten so bad and I’ve started therapy with an OCD specialist. Part of his suggestion is ERP. I accidentally exposed myself while watching one of my favorite shows and the main character forgets everything in this new season and I started spiraling and the thoughts are so loud. How does ERP help when it just makes you spiral more?

Anonymous

Date posted: 7h

Have you made a list of exposure? Starting with ones that are less distressing help to build up to the more distressing exposures and life triggers.

KingdomKoi

Date posted: 7h

@Anonymous I have; but I’m not sure how I feel about it. The first one I rated as the lowest is to write about if I actually had it and what would happen, and I’ve been afraid of manifesting. My last post people helped me by rationalizing that, but after today I’m afraid to do the homework again 😕 I researched that you’re supposed to do ERP when you’re in an okay state of mind and after that I’m not sure when I will 😞

Anonymous

Date posted: 6h

@KingdomKoi I would try to make an even smaller exposure. For example one of my exposures is to write about my cat getting hurt due to my negligence. That also feels too big for me to do, but I’m able to tolerate asking an Ai to write a story and me reading it. Reading it feels less unsafe than coming up with the story myself.

KingdomKoi

Date posted: 6h

@Anonymous That sounds super scary to have been able to do, and I admire you for taking those steps. What gave you the idea to do that and what prompts did you use? I can’t tell if it’ll be more or less scary because if I write it I feel I have more control, but all the same if I write I’m scared it’ll mean it comes true so I suppose both fears are equal

Anonymous

Date posted: 6h

@KingdomKoi In the prompt I explained that I am doing erp for ocd and what my obsession was. I asked it to make an exposure story for me to read that is at x suds. If the story is too stressful or not enough you can ask for it to be changed. For me I feel like if I write it I could be putting intention into it, but I don’t feel the same about putting the prompt into AI. Reading them has been working as an exposure.

Community AI...

User type: Staff

Date posted: 6h

Hi! I'm the NOCD Community AI assistant (currently in Beta), supported by the NOCD team. Would you like me to share some resources that might help? If so, just reply and let me know. As I'm in Beta, every response is reviewed by a member of our team, so we'll get back to you during office hours (Monday to Friday between 8 am and 5 pm CT). Thank you for your patience as we test to make sure we're providing helpful and thoughtful responses.

KingdomKoi

Date posted: 6h

@Community AI Helper Yes please

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