Will it actually get better?

everything was so unbearable for so many years but within the last 2 months i’ve done a complete 180° i used to be on crazy high doses of medications but now i’m the happiest i’ve ever been, unmedicated, but i do smoke/take eddies every once in a while because everything honestly goes quiet for a little while. but what i’ve practiced is radical self empathy, self compassion, accepting the uncertainty and fear behind resisting compulsions because my feelings and fear are valid, but the thoughts are illogical and do not define you they are simply passing through your brain it’s just overactive parts of your brain talking. i also started trying every new activity i could think of and trying new hobbies/revisiting old ones to see what I connect with and introducing myself to new experiences where my thoughts didn’t dictate the outcome, as well as forcing myself to have outdoor time everyday(usually walking or rollerskating). in a way it’s like i’ve been treating myself like a small child, i take the time to reparent myself through the compulsions, giving myself grace but remembering that giving in only reinforces my brain’s belief that they are essential and significant. living like this has changed everything for me it feels like the antidote to the shame that almost ended my life. It’s still been hard of course but i was chronically depressed for nearly a decade and practically housebound and I’ve felt more joy in the past 2 months than entire years of my life. it does get better and neuroplasticity is real we can change sm more than we think!🩵i couldn’t feel joy because the shame was clouding everything for years and i thought i didn’t have those kinds of issues but there was a lot of unconscious feelings of shame, guilt, and distrust in myself because of my symptoms from my literal disorder so reminding myself of that and giving myself extra grace even when i want to be unkind to myself has radically changed everything lately.🩵i hope things get better for you love you have so much to offer this world!

I have been struggling with this exact feeling and I just overcame it. It honestly brought me to very dark thoughts because I couldn't imagine living life with thoughts like this just existing in my brain all the time because youre right theyre always going to be there. BUT they dont hold the same value or emotional impact when youre doing the work of sitting with them. Personally, being in therapy and taking medication has helped the thoughts over time lose their meaning and hold on me. Now theyre just like any other thought. They come and its like "oh youre here, ok" and it doesnt result in anything. It will get better but you have to do the work to make them lose their hold on you and that work is sitting with the thought and taking no action.

It’s gets better everything does it always does the worse thing anyone could ever do is give up, think about this you’re missing out on the dream version of yourself just cause you didn’t want to put in the effort and I get things get overwhelming However this is a very possible feat, to start winning against ocd, let me tell you on a scale of how bad my ocd was 2-3 years ago it was a 10/10 now I would say it’s like a 2/10 maybe even 1/10 it’s achievable trust me One thing that helped me was purpose in life having faith in Christ has personal helped me a lot I understand this is a whole different topic but personally I believe God got me through things I would never be able to get through on my own To put things in perspective I never went to therapy heck I never even told ananyone about my struggles so who was it that helped me who was it that made me whole, I believe it was Jesus So don’t lose courage keep fighting because in giving up you have nothing to gain and everything that you could be and what you already are to lose

I’m so sorry you are dealing with this :( this may sound shallow but are you on medication?

Hopefully it's some consolation to know you are not alone in your thoughts and this feeling and that alone makes you feel a little less hopeless. I actually hopped on to post myself for some tips as it’s easiest for me to ruminate on all of the thoughts at night. Sometimes just knowing that the thoughts and body response that can accompany it aren’t exclusive to me is calming and helps me with my rumination personally. In other words, this community forum tends to comfort me.

You are not alone, I feel the same way

When people say that you just learn to live with the thoughts, they by no means mean that they will stay just as prevalent. They drastically reduce and you may even have months long periods of not having them at all. When they do increase a bit, they are more like background noise that is easy to separate from what you are wanting to think/do. The reason people say that you learn to manage is because they don't want people getting to where they feel good and letting guards down. Even after recovery, some thoughts will come in every now and then (mostly when you are in a different environment or something). You will still have to make an effort to resist the thought, but it will be way easier to do so. You will see the thought (commonly with 3/10 anxiety), see the option of solving it and returning to OCD, or resisting and maintaining your recovery. It gets quite easy to choose the second. OCD is a lot like HIV. It does not go away, but there are treatments out there that make it largely unnoticeable to the person affected. Also I will say that OCD is stubborn at first. It takes time and a decent amount of chipping away to make a little bit of progress. However, once it starts to crumble, it goes fast.

I’m dealing with a relapse right but what got me out of my first OCD “wave” was me engaging with my hobbies and moving out to a different place away from my comfort zone. I suddenly had more actual things I should be worried about such as washing my clothes, attending lectures. Even though I had like a remission period, the ocd truly never went away. It still influenced a lot of my actions everyday but the anxiety was next to none.