- Date posted
- 6y ago
- Date posted
- 6y ago
I want to give you the biggest hug right now - clearly you’ve been through a lot and that’s so sucky ❤️❤️ Avoid talk therapies at all costs, it encourages your obsessions, as I found the hard way. ERP is very helpful, but its important to carry out a plan in case you relapse. You can improve, I know that sounds crazy right now, but its true. Your passion for animals is something I really relate to, make that your motivation to recover and improve. If you have a motivation to recover, you’re more likely to do so. My OCD stands in the way of my goals sometimes, which is why I’m so driven and determined to get better. I wish you all the best and hope you will use this app to start trying some smaller exposures and get you on track to living a happier life. Lots of love ❤️❤️
- Date posted
- 6y ago
Oh I recommend the mindfulness workbook for ocd by Jon Hershfield. It’s helped me understand it a lot and therefore easier to start working
- Date posted
- 6y ago
It will be ok. I know it doesn’t seem like it but it will ?
- Date posted
- 6y ago
I understand. It sounds like you’ve been through a lot in such a short time! Keep fighting. I understand the struggle and how difficult and lonely it is to succumb to your compulsions. I have to have hope that we will get better. It’s all I can do. I hope you find your light ?❤️
- Date posted
- 6y ago
I totally get where you’re coming from - I’m kind of all over the place with my ERP. I didn’t do it very thoroughly the first time (had no idea what I was doing) so I’m here again because I relapsed. The first step you can do is cut off as many compulsions as possible to stop feeding the cycle. Then get some paper and make a list of all your themes (obsessions/fears) and rate them from 1-10. Make a list of your less disturbing fears up to your most disturbing, and start at the easiest. Your ERP doesn’t have to go for 2 hours or something, start at only a couple of minutes. If you throw yourself off the deep end, you’ll be overwhelmed. Expose yourself to the fear and say “this might be true. Im going to accept it.” You’ll feel anxious, but sit with it for as long as you can. After a few sessions you might find you feel a little bit less anxious, so keep at it. You’ve taken a really important first step in recovery, so be proud! You’re doing good ❤️ if you have any more questions feel free to ask ?
- Date posted
- 6y ago
Megumi- Welcome and thank you for sharing your story. I’m so sorry to hear about the traumatic experiences you’ve been through. I hope this app can help you with your OCD. I know they are going to start an unlimited therapist chat for $100/month and maybe that’s something you can consider.
- Date posted
- 6y ago
@TabbyKitty I love your username ?. Thank you for your kind words. I agree with the talk therapy but I’ve gave it a shot to see if I can learn anything from it and for insurance purpose-I had to show them that I have tried therapy that was available to me but didn’t work and so it has to be the ERP. I believe you when you say it can improve as I have experienced at one point. But here’s my question of self ERP. I don’t know where to begin as I have a lot of symptoms. I have a sense but I’m scared I’m going to forget a step, doing it wrong or there are better ways to do them. I found out about this app by a YouTuber who talks about OCD and recovery. I’m excited to give it a try but at the same time scared. Like what if I miss a step in the exposure ladder? I feel I can do better when I’m told what steps I need to take. I just don’t trust myself to do it right. I know the purpose is just doing it but it’s scary to do it alone. How do you do the ERP alone? I just have no strength to doing it-even when I have my passion as a motivator. I start reflecting on my past failures.
- Date posted
- 6y ago
The better word for “positive” is justified.
- Date posted
- 6y ago
@WorriedDriver thank you. I’m curious is the therapist an ERP specialist?
- Date posted
- 6y ago
Yes, email info@nocd.com for more information and you can get more details on their credentials
- Date posted
- 6y ago
I know it’s hard but try and do one thing at a time. I never pushed myself. I know, I know it’s scary. But we need to go out and live without feeling bad about it 24/7. Try and sort one trigger or one OCD thought. Spend a whole day if you have to but you decide when you are done with IT controlling YOU. It’s ok to make mistakes.
Related posts
- Date posted
- 18w ago
hi. so one big factor of my OCD is rumination. i met a guy who i have a crush on the idea of (idea bc there are red flags). my biggest fear is not finding true love, my ex told me no one else would deal with what i have (my ocd, specifically reassurance seeking and getting overstimulated after intimacy). a few weeks ago, my friends and family all gathered and tried to give me advice that sounded like “you’re shy and you’ll never find someone.” after that, i’ve felt off. i’ve been using an unhealthy coping skill, daydreaming, and i’ve just felt unbalanced. my ocd makes everything feel different sometimes, i can’t explain it. life, myself, almost like being in a dissociated state. has anyone else experienced that? i don’t know how to remain balanced during my off times and i know pms exasperates it all. i take ashwaghanda and omega 3s in a multi vitamin daily. i take them all together in the evening but i’ve missed three days recently and also messed with my rocky sleep schedule because of fun times with friends. i hope these supplements work, because i don’t know if i’d be brave enough for medication. i had a bad reaction on prozac and often am forgetful. i just have been battling my OCD consciously for almost ten years now and unconsciously for longer. i am so tired, as my mental health extends beyond my OCD. i’m in talk therapy with some cbt aspects but i only see her twice a month. i’ve broken down so many times and promised myself id get on track or that certain things would work, but it’s like i am stuck in a circle that gets smaller when i’m able to help myself. i just want to be normal. i want to be able to mess up my sleep schedule to enjoy good times and not suffer horrible consequences or fear that i will be entirely thrown off balance. i don’t want to worry or doubt or feel so dissociative that i squint my eyes for a moment and wonder why i feel so unreal. i will never understand why god has allowed me to go through this. i cannot let it be for nothing but i don’t know how much more to bend and contort my body and brain to get somewhere stable but how lovely it would be if i could. i don’t have much of a schedule right now, i get apathetic and give in with things from time to time. one thing can trigger me and i am back to square one wether in a week or month. any advice, any and all is so helpful. your stories, your thoughts. maybe feeling less alone and knowing what has helped you is exactly what i need right now. thank you 💗
- Date posted
- 13w ago
My last and almost life long theme/sub-theme largely subsided recently and my ocd felt like it wasn’t even an issue. Then I went on winter break from uni and being alone made my mind come up with a whole new topic to obsess over. TLDR on my fears, my advisor wouldn’t email me back for a while about signing up for classes so my mind started to worry “what if he doesn’t in time and you can’t enroll this semester and you lose this whole life you just built and all these new friends” So when that issue was resolved my mind found other scarier ways I could be uprooted from my current life and friends that I’ve grown so attached to. Then my mind remembered back when I was struggling with false memories and scrupulosity and I essentially made a post on a forum 2 and a half years ago saying I did something or was convinced I did something that I never actually did. Now I’ve been spiraling about someone finding it reporting me and I either get seen as a horrible person or arrested or something over something I never actually did but “admitted” to out of fear of going to hell. My mind won’t let it go and keeps finding new reasons for it to be “valid” “logical” or even inevitable. I feel like it’s just hanging over my head and I can never rest easy. Especially when I try to focus on my daily tasks or plan for the future I get this horrible flair up of “why plan for the future when this could come back in that future and you get uprooted from all of it” my mind won’t rest without certainty being uprooted won’t happen but certainty doesn’t exist, at least not with ocd. This sucks and I miss being care free.
- Date posted
- 11w ago
It’s been 4 years. 4 years since I spiralled into a world controlled by rituals of 4, it started as 2, then 3, then 4 - my safe number. The amount of times I wash my hands after touching something dirty and how many repeats it takes until I feel ‘clean’, the amount of taps I make when closing doors to make sure I don’t ‘die’, the amount of times I rinse cutlery and plates before eating off them, the amount of times I disinfect things. My OCD subtype is contamination and I know 2020 lockdowns and the pandemic caused it to spiral but what started as a small ritual quickly became bigger until I no longer remembered what my life was like without the obsessive thoughts of germs and contamination. Could that person be ill? What if I go outside to the shops and someone makes me sick? You can’t answer the door to get that package from the delivery driver because he might make you sick, oh you can’t put the shopping away without disinfecting it first - what if someone has coughed on it? ‘I’ve got to wear gloves to do that’ I can’t, I can’t, I can’t. For 4 years I’ve lived like this, the ‘I don’t want to touch that’ or ‘I can’t go to this place because I don’t want to get ill and die’ ‘can you go do that for me as I don’t think I can right now’ - I know my OCD is irrational, I know the likelihood of those things actually happening are slim to none and I know my OCD stems from a need of control in my life because for so many years I felt like everything in my life was out of my control. But no matter how much I know of how many books I read, how many mindful practices I do the panic I feel after being ‘exposed’ or before exposing myself to a trigger is horrible. I’ve avoided and avoided and avoided to the point where something small now seems and feels like an impossible mountain to climb. It often feels like there isn’t light at the end of the tunnel on the dark days, when I know there is, it’s just going to take some time. Despite this on the outside to those not in my circle my life is a whole picture perfect painting. I run my own business, have a nice car, a nice house, a happy relationship and the of best friends and I’m so grateful for all those things but the reality is much different - behind closed doors and hidden in the closest is the OCD monster. I’ve decided now, after 4 years it’s time to change. I’m breaking the cycle and starting anew. The irony that 4 is my safe number too and it’s been 4 years since things started to get dark. I’m ready to lose control and find myself again. Why am I writing this? Honestly, I really don’t know. I found this app recently and hope it can be a help for my ERP practices I’ve been practicing on my own and it’s actually the first time I’ve ever openly posted or spoken about my OCD to date. For years I have lived with a huge amount of shame and embarrassment, hiding my issues from everyone - even my closest friends have no idea how much it impacts my day to day. I’ve felt shame as I can’t control my own mind despite knowing the thoughts are irrational and the rituals only provide temporary relief but each day again and again the safety blanket of the rituals wraps me up and takes over. The only person who truly knows how much it affects me is my partner, who has been by my side through it all, he’s burnt out and has seen first hand the impact it has had on me, my life and my happiness. I’ve sheltered him as much as I can, but I’m sure those who are in relationships with OCD can relate to the burnout their partner feels day in day out. So that’s my story, I hope those going through similar can take comfort in this and know they aren’t alone in it all as my OCD has made me feel so incredibly lonely, isolated and empty for 4 years too long. It feels freeing to finally share my monster and I hope I can connect with others who are on a similar journey to me. The biggest thing I want to be able to do again? I want to be able to hug my loved ones without feeling triggered, I want to go outside and enjoy life without worry, I want to live again. This app has made me feel seen for the first time in a long time and reading your stories, your experiences and how you’re coping is comforting, encouraging and makes me feel less alone ❤️ thank you for reading x
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