Hey nocd community! I won't be taking anymore questions at this time, but I look forward to doing another Q&A soon! For 12 years I lived in silence and shame with the debilitating symptoms of Pure O/Intrusive Thoughts. I believe every person living with mental illness is worthy of a good life, love, happiness, and deserves the chance to live in recovery.

I’ve been experiencing the same :( it’s so awful!

Hey Lina! Yes in fact I struggle with this almost more than the actual obsession. It’s hard to believe it’s ‘just ocd’ when the thoughts and feelings feel so real. I rely on identifying my compulsions and focusing on reducing them instead of trying to use logic or emotions to outthink it. I’m always afraid it’ll turn out to not be ocd, but I take the risk and do my ERP anyway!

Thank you! I’m so glad they helped. I felt ALL alone the majority of my life with this illness so my continued motivation is to help others avoid that loneliness!

Aww! There is nothing better than to be famous for talking about the groinal and sexual intrusive thoughts hahaha!!!

Hi! Firstly, I lol’ed at your username! 1. What helped me the most other than getting ERP therapy was peer support. I spent a long time grieving and feeling angry and jealous of other people after my experience with OCD. I felt undeserving and unworthy and stigmatized. Peer support helped me feel less alone and put me on a path of self worth and self love. Now as a certified peer support specialist, I’m able to give to others what helped me so much. 2. One big little thing is to shift your mind from ‘I hope OCD doesn’t show up’ to It know OCD will show up and I’ll be ready!’ I know it’s daunting to think we have this for our whole life, but freedom is in adjusting expectations and radical acceptance. 3. Don’t give advice or reassurance. Sharing lives experience is the best way to help someone feel less alone and less stigmatized.

@NOCD Advocate - Chrissie Hodges haha yes, it's from the best scene in Her. And thanks, that's very helpful. :)

Thank you so much! I’m so glad the videos were helpful for you!

Also I’m worried I’ve been dealing with this for so long that I’ll be stuck forever. It started in 8th grade and I’m currently 22

You’ll definitely want to get exposure response prevention therapy if you haven’t already. This will teach you how to change your behavior toward the thoughts which will in time reduce the distress. As far as how long you’ve had OCD, I always ask my clients...do you think you could learn a new hobby? If you answered YES then you can learn how to manage a OCD because all it is is learning a new behavior!

Hi cami0102. This is one that I've dealt with regularly yes. I have POCD and even when my body scanning briefly calmed down for a few months, I would have flare ups where I would doubt past interactions with children. It's a little difficult to describe. Even though I remember clearly that I never did anythingf wrong, I have to go through all of the memories I have around certain children to assure myself I never did anything harmful.

@NickC I know, sometimes it's hard but I don't know how to stop it, then I believe I did something wrong but I say hey stop, you know who you are, you would never do something like that, but sometimes I don't know how to stop it, any advice?

I have experienced this before with ocd, yes. People often refer to it as the ‘false memory’ theme. ERP therapy is recommended for any theme of OCD. It helps you change your response to the thought which in turn will decrease the distress over time.

@NOCD Advocate - Chrissie Hodges Thank you so much for your help!!!

Yay! I’m so glad you found this community and my videos were helpful ❤️

Exposure response prevention therapy is the way to learn a different way to respond to the thoughts which will in turn reduce distress. In working with a trained therapist, you’ll slowly learn how to change your reaction after daily practice. It is a life changer!

Hi there! Mentally reviewing and ruminating are tough compulsions to stop because they feel very automatic. What I try to do is when it feels constant, like if I’m triggered by something, I take note of what it is that is keeping me stuck and I’ll make sure to plan an erp session later in the day to address it. I don’t erp it in the moment because that could become compulsive. I set a time during the day later to revisit it and tell my brain, for x amount of time, go ahead and run wild with the thoughts! During that time I usually feel a decrease in the urgency. I’ll do this 2x per day for several days and the trigger will usually calm down.

@NOCD Advocate - Chrissie Hodges Thank you so much!

Thank you HB! I so appreciate you letting me know this! You are definitely not alone with pocd even though it probably feels like it. A very high percentage of my clients live with pocd from all over the world. It’s probably the most common I see along with HOCD. Keep up the fight!

@NOCD Advocate - Chrissie Hodges Thank you also for your Instagram post today about Pocd. It needed to be said. It brought me to tears. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

@HB Your post on here inspired me to write it. ❤️ Some of the messages I have received about it have brought me to tears too. Such a unfair theme. Awareness is so so so important.

Thank you so much! I was in London last October for an ocd event my nonprofit put on. We’ll be there again this year in October, hope you will join us!

Hi there! Unfortunately I’m not in a position to diagnose or give clinical opinions. I would highly recommend reaching out to an ocd specialist. Whether it is or isn’t ocd, they are trained in treating anxiety and can either find ways to help or refer you to someone who can.

My tip would be to not beat yourself up about doing acompulsion and then try to resist doing them again. It’s always going to feel more natural to engage in them. But the cumulative effect of not giving in is worth being temporarily uncomfortable!

Thank you! I’m so glad they are helpful. I’ve had a couple clients who have had their therapist write in their ERP plan that they can’t watch my videos for reassurance hahaha!

Hi Jennnn! I don’t encourage ERP in ones own, so I really can’t give you advice or tips. My company does referral consultations to help locate therapists in your area or those that do Telehealth. Our consultations for referrals are $50 and include peer support. We’d be happy to help you if thats an option for you! www.chrissiehodges.com

@NOCD Advocate - Chrissie Hodges As far as I know, the OCD specialist in my area do not take insurance. I am a college student so I cannot afford to pay more than $50-60 ish per session :( I am so sad there are no NOCD therapist around my area. Do you have any advice on how I can improve my condition on my own until I can get access to a therapist? Any tips on what I can do as thoughts come? Please let me know! Also, through your peer support, can I get help like... work with someone to help me?

@Jennnn Hey there! I have someone in my practice who did successful ERP for sexual/violent intrusive thoughts and now is a certified peer support. Her rate is $50. We can absolutely support you where you are at and share as many resources as we can to help. Email me at ocd.chrissie@gmail.com if you think we can help!

It’s so very common to have secondary fears that you don’t have ocd and the thoughts are real. A good OCD specialist will know this and be ready to help with it. A good way to approach it if you are afraid to tell is to ask the therapist for examples of sexual/violent intrusive thoughts they’ve treated. That way you may feel more comfortable if you know they get it and have seen it before.

@NOCD Advocate - Chrissie Hodges I will definitely do that when I get in with a therapist, hopefully that’ll be soon. Thank you so much

I’m so sorry you are struggling. I completely understand how exhausting it can be. I lived with OCD for 12 years in silence having no clue what it was, so I know first hand. ERP therapy can really help teach you how to manage it.

@NOCD Advocate - Chrissie Hodges I am hopefully starting it this Friday. I also am supposed to start on 15o mg of sertraline. When I went up to 100mg I noticed a huge spike in my anxiety/symptoms. Dr thinks a higher dose will help. I am not sure though and my husband is at the end of wits with me. He says it is all I talk about or do anymore. He is right. It is. Sigh. I just want to be myself again

@Sara80985 So awesome! The therapy is challenging but with it. Also whenever I go on medication I often feel a spike in anxiety for a few weeks before it starts feeling better. Just keep your doc informed!

Hi there! I do peer support sessions with individuals, so that is something we can set up. There are 2 of us in my practice. www.chrissiehodges.com

Through nOCD they offer therapy in certain states. My practice offers peer support for $50 per session.

@NOCD Advocate - Chrissie Hodges Thank you Chrissie!

@KM128 Hi yes through NOCD it’s 50 dollars a session with a therapist.

Hi there! It’s important to remember that when managing ocd, we aren’t managing the outcome. We are only managing our behavioral response. As much as we want to know and predict everything, that’s impossible for any human! So doing ERP is directly impacting the only thing we can control—our behavior. For example, I’ve gotten injured many times these last few years and ocd latched on hard. But just because I recognized the anxiety as ocd didn’t take the pain away. The injury was still there...but I could control my behavior in trying to predict or control the outcome.

@NOCD Advocate - Chrissie Hodges Thanks this makes sense ! I have been working with an ocd therapist here in Houston! Even though I feel Really knowledgeably about ocd it still can play tricks on me . I am learning acceptance which is the factor I’ve been missing in overcoming this beast