One experience that a significant number of people with OCD have is getting over one set of obsessions and compulsions just to get stuck on a different set. - Imagine yourself as a fish, and OCD as the person fishing. The hook is the compulsions- it's how OCD really traps you and drags you places that you don't want to go. To tempt you into biting the hook, OCD loads it with bait, scary or gross thoughts, sensations, or urges that capture your attention. - When you nibble the bait, or try to solve the obsession, OUCH! The compulsion hook gets your lip and it's hard, painful work to get yourself off the hook. - Sometimes what happens in therapy is that little fishy us learns not to bite the bait that ice usually sends down. And that is awesome, until OCD baits the compulsion hook with a different obsession. If we haven't learned to look to see whether there is a hook in the bait, and then to not bite all bait with hooks, OCD will catch us and reel us right in again. .. - so, moral of the story, identify any bait on hooks (uncomfortable thoughts that make you want to do repetitive behaviors) and don't bite them! Even if the bait is different than what you expect. - What was something OCD baited you with that caught you by surprise?

Thanks ? it's one of my favorite drawings I've done

You can start by figuring out which part is the bait (obsession) and which is the hook (compulsion)

Self-esteem building is a great way to combat OCD, for me anyhow. Working on my humour and taking risks that I wouldn’t take beforehand help me. I do relate my OCD to self-esteem problems though, everyone is different I suppose.

But something deeper than that it's probably causing the anxiety around grooming in the first place. Like "if I don't groom myself this way, my colleagues will think I'm incompetent." Just a random example to show you want I mean. Anxiety can't be the cause, but only a symptom.

@? ilshid I thought about what you said but I do believe in anxiety bc I have anxiety about getting anxiety if that makes sense.

I started doing the ERP before the mindfulness. Now I strictly focus more on meditation. I can more or less feel the urge in my head to have a mental compulsion, I just don’t “Take the bait.” The urging sensation is an unpleasant thing to have, but It gradually dissipates.

I think they aren't so different. Mindful acceptance is response prevention.

@NOCD Advocate - Katie Meditation for me is a way of life. It’s not just in correlation to OCD. It regains you’re focus on life. Doing it with no expectations is best way. ERP is great for exposing you to your fear and not responding. Meditation does help with this, it teaches you calmness.

@JoshJRS93 I appreciate that mindfulness is useful in many contexts. I'm trying to say that it isn't an either or situation. It's like running on a treadmill (ERP) and regularly taking the stairs (mindfulness). For optimal outcome, we need to do both

@NOCD Advocate - Katie I agree, though I strictly focus more on mindfulness now. ERP helped me calm my anxiety, it’s rare my fears trigger me as much as they used to do, that being because of the persistency I put in doing ERP. Meditating allows me to live in the now, and be calm. I’m triggered, or was severely triggered by past events, still can be, but I can shake these off more easily now and regain focus and continue with my day.

It’s a strange occurrence, like a chipping away at your brain. It just wants you to compulse and you’ve simply got to ignore it and not obey by its command. Even if you can feel what the compulsion is. It’s bizarre how OCD differentiates your mind from the normalities of a normal, standard brain of an everyday human being. It’s not a nice thing to have OCD & anxiety, it can be debilitating if you let it get to you.

Have you given the four-step method a go?

@JoshJRS93 No,how to do it?thank you

@Elsa3849 Four R’s: 1) RELABEL Recognise that the intrusive thought and urges are the result of OCD 2) REATTRIBUTE Realise that the intensity and intrusiveness of the thought or urge is caused by OCD; and it is probably related to a chemical imbalance within your brain. 3) REFOCUS Work around the OCD thoughts by focusing your attention on something else, at least for a few minutes: Do another behaviour. 4) REVALUE Do not take the OCD thought at face value. It is not significant in itself. Courtesy of Jeffrey M. Schwartz

@Elsa3849 This is what I do: I tell myself it is OCD, it is not me, followed by: it is a chemical imbalance in my brain which causes an urge for me to compulse. Then I allow my mind to be the way it is and then I focus on another task, by saying: I will now continue to do (fill in the blank) whatever it is you choose to do. Then after minutes, hours have past I revalue the whole situation.

@JoshJRS93 It’s not easy job..I’ll try it. Thank you so much for your sharing above?

@Elsa3849 Having OCD isn’t easy and it requires commitment and persistence to either beat, or learn to cope with it. You’ll be fine if you have the willpower. If you develop the tools to handle it you’ll overcome everything else life throws at you.

@JoshJRS93 Could you clarify what you mean by “refocus”?

Ok,keep fighting ???get my life back?

@Elsa3849 Give the OCD room, it’s pointless fighting it and avoiding it, that’s how it wins. When there’s nothing up against it, what does it have to fight against or chase if you avoid it? This isn’t conflict with another person where you would maybe have those two options to deal with, this is disorder in your mind, and the way to combat it is to accept it and not act on it. Let it be.

@JoshJRS93 all the fake feelings seem so real,it’s so tough to accept it and not act on it. ???Thank you for your kind reply???

Although this could be true from one persons perspective to another person, I believe rooted down there’s a feeling of difference between an OCD thought and a rational thought. You can feel OCD, it’s an urge. A standard thought is water to a ducks back, it slides away without the need to stick.

@JoshJRS93 trying to find that “rooted down” place or being aware of it is just a feeling, not a fact. All you’re doing is just trying to avoid uncertainty over the ocd topic. it shouldn’t matter wether a thought is “ocd” or not. Not accepting that all thoughts you have are a product of your brain is kind of denial of the reality. Accepting all thoughts doesn’t mean accepting they’re true, just accepting you have a brain capable of anything and not everything needs to be analyzed as true or false: thats OCD.

@evkrey If there is an urge to compulse, yes it is a feeling, and then yes it also a fact. If you were to ask a sufferer of OCD what it is that makes them compulse I can guarantee they will say that there is an urging feeling within that makes them do it, it doesn’t just happen capriciously.

The four-step method has been proven to work for a huge majority of sufferers of OCD.