- Date posted
- 5y
- Date posted
- 5y
You will start the road to recovery when you resist looking up information online to reassure yourself. Just wanted to give you a heads up that asking if others on here have had the same experience can also be a form of reassurance-seeking. I say this not to dissuade you from getting support but to avoid seeking reassurance in the future. This is the only way you will no longer feel at war with yourself.
- Date posted
- 5y
Thank you. Never thought of it this way. I will most defiantly be mindful
- Date posted
- 5y
@Chipmunk90 I know how difficult it can be to go against the urge to look up items to get reassurance. I did it for a long time not realizing it was OCD driving it. We’re here for you if you want to share how you’re doing as you work toward being okay with uncertainty
- Date posted
- 5y
Google is honestly one of my biggest problems. It has stolen full days and nights sleeps from me. Is there any way you can restrict your internet use? I find that keeping my phone outside of my bedroom helps with this, or turning your phone on airplane mode at night time. I also found that restricting my "google time" to a set period and slowly decreasing from there helped me a lot.I would only do it at a set time each day for 1 hour and accepted that I was doing it for that period of time, but no longer. It was easier for me to start by delaying the OCD monster from getting what it wanted, instead of depriving it completely, and i accepted it as a baby step!
- Date posted
- 5y
I wouldn’t necessarily use a restriction app because then you’re avoiding what makes you anxious, similar to someone with harm OCD hiding all their knives. It would be a better practice to use positive self talk and reminding yourself that you’re working toward recovery and try not to open the search browser.
- Date posted
- 5y
I think if googling is your compulsion that's a great plan to reduce it.
- Date posted
- 5y
@JessieJoy You're not afraid of Google and need to face it, you're doing it probably as a form of checking so you would want to reduce doing it. Baby steps is good.
- Date posted
- 5y
@JessieJoy Yes that's what I was thinking! Completely cutting out the compulsion I found was too difficult for me, but it all depends on what you are up for. I think it eliminated the guilt a little more too when I set the time aside for myself, and made my goal of not googling seem more achievable! Let me know how you do and best of luck. I know it isn't easy but you are strong and never forget it :)
- Date posted
- 5y
@EMMaaaa Thanks!
- Date posted
- 5y
Sounds familiar
- Date posted
- 5y
I think that I need to probably limit how much I use google and also recognize when I want to google something I’m obsessed about.
Related posts
- Date posted
- 24w
It started when I became an adult, and started receiving my mental health diagnosis. I hyper fixated on each and every action I did and how it could be related to my diagnosis’s. It then lead to fixation to my physical health — making appointments and seeing every specialist I can to rule out every possibility. I currently have been suffering with obstructive sleep. I woke up the past few days with severe pain from the lack of sleep whilst believing I was oversleeping. Luckily my fit watch tracks my sleep cycle and it turns out I am not receiving any sleep. I had an extreme panic attack — bursting into tears on the phone with my mom wondering what this case might be. She told me it could be sleep apnea and that a simple sleep study could figure this out. However, knowing my family history I made appointments to every specialist I can to make sure it is nothing serious. The unknown of health can be scary to me. Watching my mother suffer with her physical health chronically since I was a child lead me to be very conscious and aware of how my body is functioning. This morning was one of the worst moments of physical pain. I should just take one step at a time with the sleep doctor instead of taking measures to see every specialist that could pertain with this issue. However, that is very hard to me. I don’t want to ever wake up in the pain I was this morning. Does anyone else suffer with health-related OCD? And if so, how do you find a sense of ease during moments like I expressed?
- Date posted
- 22w
I started dealing with OCD when I became fixated on health issues, particularly the fear of contracting a life-threatening disease. If I experienced any kind of medical symptom, no matter how small, that even remotely hinted at something potentially fatal, it would drive me crazy, and I couldn’t stop obsessing over it. Then one day, I started having intrusive thoughts about accidentally hitting someone with my car, and I would end up driving in circles to check if I had. Eventually, I found myself overwhelmed by a flood of new obsessive thoughts and compulsions. One day, while I was at the park, a squirrel came near me, and for some reason, I felt like it attacked me. I Googled it and learned that squirrels could carry rabies, which spiraled me into a deep fear of rabies. I became consumed with the thought I received a bite from a squirrel, raccoon, or bat any time I’m in areas that trigger me. It started off only being inside then transferred to even being in my own home. This made me obsess over every physical sensation in my body, compulsively checking to make sure nothing was wrong. One compulsion that I hated the most would to be putting rubbing alcohol on me to make sure that I had no open wounds. Every day feels like I’m walking around in a fog of anxiety, constantly worrying that I won’t even make it to old age. Sometimes, it gets so overwhelming that I just want it all to end. It stresses me so bad at times to where my brain feels like I’ve been studying all day.
- Date posted
- 21w
some days I wake up with so much dread and guilt. It makes it so hard to keep going. I open my eyes and I’m hit with a wave of nausea and terror. I feel ashamed of my compulsions and my OCD. I feel like a monster for my checking compulsions. For momentarily sexualizing things that shouldn’t be sexualized out of anxiety. I’m ashamed of a lot that I give into because of anxiety. Confessing things that are meaningless to my boyfriend. I feel so awful and unworthy of existing and of love. I feel hopeless I don’t want to keep pushing, the more I push the more meta my OCD becomes and the more guilt I feel for this mental illness. The more confusing it becomes to do ERP. If compulsions are a choice, they feel like life or death and it’s driving me insane, I beat myself up so badly over them I’m scared of compulsions, I’m scared of thoughts, I’m scared to be awake, I’m even scared of sleeping because my intrusions and compulsions haunt me there too. I spend my dreams trying to explain or justify my OCD and compulsions to people. I’m exhausted, I want this to stop so badly. My severe OCD isn’t feeling any less severe and it’s been months. I don’t want to keep questioning my every move but I’m so hyperaware of everything I do. I’m so tired. Some days I don’t even have tears to cry with. I’m just so full of despair and shame
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