- Date posted
- 5y
- Date posted
- 5y
One of my favorite techniques when I’m distressed is 5-4-3-2-1. I name 5 things I see, 4 things I hear, etc. Just use each of your senses. It is a great way to be mindful about the things around you in this moment.
- Date posted
- 5y
So you know that it's OCD and you know that nobody can guarantee you that you'll be fine. OCD always makes you believe that certain doom is on the horizon with no escape. The level of fear and distress you are experiencing right now is 1% real problem and 99% OCD. Yes underneath the OCD there is an unknowable possibility of bad things happening. Life is like that, for everyone, all the time. Risk is a part of life. It sounds like this is a persistent current obsession for you, and that while reassurance may have helped you to feel a little better at the time, it hasn't lasted. I know you crave reassurance now too, but it would have the same result. You have two separate problems here. One is the OCD and one is this uncertainty in life. If you work on the OCD by sitting meditatively with your anxiety without ruminating, researching, calculating and reassurance seeking, you can lessen the OCD and begin to access the same levels of calm and rational thought and feeling as your 18 year old friend has. See that she's not panicking? That's not because she is ignorant or stupid or has less to fear. It's because she doesn't have OCD. Try to trust me. It will become much clearer when you feel calmer, and then even clearer once this OCD is beaten. Here is my favourite way to sit with anxiety: mantra meditation. Invent a random 2 syllable word with no meaning and no close relationship to another word, like "fardel" or "enbeft" or something. Repeat it over and over in your mind, breathing deeply, focusing on nothing else but noticing how your body feels. As thoughts cross your mind, let them cross back out again without being hooked in. This isn't thinking-time. When you notice at any point that your mind has wandered away from the word, don't panic or judge yourself or think that you've failed. Just bring your attention back to repeating the word and noticing the sensations in your body. As you are no longer responding to your thoughts, you will have longer and longer periods of no-thoughts. Slowly allow your mind to become still, where it wants to be, like water flowing downhill. If you can do this any time you get a thought which makes you anxious- sitting with the anxiety in your body and doing this meditation until the anxiety has leaked away- you will make amazing progress with coming back to reality and being able to respond to thoughts in ways which aren't clouded by overwhelming emotion.
- Date posted
- 5y
omg you’re literally my holy grail?? it’s just so hard bc even when you try to cope, the thoughts still protrude and it gets so distracting
- Date posted
- 5y
I know you’re young, but you’re obviously intelligent, so I hope you understand why we’re not giving you reassurance that you’re going to be okay. There’s no way to know that and the need for certainty is what creates the obsessive compulsive disorder. Like the posters mentioned above, work on exercises to accept how you’re feeling and realize that the feelings can feel really wrong without actually meaning anything. Our brain can generate feelings and thoughts that the part of us that’s the impartial spectator can observe. Try the above exercises to try to get in touch with your impartial spectator.
Related posts
- Date posted
- 20w
Hi ❤️ I’m really struggling right now I’m in my sophomore year of Highschool and I’ve finally started planning or thinking abt my future (for context I was extremely depressed and suicidal from 6-9th grade) After conquering my depression this is a huge leap for me and I’m proud of myself ❤️ But there’s something still holding me down :( and I’m not sure what to do anymore that thing is OCD. Since 6th grade I have had strong and invasive intrusive thoughts all the time they scare me so bad and make me feel as though I’m not even real anymore :( I’m sick of taking the time to do ridiculous compulsions to rid or ease these thoughts it’s a waste of time and energy and it hurts me so bad I feel like I will never get to just live my life without this :( How can I plan my future when I can’t even find myself in this mess of anxiety 💔 I’m so tired of fighting my mental health it’s been years from anxiety attacks to sh to survived suicide attempts (I got help dw❤️🩹) and recovery there. Just to be thrown into a storm of awful scary sickening thoughts day and night-when can I just be a normal teenager and possibly a happy adult? How do I conquer this so I can love myself to the fullest and live my life free and happy? :( ❤️❤️🩹 I’m so scared to talk to my parents about it I’m ashamed of my thoughts and every time I bring it up they just say I shouldn’t be diagnosing myself or it’s just ADHD. It really really hurts me they have no idea how awful this feels and it makes me feel so alone sometimes 💔
- Date posted
- 14w
I keep thinking about life and death and all that stuff and it’s making me so upset. I keep thinking about how one day im probably going to be old and on my death bed or something and my whole life will be nothing but a memory and im so scared for that day. i wont have my parents and my younger siblings wont have any of us. time feels like its moving too fast like i feel every second pass and think about how i can never get that moment back and i cant slow down time or go back or even just pause it because its always going and theres nothing i can do about it. And then i start thinking about whats after death and get even more scared because if heaven is real then what is eternity? wont i get bored of doing the same things… forever? and if its not real then what happens is it just nothing? because thats even more scary i don’t want to be nothing because that also means the people i love will be nothing and i wont be able to be with them. And if it’s not that then is it reincarnation? will i have to do this all over again? will the souls of the people i love be with me in their new forms? is the sun “God” because the planets revolve around it and the stars are all of the passed souls? what does it feel like to be a star? will i even just know i died? i have so many questions and the fact that none have an answer and i just have to wait to find out drives me insane. i try to remind myself everyone before me and everyone after me will experience death and loss at one point in their life and that I’m not alone but it doesn’t help. nothing helps. ive had “episodes” like this before when i was around 10-14 about once a year always around May-June which is the month my great grandmother died and June is my birth month which i hate because yk… time passing and aging which i assume is why i always get worse around that time. i was able to kind of ignore or turn it off the past like 3 years but this month its just too much i cant even deal with it. maybe because I’m turning 18? idk but its been bothering me so much and its all i can think about. Even when i seem fine the thoughts are always in there somewhere and some days they’re easier to ignore and others it feels impossible. I just wish I was like those people who can just turn their thoughts off if they don’t like them. My mom says she can do that if she thinks about how her mom died or something she can tell herself she doesn’t want to think about that and just… turn it off?? and thats so shocking to me because i’ve begged a god I don’t even know if I believe in to stop my thoughts and she can just turn them off herself? I don’t have another therapy appointment until next week I wish I could talk to them everyday so it could work faster but instead i’m on here. So if anyone has any advice PLEASE give it to me. I’m so tired it’s making me not enjoy anything in life because it makes me feel like theres no point in anything but I want to feel normal and I want to enjoy things. Sorry for writing so much just had to get this out there. Also i’m not trying to seek reassurance btw I just wanna know how other people coped with this or similar issues😭
- Date posted
- 12w
I'm going to try and be coherent because I know that sometimes during these moments I tend to babble in fear. I have a mole on the left side of my chest that I've had since I was a kid. Been there for as long as I remember. And I never paid attention to it; it was just a part of my body. I even felt a little sad considering that I might not have it anymore whenever I get top surgery. Yesterday I went down a rabbit hole and landed on Melanoma. Which, of course, prompted me to look at my mole again. And again. And again. It's large, bigger than my other moles. Always has been, at least to my knowledge. I always thought it was cute whenever it crossed my mind. Now...now I'm just scared... I'm not asking for reassurance. None of us on here are medical experts (unless youre an actual doctor) (also insert OCD joke here). I sent a picture to my doctor, and she said that if it hasnt changed size that's a good sign. But she also suggested a follow-up with a dermatologist. And that's what scares me the most. All of this started yesterday, but I sent the message to my doctor this morning. And ever since then...I havent been okay. I can barely eat, and every time I try to I can barely swallow. I've isolated myself in the guest bedroom of my parents house. I cant move. I cant think straight. And...let's just say my thoughts havent been good. Like I said, I'm not asking for reassurance or medical advice. I just...I need help to not feel like I'm dying. I didnt mention that yesterday, in the midst of going down the rabbit hole, I realized how badly I didnt want to be afraid, and yet I also felt like I needed to be afraid. And I realized that that's what ERP is (at least for me in case it's different for everyone). I really did naivietely think that it was just going to be about avoiding compulsions. I didnt realize that accepting uncertainty would feel like a death sentence. And now this has happened. I just...I'm scared. And I dont want to be. I dont want to live in this reality where I'm sick and dying. I dont want to have to tell my family. I dont want to live in that world, but it feels like I'm already in it. My body is just preparing me for it. I dont know. I dont know why I'm even making this post. No one can help me, can they?
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