- Date posted
- 5y
- Date posted
- 5y
Gotta treat it as just another intrusive thought. It doesn't matter whether the thoughts are accusations that you're gay or arguments that you're not, because taking the relief which those thoughts offer just leads you into more analysing and testing and ruminating. You get the thought and I assure you that you can't stop it from popping up any more than you can prevent your worry thoughts from popping up. There is no magic pill. I understand that you have a concern that it's an automatic self-reassuring compulsion, but the reality is, even if it's part of your conditioned response to the fear, it's automatic, which means that you aren't choosing to have and can't choose to not to have it. All you can choose is whether to agree with it, argue with it or do neither. The answer is to do neither and continue with the exposure, accepting that it's a thought and refusing to attach meanings (agreement/disagreement) to it or trying to work out what it means. Do you have an understanding in your mind of what your life will look like when your OCD has gone away? It won't be the absence of thoughts like "you're gay" or "you're not gay". It will be the absence of your responses to them. You can't prevent your brain from telling you "this piece of evidence means you're gay" or "this piece of evidence means you're not gay". You can only choose to respond to those thoughts with a "maybe" and then refusing to delve any further into it. All of these mental responses to triggers/exposures which label them as evidence will happen less over the time once you use the response-prevention part of erp to decrease the amount of meaning and emotion your brain attaches to triggers and thoughts. That means not agreeing with them, disagreeing with them or exploring them further, just letting them happen.
- Date posted
- 5y
Basically: treat it as another intrusive thought and go back to the exposure and sitting with the anxiety of the unknown without doing compulsions like debating whether that thought is true or not. Over time it will eventually stop happening, just like the thoughts which say things are evidence that you're gay. You can get to that point just by doing your ERP, but it takes time.
- Date posted
- 5y
that’s really great advice, thank you so much ❤️☺️
Be a part of the largest OCD Community
Share your thoughts so the Community can respond