- Date posted
- 5y
- Date posted
- 5y
There's some all or nothing thinking going on here. The options aren't either devote yourself 100 percent or don't try at all. You have all sorts of options in between. You can pick just one compulsion to eliminate. You can plan erp practice for a certain amount of time. You can keep a tally of times you want to ritualize and do vs times you want to and don't. 50% is much better than 0
- Date posted
- 5y
We all want our OCD whatever the theme may be to go away as quickly as possible, but the hard truth is that it never really does. It will get easier to cope with as u get better at applying ERP and ACT therapeutic techniques but it is something that you will always have. OCD is a chronic condition. It will come and go. I’ve had OCD since I was 13. I’m currently 28. It has ebbed and flowed but it’s always there. I think accepting that u will always have it is very important. There is always hope though ❤️ it can get much better. I’m currently going through a bad patch right now as I believe a lot of us are.
- Date posted
- 5y
Yeah it does sound like you tend to give up on the process once you do a compulsion, like the day is ruined. Nobody can get it right all the time, and that's a very high bar to set yourself to expect to have a flawless day of constant ERP success. Even people whose OCD is really under control don't usually have perfect days, so it's a big ask to go from constant all-day compulsions one day right to constant ERP the next. As Katie said, there's no reason you need to be "fully devoted" at all. Nobody can give you advice on how to have a perfect day. Hardly any of us ever even have a day like that. It's understandable that you want it to go away ASAP but trying and failing and then giving up because you made a mistake means you truly won't get anywhere. Baby steps, my bud. Perfectionism like this can also make you end up with a whole new OCD theme about doing ERP perfectly, correctly and constantly- and that is a hole you really do not want to go down. Try to do ERP tomorrow one time for 5 minutes and see what happens. A hack which works great for me is to tell myself that I WILL worry and solve the problem but not right now- I'll do it later, I swear, but right now is ERP treatment time and that means sitting with the problem without trying to solve it. ERP isn't about ignoring the thoughts/pushing them away/distracting yourself from them. It's about getting the thought "this piece of evidence might mean you're gay" and not responding to it with mental compulsions OR distracting yourself. It's possible you may be having such a difficult time doing ERP because you are trying to do it by avoiding them. Avoiding is a compulsion. Let the worry be there. Just don't do anything about it. Don't ruminate about consequences. Don't distract yourself with something else. Don't debate, argue with or agree with the thought. Don't answer it. Just breathe and let it be an open question. One which you're not going to solve right this minute. You can survive the experience of being anxious but not looking for answers. Start with 5 minutes, not with a day.
- Date posted
- 5y
Accept your ocd thoughts. This is difficult for me too, but the less powerful they become, the more freedom you will have. Wish you the best ❤️
- Date posted
- 5y
@NOCDadvocate-Katie that’s so true. Sometimes it’s hard for us to see the grey areas between our black or white thoughts. Even a little progress IS progress ❤️
Related posts
- Date posted
- 20w
I’ve been stuck in this cycle for the last month or two and am not sure how to get out of it. Basically, I will work on ignoring the thoughts and not responding or engaging plus limiting/completely eliminating compulsions. After a week or two of constant work, the amount of intrusive thoughts in a day goes down. The anxiety each thought causes also goes down with some, but not all, thoughts passing without notice like they would for a normal person. The thoughts that do stick cause anxiety and make me want to ruminate or do other compulsions but I make sure to limit them. After a bit, I’m in a pretty good head space. This is usually when it goes down hill. I’ll start to question if I even have ocd because some of the thoughts (once again not all) pass without notice. The difficulty resisting compulsions goes down and so does the anxiety, only increasing the questioning. I spend a while questioning if I’ve ever had ocd in the first place and then something sets me off or the questioning itself becomes a trigger and I get stuck back into the same ocd cycle with constant rumination, anxiety, and other compulsions. This lasts for a week or two before I know I need to stop and try and work hard to get back to ignoring the thoughts. And the cycle just restarts over and over again. Does anyone have any tips to stop this from happening? It’s really harming my recovery as every few weeks I dive back into the same negative place I was.
- Date posted
- 17w
Hi - just for some context, I have OCD and ADHD. I hate bringing this up, but with these diagnoses, when intertwined, there is ALWAYS a thought. I never stop thinking. This is really hard, especially because I feel like I always need to be talking to someone. Whether it’s my friends or family, talking to people brings me down to earth from certain kinds of thought spirals. However, when I’m alone it is the hardest. When my friends don’t reply I have this compulsion to text again or I need to constantly check my notifications so that I have none left to check. But then to them or new people I talk to, this behavior probably comes across as overwhelming or too much. I’m trying to control it and use erp, but also, I have my moments where I’m just vunerable and give into the compulsion. It’s genuinely so embarassing and maybe not as big a deal as I’m making it out to be but, how do I manage? And how do I relax?
- Date posted
- 16w
Please help. I have felt so off/wrong all day. I constantly worry that the “bad guy” is going to get me. I have awful thoughts and I constantly want God to know that I don’t mean these thoughts. I am at a point in my therapy where I need to choose to use my ERP but it feels too scary. I then do compulsions, which makes the OCD worse, which makes me want to use ERP less. And the cycle goes on. I am currently sitting in my car crying because I feel so lost and exhausted. I’m not supposed to figure out my thoughts, but today I just went into a spiral of sadness and depression, thinking that I will always feel like this. When my thoughts got really bad at the end of the day, I tried to use ERP even though I was shaking and not believing my responses and I ended up feeling like I missed something and that I gave into the “bad guy.” I have no one to talk when I’m not doing therapy twice a week. I am alone and have no one to talk to when I am like this… please help
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