How in the name of god do I make my mind stop racing and ruminating? First I get anxious that my increased Prozac will activate unbearable anxiety, and now I’m worried it’s interrupting my REM sleep and impacting my sleep cycle and causing excessive daytime sleepiness. So out of a minor panic I have booked a video appointment with my neurologist who’s the one that told me Prozac could be messing with my REM sleep. My psychiatrist told me not to reach out to him unless it’s a life threatening emergency. I feel like I’m going crazy and I can’t stop the thoughts, anxiety, or neutralizing behaviors.

Remember that it's never the goal to stop your thoughts or to get rid of them. Human beings are extremely creative creatures and so our minds rattle in endless ways. You're perfectly human, but remember that stopping or neutralizing a thought is an OCD's wish that cannot be fulfilled. Instead a more effective way of dealing could be accepting that these are indeed the thoughts going through your mind, without needing an explanation about them. Trying to figure out is just giving in to the OCD game. Be brave, even though I don't know you, I believe you are indeed brave. I highly recommend reading the book Freedom from obsessive-compulsive disorded by Jonathan Grayson. Not giving in to your scary intrusions is actually a power position, rather than being irresponsible as a person. OCD recovery and freedom from OCD means choosing that power position in which you're a savage at living with uncertainty. After all, what can we be certain of as OCD sufferers? That this is already painful enough and that it's time to stand up to it! Be brave, do the work, stay hard, be blessed! BRENT

I truly understand your using books as a compulsive strategy. When I ordered OCD books, I asked myself the question: what am I looking for? Am I looking for relief? Then you should delay reading the book. When you feel like you want to read the book because of a genuine willingness to beat OCD, you might want to start reading that first page! The thing that makes the books from Jonathan Grayson so helpful is that it's not reassuring in any way. It even has exposure elements in its writing. Therefore choosing the right lecture can be good, but remember, don't obsess about it too much ?. Stay safe and good luck!

Thank you so much Brent. I really appreciate all of that insight. I’m sure you know that OCD is ALL ABOUT CONTROL and I absolutely hate it when I am not in control. But I do believe that reality acceptance skills (like some of the ones in dialectical behavior therapy) will really help me. So I’ll work on that. I also have a book by Dr. Marty Seif on curtailing your reassurance seeking and checking compulsions and a big thing in this book is about learning to live with uncertainty. Unfortunately compulsive book buying is one of my compulsions so I can’t buy that book you recommended, at least not yet, but right now I have two Marty Seif books and another book called Overcoming Obsessive Thoughts by Christine Purdon and David A. Clark. So I have a lot of reading to try! You stay and well and be blessed too. Thank you.