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- 4y ago
I also feel the same way sometimes. I feel like my OCD is ‘different’ or ‘worse’ and it won’t ever get better
Well, I think that most of us get thoughts like this sometimes. If you have POCD it feels like the worst because it's the biggest stigma imaginable and causes so much shame. If it's HOCD, it feels so bad because it seems to threaten to take away your future, which is akin to murdering you. If you have real event/guilt/false memory OCDs, the other OCDs seem totally trivial because you've got stuff in real life which you can point to as a basis for how much more threatening and solid the thing you fear is. It always feels like if your fear was true, your life would be over. I've found it actually helps me to go over all the ways that things could still be good if my fear came true/was true. Maybe rock bottom would even allow me to build a life from the ashes.
Actually it sounds like listening to those podcasts *could* also be a compulsion, as you may also listen to them in hopes that they give you reassurance that you can get better. Especially if you tend to listen to them at times when you're having anxious thoughts about how bad your OCD is. Perhaps there are better ways to trigger those fears of never getting better so that you can do ERP with them.
HOCD is the end of me
Anyone else listen to the ocd stories podcast? It has been super helpful...the interviews with mark freeman and Jon Hershfield are inspirational and give a lot of hope but I was listening to the one with Aaron Harvey on intrusive thoughts and I found it incredibly triggering and brought me to tears at how incredibly graphic it was. I’m doing everything I can to not seek reassurance cause I know it’s a compulsion but I stopped listening after 20 minutes of out fear that he’s just going to say he still has the thoughts and no treatment has taken them away.
I have a question about an ERP exercise: It‘s a podcast about a coming-out story with a woman my age, to who I probably will relate and identify with a lot. This stresses me out so much and before even listening to it I know I want to get answers and I am expecting answers and relief to my sorrows. So how do I listen to it as an erp-exercise? How do I make listening to it not a compulsion?
Ive posted on this app a few times this week, and I don’t like being a negative person, I just feel like I need to vent to people who get it. I’ve had ocd since I was a child, and I’ve been doing ERP for like 6 months and I’m still STRUGGLING. The spirals are horrible and I just worry I don’t have the strength to recover like a lot of other people have. Has anyone else felt like this and gotten through it? One of my motivations is to come out the other side and being able to post my success story here to hopefully inspire others. Curious to hear your success stories if you’re comfortable sharing.
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