ERP for pure o. Does it just mean not responding to the thought and carrying on with whatever you’re doing? I can’t imagine deliberately trying to imagine the thought is true ( like I’ve read about some exposures) Surely this would just make my brain believe it’s true even more?!

I agree, I’ve noticed that I can’t ever win no matter how much logic I use to dispute the thought. But, all my thoughts are concerning my lovely husband. If I agree with them it’s going to affect my behaviour towards him and that’s so unfair.

Not sure I could say maybe, maybe not with this thought. But I can try and just allow it to be there and not respond I guess. It’s hard though isn’t it?!

@Angel20 It helps me to say that I acknowledge that I’m having a thought about ______ and it makes me feel _____. I acknowledge that these thoughts just happen to me and aren’t coming from me

@Angel20 When I say maybe it is maybe it’s not it’s more so me just responding to ocd with the right response. It’s not even that I necessarily believe it is a possibility to be true I just know NOTHING in life is certain. Just like I don’t know if I’ll wake up tomorrow, Sure it’s not a fact I will because we truly don’t know but I’m not gonna worry about it because it’s probably not the case. I kinda approach ocd with that mindset.

Oh I like the jumprope idea! You ever notice that the more your knowledge of OCD grows that the more your themes jump around? There's no anxiety involved but I seem to obseess a bit over challenging fucked up thoughts.

@JS?? Yes it’s like a magnet pulling me to try and prove the thought wrong. A very powerful magnet!! Do you think if you persist eventually the thought loses its power and you realise it was all just ocd lying ?

@JS?? Thank you so much. Very useful advice and I’m so pleased you seem to have learned how to successfully control this monster. I’ve educated myself, read books, had CBT and know what’s going on with this disorder but I just can’t seem to put it all into practice. I get so far, disregarding thoughts and carrying on but I get to a point where I feel like I’m just burying my head in the sand and really should be “checking” and proving the thought wrong. That’s when I stumble and start ruminating again putting me back a few steps each time. All my thoughts relate to my husband and for ages I would seek reassurance from him, he’d gladly give it to start with, then we realised it doesn’t work and just feeds the ocd so now we’re both very careful with that but it doesn’t stop me trying to get it on occasion! This inevitably can cause problems when he knows it’s not going to help me and has to resist. What I have learned is that ocd is always wrong ( from when I’ve given in and got reassurance) but somehow applying that to the next thought that comes along is very very difficult. Going to try very hard today. Wish me luck and thank you again !

@JS?? Yes, I do sometimes meditate. I actually did an 8 week course on it. My problem is I don’t stick at it, rather I go through phases and get frustrated when I don’t see instant results with my anxiety levels. Going to make more of an effort going forward