- Date posted
- 6y ago
- Date posted
- 6y ago
Accepting the uncertainty is accepting your thoughts have a possibility of being true. That we don’t know 100%. That we can’t know anything 100%. Its hard and it will make you more anxious at first, but it will get easier.
- Date posted
- 6y ago
So you're not accepting the thoughts as your true beliefs, you are accepting that the thoughts are there big difference
- Date posted
- 6y ago
@E-T everyone feels that way about their obsessions. People who are frightened of hurting people, people who are frightened they’re in the wrong relationship. Everyone, including me when I first started, goes “What? That can’t be right! I don’t want to accept that.” But we have to accept that we don’t know 100%. We cannot walk into anywhere and go “I absolutely WILL NOT wet myself/ get germs on my hands/ say the wrong thing” Its the search for certainty that’s tying you in knots here, not the obsession. ALL obsessions are the same, regardless of content.
- Date posted
- 6y ago
Good discussion here?
- Date posted
- 6y ago
Thanks you guys! So I'm thinking it'll help me to reframe it like "I accept the uncertainty that my intrusive thoughts are giving me" (because my intrusive thoughts mostly involve tacking on something terrible to a real memory rather than a feeling I'll do something in the future, so just flat out saying I accept uncertainty makes me doubt my memory even further sometimes, if that makes sense).
- Date posted
- 6y ago
I think what I'm gathering from the discussion is that accepting the uncertainty doesn't mean accepting that it will happen (and trust me I was confused too because it sounded counterintuitive but I think that's the nature of ERP). What it means is that your OCD is intensely afraid that it MIGHT (or MIGHT have) happen(ed), so you need to expose your mind to that uncertainty (and actively resist compulsions, whether they're mental or physical) to become less afraid of that POSSIBILITY so it is no longer an obsession.
- Date posted
- 6y ago
@TabbyKitty thanks for your advice :-). It’s something I’m really gonna have to get my head around as admitting I can’t be 100% certain I’m not gonna wet myself seems terrifying. I completely see how the need for 100% certainty hasnt helped but that “what if” surely is that not fuelled by the uncertainty in the first place..? I’m really confused or perhaps a little brain locked at the moment
- Date posted
- 6y ago
I too am confused as my ocd manifests as a fear of wetting myself. The idea of accepting this may happen seems completely the wrong way to go about things...
- Date posted
- 6y ago
But maybe @TabbyKitty and @Wes could explain better than I could
- Date posted
- 6y ago
Shoot I deal with that thought too but I didn’t know it could be OCD.
Related posts
- Date posted
- 20w ago
When an intrusive thought comes I can’t just say “that’s not true” and just move on. I always feel like I have to disprove the thought and be able to say it with confidence but the problem is that the ocd doesn’t allow me to feel and say it with confidence so I get stuck for hours or even days. How can I stop feeling like I need to do this?
- Date posted
- 19w ago
This might contain triggering content, but I'm also wondering if others have dealt with this similar thought, and if so, how to deal with it? Overall, I've been doing so well these past few days. I'm able to eat again, which I hadn't been able to do because of how much anxiety I'd been experiencing. I'm spending time around loved ones and not just rotting in my room, and I've been able to wake up without immediately being bombarded by intrusive thoughts. When things first got really bad, I'd wake my mom up every night for reassurance, but I haven't done that in a while either. I'm really proud of myself, but there's still this nagging thought in my mind... While looking through others posts on here, hoping to find advice that'd fit my situation, I ended up making things worse. Someone mentioned how they had a fear that they'd purposely search for illegal content (related to POCD). I panicked, and "what ifs" flooded my thoughts. "What if the intrusive thoughts affect who I am as a person, and I do that?" I'm terrified that I'll search for those things, which I know means I wouldn't do it. But then, another person on here said they'd actually looked for those things, and that freaked me out even more. Does that mean it's possible for that to happen to me? I don't want to do that, but I keep having intrusive thoughts surrounding it. I've been doing so well these past few days. I'm just... stuck. I don't know what to do. I've spoken with other people who have the same fears, but how do I manage this? It's not something I've even thought about before seeing those posts. I've been practicing accepting the uncertainty, but I'm really struggling with this one. I hate this. This morning, I woke up, and the intrusive thoughts were back. It's just disheartening.
- Date posted
- 7w ago
Does anyone have any advice for how to know the difference between ocd and real feelings/thoughts? Sometimes an intrusive thought will come in and I immediately know it’s ridiculous and I can just leave it alone and it won’t bother me but other times I really really don’t know. It’s when ocd hijacks and twists my real feelings and thoughts and tries to manipulate me into believing they’re something they’re not or something that doesn’t align with my true morals or intentions. But since it’s twisting and mixing with real feelings I get so confused and scared. Everything gets jumbled and I feel like I can’t trust myself or my own mind. Yet other times and other topics I can laugh off and push away just fine. Make it make sense. And then I start to think well maybe I don’t have ocd at all and I’m just in denial because I don’t want to accept that these scary/concerning things are true about myself. Or maybe that’s just the ocd talking.
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