- Date posted
- 5y
- Date posted
- 5y
Mine are: 1) rinse only twice in the shower. No turning the shower back on after I’ve turned it off, either. 2) signing up for an art class, apparently lol. And then actually go. I’m going to try not to ruminate about why it’s wrong/ok until I see my therapist again.
- Date posted
- 5y
I hope you can accomplish those goals. ? I am currently ruminating a lot over some obsessive thoughts. My goal this week is not to ruminate over obsessive thoughts and live in the presence/ practice mindfulness. I want to try agreeing with the awful thoughts that OCD throws at me this week and see how that goes.
- Date posted
- 5y
@I am stronger than my OCD Thank you for sharing! Good luck!
- Date posted
- 5y
@I am stronger than my OCD One day later, I’m grateful you responded because, uh, nobody else did. I know I don’t know why they didn’t. Maybe they’re not at a place where they 1) even have ERP homework or 2) can talk about it. But still, my mind is telling me I shouldn’t have asked the question, that I was dumb for sharing mine, that I look like an idiot talking about mine when other people have *real* problems, and nobody wants to hear from me anyway, and maybe I should just never post anything ever again because I don’t fit in, won’t ever fit in, and need to just leave. So! Thanks for sharing. ?
- Date posted
- 5y
@Alyosha I struggle with the same obsessive thought. Sometimes I am afraid of posting something here and noone responded. Ocd made us so sensitive. I texted a friend yesterday and she didn't respond. Now I feel like she hates me. But my logical side tells me she might just be busy.
- Date posted
- 5y
@Alyosha We LL have to keep pushing forward, not ruminating on whether we are liked or appreciated by someone or not. I am glad to meet people like you in this app. I don't have any friends who struggle with OCD in real life. Sometime I feel so lonely because noone understands what it is like to have OCD. What are you doing today to take power off your OCD?
- Date posted
- 5y
@I am stronger than my OCD Thank you. I have quite a long to-do list: get something ready for shipping, grocery list & shopping, prep for work. Will go on a walk, wanted to go without listening to music or anything, but I think my mind might end up ruminating on what a bad person I am.
- Date posted
- 5y
@Alyosha You?
- Date posted
- 5y
My biggest goal right now is not to ruminate. I ruminate a lot to neutralize obsessive thoughts. I have three children so my goal is to focus on my time with them and not ruminate. One of my obsessive thoughts is that I am ugly. I saw someone comment on a friend of mine Facebook photo that she is beautiful in every centimeter. Now it made me think I am ugly because noone has commented that on my Facebook photo. My goal is to let the thought be there and not ruminate.
- Date posted
- 5y
thanks for asking. It is nice to share my ocd excercise with you so that we can keep each other accountable. I hope you LL have the good rest of your day and not let OCD affect it. You can do it!!!!!
- Date posted
- 5y
we cannot have OCD ruin our life.
- Date posted
- 5y
My app ERP is do walk in a mall or park 5 times this week. Don't have a mall, and the park isn't even the size of a city block. And it's blazing hot out there until dark, and cougars... so the walks aren't happening. My teletherapy starts in a little over a week, so maybe then I'll have an ERP assignment that makes sense.
- Date posted
- 5y
Thanks for sharing!
- Date posted
- 5y
I am having a strong urge to engage in endless compulsions and ruminations right now. But I am resisting the urge and accepting the thoughts. I have to break the ocd cycle. I am telling you guys to keep myself accountable. ?
- Date posted
- 5y
How’d it go??
- Date posted
- 5y
Not great. I gave in to my compulsions. ? I have been in this cycle where I do very few compulsions for a few days and then my anxiety gets so high and I end up doing a lot of compulsions. I woke up feeling anxious and discouraged this morning but I won't give up. Ocd has taken so much precious time from me. I cannot let it win any more. I will try to sit with the discomfort and resist compulsions. Enough is enough.
- Date posted
- 5y
Thanks, you too ?
- Date posted
- 5y
Do you want to keep this thread going? Maybe we can check in with one another occasionally to see if we are taking healthy actions to lessen OCD impact on our life.
- Date posted
- 5y
Yes! I would like that, thank you. I have a close friend with OCD, and we were doing ERP together, but she gave up ?
- Date posted
- 5y
@Alyosha Why did she give up? It won't get better without erp. Ocd tends to get worse unless we face our fears.
- Date posted
- 5y
@I am stronger than my OCD My reason to keep doing erp is that if I don't do it my OCD might get out of control.
- Date posted
- 5y
@I am stronger than my OCD I guess in reality she never really started. She agreed to it initially because she knew I was going through a rough patch and wanted to be helpful. I don’t know if she was ever fully committed to doing it herself.
- Date posted
- 5y
How are you today?
- Date posted
- 5y
So far so good! Mine tends to get worse in the afternoon. I still do compulsions. I only try to tackle one a week. Then add another the next week. Then add another the next week. I think trying to stop all compulsions at once would be too much pressure.
- Date posted
- 5y
@Alyosha Sounds like a good plan. My mind is plauged with obsessive thoughts. And I am trying my best to accept the thoughts and not resist them. I hate this hideous disease.
- Date posted
- 5y
@I am stronger than my OCD Hi! I need a break from this app. If you want to reach me (please feel free to!!) you can email me at alyoshaNOCD@gmail.com I didn’t want to leave you hanging. I’m getting too caught up in this app. I think I need to lay low for a week and see if I can be more responsible with how I use it.
Related posts
- User type
- Therapist
- Date posted
- 25w
Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) is one of the hardest but most effective treatments for OCD. If you’ve started ERP, what has been the biggest challenge in resisting compulsions?
- User type
- Therapist
- Date posted
- 23w
Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) isn't always easy, but as one of the most effective treatments for OCD, it's worth it. If you've started ERP, what has been the biggest surprise you've experienced in learning to resist compulsions? If you haven't started ERP yet, what is holding you back from starting?
- Date posted
- 16w
I had just posted a summary of ERP for a group member, and I thought it might be useful for everybody. Here it is below (with a little extra added)…. ERP therapy is researched-based. Most other therapies don’t work. There have been people who have been literally stuck in their houses (from their OCD) who gained their lives back through ERP therapy. NOCD does ERP therapy exclusively. You can find it in other places too, but you have to ask around. There are two tenants of ERP therapy: The first one has to do with the repetitive thoughts inside our heads. These thoughts are actually defined as “obsessions”. You are not supposed to do anything with the obsessions. You are supposed to let them run through your head freely, without trying to fix them or stop them. Imagine a tree planted by a river. The leaves fall off and float down the river. You can see the leaves falling, but you don’t try to stop them or pick them up. You don’t try to fix them. You just let them float away. This is really important to do with your obsessive thoughts. The more you try to fight them off, the worse they get. I used to have blasphemous sentences running in my head 24/7. I felt like I had to put a “not” next to each sentence in order to “fix” it. But this just took hours of my time every day, and it was very scary, because I was worried that if I messed up, that I would go to hell. It was very freeing to learn later that I could just let those sentences run freely through my head without trying to fix them. The second part of ERP therapy is all about “denying your compulsions.” Every time OCD tells you that if you don’t do things a certain way that something really bad will happen, that is a compulsion. Once you recognize what your compulsions are, ERP therapy will have you practice stopping doing all of those things. For some people, that will mean stopping washing their hands or touching lights switches or, in my case, putting “fixing” words in their head. Compulsions are safety behaviors. During ERP therapy, you will practice stopping engaging with safety behaviors. All this is very hard to do and scary, so during therapy you will be given tools to help you deal with the fear. Often ERP therapy will take people from being non-functional to functional. I highly recommend it. ————————————————- PITFALL #1: After you have been doing ERP for a while and become somewhat successful, the OCD will try subtle little tricks to bring you down again. The first one is to tell you that your thoughts are REAL and not OCD, and therefore you can’t apply ERP therapy. Don’t fall for this trick! All thoughts are just thoughts. They are all meaningless. Don’t try to figure out what is real and what is OCD. Just treat all thoughts with ERP therapy. PITFALL #2: The second pitfall is that OCD will tell you that you can’t move forward unless you have absolute certainty that you will be safe. Hate to tell you this, folks, but there is no certainty in life. You will never know for SURE that you or your loved ones will be “safe” from the OCD rules. Therefore, you have to move forward in the uncertainty. It’s hard, but it gets easier with time and practice. We got this, guys !!!!!!
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