- Date posted
- 5y
- Date posted
- 5y
Yeah totally! Gotta be self compassionate and realize it’s a tough time for everyone right now! I had a few good years similarly but moved across the country recently and that triggered a huge spike (I wasn’t even off my meds like you!). You got this! Meds will help and continuing ERP too!
- Date posted
- 5y
I know and I didn’t think about how such tough times would cause a spike. I need to be easier on myself. Thank you.
- Date posted
- 5y
Hey hun! OCD is chronic, it waxes and wanes through your lifetime. It’s normal to have setbacks & relapses. What’s important is how we cope with them. Use your ERP strategies (if you’ve ever done ERP, if not there’s books I can recommend which help!). OCD will always feel real, that’s why it is so distressing-but it is just a false alarm. Everyone gets intrusive thoughts, yours just stick. You can handle this! You are in control, not the OCD ? Self compassion is great to practice too, it’s easy to be upset with ourselves for relapsing, but it is not your fault. We all have setbacks❤️
- Date posted
- 5y
Yes! I would love to know what books you recommend. Thank you!
- Date posted
- 5y
@amommy03 Read Everyday Mindfulness for OCD by Jon Hershfield & Shala Nicely! Plenty of tips & ERP games :)
- Date posted
- 5y
@catmom Thank you so much. I’m going to buy it now. Your words are so encouraging.
- Date posted
- 5y
@catmom I hate mindfulness and i love games. Maybe this is the encouragement i needed to get over my stubbornness about mindfulness?
- Date posted
- 5y
Think of it this way: once upon a time your OCD was particularly intense and it went into remission for two years. Now it’s back—as someone else mentioned, OCD waxes and wanes over time—and you’re feeling all those old feelings again (and maybe some new ones!) The good news is, you definitely know that it’s possible for you to feel great! You’ve got tons of experience of getting through it to the other side. No reason to think you can’t again!
- Date posted
- 5y
Thank you. That is a great way to look at it. I know I will get through this again.
- Date posted
- 5y
Yes!!! Hang in there xox
- Date posted
- 5y
yes I too have GAD, harm and POCD and it's the harm ocd that always seems to come back and spike when things get tough. you think to yourself i have been ok and not worried so why all of a sudden do I feel this way again. it's hard as when you pass a hard time you think that theme wont come back again but sometimes it does and I find that hard to understand why. xxx
- Date posted
- 5y
What is GAD mean ?
- Date posted
- 5y
@Survivor ❤️ Generalised anxiety disorder
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- 5y
@Kimberley* Ohh okay thank you
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- 5y
@Survivor ❤️ ?
- Date posted
- 5y
It’s definitely when things get tough. Maybe because our systems are down and anxiety is already up.
Related posts
- Date posted
- 20w
I don’t even know where to start because there’s so much going on in my head and it feels like there’s so much evidence for every thought. Like my ocd feels like it doesn’t just have one specific theme it’s honestly every theme and it just switches throughout the day depending on the thoughts I have. This started all about a month ago, this whole ocd flare up. I’ve been diagnosed with ocd for about 3 years now and looking back on my childhood, I feel like I’ve had it for probably my entire life. My grandpa just recently died back in February and I feel like this whole ocd spiral is a result of dealing with grief especially because it didn’t even hit me for the whole month of April for some reason and things felt “normal”. But since this ocd flare up has started I’ve been constantly reviewing and revisiting my past, all my childhood memories and so many of them are terrifying which is weird because I never had a traumatic event hppen to me as a child. I feel like it’s always been “self-inflicted” trauma if that makes sense? My mind is telling me so many things related to so many topics like maybe I liked my family member as a kid and have just hid it to fit in with society? That my anxiety as a kid has caught up with me and I’m turning into a psychopath? That I’ve always been a creep and enjoyed looking at peoples privates or chests, etc but just ignored or allowed the thought this whole time. Also before this whole flare up I remember always feeling on autopilot and not really alive like everything I did I just felt numb about it. Which aids my ocd to tell me that these feelings are real and the thoughts are true and that I’m “waking up” or realizing or something. I haven’t felt such intense anxiety and distress since I was a kid and I didn’t even understand my own thoughts. It’s like I’m either hyper aware or totally unaware of what’s going on around me and it gets me thinking about my existence, personality, what my role in life is and like genuinely what I’m even doing in the moment like what’s the reason behind everything. I’m constantly questioning my intentions because I don’t know if they’re true or not and it’s like my ocd doesn’t even allow me to consider the thought it just jumps to conclusion. Like telling me I’m guilty before proven innocent. It honestly feels like so much at once to even simply call it ocd or anxiety because it feels like a crisis and any moment I could spiral and breakdown completely. Going to school everyday feeling like anytbing could trigger a panic attack at any moment makes me feel like I can’t be left alone with my thoughts. And like overall since I got down this rabbit hole, my first obsession was harm to myself, then it was harm to others specifically my family, then it was being a pervert or pedo, or being attracted or someone or something I shouldn’t be, which then makes me question my existence and who I am along with also being hyper aware of my facial movements like my eyebrows, nose, etc. Like why does ocd have to involve itself in every aspect of my life? It feels like there’s always something wrong that I need to fix.
- Date posted
- 20w
I’ve recently been struggling a lot with OCD. I have had OCD for a long time I just didn’t realize it until more recently. About seven months ago I developed panic attacks one day randomly at work. I thought I was having a heart attack and went to the hospital where they told me it was just a panic attack and I assumed I would snap out and be better within a few days. However it didn’t. Here’s where it gets scary, I was staying at my then boyfriends house while dealing with blurry vision, anxiety attacks everyday, and more (unsure of what was going on). But at some point I saw my bfs (pew pew 🔫) on his table and it sent me into an anxiety attack after sudden thoughts that I was going to hurt myself with it. I begged him to put it away when I’m not looking so I didn’t know where he put it. He did. These thoughts lasted for about four days but began to go away. (I thought that was it and I would be back to normal). Unfortunately though I ended up moving back in with my family when we couldn’t get my panic attacks under control in time for me to get back to work and pay bills. However, coming home brought up a lot of trauma from when I was kid. My anxiety got worse but I didn’t have those thoughts again. About two and half months ago though, I got sick and went to the hospital where they gave me steroid pills and a steroid shot but sent me into some kind of psychiatric event. Ever since then though, I have been suffering from harm OCD, I have had moments of intense anger that I usually have to completely walk away and go on my own because of how intense they are, and it feels like it’s getting worse. Today I felt fine until about and hour and half ago where I started to dwell on the fact that my suicidal thought was influenced by my OCD and at the moment my OCD is at the worst it’s been. This caused me to get suddenly really depressed and I started crying thinking about how I can’t handle this. I then saw a post talking about how suicide rates are high for people with this form of OCD and it made me question if I am mentally strong enough to pull through this. I fear that at times I’m getting worse. I have good days but I have a lot of bad days. Unfortunately this sent me into such a bad panic attack I went over to my nanas crying about how I can’t deal with this. I took a 0.25 mg Xanax which helped calm down the panic attack portion of it but my brain is still uncomfortably active. I guess I just need hope. I’m so saddened by this. It’s like my life took a total 360 in 10 months and got even worse since the steroid shot. Idk what to do about it. I can’t stop the spiral. I talk to two different therapist weekly and start more next week, making it 5 times a week. I feel no improvements…
- Date posted
- 17w
So I have been struggling with the same theme of ocd for 4 months now. My ocd centers around past events/false memories that ocd skews to make seem bad or it twists my thoughts on what my intentions were. this is related to cheating or being weird while I have been in my amazing relationship. I have never cheated on my partner and never will and I believe it is wrong. But my ocd is telling me other wise. I love my partner so very much and I would never want to hurt him but my brain is getting to me. I was getting better. I was trying “maybe I did, maybe I didn’t”, I have been back on meds and in therapy and I stopped confessing random interactions from years/months ago about 1.5 weeks ago and it really helped. But now I woke up this morning and feel the pit in my stomach again. I feel extra critical and like why would you do this? What does this say about you? What was your intention with this? And I’m just stuck mentally reviewing and ruminating on everything you could imagine. I know my personality and I know in the moment maybe I did find them attractive but mainly I was just being nice or funny or even just a good friend, but looking back now I’m like “was it flirting?” “Why did I still snap this person” “why would I even talk to them” and stuff like that. I feel this intense sense of guilt. I have told my partner everything that I keep getting stuck on and he didn’t care, he said he understands or “that’s a little weird but it’s okay” and hasn’t missed a beat. He said eveything I’ve told him is normal and I’ve heard that from my friends too. I just really need help. I don’t know what to do anymore. I am so disappointed because I thought I was gonna be done with this, so why am I still so worried and caught up in this.
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