- Date posted
- 4y
- Date posted
- 4y
Your brain learns to sooth yourself using something other than the OCD. Right now, we automatically jump to compulsions to try soothe the distressive thought/image/feeling. But by not feeding it with compulsions or 'OCD cookies' as I like to imagine it, we eventually starve out the distress and with time it will lower the overall anxiety caused by the thought image. Don't worry, this takes lots of practise and understanding. But you're already making steps 😊 Can I ask if you are getting help from a CBT therapist who uses ERP as an approach to your ocd? You're WORTH that help 😊❤️
- Date posted
- 4y
Unfortunately i’m still a minor and I live outside the US so i’m having to figure everything out on my own which I don’t know is helping because I keep confusing myself
- Date posted
- 4y
@fairydecoragirl Hey! Aw I'm so sorry it's been such a tough time for you. Do you by chance live in the UK? the NHS also offer great therapists that can help with OCD. What country do you live in and I can have a think what I could maybe help you with 😊
- Date posted
- 4y
@ButterflyStar Yes I live in England
- Date posted
- 4y
Okay awesome! Do you have a local GP? You could book an appointment with your GP, and express that your symptoms match what seems to be obsessive compulsive disorder. If it help, you could write down a few points of how you are feeling and prehaps anything from Google which is about OCD that you feel correlates to those feelings. They should agree that you can receive counselling. 😊👍 It may be a bit of a wait, as we know with the NHS, but hopefully that will be a good start.
- Date posted
- 4y
You teach your brain to not fear the thoughts, to not react in panic, so that in the future those thoughts can pass by, without you noticing or reacting to them at all.
- Date posted
- 4y
I can’t find the words to describe how or why, but in general it dissipates the anxiety and retrains your brain that not doing your compulsions didn’t mean the bad things happened. (Ugh, this description does not so the process justice.). Hopefully someone else can better answer.
- Date posted
- 4y
You learn your mind to not live in this reaction state all the time. Real threats are solveable, OCD is not.
Related posts
- Date posted
- 23w
I’ve noticed that I’m somewhat happier also ignoring my thoughts than I am instead of doing compulsions (I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired atp) but I’ve heard you’re technically supposed to do erp rather than pushing under the rug. But idk if I have a thought I just refuse to think about it again and im fine even if I want to do compulsions
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 14w
I used to get caught in a loop with existential thoughts very frequently. Every question made my stomach drop: (TW: existential questions) … … ... "Why does anything exist at all? What will death be like? Is anything even real? Is there any meaning to this? Is the universe infinitely big, and if not, what's beyond it? Are there multiverses? Has the universe been around forever? Will the universe end for good, or will it keep going forever? What is forever like? What even IS reality?" It would get so overwhelming that I remember lying on the floor in a fetal position for hours because I felt like there was no escape. I spent most of my days reading articles and watching videos about theoretical astrophysics and philosophy in a desperate attempt to "figure it all out." Of course that only made me more anxious, raised more questions, and kept me trapped in the cycle. Things started to improve once I learned to turn TOWARD reality, rather than away from it, and ERP really helped me do that. I learned that these questions weren't the problem. I learned that I can actually handle the anxiety that arises when exposed to these ideas and concepts. I don't have to figure anything out to make the anxiety go away; it arises and passes away on its own. Ironically, bringing myself into the present moment and becoming more aware of reality helped me escape the cycle of existential dread. Because of that, this topic no longer takes over my life. If I'm triggered by something I see, hear, or think, I may still feel a little twang of anxiety, but then it just goes away. "Maybe, maybe not" has been the single most useful phrase of my life. Do you ever get trapped in a cycle of existential questions? Are you worried that the ERP approach would be too scary to handle? If so, I'm happy to give my advice.
- User type
- Therapist
- Date posted
- 14w
Here is what I say to people: I wish I could make it stop. I really do. I also wish I could stop tinnitus. What is tinnitus, you may ask? Well, have you ever gone to a loud concert and after it had a ringing in your ears. Or, in movies when a loud explosion hears, first it is often muffled, and then there is a very loud ringing sound. Well, I have hear that sound for over 30 years. Turns out the medications I took as a kid for allergies and all the antibiotics I was on for Strep had a side effect for some people - tinnitus - that sound that I have heard every decade, year, month, day, hour, and second, for the past 30 years. I have learned to live with it. As I type this, it is REALLY loud, because I am paying attention to it. But, in a few minutes it will fade into the background, and, while I will hear it, I will not pay much attention to it, and therefore I will go on with my night. I will listen to music, practice my story for the MOTH radio hour, and work out. I will clean up the kitchen and load the dishwasher, and I will eventually get ready for bed. I will go to bed hearing that sound, and fall asleep for a few hours until tomorrow morning when I start the day all over again. I cannot make the sound stop. There is nothing to do for it - no surgery or medication. Just learning to live with it, and that is what I have done. It is the thing that I hate the most in my life, and, if granted three wishes, it would be the first thing to change. For now, as I have for 30 years, I will live with it, and I will ask you to live with your noises in your head - the thoughts, the images, and the urges, and we will practice together accepting that things are not always as we want them, but we can handle that. We got this.
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