- Date posted
- 4y
- Date posted
- 4y
You could take this triggering situation and a perfect opportunity to PRACTISE ERP. The word practise in particular, not to feel that it must go great. For example, if your usual compulsions would be to jump in the shower, scrub yourself for 20 minutes. Then wash your sheets twice. Start to Google 'I found a bug in my sheets'. And start looking for other bugs ariund your room. You can see that although they might seem that they would help lower the distress, it actually increases all areas of distress, leading to one big snowball effect. I wonder if there are any other ways to soothe yourself other than the OCD compulsions? For example, refraining from doing the compulsions (some ideas of examples above). Instead : put your sheets in the wash. Don't check your room. Don't Google things. This will feel sooooo hard and upsetting. But prehaps in 20 or 30 minutes or 1 hour later, the overall anxiety will have naturally decreased. It's not to say during this time: 'Okay I'm not doing the compulsions so I MUST feel okay and better after this. Oh no I'm not feeling better, that means I'm doing it wrong. I'm so so stupid and messed up for not even doing ERP right." No that's not it. It DOES feel horrible. But we are just at thus stage looking to soothe yourself in any other way OTHER than the OCD
- Date posted
- 4y
I really understand how you feel, but you are cared for and you are seen. You are not alone
- Date posted
- 4y
You're harsh with yourself. I'd say you're someone who's smart enough to try to get rid of his or her issues. And that means a lot on you. But your story's complicated though š¤ can you express your feeling in a better understanding way ?
- Date posted
- 4y
Iām not particularly afraid of bugs. Yes, some bugs freak me out when they get inside and I am not ok with them. However my not being afraid is because I worked at it and created a plan for when to take action, and calmly reminding myself of that plan letās me follow it. Said plan: I will try to leave the bug alone under certain circumstances. Some bugs need to be removed from the house. If I canāt just get them out unharmed, those ones get killed. If a bug repeatedly comes at me, even after I try to scare it away, I put on my bravery shoe and kill it. If said bug wanders near my undies or bras drying on the racks or set out for the next day, I kill it. And lastly if said bug goes to my bed, I try not to, or at least not let it be seen, freak out a bit and kill it. Thatās because beds and clothing is where we feel vulnerable. So it makes sense to be upset; that bug broke the rule. But while I understand not wanting to directly touch it, removing it from the bed, maybe brushing the bed off, and sleeping in it is an excellent FU to your OCD. Because that bug is dead. It canāt hurt you at that point. Your OCD may want to run with it, and will probably try to, but if possible, fight it. Sending you strength so you can learn that you are not broken, or if you were, that you can be fixed, that you can make friends and support systems, and to know you have us here for friendship and support and because we understand it all because we suffer too. š
Related posts
- Date posted
- 22w
I was home for a couple of weeks with my family and two days ago my sister found small blood stains in her bed in a separate room. Our exterminator came and looked hard. he did not find any bugs or other signs in her room or in mine. Despite this, he did believe that the stains were from bedbugs and treated her room. there were no visible signs of bed bugs other than a couple of blood stains on her bedsheets. Nobody has seen any bugs or gotten bitā¦. Yet. The exterminator said Its fine for me to go home normally, but if Iām worried to wash my clothes when I get home tonight. Our dryer is not very hot and given my previous trauma with bedbugs I am in a state of complete panic. I am no stranger to these as when I was in high school my dorm building had them. This dominated my every thought. Iād shake my clothes whenever i took them off, obsessively checking, feeling itchy/things crawling on me without existing avoid people in āthatā part of the dorm and obsessing constantly. I never had them but it dominated my life for a long time. Now its back. I am freaking out. I had to pack my bag and leave that day. I got home, bagged the clothes i was wearing, put everything in the basement, took a shower then washed and dried all of my clothes. In my two days home, i barely slept the first night and today was better but im not doing anything tonight and im ruminating/obsessing heavily. Checking everything i can, feel itchy/something is crawling on me. Itās all i think about and given how long it can take for bbs to appear after introduction, I fear it will be until I have something more extreme/pressing to fixate on.
- Date posted
- 17w
I want to crawl out of my own skin I don't know why God put me on this earth I don't know why my brain is broken Im a lost cause and I don't know why I haven't ended it
- Date posted
- 12w
My ocd has been at an extreme all time high the past 2 weeks and I am in dire need of some relief. Iām not sleeping right anymore. for context: I live in the south and found a springtail on my sheets about 2 weeks ago. This was like 2 days before our bug guy came and sprayed (itās a normal maintenance thing here) so itās a common bug down here and Iāve found them all over different areas of the house before. Finding it in my bed sent me on a bit of a spiral bc I started to doubt if it even was a springtail and that i was wrong and that it was a bed bug, not trusting my brain. It was a bad, sleepless night and carried over continuing feelings. Typical ocd stuff. Well two days later, Iām a nurse and I had a patient that actually had bed bugs. This wasnāt the first day they were here and I did not see any myself but it still freaked me out. There had one 2 founds after visitors came the day before. Of course I wore PPE in the room (coveralls shoe covers and hair net) going in and took everything off before exiting the room. When I came home I stripped in my garage and bagged everything down to my shoes. Threw everything in the wash and did multiple cycles. There were no other steps I could take but I still had a terrible night. Hours of ruminating and going back and forth about tracing my tracks, thinking of new ways I couldāve taken one home with me. Just checking everything. I was already on a spiral from the springtail. Having two such back to back triggering events for me so closely related has made me deteriorate significantly. I was already doing bad with my normal OCD and starting therapy here. I obsess over the thought of having bedbugs constantly and havenāt been able to sleep. I am constantly checking my bed while in it and canāt settle down. My bed is heavy too and I keep hurting myself lifting my mattress to check. But I need to check. Iāve become obsessed. I check everything and go down Reddit rabbit holes looking for new things. And of course, I talk myself into it every time. I canāt take it anymore, itās bleeding off into other parts of my life like friendship and marriage because I am so high anxiety right now. I need relief so bad. Iāve never felt this unstable to be honest. I feel like even someone without ocd would be really struggling with this topic, nevermind me, with ocd to a point where I just started treatment. These arenāt even my normal intrusive thoughts and compulsive acts. Itās just taken on a life in the last week and I canāt find any sign that itās going to slow down. when I think rationally I know I did everything right to prevent but I canāt shake it. š
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