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- 5y
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- 5y
We're here for you
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- 5y
That sounds really rough. Remember: you’ve beaten it before, you can beat it again, even if it’s hard. What did you do last time to get into remission? Have you done any ERP?
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- 5y
I meet with my therapist once a week. Currently working on self compassion and values.
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- 5y
That’s good. Has it been helpful for you? What kind of things specifically are you looking for more help on? I’m not a therapist but I can do my best.
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Ohio
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- 5y
That sounds hard ❤️ What kind of help do you need?
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- 5y
I went to McClain hospital in Boston for 3 months of treatment for a second time. ERP, Cbt....ect
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Did they set you up with a therapist outside the hospital when you left? Otherwise what resources do you have to be able to keep doing erp on your own? And do you have any coping strategies for dealing with suicidal feelings? Mostly I’m just trying to figure out what you’ve tried so I can come up with new ideas.
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- 5y
Anxiety
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- 5y
I think what’s helped me most is just having a few coping strategies in my back pocket. I draw or paint when I get anxious, for example. I also might text a friend, sometimes to talk about my anxiety, sometimes to talk about something else. I might also watch a funny YouTube video to make me smile. I like watching people make things too, I find that relaxing. If you google “coping strategies,” you’ll find lots of ideas for things you can do when your anxious.
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- 5y
@Nikki1809 Sometimes, especially with erp, we just have to sit with the anxiety and remind ourselves that we are strong enough to cope with it.
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- 5y
Are you a therapist? Or are you someone who has OCD also?
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- 5y
Im just someone who has ocd. I did get my bachelors degree in counseling psychology, but I decided I don’t have enough people skills to be a therapist. I still like helping out people here if I can. And I plan to go into psychology research.
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- 5y
@Nikki1809 Research psychology—how does one get into that? I love psychology (social, personality, abnormal...), but am an introvert who is often lacking in bedside manner.
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- 5y
@Alyosha Yeah! I tried to be a therapist, I got my undergraduate degree as a double major in art therapy and in clinical counseling psychology. But what happened was when I got to classes where research was required I kind of fell in love, and when I tried clinical work I found I was super anxious all the time. I’ve only just graduated with my bachelors and am going on to get my masters, my first day is Wednesday. But I think, start with a bachelors in psychology, and take as many opportunities to do research as possible. I did a summer project outside of my class. Research helps you get into a graduate program. Then instead of applying to a masters program that leads to therapeutic lisensure I applied to a program that focuses on research methods. I haven’t actually worked in a lab yet, but I’m hoping I’ll get more direction for how to start finding a career during my masters program. I might go on to get a PhD after if I’m not sick of school yet. My home town happens to be a place that has many psychology research labs, so that’s helpful. I’ll be getting some experience with research as a graduate assistant helping professors.
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- 5y
@Nikki1809 That’s awesome!! Best wishes.
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- 5y
@Alyosha Thank you 😊
Related posts
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- 21w
WHY is it so bad?? who was gonna tell me 16 was just DREAD, my ocd has flared up worse than ever and i can’t go to therapy weekly anymore. im getting worse and i can’t do it. I just want to give up.
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- 19w
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…
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- 14w
(Long post warning) Hi, I’ve been struggling with severe OCD for six years now. it started in 2019 with my theme being getting sick/emetophobia. it devastated my life. I almost didn’t graduate high school from it. I remember washing my hands for three hours one day until they were nearly bloody while crying and asking why I could not stop doing it. I remember id have to write and rewrite sentences when I did my English homework and that’s why I nearly failed that class. I remember how I would spend up to thirty minutes to an hour pacing the halls of my apartment while my mom was asleep until I neutralized the thoughts about throwing up and I could finally go to bed. I don’t know when it happened, but my theme switched. Sometimes in late 2020 or early 2021, it switched to POCD. It started with a single thought, and I focused on it and it’s been my theme since then for four years. It has been absolutely destroying me. I feel so disgusted and lost and just tired. My compulsions are severe now. I thought they were bad before, but now they’re ten times worse. I can’t eat, drink, change my clothes, walk, or even do things on my phone normally. I’ve developed so many mental compulsions that it’s so intricate and complicated yet at the same time I’ve done them so much that they’ve become normal. An example I have is if im putting on a shirt and I have a “bad” thought, I have to take it off and put it back on two more times (that’ll make it 3 times I put the shirt back on - odd numbers are my safe number). I have to have a good thought on the third time otherwise I have to take it off and put it on two more times to make it five times I put on that shirt. If not that then I just put on a different shirt because the original is now tainted with my bad thought. I can’t open apps on my phone. It’s with the numbers again. If I open TikTok once while having a bad thought - I have to close it and open it two more times and so on. Sometimes I do it up to 30 times. So I just don’t do things usually. I don’t turn on the TV because I know I’ll redo it. I don’t open a book or grab it off my shelf because I’ll have to repeat the action. I can’t even lay in bed without getting up and redoing it even if im exhausted. I just feel so helpless. I don’t know what to do. I feel disgusting and even now my minds screaming at me that I am dirty and what I think is true. I just wish I was free of this, I wish I could just live my life. I’ve wasted hours and days because of my compulsions. I mask it so well around my friends. I don’t do them in front of anyone or I’ve learned to hide it well. But when im back home alone, it goes haywire. I just want to live again.
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