anyone else have adhd and ocd and find actually sitting down to do erps verrrrry challenging i am the procrastination pro i just will find anything to do but what im supposed to but i dont like taking vyvanse or adderal just so i will actually do my erps ... i also feel like when my ocd is in over drive from a real life trigger not a forced trigger i cant help but focus on the intrusive thoughts and let them overwhelm me but when im doing an erp thing it feels like homework it feels like an assignment that i dont want to do and while i do get anxiety from the exposures if my brain finds a distraction (not on purpose) then my adhd excellerates the process and my anxiety goes from a 7 to a 4 and i feel like i havr to start over, does any of that make sense or sound relatable? like and because of this when i do the erp exercises sometimes i cant tell if im forcing myself to concentrate on the intrusive thoughts (because i know my brain wants to go elsewhere to random thoughts) or if my intrusive thoughts are occuring naturally and then my thought spiral goes well look this is proof you dont have ocd doing an erp shouldnt be this challenging in my mind i imagine someone with ocd sits down say they blink a lot or do a physical compulsion they expose themself to something that makes them panic and they have to sit there and not do a physical compulsion for 10 minutes and watch their anxiety go up and down until it steadies out ... for me though my compulsions are reassurance but sometimes my adhd distracted brain can mess up the process and i have to remind myself of the task at hand and i say to myself "someone with real ocd doesnt have to remind themselves of their anxiety they are crippled by it" but i will say in early august my panic attacks and crying spells were out of control and i was feeling crippled by it but now that i feel more regulated after getting a diagnosis and feeling a sense that i can take control of my life i almost find these exercises tedious and annoying and also sometimes ruining my day so i avoid them especially because they make me feel like i dont have ocd sometimes because im not having the amount of anxiety i should have... to be clear ive only done 7s on my hierarchy so far im sure thats why i doubt it because im not experiencing panic attacks that i have in the past and instead just light anxiety ... anyway hope someone reads this and gets what im saying 🤷‍♀️ is this just me feeling like a fraud because of ocd or is my adhd really making it hard to do erps? i have no clue and i know i cant be give reassurance

Dianaaa

Date posted: 4y

1. Erp is supposed to feel like the hardest thing you will ever do. If you're in agony due to anxiety during erp, ur doing it correctly and it will be effective over time 2. Ocd is in our hands. Our compulsions are the only thing continuing our ocd cycles. If you truly want to get better, you HAVE to resist reassurance, self-reassurance, checking, figuring out, disproving the thought as not true, etc. You have to stop all these or your ocd will. Get. Worse. 3. Accepr uncertainty. We may or may not do our fears. Nobody knows. Everyone has the ability to do or be anything. The more you accept this, feel the anxiety it brings, and let it go down without compulsions? the quicker you will recover

Anonymously

Date posted: 4y

thanks for the feedback and thanks for not giving me reassurance its just really strange ocd... like i feel it is the only condition where if you get a diagnosis your doctor actually cant reassure you that you actually have it because that can make you worse ... my sister and mom go to talk therapy and get all this validation and comfort and people with ocd have to go to tough love therapy because reassurance just makes us worse ... its just im really worried i dont have it my erps i hate doing them but mostly because i cant tell if im doing them right and i analyze the whole erp process i start to wonder if i am doing them the way someone with ocd does or the way someone who wishes they have ocd does and that one day ill wake up and go remember that time where i convinced myself i have ocd just because of a few panic attacks and crying spells in august? when really you are just a narcissist, gay, p*** in denial of who you really are and like get over yourself you just want something to be wrong with you but its not youre making it up for attention or to make sense of your life or as way to confirm you arent those things and its really sad ... ugh anyway im ranting again ... i did do two erps tonight and im doing two more this weekend so im not giving up im just frustrated

Be a part of the largest OCD Community

Share your thoughts so the Community can respond