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- 6y ago
I’ve been living with OCD about half my life — so I completely understand what you mean about your rituals being deeply ingrained. Mine are the same way. What motivates you to want to get better? Try to keep that in mind when you are doing exposures. I wish I could tell you that there was a way to make them easier, but I honestly don’t know that there is. You have to make a very conscious decision that you are not going to engage in the compulsion and then follow through. It is not easy by any means when you first start doing it; it is quite literally a fight. But you are a lot less powerless than you think. Also keep in mind that it WILL get easier.
Have you checked out the plan feature?
What are your rituals?
Like Mjs pointed out this app can also help you through it.
At the beginning I mostly did exposures with my therapist, and then worked on those same things at home. I only recently started doing exposures on my own. It’s going to take time. Give yourself some grace. You’ve had these rituals for years, and only just started getting help. Maybe ask your therapist for a few goals a week.
I tried the app but I don’t understand how to set up the exposures part. I mainly use the SOS feature. My rituals are calling/texting my BF to make sure he’s not cheating on me. So my exposure for the next two weeks is for us to cutoff communication after 9pm (we are in a long-distance relationship). I did that for two nights before I “relapsed”. I couldn’t do it. I tried other (easier) exposures (like flipping a coin everytime I want to call/text him) or only calling/texting x amount of times/day but I’ve never been able to stick to the exposures for more than a couple days at a time. I think my therapist is frustrated honestly because I won’t stick to my exposures.
Does anyone have tips for ROCD exposures on fear of being cheated on? I’m having trouble working with the app to setup exposures. My therapist has me limiting contact with my bf as exposures. I’ve also been forced to watch tv shows or movies on cheating (which wasn’t too distressing).. I’m at the point where it’s costing me my relationship and I don’t want this to happen at all. I’ve had way too many relationships that I’ve sacrificed unwittingly to my ocd. I really need help with this or I’m afraid he will break up with me because he’s so fed up with the daily chaos.
I am having a really hard time figuring out how to address my obsessions and compulsions using ERP. It's actually turned into a main OCD theme of mine and it's terrifying. No reassurance please. I've never had an OCD theme so severe and last so long. This "theme" has been going on for 5 years now & has been the hardest to manage out of any OCD themes in the past and I've had many: Harm, Sexual, Just Right, Symmetry, False Memories, Scrupulosity, etc. I just wanted to put this out there because it's hard to function with these distressing, intrusive thoughts around therapy and how to do it racing inside me.
So my most current theme has been ROCD. It’s been nagging at me for the last 4 years. OCD makes me INCREDIBLY self critical and I often turn that internal voice on to my partner and can be incredibly critical of him. In essence, I’m almost subconsciously sabotaging my relationship which is the OPPOSITE of what I want. I’m looking for people who experience this same response and patterned behaviour. Share tips, in-the-moment awareness suggestions. Words of encouragement (not reassurance). OCD is such a trip lol
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