- Date posted
- 6y
- Date posted
- 6y
It’s the other way around. You won’t be able to make any progress if you or them keep following those rules. In order to progress, you have to start doing some exposures, like leaving something “dirty”, or not washing your hands after you touch something that you consider infected or dirty. If you keep washing and sterilizing everything, you’re just falling in the never ending ocd cycle. It’s hard, trust me, I know, but it’s worth it. Start with something small, sit with the anxiety, and then move on. The anxiety will eventually go away.
- Date posted
- 6y
me too ???
- Date posted
- 6y
The thing with ocd, is that it is never satisfied, maybe for a while you’ll be ok, considering you’re not gonna live with them forever, but what happens when you move out, or have a house for yourself, ocd is gonna find out a way to mess with you, sadly it always does. Besides, we can’t always control the people around us, something’s gonna trigger us eventually, that’s why we need to fight. I don’t know how old you are, or how long you’ve been dealing with ocd, I’ve had it for more than 20 years, and just found out about exposure therapy a couple of months ago, and I’ve been able to have some “ocd free” weeks for the first time in a long long time. I’ll be lying if I tell you that it has been easy, cause it is not easy at all, and some days I can’t deal with the anxiety and I end up doing my compulsions. This last couple of days have been really hard, and only because I keep feeding this ocd monster by giving into my fears and doing compulsions. Ocd is the worst. ?
- Date posted
- 6y
Right now I'm able to cope with not washing my hands or cleaning for a while and touch mostly everything that bothers me as long as it doesn't interfere with the few things I absolutely need to keep clean. The main thing that bothers me is the chance of anything touching what I want to keep clean. I feel like as long as I can prevent that from happening I'll be ok considering I don't have to live with these people for much longer but that's also hard to do and considering they aren't very supportive is probably annoying to them. I don't know if it's worth it to cause myself so much anxiety for only having to deal with this problem for a short amount of time
- Date posted
- 6y
Thank you for your advice I hope all goes well for you in the future?
Related posts
- Date posted
- 17w
Im having a OCD specifically contamination OCD flare up all month and I don’t want to feel this way going into March, I’ve thrown out clothes, towels, stayed up for hours doing compulsions, washed my hands till they crack and bleed, I have washing pilling up cause I’m so overwhelmed by all the extra things I’ve added cause I thought it was contaminated. It’s completely draining me to the point where I’ve become sleep deprived and are avoiding part of my home because they are deemed contaminated to me…I only moved in a few months ago, I had a roach problem and using baits and insecticides really messed with my ocd too. anyone have any tips or tricks to make this easier? I wasn’t doing this bad in January :( thankyou in advance :)
- Date posted
- 14w
Hi everyone. I’m having a really hard time today in my relationship. I am just feeling so frustrated by my back-and-forth feelings about my relationship. One day I’ll feel so good, and then the next I don’t at all. I think my biggest trigger in the house is the chores that the two of us have to do in the house. I’m much more of a clean person than my boyfriend is. I’m also thinking that he has ADHD and struggles to remember when to do specific chores and I have to remind him pretty often, but he will usually do it when I ask. Today, I’m on a huge spiral of telling myself that he is never gonna be able to learn to do things on his own, he’s not gonna be able to take care of our kids in the future If we do get married, he’s not gonna be able to help take care of our house when we do have one one day, And I am just exhausted. It’s so hard fighting these thoughts all day and then I feel like I have to sit down and talk to him about chores and obviously that doesn’t go well when I’m not feeling good. Definitely a compulsion… It feels so much better when I can just relax and just let him figure things out on his own, and I can just take care of myself. I also come from a household where I was constantly criticized and controlled in certain ways, so I have that to carry too…I’ve gotten much better at doing that most of the time but today is pretty bad. It always feels a little bit worse as well when I’m on my period and feeling very hormonal as well… Can anyone please shed some light on if they’ve experienced this before and any support they might be able to offer in relation to this? Anything would be helpful and please be kind!
- Date posted
- 9w
My mom will sit and listen to me for quite a while, but she interrupts a lot and gets angry/upset. While I appreciate her passion, it's often stressful. Every time I come to her, if I even *mention* OCD, she gets frustrated and says, "Everyone deals with these issues, you know. It doesn't mean it's OCD." And I repeat, "I'm not saying my issues are unique — I'm saying the way I respond to them is a problem." But she just shakes her head and says, "Okay, I need to get back to my day." Full context, I'm an adult, and I live with my boyfriend, but I'm staying at my mom's for the next month. After living away from home for years, I went back to living with her during the pandemic, and I only recently left to live with him. Honestly, I think living with her for so long in my adulthood really messed with me and made me feel like a teenager all over again. I feel like my mental growth is stunted, and that's part of why my OCD is so bad lately. Not blaming, just noticing. She doesn't seem to understand how relieving the OCD diagnosis has been for me, because it explains so so so many things I've struggled with for years, and it's exciting to have more resources that can help me. But I think she sees it as me finding an excuse to *not* work on myself, which is just untrue. I'm not going to let OCD hold me back or use it as an excuse, but I'm also not going to pretend it's not a problem when I know it is — I was even diagnosed through NOCD. The whole point being to fix it, not use it as a crutch. When I have an issue, it's unbearable. Any issue, big or small, feels just the same. I feel a sinking feeling, my mind races, my heart beats out of my chest. I end up running to my support systems, crying, ruminating for days on end. Then, months later, the same exact issue can feel like nothing anymore, because it's no longer an obsession. I'm sure everyone deals with issues in a similar way, but I *know* there is something specific and debilitating going on with me. This is reassurance seeking, but in the face of being told I'm making a big deal out of nothing, can someone diagnosed with OCD tell me if they relate to the specific intensity of these feelings??
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