- Date posted
- 4y ago
- Date posted
- 4y ago
Well first, definitely stop researching. And second, the past is just that. Past. No amount of parsing or ruminating can change it and no amount of evidence-seeking will leave you sure enough. So give yourself permission to stop trying to move on; move forward instead. The difference is in the power you allow mistakes to have on your life. It’s ok to not be ok. And I can say confidently that all themes look easier from the outside, but honestly, they all freaking suck =)
- Date posted
- 4y ago
I never wanted these mistakes to have power. Most of them were when I was in my teen years. I'm just so disgusted with the mistakes mainly. I don't want to give them power, I don't want to think about them, and I just want to accept that like all human beings everyone makes mistakes and no one is freaking perfect. I guess it's so hard to accept self forgiveness because of how different I am today compared to before. I also feel like uncertainty will mean only the worst things will happen to me and I'm the worst person ever. Fuck, I just don't know
- Date posted
- 4y ago
@BigGip09 Of course you don’t want to think about them. But it’s a core principle that the harder you fight to not think about it, the more you will. Having power over your past doesn’t mean just accepting your imperfections. OCD is fundamentally opposed to acceptance. Believe me, if it was that easy, we’d all have been cured by now. But instead, you have power over the thoughts by deciding not to do anything with them. Don’t try to block them out, don’t try to rationalize, and don’t mull them over. Just let them sit there. They will go away eventually. I know it sounds like the hardest thing in the world, and it’s definitely close, but you can do it.
- Date posted
- 4y ago
@sfgal88 What am I going to do? How long will this take? Are the thoughts really that serious? Am I supposed to just sit there and let the thoughts get to me even if I don't want them to? Is this what ERP is? Why me? I hate that we all have to go through this. I really do. It's so unfair
- Date posted
- 4y ago
I didn't think of it until now, but I think I also have a really bad case of unhealthy perfectionism. I'm so scared of doing anything that will cause a mistake because of the mistakes I'm recently ruminating over. I'm always uncertain about these mistakes but I want to be certain. Even when I feel like I am I'm not
- Date posted
- 4y ago
Comment deleted by user
- Date posted
- 4y ago
@Anonymous You're really nice. Thank you. Maybe loneliness is part of this feeling too
- Date posted
- 4y ago
It’s hellish. And unfair. Don’t focus on how long it will take. Just hold onto hope that it won’t always be this way. ERP is sitting with the discomfort and being ok. You can ignore the thoughts without trying to smother them. Say to yourself, “Ok, my brain is thinking about it. It’ll pass. And I’ll be ok still.” Find other things to think about, things that ground you. I promise you, the harder you try not to think them the stronger they get. And if you dive into the thoughts, you’ll ruminate endlessly to try and get them sorted. You’ll never feel sure enough, but that’s just the bad wiring we all live with. It’s hard, but you CAN do this.
- Date posted
- 4y ago
This is so difficult, it really is. There's different triggers that are around and some are stronger than others, but at the end of the day they feel so damn real. It feels like the second I think about it it's going to happen and I'm going to be punished for something. That's why the thoughts never fully go away. But maybe you're right I'm always thinking the thoughts and even if they really make me uncomfortable I do end up being okay. Maybe I have to keep this in mind or something
- Date posted
- 4y ago
I am on the same
Related posts
- Date posted
- 22w ago
This might contain triggering content, but I'm also wondering if others have dealt with this similar thought, and if so, how to deal with it? Overall, I've been doing so well these past few days. I'm able to eat again, which I hadn't been able to do because of how much anxiety I'd been experiencing. I'm spending time around loved ones and not just rotting in my room, and I've been able to wake up without immediately being bombarded by intrusive thoughts. When things first got really bad, I'd wake my mom up every night for reassurance, but I haven't done that in a while either. I'm really proud of myself, but there's still this nagging thought in my mind... While looking through others posts on here, hoping to find advice that'd fit my situation, I ended up making things worse. Someone mentioned how they had a fear that they'd purposely search for illegal content (related to POCD). I panicked, and "what ifs" flooded my thoughts. "What if the intrusive thoughts affect who I am as a person, and I do that?" I'm terrified that I'll search for those things, which I know means I wouldn't do it. But then, another person on here said they'd actually looked for those things, and that freaked me out even more. Does that mean it's possible for that to happen to me? I don't want to do that, but I keep having intrusive thoughts surrounding it. I've been doing so well these past few days. I'm just... stuck. I don't know what to do. I've spoken with other people who have the same fears, but how do I manage this? It's not something I've even thought about before seeing those posts. I've been practicing accepting the uncertainty, but I'm really struggling with this one. I hate this. This morning, I woke up, and the intrusive thoughts were back. It's just disheartening.
- Date posted
- 16w ago
So, I know my capacity to get fixated on things. And it's normally something that's relatively remote but, my latest issue is really getting to me and I was wondering if people have any advice. I'm avoiding getting too into specifics, as I don't want this to get reassurance-y but, in essence.. I came to the realisation recently that people who I'd been "friends" (feels like the wrong term now) when I was younger were not very nice people, and normalized a lot of very unpleasant behaviour towards other members of the group. They really normalized it, sold themselves as figures of authority, as older and more responsible and grown-up than others, and looking back, they acted horribly. And coming to this realisation, that I'd been manipulated into just accepting their behaviour has just... broken me. My OCD has latched onto it and I can't stop feeling irreversibly tainted by it. I've talked to others about it, and they've reassured me, told me it's not a big deal and that I hold myself to too high a standard, but none of that sticks. I feel better for a bit, then think 'Maybe when you told them you were skewing it to make yourself look better' or 'Did you leave out a crucial detail'. I keep ruminating over and over, trying to remember exactly how everything played out, trying to figure out if I fed into the behaviour, if I did something bad myself (because y'know, I feel like I was accepting of it at the time, so what does it say about my own values?). I know I need to stop doing all this if I want to improve, but then some part of me keeps saying 'So, you're just going to let yourself off the hook then?' Normally, I can rationalize my own fears to some degree, assure myself something won't happen, but the realness of the situation, and the fact I only came to understand the reality of it because the thought had been bothering me means it feels so much more all-encompassing. I know confessing in itself is a compulsion, but I keep feeling that if I'm not I'm somehow concealing what I 'really am' from others around me, and any positive interactions are me deceiving them in some way. I feel like I can't enjoy anything in life right now, and a good part of me feels I should not enjoy it ever again. If anybody has any advice on it, I'm all ears. Or even hearing if you relate to these feelings, I might appreciate the solidarity at least.
- Date posted
- 13w ago
Very brief mentions of pocd and nsfw jokes,id like this to be adults only . Repost bc i had to edit something Does anyone have experience with real event ocd attached to your online footprint etc? I keep checking old messages,trying to find old people i knew i used to talk to etc. To find out every problematic thing I did and if I've ever been unfollowed or blocked by anyone I used to be friends w online/atleast on good terms w. I am particularly concerned abt doing something bigoted,esp racist bc i have racism ocd,and doing something predatory bc of my pocd. I remember hanging around people who could use 'edgy' or offensive humour in my teens and i remember a lot of sex jokes and that i would join in on sex jokes sometimes . i dont remember details w the offensive humour as much,i feel like i didnt join in on it as much but i was definitely WAY passive abt things and prob let a lot of bad stuff slide i shouldnt have bc i didn't speak up it was wrong,I remember one friend in an online community would say slurs and horrible jokes when i was 16. I dont remember my response to it as much but i feel i didnt speak up abt it aside one time i found in the dms where he made a bad joke on a thing i shared for social justice. I cant stop going thru old messages and stuff or trying to find ppl from the past. I feel like if I don't check it now,that eventually it'll come to haunt me or that I'll stumble across it eventually. I worry what if someone messaged me on one of these apps I un-installed or on one of the accounts I don't have access to,confronting me abt all this stuff I did. I had an obsession w this back in 2020 and did check in depth on all my accounts,but now that it's been 4 years the obsession is back in full swing.
Be a part of the largest OCD Community
Share your thoughts so the Community can respond