Oof. Every time my mind isn’t occupied by a new task, I find myself ruminating on a really upsetting thread on our neighborhood’s social media. It was so bad at the time, that my Fitbit tracked a big spike in my pulse. I try to keep redirecting back to the moment or doing a breathing exercise when I catch myself ruminating. (Luckily, my personal time limit for Facebook has just kicked in.) Is that avoidance? I haven’t figured out exercises for ruminating yet. I’m not in a panic, but my heart rate is definitely not at “calm”.

"Pure" OCD

amanda

Date posted: 4y

I’m in therapy with NOCD and the way we write narratives in scripts/loop tapes is documenting what I think is the worst case scenario with acknowledgment that I don’t know for sure the bad thing will happen. reading/listening on repeat until it gets boring or annoying, the exposure therapy will make me sweaty and itchy from anxiety at first. The goal is to let it pass, once I see there is no threat present, and learn to sit with the uncertainty without checking, reassuring, or otherwise compulsing. Meditation is a crucial part of my recovery.

ARTnotOCD

Date posted: 4y

Thank you. That’s so helpful. I know at least the meditation part is helpful to all kinds of OCD I deal with too. I’m a little confused as to how to fit that type of exercise to this particular situation, but I’m thinking that maybe the first step is to journal it, like the way you said document the worst case scenario, and then just sit with that, without checking, which probably includes not repeatedly looking on Facebook for more comments too. If you notice a flaw in my thinking, redirection/correction is appreciated. It can be easier to see flaw when one is removed from it.

amanda

Date posted: 4y

Yes journaling is a great place to start, it’s good for any reason where you’d benefit from seeing your thoughts structured outside of you. With anxiety our thoughts can get so tangled up inside. ERP has given me a solution when “good vibes only” doesn’t work because fact is the OCD brain needs balance to build stronger distress tolerance. You’re welcome to post your journaling ideas!

ARTnotOCD

Date posted: 4y

Thank you again. I journaled a bit, which definitely helped slow the imagainary conversation in my head. No matter how much I wanted to, I did not check FB any more that night. (I need FB for other reasons, so I waited till the morning when I was in a better place to not use it for those reasons that weren’t reassurance.) Then I read some of a book and did a little mediation. Today that conflict has definitely entered my mind a few times, but I remembered how I had journaled about the what-ifs and about if conflict had continued, and then I was able to know I was already ok in case those things went further in real life. That let me move on pretty quickly with no big spikes in my heartrate.

ARTnotOCD

Date posted: 4y

I was definitely scared that in journaling I’d fall even further into the rabbit hole of obsession, but it felt really healthy once I got into it. I’m bookmarking your suggestions to help as I continue to work on ruminations. 💜

amanda

Date posted: 4y

@ARTnotOCD I think the reason why journaling works is because it forces your anxious thoughts to slow down and by writing about the worst case scenario and accepting the uncertainty we’re breaking the cycle of reassurance

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