Anyone her have reliogious ocd

Yeah, same. It sucks. I know that struggling sucks, but sitting with the discomfort and anxiety will help. As you know, it won’t seem like it at first, but your anxiety will go down. When you have those thoughts, do you compulse at all?

Im struggling so bad right now with the intrusive thoughts

@Anonymous Honestly same. They come out of nowhere and it makes me feel guilty even though they are just thoughts. Are you religious? Does that make the thoughts worse for you?

Yeah I get it. I totally understand. I try to think of it like this to try and resist compulsing. Thoughts are just thoughts. I’m a Christian, so this is my example of my thought process. I think these thoughts that I know if I acted on, would be considered a sin. But I also know that God knows my heart and I do not intend anything I am thinking about. So I try to remind myself of that as well as sit with the anxiety, because I know that it will eventually subside. I also remind myself that thoughts are not actions. Thinking it can feel like I’m actually doing whatever I am thinking about, but I’m reality, all it is is my mind telling me these things that are not true about myself that I know are not true and I see where that takes me. I hope this helps- I honestly do. You need anything, I’m here.

@Sarah02* Thank you. It does help. I know they are just thoughts but then i start to question of thays really me. Then that ends up me repententing and praying that its not who i am

@Anonymous I pray and repent excessively too. It’s nice to talk to someone who gets it. Do you have a goal you would like to achieve in terms of your religious ocd? Like what do you want to work towards in terms of this? Would it be to not obsess as much, compulse as much, or both. Probably both right?

@Sarah02* Yes both. I want to acceot that i cant be perfect without my head telling me i need to try to be perfect. Its so exhausting wondering about everything you do is right or wrong or even ok to do. I literally question everything

@Anonymous Yeah, I know that’s hard. I can give you a tip that my therapist gave me. It’s called “channel changing”. Have you heard of it?

@Sarah02* Whats channel changing?

@Anonymous It is where when you are thinking of an intrusive thought, you quickly think of a happy thought instead. I think those are the basics of it. Like when I was doing it with my therapist, she basically induced one of my obsessions and told me to try to not compulse and if inwas going to to tell her. So when the obsession was induced, we spoke about it to increase my anxiety and bring it down by changing the topic to for instance a good memory. Here’s a link with a YouTube video if you’re interested or just look it up in general if you’re more interested: https://www.anxioustoddlers.com/child-ocd-and-anxiety/#.YElAmvc8IlQ

@Sarah02* Thank you. I do try to change my thoughts but it always goes to a diffrent intrusive thought

@Anonymous Although that is logical advice I’m most cases, erp is opposite. If you have ocd trying to quickly dismiss the thoughts and replace it with something doesn’t really help, it’s actually worse. NOCD is designed to help using ERP therapy, which is exposure to the direct problem and responding to it by sitting with the anxiety, not pushing it away. But accepting the uncertainty and recognizing it and allowing it there. You don’t have to believe it but it trains you to eventually allow these thoughts to come in and work toward not getting anxious about them, just allowing them to be exactly what they are. Thoughts. And giving them no other meaning than that. I am currently in ERP from a NOCD therapist, if you feel like you are lost I would recommend speaking to a professional who can work with you through this

@Anonymous Then, I would recommend just sitting with the uncertainty and notice how you feel. It is not going to feel very good or comfortable, but it does help and eventually the anxiety should decrease over time. Also talking to a specialist about this would be very beneficial!!

If this applies to you too, feel free to join in :) I gave Anonymous my thought process on resisting ritualizing, so you can read it and I hope it helps ;)