- Date posted
- 7y
- Date posted
- 7y
Yes! Its the delaying of the compulsions that you’re supposed to exercise
- Date posted
- 7y
Thank you Maxie! Hopefully I’ll be one day able to stop performing compulsions all together! d a i s y
- Date posted
- 7y
Hey daisy, I’ve had this problem for the longest time, and not sure about this too. Personally, it felt like giving in to either were just different ways to manifest the ruminations, so I only count my successes when I have 5 mins of NEITHER Os or Cs. Of course if it’s too hard you can focus on one then the other, much like you have. The point is to step up in difficulty till you get to a point when you feel like it reasonably does not affect your daily living, so everything till that pt does count for progress.
- Date posted
- 7y
Hi d-man ? It’s so frustrating, isn’t it? Like I feel like I always make a little progress and then plateau completely. Even when I do manage to delay my compulsion, I spend the whole delaying period ruminating and obsessing so much that I cannot resist my compulsions. It’s exhausting. Oh well, just taking it one moment at a time. Thanks for always being here d-man! I’m so appreciative. d a i s y
- Date posted
- 7y
Yeah it really is. I often try and remind myself about the impact I am NOT able to make in the world when I’m too sucked into my own. It goes a little way in reminding me about the bigger picture. Hey, I say the same to you too ?
- Date posted
- 7y
I completely agree! We’re just teeny little specks in the universe. We’ll get through this :) d a i s y
Related posts
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 16w
Earlier today I did some pretty high-level contamination exposure, inspired by my therapist, and now I'm listening to a triggering song on repeat — the very song that kicked off my first serious bout of OCD in high school. There is a part of my brain that is telling me I can't handle the song and that I should find a compulsion to do, but my goal is to have it in the background while I go about my self-care tasks. I'm already starting to get used to it 💪 How are y'all challenging your OCD today?
- Date posted
- 13w
Anyone have any tips on not making ERP a compulsion? I find myself sometimes wanting to do exposures in order to make myself feel better (feel my anxiety go down and feel relief). 😅
- Date posted
- 13w
So I've been working to address my OCD for about a month now. So far, I haven't been working on it with a therapist and have instead been trying to create my own exposure exercises. The primary obsession I'm working on is the fear that I'm somehow flawed or invalid on a fundamental level. The best way I can describe it it is that its similar to the feeling you get when you have germ OCD and you feel contaminated, except my whole existence and being feels contaminated, so to speak. I've identified a list of triggers, and a list of compulsions (pretty much all mental) that I've noticed myself performing. I started out by doing imaginal exposures and scripts where I'd write out triggering fictional scenarios and read them over and over, combined with mindfulness techniques to focus on my breath and bring myself back to the present when I noticed myself performing compulsions mentally. At first it worked to some extent, but eventually I started to feel like the stories I was writing about this obsession weren't triggering any anxiety anymore or a very low level. So I stopped reading them and focused solely on improving my ability to stay present and identifying compulsions as I perform them, and disengaging. Now, I'm at the point where it seems like my general anxiety levels throughout the day are lower, and the triggers I've identified are producing noticeably less anxiety. But that makes me wonder if somehow I'm just secretly doing mental compulsions without knowing it? Is only a month of rather disorganized and unstructured ERP enough to produce this much improvement? To avoid giving me re-assurance, I'd appreciate if you guys don't directly answer those questions, maybe just provide some possibilities or your own experiences so I can get a better idea of where I'm at. Any info would be appreciated. Thanks!
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