Hey friends, I’m struggling. This is day 4 stuck on the same obsession and I’m not doing any compulsions and it’s not going away. I’m obsessing about what if I can never get this thought out of my head and it stays here the rest of my life and I always feel anxious, guilty, depressed, ashamed forever and never enjoy my life. Please leave suggestions for ERPs around this. Thank you 🙏🏻

This is some of the best advice I think I’ve ever read about an obsession and I’m brand new to NOCD. My obsession is if something catches my eye I have to take a picture of it (compulsion). Specifically something with letters or words. My fear is the same: “what if I don’t engage in this compulsion & never get a chance to engage in it, the anxiety of never having engaged will stay there to the point I descend into madness. I’ll either end up in a mental hospital or live the rest of my life with that anxiety. I was doing that earlier tonight. Telling myself that something I saw during a walk with my dog didn’t have letters or words so it doesn’t count, I didn’t need to take a picture over & over again. The anxiety was going away but it was also still creeping back in & I was afraid I was gonna end up running back out with my phone to find whatever it was & take a picture of it. Then I decided to distract myself by reading some of the posts & came across this one. It was like a gift from God himself. Reading the response of just letting go, moving on, accepting that risk, & doing no compulsions to prevent that fear was exactly what I needed. I did just that & like Madison said the obsession flew away on its own. I feel 1000x times better & I am not going crazy for not having engaged in a compulsion. I’m no where near recovered. In fact, I know it’s still gonna be difficult for me to go out of my house & I’m gonna do my best to avoid triggers for a while. I just had my first therapy sesssion today and ERP hasn’t even officially started yet. But between what my therapist did say during today’s first meeting & how much this post helped me get through this one incident, I’m feeling very hopeful! Thank you so much!!

I’m willing to bet you are doing compulsions — mental ones. Trying to get the thought to go away, or constantly checking to see if it’s there or if you’re better yet. Your fear is always feeling anxious/guilty/depressed forever and never enjoy your life, right? (Mine too!) Accept that risk — accept that possibility and then move on and don’t do any compulsions to prevent that fear from coming true. You’ll find that compulsions are not necessary to prevent that fear from coming true — it is the compulsions that keep you feeling so awful! The best thing you can do is “let it go” and release control instead of forcing it to leave, and eventually the obsession flies away on its own. It’s OK to struggle so badly. It’s OCD; it’s hard, and you are such a strong fighter. But the principles, tools, and techniques will work! Keep practicing. Accept uncertainty and resist compulsions like checking or trying to figure it out. Try to let go, do nothing, accept any distress, take the risk and move on. You will find you feel much better that way ✈️

THANK YOU for helping me! I won’t lie & say the anxiety is completely gone. OCD is a tricky, sneaky, & hard thing to battle. It creeps in when you least expect it & sometimes over things you thought were settled. But I’m just gonna keep you’re advice in mind plus the fact that OCD likes to take things that are very unlikely to occur & multiply it by a million so in our minds it seems like it will definitely happen, as per my therapists words. So the actual likelihood of my fear coming true is really very little to none. Day by day and when I wake up tomorrow with my sanity still in tact (anxiety still present or not) that’s one more point for me & one less for OCD. Thank you for the warm wishes. I’ll keep posting my progress as this is therapeutic for me & I hope it can be the same for the rest of us. ❤️😊

Just wanted to let y’all know day 5 was a lot better! Today is day 6 and I’m feeling a lot better today too! The thoughts and feelings come and go but it’s not such a constant dread anymore. Thank you so much everyone for your support.

you can't be bored and scared at the same time, is what they say so the thought will eventually bore you I geuss