- Date posted
- 4y
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 4y
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!!
- Date posted
- 4y
Wow great work. I appreciate your positive attitude. Ocd is hard to battle but we can get better.
- Date posted
- 4y
WOW, this makes me so happy and I’m so glad it helped you!!! 😭❤️ You did AMAZING! Keep up the fantastic work and don’t give up on this journey! Congrats on getting in with a therapist and I’m wishing you the best of luck on your ERP! 💪
- Date posted
- 4y
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 ✈️
- Date posted
- 4y
Thank you. This is exactly what I needed to hear. I think I may possibly be checking to see how I feel about it- sometimes it’s so hard to tell because it’s like, so automatic and subtle.
- Date posted
- 4y
This is so good. Thank you.
- Date posted
- 4y
@hope2020t My pleasure guys ❤️
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 4y
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. ❤️😊
- Date posted
- 4y
Absolutely! OCD is so tricky and such a hard battle to fight but little by little, we totally got this and CAN overcome it! Can’t wait to hear more of your journey!! You’re so right by the way, the actual likelihood of our fears coming true is next to none, and by not doing compulsions, we get a chance to actually discover that! 💪❤️
- Date posted
- 4y
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.
- Date posted
- 4y
So happy to hear that!!
- Date posted
- 4y
this is very impressive
- Date posted
- 4y
@miller200 Thank you so much
- Date posted
- 4y
you can't be bored and scared at the same time, is what they say so the thought will eventually bore you I geuss
Related posts
- Date posted
- 23w
Please help. I have felt so off/wrong all day. I constantly worry that the “bad guy” is going to get me. I have awful thoughts and I constantly want God to know that I don’t mean these thoughts. I am at a point in my therapy where I need to choose to use my ERP but it feels too scary. I then do compulsions, which makes the OCD worse, which makes me want to use ERP less. And the cycle goes on. I am currently sitting in my car crying because I feel so lost and exhausted. I’m not supposed to figure out my thoughts, but today I just went into a spiral of sadness and depression, thinking that I will always feel like this. When my thoughts got really bad at the end of the day, I tried to use ERP even though I was shaking and not believing my responses and I ended up feeling like I missed something and that I gave into the “bad guy.” I have no one to talk when I’m not doing therapy twice a week. I am alone and have no one to talk to when I am like this… please help
- Date posted
- 21w
I experience crippling, debilitating false memory OCD. It started with a “what if” thought 6 days ago and has spiraled into a never ending loop. My mind is telling me that “maybe you did this terrible, awful, unforgivable thing years ago and you don’t remember it and it’s only a matter of time before it catches up to you and your life is over” I’m really needing some coping mechanisms and support. I’m really scared and my body is exhausted. I just want it to stop. It is full panic attack all day, every day. Please if anyone can relate or help me.
- Date posted
- 20w
(Long post warning) Hi, I’ve been struggling with severe OCD for six years now. it started in 2019 with my theme being getting sick/emetophobia. it devastated my life. I almost didn’t graduate high school from it. I remember washing my hands for three hours one day until they were nearly bloody while crying and asking why I could not stop doing it. I remember id have to write and rewrite sentences when I did my English homework and that’s why I nearly failed that class. I remember how I would spend up to thirty minutes to an hour pacing the halls of my apartment while my mom was asleep until I neutralized the thoughts about throwing up and I could finally go to bed. I don’t know when it happened, but my theme switched. Sometimes in late 2020 or early 2021, it switched to POCD. It started with a single thought, and I focused on it and it’s been my theme since then for four years. It has been absolutely destroying me. I feel so disgusted and lost and just tired. My compulsions are severe now. I thought they were bad before, but now they’re ten times worse. I can’t eat, drink, change my clothes, walk, or even do things on my phone normally. I’ve developed so many mental compulsions that it’s so intricate and complicated yet at the same time I’ve done them so much that they’ve become normal. An example I have is if im putting on a shirt and I have a “bad” thought, I have to take it off and put it back on two more times (that’ll make it 3 times I put the shirt back on - odd numbers are my safe number). I have to have a good thought on the third time otherwise I have to take it off and put it on two more times to make it five times I put on that shirt. If not that then I just put on a different shirt because the original is now tainted with my bad thought. I can’t open apps on my phone. It’s with the numbers again. If I open TikTok once while having a bad thought - I have to close it and open it two more times and so on. Sometimes I do it up to 30 times. So I just don’t do things usually. I don’t turn on the TV because I know I’ll redo it. I don’t open a book or grab it off my shelf because I’ll have to repeat the action. I can’t even lay in bed without getting up and redoing it even if im exhausted. I just feel so helpless. I don’t know what to do. I feel disgusting and even now my minds screaming at me that I am dirty and what I think is true. I just wish I was free of this, I wish I could just live my life. I’ve wasted hours and days because of my compulsions. I mask it so well around my friends. I don’t do them in front of anyone or I’ve learned to hide it well. But when im back home alone, it goes haywire. I just want to live again.
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