Is ocd just a coping mechanism for resisting feelings you don’t like? Something has occurred to me in my recovery process. I’ve spent years fighting my feelings and thoughts. I tried everything - meditation, yoga, Cbt, somatic experiencing, Ativan. I wanted to escape the pain I felt and the anxiety and bad thoughts. Now that I think about it, my dad turned to alcohol for that and maybe I turned to OCD. I always had general anxiety as a kid, some depression too. Over the years, my anxiety attacks and panic attacks decreased, however my ocd has gotten completely out of control. The last few weeks I’ve been working on exposures to anxiety and my thoughts. It’s horrible stuff because I have to let myself just feel the anxiety attack and all of the horrible sensations (including derealization!). Just ride it out and let it do it’s thing. However I noticed that when I get anxious these days if I just let it do it’s thing it’ll peak and come down after some time. And I actually feel some relief afterwards. It feels very natural. The old me would try to squash it using Compulsion strategies to escape that feeling. Has anyone else encountered the notion that OCD might be a coping mechanism for dealing with difficult feelings you don’t like?

Today I just let the panic come on and wash over me without doing a compulsion and guess what? I felt relief after. If you can resist the compulsion and you can ride the anxiety wave you can recover!

Thanx for saying that Scottyboy. I’m having some thoughts right now and I’m trying to control them. My shirt touched the washer and I’m tempted to put on a clean one...?

Yes this is pretty much the definition of OCD. Intrusive thoughts that bother us with their frequency or realness, and we engage in compulsive behaviour to try to reign them in. I fully believe it's a process gone wrong in a sufferer's brain.

@ rlesage Yes I’ve been doing them. Thank you!

I still have the shirt on ??

Thank you for the encouragement it’s helping me you don’t even know

Yes! I think that’s exactly what it is because the intrusive thoughts are normal and everyone gets them. But we get so much anxiety, disgust, and other feelings from them that we try to get rid of the thoughts thinking it will get rid of the discomfort. As we learn that it’s okay to be uncomfortable and have thoughts we don’t like, it becomes easier to just let it pass on its own without feeling the need to push it away. My dad also turned to alcohol! That’s why I never drink because I don’t want to become an alcoholic.

Yes this is pretty much the definition of OCD. Intrusive thoughts that bother us with their frequency or realness, and we engage in compulsive behaviour to try to reign them in. I fully believe it's a process gone wrong in a sufferer's brain.

I totally agree. I feel like I’ve lost so much control of many of the important things I once had control over. It’s frustrating to feel powerless in situations that you know for a fact you have the best remedy for and no one will apply the counsel. So I’ve turned to hand washing. It’s the one thing I can control. I’ve also almost died from c.diff. I actually got it twice and had some pretty ugly things happen to me that made me feel a little anxious about getting so sick again.

Hey red323, stay strong? Maybe an sos session would help?

I did the sos...i feel ok but not 100%

Keep going red! You have this! Do another sos if you must! Working through the triggers is awful, but so worth it!