I had my first therapy appointment today! My therapist gave me really good advice. She said to think of intrusive thoughts as the annoying kid in class, you don’t give them attention because if you do they will keep going.

(21+ ONLY: TRIGGER WARNING) I have therapy today and I’m nervous. I just started going to therapy and I really like my therapist. She talked to me about doing ERP and I’m really nervous about it. I’m scared to tell her the extent of my OCD, and my themes. I’m scared to tell her about my false memory OCD, because I’m scared that what I did was real and I’m just excusing it as false memory, although I have no memory of it. I’m scared that I am truly a monster and I’m using OCD as an excuse—and that she’ll find out and distance herself. I’m just scared that my whole world is gonna fall apart, all around me.

So I just started few weeks ago and my therapist told me that I should try doing the compulsions I do to relief the anxiety and stop the thought out of the love of doing the compulsion instead of the anxiety relief. Like sometimes I repeatdly say prayers when I get an intrusive sinful images to put them away so basically I should say them more out of general love of saying them. Sometimes I crochet and distract myself a lot out of my thoughts so I should do the distractions out of love and enjoyment of doing them instead of fixing the anxiety and making it go away. To basically rewire my brain to not relate the compulsions to the intrusive thoughts so they're less compulsive I think

Hello everyone, I wanted to share something that helped me cope with OCD. I have been in therapy for years and different therapists have recommended I name my OCD like it’s a monster. I always had a hard time doing it. I recently tried a different approach and it’s helped me. I realized this week that my OCD isn’t a monster, it’s a younger/teenage version of me who has been through a lot. She is scared and angry and upset at the world, and when she presents herself within me, I talk to her. I don’t yell and scream at her because she’s already yelling and screaming at me (everyone hates you, this is dirty, etc). Instead I talk to her: “You don’t have to scream, you don’t have to cry, it’s alright, you’re right here and now.” Thought this might help someone. We can get through this!