Does anyone have a thought about a real event thing and sometimes be able to justify the situation and be like "whatever" and then sometimes it totally freaks you out and you feel like your life is over?? In my case it was such a small incident but my brain says "nope life is over for you" one minute and "eh it's no big deal" the next 🙁 i really want to ask a family member but I know I would be trying to relieve anxiety but I reallllllly want to relieve the anxiety. It doesn't help that I have things for college to go today and an interview tonight for an internship yet all I can think about is this small little real event

Yeah this happens, for sure!! Some days I can just shrug it off and feel like it wasn't THAT bad, and two days later it's 🆘 again! I keep going back and forth. Suddenly new memories pop up and I'll have to take those into consideration as well. Real event ocd is so much work 😞

For sure 😞 other themes feel hard but at least I can usually say they are irrational but real event doesn't always seem that way! Do you have any tips or ERP recommendations?

@Anyonomous Well... you're asking on a bad day.. I just made a post about wanting to call a friend up to discuss an event from 7 years ago... 😩 But in theory I think ERP for this is to write down the worst possible outcomes to your obsession ("I'm going to lose all my friends and everyone will hate me." etc. and read it over and over until the fear starts going away and you start "accepting" the uncertainty of it. :)

@washie That makes sense!! So sorry you're struggling with this too though :( Mine is a real event from a few years ago and one from yesterday 😞 which is very fresh in my mind. I hope you can feel some peace today

@Anyonomous Thanks, you too! <3 Time will heal us, I'm sure. I've had a few ocd types, but this has been the worst one 💩.

Yes this is the story of my life, everyday. Do the things you need to do today. You can obsess about this later. Do not ask your family about it. It’s going to make it worse. You need to decide that your life is not over. You need to decide that this does not matter to you and that you don’t want to be defined by it. It’s a choice.

Okay do you have any ERP recommendations or tips?

@Anyonomous .You need to explore “why does it matter” and “what does it mean about me.” You need to decide for yourself that it doesn’t matter, and that if it does matter you don’t care. And decide that it doesn’t mean anything about you or thay if it does mean something about you, you don’t care. Because you don’t want to live this way. Because you don’t want your life to end every single time a tiny little thing happens. Because you want to live with understanding and forgiveness and flexibility. No matter what, do not act on the thought.

@Anonymous Okay. Makes sense. What do you mean by figure out the "why does it matter?"