- Date posted
- 3y
- Date posted
- 3y
My therapist explained that humans do need a certain amount of confidence to accept an idea, and that’s ok. So most people will accept something as being true as long as they’re pretty confident of it. They understand that “sure, there’s a tiny possibility that such-and-such is not true” but that possibility is so unlikely that they just disregard it, and accept the idea as true. With ocd it’s just hard to discard that 1% chance (or whatever % chance). I’ve learned a few things that have helped me here—first, it’s ok if my brain needs logic and evidence to accept something. But I need to actually accept that evidence and just disregard any lingering fearful feelings that remain. When I have that evidence, it’s also vital that I stop the ruminating then and there. Finally, it’s become clear to me that some therapists don’t do as good of a job with language around “accepting uncertainty.” You’re not accepting uncertainty as if it’s 50/50. Nobody goes around thinking there’s a 50% chance they’re a pedophile. It’s more like people are 99.999% sure and they don’t get bothered by that 0.0001% chance, so it doesn’t even register to them. When I realized that’s how other people function, it helped me reframe my acceptance of incredibly minor, hypothetical possibilities and completely disregard them.
- Date posted
- 3y
To many people, I think it’s just something they don’t give a second thought about. But if they really delve into the thoughts like we do, they might realize that they could never really be sure about that. They’re just not anxiously attached to the idea, so it’s easier for them to brush it off and logically deduce that it was likely to never happen. I wonder the same thing about people who are always so sure their partners will never cheat on them or leave them. Like, where did you get all this trust and certainty from?! 😅
- Date posted
- 3y
- Date posted
- 3y
This is also why habituation may only go so far. No rational person habituates to a real belief they’re a pedophile (or whatever). Habituation can be somewhat useful, but for me it’s really correcting irrational beliefs that cause frarvand then avoiding rumination (which is a mental compulsion) to keep any lingering fear from multiplying.
- Date posted
- 3y
*cause fear
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- 3y
Before ocd got bad for me that was something I never ever thought about or had a doubt about. Now I’m constantly worried about being a p but I have to remind myself that I shouldn’t have to even ask myself that question cause if you take a step back it’s just not logical no matter how many weird thoughts cross your mind 🤷🏽♂️
- Date posted
- 3y
Yes but sometimes it feels logical :/
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- 3y
@random_person I get that! It’s the same for me but that’s when you have to try your hardest to remember your values
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- 3y
@thedude Thanks
- Date posted
- 3y
I gave up trying to figure out how neurotypical people operate 😅
Related posts
- Date posted
- 15w
harm ocd is the bane of my existence. people always tell me that if you have anxiety over a thought, that’s ocd. and these intrusive thoughts cause me IMMENSE anxiety. i’m constantly looking for reasons why i’m not what these thoughts tell me i am. but WHY DOES IT FEEL SO REAL?? it’s like i can’t reassure myself that this isn’t me and i don’t want to do it, but i also look for reasons why it’s not me. my brain is constantly telling me “if you don’t act on this, you’ll never feel free”. WHAT EVEN IS THAT?? and why does it feel real?? anytime i think about getting therapy, i constantly think that it’s not going to help me positively but help me realize i am this person. i just wish someone with harm ocd could get into my brain, understand me, and tell me everything will be okay. i wish someone in recovery could tell me that they’ve been where i am, felt the same feelings, thought the same thoughts, and got through it when they thought they wouldn’t. i feel like i’m drowning in it. another thing is i think about how my mom knows a surface level understanding to this form of my ocd, but if she knew it all, i’m scared she’d never look at me the same. i’m scared she’d be scared of me and think i need psychiatric help. IM TERRIFIED.
- Date posted
- 12w
Is ocd supposed to feel like a genuine belief ? I see or hear some people saying things like « I know it’s not true but …. » while I personally don’t « know that it’s not true » I feels genuinely real and I even find evidence for it
- Date posted
- 7w
17f So basically I think you know this whole accept and sit with the uncertainty thing. It applies to pocd as well. Because you can ruminate, test yourself, seek reassurance as much as you want but it will never be enough for you brain to be sure you are not a P. So you need to sit with "Maybe I am a P maybe not" and just don't do anything about it. So sometimes I can do that. But here comes moral ocd. If I accept the chanse of me being a pedophile, isn't it morally wrong for me to be around children? Look at children? Watch movies with children in it? Cause now I can't even look at children even if it was an accident without freaking out and thinking that I'm a monster. Sometimes it feels morally wrong to leave the house because there is a chanse I can meet a child on the street I genuinely don't know what to do. It feels paralyzing at this point. Seems like I can't do anything. Like I even need to cover children on the screen with my hand when I watch a movie. It's exhausting.
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