- Date posted
- 3y
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 3y
I’m so happy to hear that you have recovered. I am also glad that you have connected with Eckhart’s teachings. His teachings are very important in helping people open their eyes to the realities of the mind. Having said that, I am hoping your post does not discourage people to find a therapist for OCD either through NOCD or somewhere else. Eckharts teachings, although profound, do not give people with OCD the tools to work thorough their day to day problems. Understanding the mind provides insight, and this is super important, but its not enough for most people. It’s important to learn specific training and exposure techniques that will give people the ability to work through the thoughts and feelings even when it’s hard to connect to the logical part of the mind. So although I recommend Eckhart and other spiritual teachers that are similar, I recommend it as a supplement and not a cure. Believe me, I have read many insightful books, and although they provide insight they did not give me the tools to fight ocd. But ERP and acceptance therapy did.
- Date posted
- 3y
Hey do what works best for you. Personally ERP and acceptance therapy wasn't enough for me and so I wrote this post to show that there is another way that's easier and will help you overcome nearly all mental illnesses or troubles
- Date posted
- 3y
Great point. I see the two— my spirituality and ERP— as inseparable from one another. I couldn’t cope without either one, and I think they energize each other. I actually had the opposite experience as OP, I read one of Tolle’s books earlier this year and it set a beautiful foundation (but I was still massively struggling with my mental health) and then I was diagnosed w OCD and began ERP which skyrocketed my recovery. And the ideas in ERP made more sense to me because of the spiritual background I had built with Tolle and also Tara Brach. Without either one, it would be an incomplete puzzle. But in terms of what actually reduced the anxiety the fastest, directly facing my fears through exposures has been the ticket.
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 3y
@AnonymousA I relate very much with your experience. I really gravitate towards Ram Dass and Alan Watts. And like you said, these spiritual teachers really compliment ERP, because they are about being mindful and accepting what is. They also laid the foundation for me to accept my suffering and not try to resist it. But I also struggled with actually applying it when the ocd would ramp up. I understood the principles but I didn’t know whether my ocd was real or it wasn’t real, and even with my insight, it was still hard to trust myself. But after learning about ocd and actually putting myself through erp my recovery progressed so quickly and consistently. I am much like you, I still use a lot of what these teachers teach and they are a helpful tool in my tool kit. But ERP is my main foundation
- Date posted
- 3y
I agree!
- Date posted
- 3y
Thanks for sharing and I’m so happy for you🥺💗
- Date posted
- 3y
Thanks for sharing!😊👍
- Date posted
- 3y
What videos did you watch
- Date posted
- 3y
These are some of my favourite videos from Mark Freeman, my favourite Youtube OCD therapist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGhx_H9Njmo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h62vlSj0KNg These are some of my favourite videos from Eckhart Tolle, the man that helped me understand everything: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTFDfR47dl4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1SvT57oqDU&t=439s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j91ST2gtR44&t=28s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOctI24m_mQ&t=296s ....Notice how all the videos lead to basically the same conclusion, which is that you're separate from your thoughts
- Date posted
- 3y
@Anonymous Thank you I appreciate you!!
- Date posted
- 3y
@Anonymous🤷🏽♀️ - no problem!! I appreciate you. Win this battle, you got this! E>
- Date posted
- 3y
so amazing!!! thank you for sharing and shedding some light here
- Date posted
- 3y
This is why pets are so helpful. They naturally live in the Now. 😌
- Date posted
- 3y
This is a very encouraging post, I love posts like this! Thank you for sharing your story 💗
- Date posted
- 3y
Thank you for sharing!
Related posts
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 22w
Looking back, I realize I’ve had OCD since I was 7. though I wasn’t diagnosed until I was 30. As a kid, I was consumed by fears I couldn’t explain: "What if God isn’t real? What happens when we die? How do I know I’m real?" These existential thoughts terrified me, and while everyone has them from time to time, I felt like they were consuming my life. By 12, I was having daily panic attacks about death and war, feeling untethered from reality as depersonalization and derealization set in. At 15, I turned to drinking, spending the next 15 years drunk, trying to escape my mind. I hated myself, struggled with my body, and my intrusive thoughts. Sobriety forced me to face it all head-on. In May 2022, I finally learned I had OCD. I remember the exact date: May 10th. Reading about it, I thought, "Oh my God, this is it. This explains everything." My main themes were existential OCD and self-harm intrusive thoughts. The self-harm fears were the hardest: "What if I kill myself? What if I lose control?" These thoughts terrified me because I didn’t want to die. ERP changed everything. At first, I thought, "You want me to confront my worst fears? Are you kidding me?" But ERP is gradual and done at your pace. My therapist taught me to lean into uncertainty instead of fighting it. She’d say, "Maybe you’ll kill yourself—who knows?" At first, it felt scary, but for OCD, it was freeing. Slowly, I realized my thoughts were just thoughts. ERP gave me my life back. I’m working again, I’m sober, and for the first time, I can imagine a future. If you’re scared to try ERP, I get it. But if you’re already living in fear, why not try a set of tools that can give you hope?
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 19w
Hi everyone, I’m Andrea and I am a member of the Intake Team here at NOCD. In junior high, I was known as the “aneurysm girl” because I was convinced any small headache meant I was dying. At just 12 years old, I read something that triggered my OCD, and from that moment on, my brain latched onto catastrophic health fears. Any strange sensation in my body felt like proof that something was seriously wrong. I constantly sought reassurance, avoided being alone, and felt trapped in an endless cycle of fear. Over time, my OCD shifted themes, but health anxiety was always there, lurking in the background. I turned to drinking to numb my mind, trying to escape the fear that never let up. Then, in 2016, everything spiraled. I was sitting at work, feeling completely fine, when suddenly my vision felt strange—something was “off.” My mind convinced me I was having a stroke. I called an ambulance, launching myself into one of the darkest periods of my life. I visited doctors multiple times a week, terrified I was dying, yet every test came back normal. The fear never loosened its grip. For years, I cycled in and out of therapy, desperately trying to find answers, but no one recognized what was really happening. I was always told I had anxiety or depression, but OCD was never mentioned. I was suicidal, believing I would never escape the torment of my mind. It wasn’t until 2022—after years of struggling, hitting rock bottom, and finally seeking specialized OCD treatment—that I got the right diagnosis. ERP therapy at NOCD was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but it saved my life. Today, I’m 34, sober, and living a life I never thought was possible. Do I still have hard days? Absolutely. But I am no longer a prisoner to my fears. The thoughts still come, but they don’t control me anymore. They don’t dictate my every move. Life isn’t perfect, but it no longer knocks me off my feet. If you’re struggling with health OCD or somatic OCD, I see you. I know how terrifying and isolating it can be. But I also know that it can get better. If you have any questions about health & somatic OCD, ERP, and breaking the OCD cycle, I’d love to tell you what I’ve learned first hand. Drop your questions below, and I’ll answer all of them!
- Date posted
- 19w
I want to beat OCD because I have seen and felt the benefits of clearing my brain from unnecessary, pointless, thoughts. OCD is like 0 calorie food. It’s pointless. No nutrition or benefits come from my obsessions or compulsions. I don’t care to have answers to everything anymore. I catch myself just trying to stress myself out so that I have some worry to feed on. But like I said, it’s a 0 calorie food. I get nothing from it but wasted time and energy. My brain feels more spacious when I’m not consumed by OCD. I’m present. My personality has room to be herself without making space for bullshit. I tell myself now that worry is poison. I think Willie Nelson was the person I got that quote from? Anyways, that imagery of worries being poison for the mind has been transformative for me. I’m evolving. 💖 Thanks NOCD community.
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