- Date posted
- 3y ago
- Date posted
- 3y ago
It furthers the connection between bad intrusive thoughts and relief. Therefore prompting more intrusive thoughts to come in the long run. It's like feeding a cigarette craving with nicotine. It's conditioning.
- Date posted
- 3y ago
Oh ok
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 3y ago
Reassurance will only make the ocd stronger. It may feel good initially, but in the end it will make the ocd stronger.
- Date posted
- 3y ago
So reassurance is a compulsion. So yes, it does help relieve your anxiety. The problem is the relief is extremely short lived. ERP will give you long lasting anxiety relief. It also strengthens the OCD thought. You are telling your brain that the intrusive thought IS a threat. So your brain will give you even more intrusive thoughts. It also makes your OCD worse. It also keeps you stuck in a vicious circle. More intrusive thoughts leads to more anxiety which leads to more compulsions.
- Date posted
- 3y ago
It will give you short term relief. Once you feel okay with the thought the ocd will build on that thought to the point that you can’t seek reassurance anymore. Which will then increase your anxiety.
- Date posted
- 3y ago
Also reassurance stops working very soon and you always have to look for more and new reassurance to get relief, because the ocd always finds more "evidence" to worry you. This leads to more and more reassurance-seeking and in that process you also get triggered more and more, especially if you are looking for reassurance online by researching and googleing. It is a spiral that only leads to more and more uncertainty and fear.
Related posts
- Date posted
- 12w ago
Hello! I just got diagnosed with OCD a week ago and joined the app today to find a sense of community. Since my understanding of treatment is minimal at this point, I'm confused why everything on here tells us not to seek or give reassurance? If someone could explain the reasoning behind that it would be greatly appreciated, as I want to make sure I'm not only watching out for it in my personal life but also using this app appropriately.
- Date posted
- 10w ago
When I was a child, before I knew this was OCD, I struggled with constant "magical thinking" compulsions (don't step on the crack or mom's back will actually break, etc). When I later learned this was OCD, it almost immediately solved it. Any time I got a magical thought, I would say to myself "that's just an OCD thought. ignore it." and it just stopped coming! Like seriously it fixed the magical thinking stuff forever. But of course the OCD has resurfaced in other ways. So naturally, I've tried to use the same strategy since I had so much success with it previously. But I wonder sometimes if telling myself "that's just OCD" is almost functioning as a reassurance compulsion? I hate how meta this gets. For example, I have ROCD that comes and goes. So sometimes I'll get a thought like "what if i'm still in love with my ex?" and then I'll tell myself "that's obviously just an ROCD thought" and will feel relief, almost like reassurance. But it comes back. So is telling myself that it's OCD a reassurance compulsion ?? It's just so weird because it worked so perfectly as a kid with the magical thinking thing.
- Date posted
- 8w ago
hi! i often fear im going to lose my job because i made a “mistake” (not really) that my manager caught and is waiting to tell me about or i fear im going to be kicked off the roster of a team im on for small mistakes that everyone makes. this often compels me to ask those people if i did good or not and gauge their reactions to see if theyre going to remove me and i fall into a cycle of asking and asking. how do you guys deal with these feelings / compulsions? when im flaring i often just spend as much time around these people as possible to gather “evidence” of their opinion on me, but then i get nervous that they hate me for being clingy. i also abandon other duties / tasks so i can spend time with these people to make sure they like me. what do you guys do? anyone else experience the sentiment?
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