- Date posted
- 4y
- Date posted
- 4y
Comment deleted by user
- Date posted
- 4y
yeah, I did ERP for 6 months, but I have to find a new therapist where I'm located and despite all the resources I have, has proven to be a really difficult task... thank you though, i'm gonna try my best
- Date posted
- 4y
Comment deleted by user
- Date posted
- 4y
thank you
- Date posted
- 4y
Let me tell you, I went through the EXACT same thing. The things that were the most brutal tended to help. During peak Covid I lived in a house w/ 4 other dudes in a big city. They liked to have people over and throw parties anyways. It felt so so so wrong and most nights I’d go hide in my room, judge others that were not being “covid safe” and analyzing every cough, scratch, sneeze, etc. Just like you. Your friend who told you “you get sick, you get sick and deal with it” is right and I had my roommate tell me that over and over. You migjt to think to yourself, what happens if your test comes back positive? Is your life over? No. You get sick and you take it day by day. It’s great to protect yourself and others by being honest, but you also have to weigh the reality of the situation and power through it. The most you can do is inform your coworkers or whomever that you may have potentially been exposed, you’ll get tested, and then everyone deals with it. We are all in this pandemic together, and things happen. The way I got over this theme was accidental… I ended up getting covid despite my carefulness, spreading it to my 4 roommates and dealing with it. In terms of the depression and panic, something that Dr. Steven Phillipson on the OCD stories podcast taught me that was so valuable is that there’s two types of “good days and bad days” for people with OCD. Some people think that a good day is where you have little anxiety or intrusive thoughts, and vice versa. But he says that a good day for someone with OCD is that they did everything they wanted to do DESPITE the panic, depression, anxiety, intrusive thoughts. Look at you! You will still go about your life and do things that you need and want. I’d say as far as “confessing”, and I’m not a mental health professional, but what I would do is go to work like normal and if you start feeling truly poor OR at the 5 day mark, get a covid test, and just take the situation by ear from there. Keep in mind, you are NOT defined by your OCD nor your thoughts. In fact, you sound like a very caring and honest person. I hope you are ok and find some solace today and every day and keep living by your values. All the best.
- Date posted
- 4y
thank you, really, truly. i'm so glad someone else gets it cause it has been HARD lately and feeling like I'm the only person who worries so much about Covid in my immediate circle of friends has gotten me feeling alone in it all, haha. That's what I want to do, keep on living by my values like I learned in therapy and just take things as they come, one day at a time. I'm... gonna do my best with that so I can keep living happily despite the pandemic cause like you said, we're all in it together... Again, thank you for the advice/support. I appreciate it :)
Related posts
- Date posted
- 21w
Hi everyone! I’m feeling better today. I had a really bad flare yesterday, my husband really helped me calm down and fall asleep. However, if you have health OCD I feel like you probably shouldn’t read this post unless you are in a good head space. I do not have health OCD. So, I’ve been dealing with a lot of symptoms and health issues that have led me to alot of doctors visits, I have several different doctors that specialize in specific things and now go to an internal medicine doctor. My doctor thinks I have an autoimmune disease, so I’m running alot of tests for several different autoimmune conditions. My OCD has been dormant for a while. I would still deal with it sometimes, but it was way easier to manage. I’m not medicated for OCD. However, I do use arthritis cream and was prescribed muscle relaxers, I have not yet taken the muscle relaxers. So I had a really bad OCD flare last night, specifically Relationship OCD. My husband has just seen parole and I’m super excited for him to come home, but my OCD was trying to convince me otherwise. I also have a new nephew that was born on the 22nd. So I am out of state and was watching my niece for my sister in law. A lot of exciting things happening at once. I’m assuming that triggered my OCD. But I’ve been swelling in my face and dealing with a little bit of body pain as well. Autoimmune diseases come in flares like OCD. I have done some research on autoimmune diseases so I can know what I need to do in order to keep it under control if that’s what I do get diagnosed with. I learned that some autoimmune diseases are linked to OCD, or can even cause OCD because of inflammation in the brain. & It gave me a glimmer of hope honestly. Could my OCD have started because of an autoimmune disease? Could I get better by treating it? My OCD didn’t kick start until I was about 19. I am now 23. I did have symptoms of OCD at 17 though, I went through a period of time where I was compulsively praying and in a cycle of intense anxiety. So I probably had it since I was 17, but I don’t know. My symptoms of autoimmune disease didn’t start until about a year ago, but it could’ve been longer. I couldn’t get rid of a UTI I had for MONTHS & didn’t know why. I had to see a urologist, I was 21 when I kept getting UTI’s. I had to get a procedure done, I had pus build up in my urethra that was almost completely blocking off my urethra. I do not know how the infection got that severe.. especially because I took antibiotic after antibiotic. I felt like I’d get better for a few days, then boom…UTI symptoms once again. So.. that could’ve been the start of autoimmune symptoms. With an autoimmune disease, your immune system is pretty trash. You don’t fight off infections or illness as easy as others. I remember how I’d get sick after everyone else in the house would get sick, but I’d get it so much worse and have the illness for much longer than everyone else. Surprisingly enough, I never got COVID. My whole family had it & I didn’t get it. Unless I did and just didn’t have symptoms. Anyways, I never thought I would say this.. but I hope I do have an autoimmune disease that caused OCD so that I can treat the autoimmune disease and keep my OCD dormant for as long as possible. I forgot what it was like to deal with OCD.. it was so bad lastnight, I remember feeling that type of anxiety and it’s the worst.. 💔 If you took the time to read, thank you! I seem like a charity case lol.. I never thought by 23 years old I’d be like this.
- Date posted
- 12w
Soooo I’m over here just trying to make it to my next NOCD appt before breaking things off with a guy I’m getting to know 😞 it’s hard for me to tell if I’m having genuine concerns about compatibility, or if I’m spiraling into OCD. How the heck do I date someone and not consider compatibility? But I find myself going into fight or flight mode, or feeling like I need to make a decision immediately after a date, or ruminating about it all throughout the day, trying to figure out if the concerns are valid enough, if I’m settling, if I’m about to give up on something that could be beautiful…. Whenever I write out all my concerns, they don’t really seem like that big of a deal, or seem like things we could talk through. The biggest concern for me is whether we are compatible in the sense that talking comes easy or we feel comfortable around each other. But we’ve only been on 3 dates so it’s hard to tell. Things are still awkward sometimes. I am also autistic and this complicated things with how I socialize. So I told myself “just get to your NOCD appt in a few days and don’t make a decision til then. You can talk about it with them then.” It’s only my second appt tho, so I’m not even sure what they discuss at appt#2 and if we’ll have time to talk about it. I guess I’m just getting this off my chest right now and I appreciate this community where I can be honest 😔💛 (Added TW because I’m not sure if it would be for others)
- Date posted
- 9w
Recently, since completing my year long therapy program and being connected with NOCD (and now in the transitionary period and waiting for the green light from insurance to work with an OCD specialist), I've been trying to convince myself to go out more and go to public places--to go shopping again, order food in-person, maybe to meet someone, get extra work, something! But...many days, basically EVERY day, my OCD bullies me into thinking my intrusive thoughts are the ONLY certain thing that WILL happen that day, even though they haven't. I worry I can't be around people, or that I pose some risk to others, and that it'd be better for the world, if I stayed in my family home. Unless I've been explicitly given a task by an immediate family (drive someone to an appointment/work/a commitment that they can't get to themselves, or the 1 part-time job I have), I'm to remain in the house, mostly my room. It's this paralyzing time-vampire, that just saps you of your will to do ANYTHING or break out of familiarity. Not even comfortable familiarity, just familiar. You know it's not good for you, and your over it, and that new better opportunities exist just outside of those doors, but so do the narratives your intrusive thoughts write. And why would you go out and risk turning an unpleasant page, when the familiar story you know all to well, and read every day has as serviceable. Not a good end, not a bad one. Just a temporary end. You revel in being able to put your head down on your pillow, at the end of the day, and close your eyes, simply because you made it through the day. You didn't accomplish much, due to satiating your obsessions with your compulsions for hours on end, but your pillow still feels so rewarding...your reward for surviving, even though you'll be deploy to that hellish battlefield in your mind again tomorrow.
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