alittleapple
- Date posted
- 3y
Atlas_21Atlas_21
- Date posted
- 3y
Ali Greymond’s YouTube videos really helped me to sink in to the concept that OCD thoughts ALL feel REAL- no matter what subtype. If you think about it, they have to- it’s the only thing that will bring you to your knees. If the thoughts didn’t feel real, it wouldn’t be OCD, and we’d be like every normal person walking the streets with weird ass thoughts 😂 The amygdala has to make it feel real to you so you can stop and ruminate and do compulsions and so the cycle can continue till you’re an anxious mess. It’s trying to protect you from false harm- it thinks you’re about to walk into a lions den when you are completely safe. It doesn’t reason- it doesn’t know- purely emotional brain.
Estrella98Estrella98
- Date posted
- 3y
What is amygdala?
alittleapplealittleapple
- Date posted
- 3y
This helped me so much 😭 thank you
Atlas_21Atlas_21
- Date posted
- 3y
@Estrella98 The amygdala is the part of our brain that processes emotions and determines threat so that we can go into fight, flight, or freeze mode to protect ourselves from that threat. With OCD, ours is faulty. We incorrectly perceive threats. That’s why logic doesn’t work with OCD. It’s unreachable with our amygdala.
Estrella98Estrella98
- Date posted
- 3y
@Atlas_21 So interesting.i didn't know that. Have any relationship with the greek word?
alittleapplealittleapple
- Date posted
- 3y
@Atlas_21 Is there anything we can take to fix our amygdala?
Atlas_21Atlas_21
- Date posted
- 3y
@Estrella98 What is the Greek word?
Atlas_21Atlas_21
- Date posted
- 3y
@alittleapple If it becomes really bad where you’re unable to function, SSRI’s (antidepressants) can help, but it’s not a universal fix (every brain responds differently). The best way is to retrain your brain through ERP and habituation (force contact with the threatening stimulus over and over again and learn to experience the anxious distress without trying to push it away. You’re brain will start to learn that the “threat” really isn’t a threat). You can go into recovery with OCD this way, but it takes hard work and dedication. It’s like going to the gym for the very first time- don’t expect to see results immediately, but, if you do the work everyday and go through the pain, you’ll see significant gains in 6months to a year. Same with retraining your brain. But even in recovery you can experience spikes (I was in recovery 20 years, but didn’t pay attention to the signs that OCD is resurfacing ) so I’m in ERP. I would recommend reading up as much as you can about the disorder through OCD experts it helps so much (mindfulness and mediation can really help alongside ERP).
alittleapplealittleapple
- Date posted
- 3y
@Atlas_21 Thank you so much! Because my main theme is false memory with harm ocd it’s so hard to just live with the uncertainty of having or not having hurt people. It’s so scary because every day I get new memories (or what I hope are just memories)
Atlas_21Atlas_21
- Date posted
- 3y
@alittleapple Yes, I understand, super scary and insettling. People with OCD have to braver than most by facing the fear head on and choosing not to do any compulsions, like checking. My thoughts are 24/7, mostly because I still react to them and react to my anxiety. It takes a while to recover- but remember, you have to be patient even though it’s torturous. If you do the work, it will get significantly better.
alittleapplealittleapple
- Date posted
- 3y
@Atlas_21 Thank you so much 😭 you gave me so much hope
Atlas_21Atlas_21
- Date posted
- 3y
@alittleapple I’m so glad to hear! Sometimes OCD forums can be doom and gloom cause we are all suffering. I love listening to more inspirational stories of how people overcome. Best of luck!
Estrella98Estrella98
- Date posted
- 3y
I have the same thoughts with you
Related posts
dee012
- Date posted
- 24w
false memory help
any advice for when you get false memories that feel really real? especially something that had JUST happened, it’s like ur brain distorts it. i feel like i do something wrong 24/7 then i get over it and ocd latched onto something new
Anonymous3389
- Date posted
- 23w
False memory
Does anyone else’s false memory intrusive thoughts of what could have happened feel very, very real?
scrambled
- Date posted
- 22w
False memory surrounding a real event?
So. I was in a traumatic relationship. for a long time. it was filled with gaslighting, manipulation, abuse, cheating ect. I would OBSESS over finding out where they were, what they were doing, who they were talking too. but I couldn’t leave. I tried so hard but I never could. they would call me names, physically hurt me, throw things, break things. because I would question them all the time. but I just couldn’t leave. no matter what I knew. they would manipulate me. I fell for their childhood trauma. it’s like I lost all logic. but I also feel like I have a pretty good memory with memories. not all the way, but remembering a lot of the traumatic things. especially now that I’m no longer with them. I keep remembering things that’s happened. even from my childhood. one time way before I even started dating this person, I had an intrusive thought about a friend of mine. that was with me. and I freaked out. I thought I had acted on the intrusive thought the next day. I asked my friend for confirmation but they said nothing happened. but the memories about it feel SO REAL. so VIVID. but they swore that nothing happened and they had no idea what I was talking about. I’ve struggled with intrusive thoughts for my whole life. so fast forward to now, that ‘false memory’ from my friend randomly popped up and I started obsessing about it, and my childhood ‘memories’ that have popped up. and then I was reading an article of someone doing something horrible, and then it sounded ‘familiar’ and so then I’ve created this whole memory of me doing something similar to the article involving my partner doing it also. the memory keeps adding new things and conversations around it. when it involves an actual real memory. but it’s like it’s been twisted from what I remembered before. I also suffer from bad anxiety. I’ve stalked pictures. my search history to figure out what I was doing that say when the real event happened. and I’ve found some things but I can’t look through my texts because I got a new phone. it has been hounding me for months. MONTHS. trying to figure out if this new ‘memory’ is real or not. if it’s been fabricated by an intrusive thought from reading the article and thinking ‘what if’ or if it actually happened and because I’m no longer in this relationship it’s a ‘repressed memory’ but the thing is I have horrible horrible anxiety and I don’t think I could have gone this long knowingly that that happened without remembering it until now. because I remember a lot of the horrible things that they did. this ‘memory’ is fuzzy, but it brings me horrible anxiety when I think of it, like I feel like it happened. but I also feel like it didn’t happen. because I know I would never do anything like that. but WHAT IF I DID, because I was manipulated. idk. is this a false memory. I really need help. because it’s been debilitating. that relationship was really traumatic. and I got manipulated into a lot of things. but I wouldn’t have just went forward knowing that that happened??? there’s no way I could have just forgotten it. because before when I would think about that night it was different, until now. but what if I just made myself forget what truly happened?? I’m a pretty self aware individual, but somehow that relationship really REALLY put me into a trance somehow where I allowed things that I have no idea how I would even allow because before I met that person I would have never allowed someone to cheat on my constantly or talk to me the way they did. or allow abuse. like I don’t understand it.
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