- Date posted
- 3y
- Date posted
- 3y
Thank you so much Daz. I will keep you updated x
- Date posted
- 3y
Could someone please help and tell me how I should do ERP for this? My anxiety is so high today I have been sick. Thanks
- Date posted
- 3y
Hi Daz. Thank you so much for replying. I cried when you said i have to recognise I have an illness. It is so hard to think that until I actually get over it. I was doing okay with my ERP until yesterday. Like you said it is looking for reasons to make me doubt. At first I was glad I went round as my friends are staying and they said I did the right thing and I sat with the anxiety but today I have felt so ill. Have you got whatsapp? X
- Date posted
- 3y
No problem at all. Completely understand. And yes I suppose you are right....because these elderly people have fallen out with me I cant get the reassurance they gave me in the past. I had an intrusive thought about their grandaughter a couple of years ago....and this thought related to sharing a bed with her when she was about 10 which was probably about 5 years prior! It came out of nowhere on xmas day.....the thought hit me....what if when you shared a bed with her years ago your leg and front bit touched her leg when you were asleep! Then all the thoughts came....what if i'm a 'p' etc. This episode went on for about 6 months really. I told them what my thought was and almost immediately they said that they worried like that when they looked after a friends little girl! I told them that I have 'what if' questions and that OCD was egodystonic. They knew I was unwell and got me out on walks etc. One of my fears at the time as well was what if a horrible 'friend' told their son (who i have known all my life) and their reply was that he and his daughter would just laugh. The lady went home and read up about OCD and text me and called me saying that she never realised how much I had been suffering. But since her husband was rather horrible to me about my views on Covid and not getting the jab straight away (i have had both now) my OCD flaired up and said almost immediately that it is because of that they dont want to be friends now! It is absolutely crazy I know but the thoughts are coming in that what if they thought my OCD thoughts were real etc. I know I should be able to get rid of this nonsense but it just wont go. I have been doing ERP and some of the things the OCD tried to make me believe I no longer believe. But it drives me nuts! Since yesterday it has been trying to say that I have brought attention to my OCD now and they might think the thoughts were real! It never gives in! I have tried to do an ERP around this but cant seem to find the right words. My brain makes me think I am in trouble!!!! It is so frightening! So as you can see my OCD is just so illogical and irrational! The erp i tried to do on loop tape was..'this lady has said it is my ocd why they dknt speak to me anymore' but it doesnt seem to get my anxiety up enough!
- Date posted
- 3y
Thank you so much Daz. That has helped me a lot especially about the hallmark of anxiety being mind reading! I have never thought of it like that! When you say try CBT on these thoughts what do you mean? I am afraid I will never be contacting these people ever again as they have made it perfectly clear that they no longer want my friendship which is a shame but their choice. I am not mentally reviewing the conversation I had yesterday too much as it is over and it is the OCD that is really trying to make me do that. So I suppose I am sort of doing ERP! I suppose I can accept that my intrusive thoughts are just that but then I have this fear that this couple don't!! But then I suppose I should think that that is their problem and not mine! I know this is all OCD but it just scares me if I didn't explain my OCD to them properly although they read up all about it! They saw me at my worst I suppose and how distressed I was about those previous intrusive thoughts. I remember saying to them once that I worry that people think I am horrible because I had horrible thoughts! They obviously reassured me I certainly wasn't! I will take on board what you said and these anxious thoughts are the product of an illness. X
- Date posted
- 3y
Wow!!!!! Daz you are amazing! Thank you SO much for this! You certainly know what you are talking about! It is such a complicated disorder. I will now do this and hopefully get some clarity back into my life! When I start thinking the negative thought ie they dont want to speak to me because of my OCD I will now challenge this like you have said ....did she explicitly say that! And i will also practice not responding with rumination and compulsions! You have made me feel so much better Daz. The other week it was like a light bulb had switched on in my brain and I realised these were all OCD thoughts....I am sure I will get this clarity once again using this method. I regretted getting reassurance almost as soon as I did yesterday but we learn from our mistakes! Thank you so much x
- User type
- Staff
- Date posted
- 3y
this seems SO difficult. sending you lots of love and strength for recovery. resisting rituals is so hard because you know that you shouldn't do it but it feels really real in the moment like that's the only thing you can do to move forward and feel better. how are you doing now? have you reached out to our care team for the 15 minute free phone consultation? let us know how you're doing! we are rooting for you
- Date posted
- 3y
Thank you so much. I have had a couple of bad days but have my NOCD therapist soon today. It just frightens me because the OCD says that this episode is different and about what people think! It never ends! I get help from people who really helped me when I needed it but then the OCD turns it on its head years later!! I was hoping I would get peer support whilst having therapy with NOCD but dont seem to. X
Related posts
- Date posted
- 22w
So, I know my capacity to get fixated on things. And it's normally something that's relatively remote but, my latest issue is really getting to me and I was wondering if people have any advice. I'm avoiding getting too into specifics, as I don't want this to get reassurance-y but, in essence.. I came to the realisation recently that people who I'd been "friends" (feels like the wrong term now) when I was younger were not very nice people, and normalized a lot of very unpleasant behaviour towards other members of the group. They really normalized it, sold themselves as figures of authority, as older and more responsible and grown-up than others, and looking back, they acted horribly. And coming to this realisation, that I'd been manipulated into just accepting their behaviour has just... broken me. My OCD has latched onto it and I can't stop feeling irreversibly tainted by it. I've talked to others about it, and they've reassured me, told me it's not a big deal and that I hold myself to too high a standard, but none of that sticks. I feel better for a bit, then think 'Maybe when you told them you were skewing it to make yourself look better' or 'Did you leave out a crucial detail'. I keep ruminating over and over, trying to remember exactly how everything played out, trying to figure out if I fed into the behaviour, if I did something bad myself (because y'know, I feel like I was accepting of it at the time, so what does it say about my own values?). I know I need to stop doing all this if I want to improve, but then some part of me keeps saying 'So, you're just going to let yourself off the hook then?' Normally, I can rationalize my own fears to some degree, assure myself something won't happen, but the realness of the situation, and the fact I only came to understand the reality of it because the thought had been bothering me means it feels so much more all-encompassing. I know confessing in itself is a compulsion, but I keep feeling that if I'm not I'm somehow concealing what I 'really am' from others around me, and any positive interactions are me deceiving them in some way. I feel like I can't enjoy anything in life right now, and a good part of me feels I should not enjoy it ever again. If anybody has any advice on it, I'm all ears. Or even hearing if you relate to these feelings, I might appreciate the solidarity at least.
- Date posted
- 11w
Today is Easter and it was supposed to be low key for me and my family but my mom invited a family member that bothers my ocd alot and now they are on their way here and I'm freaking out I already had a panic attack (still having it) and my family is not helping either they keep making comments about how they just want one holiday with no problems and some other comments and it's like I'm sorry I'm not normal like my siblings I didn't ask to be like this now I'm just hurt, upset and I locked myself in my room for the rest of day. (And I was doing so good with erp and this is like making me have a ocd relapse)
- Date posted
- 10w
Yesterday I had a panic attack from OCD fears. I live alone, so in my panic I called my mum just to get some emotional support. It did not go well. I was asking for reassurnce to much and basically she got annoyed with me and started to chastise me. She said I was being ridiculous and accused me of just making up my symptoms to emotionally manipulate her. She even went as far as threatening to call the police on me to have me sectioned. I feel so humiliated. I know that I can be annoying during my panic attacks, and that my OCD puts a massive toll on my familiy. But I don't want to manipulate people. Now, I feel like an abuser. In these moments, seeing how much my weakness makes my family suffer makes me just want to not be here anymore.
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