- Date posted
- 4y
- Date posted
- 4y
Yes, it makes the intrusive thought stronger and your OCD. No matter how much reassurance you seek or other compulsions you do, OCD is never satisfied. It will always demand more and more. If you resolve one issue, OCD loves to say "Yeah, but what about _________
- Date posted
- 4y
Yup 100%
- Date posted
- 4y
It doesn’t help trust me! I tired this for months and it just made it worse! You never get the answer your looking for bc once you get an answer your brain makes up more stuff!
- Date posted
- 4y
It's wrong because it only make syou ok in the moment. It soon becomes an addiction and you can't feel like you can function if you don't get it after an ocd episode. It prevents you from dealing with future thoughts you get. For example, my compulsion to get relief is confessing. Every time I confess an unnecessary thought, I feel good cause it brought me reassurance. But, then I get a new thought. Anxiety comes back stronger and I know I won't get relief until I confess again. Getting constant reassurance doesn't allow you to get used to the anxiety. Pretty soon, you can't deal with it on your own and you will always need reassurance for comfort, which can affect your future, relationships you may have, or people around you.
- Date posted
- 4y
Something I learned going through NOCD, as well as through webinars and education on OCD is that there is never an answer that satisfies ocd. Ocd is called the doubting disorder for a reason. Therefore reassurance may help in the short term but long term it does not. Also, do you really need to reassure yourself!? This is a perfect time to as I like to say "practice" ERP. Practice not analyzing any of that and place your attention on this present moment. Go for a walk, read, go hangout with a close companion, or play a sport. Not avoiding the discomfort, but choosing to do things you want to do and not give any attention to dwelling.The most important part being the response prevention. Not easy, but part of the work. When this type of situation occurs and we are in environments in which we are organically exposed to distress, use this as an opportunity to practice doing the work! This allows for two things; showing yourself you can handle and tolerate it, and also letting your body know that although you feel uncomfortable you are willing to keep doing whatever it is you are doing and getting on with your day! This is the foundation!
Related posts
- Date posted
- 25w
I’ve heard it’s not good to seek reassurance or give it because it lowers your tolerance to uncertainty. But how do I avoid seeking reassurance when my thoughts and doubts are so bad, I genuinely just don’t know anymore if I’m a bad person or if it’s just OCD? I know I’m supposed to sit with the uncertainty, but how can I do that when the uncertainty has me unable to trust my own brain? Especially when the OCD is real event and POCD? How can I not seek reassurance when I feel so alone and so abnormal and just don’t wanna feel that way anymore? In turn, I see so many people on here struggling so bad and my heart breaks for them. How can I give advice to towers without giving them reassurance and hurting them in the long run?
- Date posted
- 24w
I'm trying to not seek reassurance today. I'm not going to. I'm not going to. I'm NOT going to!! Ugh. Why OCD why?
- Date posted
- 18w
The subject of OCD matters to the sufferer because it feels like confirmation that they are fundamentally unlovable and unwanted—as if even existence itself doesn’t want them. They feel like an error, carrying a deep sense of guilt and shame, as if they were inherently wrong. They suffer from low self-esteem and a deep internalized shame, because long ago, they were fragmented and learned a pattern of fundamental distrust—especially self-distrust. But the real trouble doesn’t come from the content of the most vile or taboo thoughts. It comes from the fact that the sufferer lacks self-love. That’s why, when you begin to walk the road to recovery, you’re taught unconditional self-acceptance—because that’s what all sufferers of OCD have in common: if you aren’t 100% sure, if there isn’t absolute certainty, the doubt will continue to attack you and your core values. It will make you doubt everything—even your own aversion to the thoughts. You have to relearn how to trust yourself—not because you accept that you might become a murderer someday—but because you enter a deep state of acceptance about who you truly are. It’s not about becoming a monster at all. It’s about making peace with what lies at the root of the fear. Making peace with the guilt. With the shame. Making peace with yourself and the person you fear you might be. Because that fear is not rooted in reality. It’s not rooted in any true desire to act. It’s rooted in your identity—specifically, in what might threaten it. That’s what confirms the belief that you are fundamentally wrong. And OCD fuels that belief by using intrusive taboo thoughts to attack your very sense of self. But then I wonder: let’s say, for example, someone fears being or becoming a sexually dangerous person—how could that person practice unconditional self-acceptance? I would never accept myself if I were to harm anyone—the thought alone makes me want to cry. I know it’s not about whether or not someone acts on the thought. It’s about the core fear underneath it. So how do you accept yourself when the thoughts—and the feelings around them—feel so completely unacceptable ?
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