- Date posted
- 3y
- Date posted
- 3y
So the best way to deal with in intrusive thought is to acknowledge it and say "This is an intrusive thought." Then completely ignore it. Don't try to reason, argue with, or disprove the thought. Your anxiety will go crazy at first, but then it will peak and decline.
- Date posted
- 3y
Someone else should jump in (I've only been doing ERP for a couple of months) but I think it's fine if you acknowledge or realize that it's ok and even to tell yourself that. Where it becomes problematic is if you need to say "this is ocd and I'm actually ok" as a way to avoid/push away the obsessions. Put another way, if you're saying it do sooth yourself and to counteract whatever you're obsessing about then that's bad. If you notice, you're repeating it over and over and that you feel an urge to say it, then saying it is just validating the obsession and making it worse.
- Date posted
- 3y
Without acknowledging or telling myself that it’s ocd or it doesn’t mean anything (“it’s just a thought”) then it’s hard to understand how to let it be there without becoming fused or identified with the thought itself and basically just continuing the intrusive thought pattern
Related posts
- Date posted
- 23w
I've been told a lot that in order to get better, we need to tolerate uncertainty, which yea I get that and I'm trying every day more and more to reach that point!! But I've also been told that we need to tolerate uncertainty AND "our worst fears becoming true". Like how does that work, especially with POCD, OCD about a///ault, SA and all of that? Like that is really difficult for me and I don't really understand how I'm supposed to just shrug stuff like that off
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- Date posted
- 22w
I heard that you let the intrusive thoughts be there and don't perform the compulsion for ERP. I'm stuck on the "let the intrusive thought be there" phrase. Does this just mean let the THOUGHT be there, or does it mean to make the contents of the thought to be there and become real?
- Date posted
- 19w
I’ve been getting stuck in my understanding of OCD lately. When I have intrusive thoughts, although I have OCD, I’m not supposed to label them as part of my condition? Instead I just say maybe/maybe not? It feels like it takes the wind out of my sails a bit in recovery? Like having cancer, but when I go to chemo, I’m supposed to say “maybe I have cancer, maybe I don’t.” Would anyone be able to speak to this and increase my insight and understanding? Thank you!
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