- Date posted
- 1y ago
Ideas for exposure therapy
-social anxiety -existential ocd -religious ocd
-social anxiety -existential ocd -religious ocd
- challenge yourself to talk to 1 person each time you leave the house. (i.e at the grocery store find a stranger and tell them you like their outfit - helps you gain courage and compliments make both people feel good). - if you're afraid of death, ME FREAKING TOO. I think about it daily multiple times a day. My therapist had me write a script about what it would be like if I lived forever. It was very hard and scary at first, I was bawling my eyes out actually so I recommend starting this with your therapist in session. But later it helped me put things into perspective. Living forever sounds horrible too, if not worse than dying when my time comes. It didn't cure me, but it got me to be able to eat and go back to work again (yes it was that bad). - ah, as an ex-christian I know this well. Not sure which religion you're referring to (or maybe it's all of them), but you are simply a human being and you can not possibly know all that God knows (assuming you believe in a God at all). A key element to almost all religions is faith - lacking the concrete knowledge and choosing to move forward in your belief anyway. It's hard, your going to have doubts, but if you choose to believe you have to rely on faith and uncertainty. If you don't believe, that takes some level of faith as well. You have to trust that you're an intelligent person that is making the informed decision with all of the evidence you have so far that there is no God and leave it alone the best you can. I hope this helps ❤
You're* ignore my typos if there are more lol
@aquamarinoo This helps!! Thank you
-Talk to people In person more often constantly - no clue -agree with your ocd and you will feel very anxious and eventually the anxiety decreases.
I struggle with existential ocd and when i’m working with my therapist on it she will show me videos about like being in a simulation, clips from the truman show, or videos about how the earth is created
@jack27 That’s cool
Social anxiety, I'll give you examples I used. After I felt triggered, all I wanted to do was go home but chose to go to a store and do lots of erp that day. I purposefully embrassed myself when asking staff for help to find something, even though I was next to the thing I was looking for. I saw a woman who was stunning and my intrusive thoughts said if I said anything it may come across as creepy, so I challenged it and said hear earings were nice (feedback was good). I think someone saw and they had a quick joke with me later in the store about something probably because I looked approachable, I dunno but felt good. Chose the longest queue to pay to keep me as anxious as possible for as long as possible so I could sit with it and then did grounding techniques. Later on I went for a walk through a local forest and challenged a phobia of mine, also said hi to a few dog walkers. Had to get something for lunch and when I was in another store there was the most intimidatingly beautiful woman and it scared me to go talk to her but I had to get something near her, I complimented her tattoos and she was genuinely thankful for it like it made her day. All of these could've went horribly wrong but then you just deal with it. I did this after what I knew what would be my last time seeing my best friend 😩my ocd wanted me to go home, curl up into a ball and ruminate about how crappy of a friend I was because of my ocd which is mental if you think about it.
@Invalid You’re a strong one
@Rumpelgoocher Thank you for the ideas
@Rumpelgoocher We all are, it's just taking the leap to believe it ourselves that's scary.
1. give random people compliments 2. not sure 3. go to a church maybe
I'm reaching out in hopes of finding others who might relate to my experiences or offer insights. I'm dealing with a complex interplay of OCD, depression, and existential anxiety, and I'm struggling to make sense of it all. Here's what I'm experiencing: I have OCD with various manifestations, along with episodes of depression. I find myself in a cyclical pattern where, after a few weeks, I start to remind myself about my depressive tendencies. This reminder seems to trigger a cycle that actually makes me feel more depressed or at least more aware of depressive symptoms. When this happens, I often experience feelings of nihilism and existential dread. I try to think about my family - my two young boys and my wife - to find motivation or a sense of purpose, but this strategy often backfires, making me feel even more anxious and depressed. I constantly check my feelings, wondering if they're depressive or anxious. At the same time, I fear that my feelings of anxiety and panic might spiral out of control. I think about my emotions and thoughts on a meta-level, which means I'm not just experiencing feelings, but I'm also constantly analyzing the fact that I'm experiencing them. There's an existential component to my struggles, a fear of depression and anxiety itself, and a sense that this might be a self-fulfilling prophecy. Perhaps most frustratingly, I often have feelings, thoughts, or sensory experiences that I can't explain or put into words. I feel like I've never heard of these before, which leaves me feeling deeply misunderstood. Does anyone else experience something similar? How do you cope with this complex web of symptoms and experiences? I'm particularly interested in hearing from those who've found ways to break the cycle of meta-cognition and self-fulfilling anxiety. Any insights, shared experiences, or strategies would be deeply appreciated. Thank you for your time and understanding.
Hey guys- I don’t know if any of you with religion/spirituality ocd struggle with the “unacceptable thoughts” about like evil and stuff but I’m struggling.. it feels like I believe that I want the evil stuff because I had demon-like voices in my head as ahead where I went to talk to God when I was experiencing great distress and then these evil thoughts came in and I let them in and like “ok-ed” evil stuff. Especially because I felt so forced into my faith journey as a kid so it’s like that “feeling rejected -> rebellion thing) but I also know that but I also have such fond memories of feeling so close to God to leaning on Him for so many things. It’s so hard because 90% of my memories as a kid, I struggled with severe ocd and no one knew what it was or how debilitating it could be I’m trying the ERP with these thoughts but😭 have any of you gone through the same things? It’s so strong In my mind because I know there’s actual spiritual warfare so I feel like - pray for me guys
Hi everyone. I'm feeling kinda scared because I have to wait a whole month to start ERP therapy, but I feel like I need to start doing exposures now because the longer I wait, the more anxiety I get. It just feels like the OCD monster is getting worse. One thing that helps me is asking one person about an obsession I have...asking a person that I trust, and then doing an exposure after I get the "ok" to do it. I feel like I do need 1 reassurance and then I can go ahead and do it. I know i'm not supposed to ask for reassurance at all, but i dont think you're supposed to do ERP on your own right? Does anyone have any suggestions for what to do while waiting for therapy? PS-the reason there is a wait is bc she's on vacation. After she's back we will meet regularly.
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