- Date posted
- 1y ago
- Date posted
- 1y ago
personally taking a moment to calm down using safe space, and working with a therapist or the resources on here to not act on the compulsions. It can definitely be difficult but you are not alone in this!
- Date posted
- 1y ago
@chey1421 yes that definitely does help a little. i’ve been feeling INTENSE guilt over something i did more than a year ago and i can’t seem to get it off my mind it’s there 24/7
- Date posted
- 1y ago
I’m in the trenches with you guys tonight. You’re not alone. I’m not sure I have advice because I’m really struggling and just fighting my way through weeks of an OCD flare up and it’s like you said the guilt is INTENSE. Like my brain makes me question if it’s even OCD sometimes. And it’s there 24/7. Sometimes it helps me to look at art made by people with OCD, cus it can be validating and quiets my brain for a moment, but the art can be intense and might be triggering so just a heads-up. I know that might not help with your specific situation, I just don’t want to give reassurance and make your OCD louder and also I’m still figuring out what helps mine but I want you to know I’m here and I see you.
- Date posted
- 1y ago
@Anonymous just helps to know im really not alone. i feel you 100%. it is so difficult and i am here for you too
- Date posted
- 1y ago
@carlyp Something that helped me out finally at 9am, at the 11 hour mark of my flare-up (which was an acute flare-up within an OCD relapse I’ve been in since like October) was when a friend was able to talk and heard everything (which was some confession compulsions) and told me, “Dude, this is your OCD. And I might not be an expert, but I think the best thing you can do right now is at least act as if this is your OCD and proceed accordingly with what you learned in ERP.” And that helped a lot and got me to stop my compulsions and try to not attach to my thoughts. Maybe it was reassurance to hear it was just my OCD. But given I’m still waiting to have my second session with my ERP therapist through NOCD cus it was on pause for weeks, and we were going on hour 12 of acute freak out, sometimes I think if a reality check that it’s your OCD helps, then dang it, it helps. So maybe ask your therapist if that is a strategy that you could utilize: having a person who can just remind you it’s your OCD and guides you away from compulsions without judgement. Or if that would be too much reassurance, that’s fair. It’s hard with real event OCD too cus my brain gets stuck on the concrete thing that happened that I cannot change and what it means about who I am/my values/whether people should be around me/what decisions I will make in the future/on and on. I hope this is helpful. Again, if nothing else, still thinking about you and this thread.
- Date posted
- 1y ago
@Anonymous thank you so much. no yeah just hearing that it really IS my ocd and that im not crazy definitely helps. i so appreciate you giving me this advice it really means alot. i am always here too and know how incredibly tough it can be.
Related posts
- Date posted
- 13w ago
I’m having a big OCD relapse and would like to hear anyone’s tips on how to be present and healthily deal with these intrusive thoughts and the “need” to preform compulsions. Thank you!!
- Date posted
- 11w ago
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
- 9w ago
What ERP or other techniques do you use to combat fear of cancelation? Especially curious about those with taboo thoughts, false memory ocd and event ocd based off of real events where the fear of cancellation may actually hold some validity. I once did my own ERP not under a therapist but just on my own I decided to create an anonymous account on Twitter and defend a friend who was receiving online criticism. I knew that this would be semi-controversial so I was expecting backlash and when I recieved troll replies it actually seemed to be a really helpful low-stakes exposure activity. Is this something that others have done? Low stakes online posts etc. that you know will recieve negative responses? I have had severe OCD as a kid as pretty much every subtype under the sun, and as an adult I pretty much have all the types under control except for this real event and false memory and taboo thought OCD. It seems like a different beast since it's somewhat realistic in the camcellation culture today, and it's confusing to address. Ive shut down almost all social accounts and it's keeping me from progressing in a career where I need to have an online presence :/
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