I have some questions as to how to distinguish avoidance vs. self-care. I am struggleing a lot with things like rumination and obsessing over certain topics. But at the same time I know that full-out avoidance of triggering topics/material is also bad for OCD. So how do you draw the line between the too? Like not compulsively engaging with certain things but also not to avoid them?
From me a ask myself is this health Choice? like going out with friends vs staying home with my ocd I think is an ok avoidance as you doing thing that are important to you and it is good for you to go out .Staying home or in bed is unhealthy and a not good avoidance and can cause isolation which is very bad for ocd people and will make your ocd a whole a lot worse. I hope that helps
I think you have to pay attention to your motivation/anxiety levels. Are you avoiding something just because it’s triggering? I would ask myself what I needed. If I just need to stay home and rest, then I stay home and rest. I’m learning to accept my feelings and live with not knowing. Do I still avoid some things, some days? Yeah. Sometimes I don’t have the capacity to deal with a trigger. I’m taking care of myself. And I’m kind and compassionate toward myself.
Self care= doing things you enjoy DESPITE the presence of difficult emotions/ anxiety, letting thoughts go w/o doing compulsions Avoidance= compulsions (reassurance is an act of self care for some people but for people with OCD it is a compulsion and therefore not self care). I hope this helped and made sense. I understand not being able to determine the difference but basically if it is good for your mental health in the long run, it is self care. If not, it is not. Sometimes self care doesn’t feel like self care
This is a really good question. I unfortunately don’t quite have an answer yet, BUT, there’s a youtube channel I can recommend that might have some good advice for you. It’s called OCD & Anxiety with Nathan Peterson https://youtube.com/@ocdandanxiety?si=vNijtTv4nWNgqk6V
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Hey guys does anyone know how to not let moral scrupulosity control your life? Because when the compulsions are moral I feel like it’s harder to interpret whether indulging in them is a good or a bad thing. Even when I can tell it’s definitely OCD it’ll start making me think “wow you’re not even gonna give it a chance? It’s bad that you’re not thinking about it more this could be more serious than you think!” Any advice?
I am typing as I sit on the couch after a mental breakdown due to the frustration and fear I have with my Suicidal OCD intrusive thoughts. I know so much about why this is happening from therapy, research, and self help books that I feel like knowing this much about my condition is almost making it harder to recover. It’s like I feel like since I logically understand my problem, why can’t I change my response to it? I know logically that these thoughts are stuck in a loop because I have assigned meaning to them and am so scared of the concept of harming myself, yet ERP/CBT hasn’t yet helped much with my ability to tolerate the anxiety. I have moments where I feel good but the sense of impending doom and feeling like I “am bound to hurt myself” always comes back. At least for the last 2-3 months since this theme and OCD flare started. I don’t have any physical compulsions that me or my therapist have been able to identify except *maybe* researching too much. But other than that, my compulsions are all mental. However, I can’t pinpoint what exactly they are. It’s also important to note that I don’t avoid anything. I still use knives when I need to, I don’t hide them like others with this theme do. Yes they can trigger anxiety but I don’t actively avoid them or other items that trigger/have potential to harm me. When I do audio exposures (listening to my voice saying I am going to hurt myself), I hold a knife to my wrist to intensify the ERP, per my therapists request… and still the same or similar level of fear behind suicidal and harm OCD thoughts is there. Has anyone dealt with this and can help provide some insight as to what helped you? Anything is helpful here except negativity.
Recently I’ve been struggling with obsessing about becoming depressed and not being able to control myself. It started when I was trying to be empathetic for my friends who are going through depression and suicidal thoughts. After hearing about all of that I started to obsess about those feelings. I bought books about how to not be depressed and listen to music that is anti depression. I’m so scared of becoming depressed and having any negative self harming thoughts. I was so scared of rope that was brought home, that I told my parental figure to remove the rope from the house out of the fear of harming myself. Hi my name is Anais, I am 15 years old and I go to a prep school. Currently I am on summer break.All of these feelings have all suddenly spiked during the summer. At school I had none of this. I am reaching out because I don’t know how to cope with these stressful feelings. I am scared of being depressed and self harming. Every day these what if thoughts about self harm are on my mind. Like example “what if I’m depressed” “ what if I’m like suicidal” and I become super afraid of myself. Do you have ways to cope. I think because of these obsessions I am slowly gonna actually be depressed and that scares me more. Like my mind is trying to put me in the shoes of someone else even though I know I’m not depressed. This literally spiked over summer. I have had obsessions before like constantly being scared that my throat was closing so I avoided foods that I didn’t regularly eat. I don’t know how I got over it. I constantly read books about depression, listen to podcast, and make sure I can do whatever I can to not be depressed. I also talk about my feelings to loved ones and friends all the time. I’m scared of being depressed. Does anyone have advice to overcome fear of harming themselves or advice for overcoming feelings that aren’t mine. My mind is trying to trick me into feeling sad so it can prevent me from feeling depressed ever.
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