- Date posted
- 49w
Coming out videos did not affect me
I thought I had so-ocd, but coming out videos for erp did not affect me at all what is happening?
I thought I had so-ocd, but coming out videos for erp did not affect me at all what is happening?
Tell your therapist so they can do a higher exposure for you.
Well, I did an ERP session once, where my therapist made me create a scenario, that at least would get my anxiety to 8 out of 10. When we, a while later, started the ERP therapy session as we had planned it out, my anxiety wouldn reach 2-3 out of 10. I guess my OCD "knew" it was an ERP session and not "real" life. In later therapies ERP exercises worked just fine though.
Makes sense- I have known it to be an exposure for a month and I wasn't ready or even inclined to try it before, because you know why should I watch it when I don't have anything to come out with? Yesterday I tried and it didn't work. So your explanation makes sense now. Thank you!
@Anonymous You are very welcome. Also, if watching coming out videos have never been trigger for you, them working for ERP seems unlikely to me.
Did your ERP therapist tell you to watch those videos as ERP exercises?
I wish I had a therapist, I don't for now. And I can't ask my parents for it therapy is still a taboo, so community and support groups are my only source of knowledge.
@Anonymous I'm sorry, you can't get support from your parents. I'm not a psychologist, but I suffer from OCD for 34 years and in total I have over 13 years of therapy under my belt. So if you want me to give you some advice, I'm happy to help.
@Zoë_84 It's pretty late here and I have to go to bed now. In case you are interested, here are some articles about HOCD: https://manhattancbt.com/hocd/ https://manhattancbt.com/hocd-stories-sexual-obsessions/ https://www.treatmyocd.com/blog/what-is-sexual-orientation-ocd-so-ocd-your-guide-to-this-ocd-subtype https://www.treatmyocd.com/blog/soocd-thoughts-and-symptoms https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VRAV79AXSZc
@Zoë_84 - I would love that. Thank you. Please let me know the exposures which could work at my level. Thank you.
@Anonymous Well, I can tell what would work for you. I suggest you make a list of obsessions (= intrusive thoughts, images, emotions, sensations, or urges) and rank them according to how much anxiety the cause of a scale from 1 (very low) to 10 (extremely high) anxiety. After having made made that ranking, you can denote what triggers which obsession and with which compulsion (= mental and/or physical ritual, reassurance seeking, researching on the internet, confessing, etc.) you normally would response to each obsession. I'd suggest you do that in an excel sheet. Please note, that this chart doesn't have to be perfect and doesn't need to contain every scenario, you can add to the chart as you go. When you are done with it, we can figure out a way for you to share the chart with me - of course, only if you feel comfortable sharing.
@Zoë_84 - I will try this and get back to you!
@Zoë_84 - Hey! I made a list, can I share it via emails? I am more comfortable with emails.
I haven't had anxiety for 1 week, I haven't had so many thoughts, but when it comes to sexuality I feel discomfort and I feel like something is pressing on my chest, it's very disturbing, and I still have attraction (false I hope), I wasn't diagnosed with hocd but I had all the symptoms, (now I don't have anxiety anymore, except when a feeling that I'm gay appears), I no longer felt that strong need to watch videos on yt or look for things that would make me feel comfortable, so somehow I managed to keep this under control, but I don't know if it's recovery or if I'm just lying to myself that I'm not gay. If anyone has any ideas, I hope they write something here
Ever since starting ERP, my SO-OCD and general OCD has lowered. This has been great. I just wanted to have somewhere to share my thoughts and ask questions. For anyone else, have you realized that the SO-OCD and other forms of OCD are all rooted in what people have said in the past that I hadn’t processed, and up to this point believed hadn’t affected me. It was also odd because to me, I had never had a problem questioning my sexuality, even labeling myself as queer. However, this fear plagued my thoughts whether or not I decided to identity as straight, lesbian, bisexual, etc. It was so weird to me because it felt so foreign to how I’ve always been. I hated the guilt I felt over possibly being in denial or in the closet, over being homophobic, and all of that would just lead to constant stress and spiral. I felt so bad dating or being with my friends, on the off chance I was using them or going to cross lines. Progress isn’t linear, but I definetly feel so much better shedding the random fear I had of expressing affection towards my friends or of “using guys” to prove I was straight. Most of the time, I find that the stress comes from something really real. Like my past experiences with an old friend that I had or just not liking the guy I was dating and not wanting to lead him on. Being able to discern the OCD thoughts and stress from regular stress has been like a breath of fresh air.
Just a short post cause I got homework to do lol but I’ve searched all over the internet for stories or just people that deal with this form of ocd and I haven’t gotten anything I’ve just decided to put myself on front street and speak on my experience with it and how it effected my life and hopefully someone can learn or feel better knowing they aren’t alone with this honestly fucked condition it’s terrible and something I honestly wouldn’t wish on anyone on top of my troubling childhood but honestly what frustrates me is the fact that theirs no videos on it honestly besides the professional stuff
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