Does anyone Else’s ocd flare up bad when in stressful life situations? I was doing amazing and now that I’m having some drama with my life it seems to have come back with a vengeance. Anyone else?
Yup! Or big life changes, even positive ones, also cause an increase!
@laurenalyssa13 I’ve noticed even when big positive things happen it flares too! It sucks lol!
Yes, but don’t forget that you’re not the same person you were when you first started dealing with OCD, and fighting it will be different this time. I’m sure it’s trying to take control *because* you’ve been doing such an amazing job, which shows you’ve got the tools to beat this. I believe in you and your strength!
@flyana Thank you so much! 💗
Sounds about right.
No yea it happens guys ! I graduated college and I even left home for an internship the summer after graduating and came back and was doing fine . Normal. Nothing . But then like 2 months later thoughts just came flooding in . The job I was in was pretty boring and the fact that I had completed college and the fact that it was dark and gloomy outside since it was Winter contributed to my thoughts and I wasn’t eating well either. I had lost track of my fitness a bit . I felt stuck in life not gonna lie , like it’s all up to me now to figure it out since I graduted college and ouufff it’s gotten better thank god , my OCD was like at a 9/10 . Now it’s gone down to like a 5/10 over the course of a couple of months . And this has been due to starting a new job at a new company and literally just waiting it out . Just patiently waiting. And honestly changing up my routine again . Getting the new job made me feel alive again , like I actually have an important job where I’m needed, before I was sitting behind a computer all day working as an assistant and it made me feel terrible cuz it was so boring. Not saying working as an assistant is a bad job , but to me made it wasn’t it, especially because it was only part time and it could be better . But anyways I been though this before when I graduated High school. And I already know I have an anxious mind so I know it’s all a false alarm 🚨.
@Anonymous The main thing helping me right now is reminding myself that I’m stressed and this will pass. It seems to always get really bad when I’m having something stressful going on, so I just have to talk to myself a lot and remind myself it’s going to be ok!
@LnB90210 It’s all anxious thinking 💭 remember that . OCD is all just a spiral of thoughts that feel very stuck . I get it . A couple months ago I thought I wasn’t gonna be able to get to the point I’m at now . I was crying every single day . If it makes you feel any better my boyfriend of 4 1/2 years is a police officer and I told him to arrest me because I feel like I’m going crazy and he always told me NO. I’m a huge overthinker and it’s ridiculous what I’m asking him to do. My OCD has gone down just with time and changing up my routine a bit and I know if I don’t pay attention to it , it will fade away again . You will be okay
@LnB90210 What exactly is stressing you out right now?
@Anonymous I’m going through some legal stuff right now. Nothing I did wrong, I’m pressing charges on someone for harassment, and that’s got me super stressed out.
This is so common. Happens to me, too. OCD is triggered by a lot of things, chief among them stress. Recognizing that is a huge win, though. The more conscious we are of the machinations of OCD, the better we are at catching its tricks!
Yes! OCD knows exactly when to show up. I tell my to go kick a bucket... it helps :)
Hello LNB90210, As others and yourself have shared stress comes with both positive changes and negative changes in our lives. These periods of transitions inherently challenge us, due to the change taking place. Weather due to a break up or even planning a wedding, there is stress due to the change taking place. To your point, stress does impact symptoms, just like it impacts our mood. This is why I always recommend taking time out of your day for some self-care. This can be spent doing anything you find relaxing or enjoyable. So that you can return to the changes taking place in your life, with a full battery. I hope this helps. If you are struggling with your OCD and would like assistance in making space in your life, don't hesitate to reach out. Know that at NOCD we are always here to help!
I’m going through a really bad flare up. I developed ocd many years ago when I had my first child. Postpartum ocd. I suffer from harm and pocd. At first I had mostly mental and some physical compulsions but the physical faded away pretty early on and i’ve just done mental compulsions since. My ocd was in remission for alot of years and if the ocd would pop up now and again, I was easily able to shrug it off and not engage. A few years ago I went through a stressful time in my life and the ocd came back to stay. At first it was bad but then it got better and has been pretty mild until now. It’s been really bad this week and the physical compulsions are even back. I never thought it would ever get this bad again. My ocd is making me doubt who I am and how I feel. I know it’s all ocd and not real or true but the ocd makes it feel so real that I can’t easily dismiss or disprove it. The more I try to disprove it the more real the ocd makes it feel. I’m really struggling and don’t know how to get back on track. I don’t have access to a therapist because there are no ocd specialists near me and my insurance doesn’t cover online therapy. That’s why i’m reaching out here. Has anyone been through a rough relapse? How can I get through and past this??
I’ve been dealing with a really bad flare up the last 2 weeks and i’ve been dealing with ocd on and off for years. I was finally feeling better today, So of course my ocd decided to bring up an old intrusive thought that was really upsetting and now i’m stuck on it again. The reason why I struggle so much to conquer my ocd is because I developed ocd as postpartum so my ocd targets my kids, the ones that mean everything to me. The intrusive thoughts range from mild to really disturbing. While I know deep down the intrusive thoughts aren’t true or me, the ocd makes it feel SO real and true which makes me feel like I HAVE to disprove the thoughts and with confidence but the ocd won’t let me. It also makes me question analyze and judge everything I do. It’s an endless cycle of pain and I just want to be a mom without ocd telling me i’m a horrible person all day every day. 😪
I feel like in some ways receiving a diagnosis for OCD has in some ways made things worse. I’ve always had what I called “phases” throughout life, which I now know were ocd episodes, but I didn’t really make too much of them and even if it was over several long difficult months, they’d always seem to kind of just pass. Recently I’ve begun my worse flare up in the last few years and now that I’m older I seemed professional help which led to my diagnosis. This all sounds great of course but I can’t actually afford therapy right now so I kinda just have the diagnosis but not the support so now that I realize these phases are actually this incurable mental illness I just feel like I’ve lost all hope that I’ll ever be happy and I feel like I basically obsess about obsessing at this point and it just sucks. Has anyone else had this or a similar experience?
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