:/

@mfzio Mine is exact as your but then I start questioning and doubting my morals, values, and who I am as a person. Did you do this too? How did you combat this?

@alyssa90 Yes of course I did! Very very normal. OCD wants to fight you on every little thing you say to it. You could know you’re a good person and your ocd will still try to tell you you’re not. What i do and what mg therapist has taught me is to keep talking back to your ocd. Say “okay believe what you want but im gonna keep living my life the way i want to” or sometimes i literally just say “okay whatever you win, now moving on” it sounds silly but ocd wants us to prove that we are not bad people and even if we do, it will beg for more and more and more. You NEED to starve it. Giving it reassurance or looking things up online is feeding it even more. Here’s a scenario Ocd: hey remember that time you thought that way about that person? Do you think you’re a bad person for that? What if thats truly how you feel? You: okay thanks for that thought! That’s the past and I am going to stay in the present moment OCD: well what if it’s not the past? What if it’s right now you feel that way? You: well I guess that’s just what it is then! OCD: but aren’t you worried that makes you a bad person? You: maybe, maybe not! OCD: well why don’t you care you should care more! You: sorry I’m busy watching a show right now Like seriously it sounds silly and you might feel a little crazy and anxious that you’re not giving your ocd reassurance but the more you do this and stop giving it power. It will go away. It will get bored and it will stop question every little thing you do or say. When ocd starts to question your values that is DOUBT. Doubt and feeling uncertain are not dangerous. Feelings are just feelings and thoughts are just thoughts. Nothing more than that. Let yourself soak in the feeling of anxiety and uncertainty. It’s gonna suck it’s gonna feel scary and icky but sit with it and fight your ocd, name it and tell it to shut up. Pretend it is an annoying little kid that won’t stop poking at you. That’s all it is! Don’t let it be anything more than that

@mfzio Wow I love this approach so much! I never really knew how to talk back to it and it like this! I really think this will work for me. Thank you so much for your wisdom.

@mfzio did it take long for those to quiet down too

@shrimpeasy It all depends on how you manage it. If you fight it and use the approach I listed in my previous message then your mind will quickly start to learn that the ocd has no power and your nervous system will stop needing to go into fight or flight. Mine took about 3 weeks to quiet down and it still lingers and thoughts pop up but I know how to manage my ocd now so I barely notice it. Keep practicing the skills to manage ocd, do research on it and educate yourself as much as you can and it soon will have no power over you. But to be completely transparent I am on medication so my process may look different than someone else’s who may not be on meds. Meds help me stay focused and calm while going through erp therapy. I know plenty of people who overcome ocd without meds tho! Just takes time and practice to rewire your brain. Don’t count down the days and weeks of when ocd will disappear and you’ll feel good again, just focus on using the skills and that is when you will notice the thoughts have no effect on you anymore.