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Hi Wonderer, 

Dreams are just thoughts same as daytime thoughts. 

My wife had a dream last night which was lucid - very vivid - and therefore she was able to remember it. 

She told me what it was. We both agreed that it was triggered by the chaos our house is in due to a new bathroom being installed. After that, she forgot it. 

If OCD has chosen dreams as a manifestation for obsession, then see that purely for what it is - an outlet for the OCD to distort. 

As with other OCD obsessions, the intrusions are likely valueless nonsense to anyone else but the sufferer - our goal is to see them as that, just as others do. 

 

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Thanks lost and Roy for the lovely replies! I did have a a strange dream last night but not as disturbing as the night before so I found it easy to brush it off, the real challenge will happen if I have another disturbing one, I'm hopeful that I'll be able to try my best and not overthink it too much. For now I will focus on not having weird dreams, maybe all the focus I have on having one is what's creating them as a product of stress! Hot milk and a good light hearted book tonight before sleep for me! Thanks guys!! Xx

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I think you have it right Wonderer - fearing one may well bring one on. 

Take a "so what?"  attitude and steer your thinking towards interesting beneficial things - and a milk drink, a light-hearted book and maybe some soothing music will hopefully be helpful. 

Roy 

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Your both so right, yesterday I got up with a positive so what attitude and had a really good day :)

Last night I got rather anxious ? worrying what if I can't do it again and fell to sleep ? feeling this way.

I woke up with the same negative attitude fearing I wouldn't be able to do it as good again today and unfortunately I've had a bad day because of this:(

I would be grateful for any advice on this one, why one day I do so well and the next day I fail miserably :(

Im not sure if my thinking is right but I seem to think I maybe put to much emphasis on being able to achieve the same again and focusing on it being unachieveable and doubting myself that I am capable of doing it again ?

Did I maybe put to much pressure on myself to have to achieve it again?  

Any advice would be truly grateful 

Thanks lost 

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2 hours ago, lostinme said:

Your both so right, yesterday I got up with a positive so what attitude and had a really good day :)

Last night I got rather anxious ? worrying what if I can't do it again and fell to sleep ? feeling this way.

I woke up with the same negative attitude fearing I wouldn't be able to do it as good again today and unfortunately I've had a bad day because of this:(

I would be grateful for any advice on this one, why one day I do so well and the next day I fail miserably :(

Im not sure if my thinking is right but I seem to think I maybe put to much emphasis on being able to achieve the same again and focusing on it being unachieveable and doubting myself that I am capable of doing it again ?

Did I maybe put to much pressure on myself to have to achieve it again?  

Any advice would be truly grateful 

Thanks lost 

Ah lost, I can relate, if I have great day and then the next isn't so good I get annoyed at myself and then the day becomes a disaster as I negatively beat myself up for not being able to do as well as the day before! I found a problem with my thinking lately, as in focusing so much on getting better a lot of my thoughts Centered around how I'm feeling from minute to minute from one task to the next, so, what I've found helpful now is to not think of it as getting better but simply being, I try and not think too much about anything at all these days! Just trying to stay present as much as I can helps! Along with mindfulness an acceptance that our disorder has the capability to fluctuate from day to day, sometimes even hour to hour can be helpful too, so that we spend less time berating ourselves about it, sometimes it just can't be helped and on those days we deserve to rest and be kind to ourselves! Xx

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3 hours ago, taurean said:

I think you have it right Wonderer - fearing one may well bring one on. 

Take a "so what?"  attitude and steer your thinking towards interesting beneficial things - and a milk drink, a light-hearted book and maybe some soothing music will hopefully be helpful. 

Roy 

Thanks Roy! "so what?" is right! That's what I'm gunna try to do! Xx

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Thanks wonderer for your kind reply, I will give this a try :yes:

In a few weeks I'm doing a mindfulness course so I'm hoping that this will help me also :)

Im resting up tonight and being kind to myself feet up  ☕️ and  ? and not worrying about tomorrow :)

Thanks again wonderer tomorrow's a new day onwards and upwards :cheer:

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I think you will take to the mindfulness, lost, and it will help you. 

Interestingly in the paper today was a story claiming that women benefit more from mindfulness than women. Well, I benefit greatly from it and, last time I checked, I was a man :a1_cheesygrin:

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40 minutes ago, lostinme said:

Thanks wonderer for your kind reply, I will give this a try :yes:

In a few weeks I'm doing a mindfulness course so I'm hoping that this will help me also :)

Im resting up tonight and being kind to myself feet up  ☕️ and  ? and not worrying about tomorrow :)

Thanks again wonderer tomorrow's a new day onwards and upwards :cheer:

Ah glad ur looking after yourself! I'm gunna break out the chocolate too, I've been on a diet and tonight's my treat night! Yep no point in worrying about something that hasn't happened yet! Enjoy ur evening xxx

8 minutes ago, taurean said:

I think you will take to the mindfulness, lost, and it will help you. 

Interestingly in the paper today was a story claiming that women benefit more from mindfulness than women. Well, I benefit greatly from it and, last time I checked, I was a man :a1_cheesygrin:

I read something similar a while back Roy lol! Xx

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I do think lost that we need to dumb down our responses, really buy in to the "so what"  thinking, stop worrying about not doing well again - and borrow the tip from snowbear that is working nicely for me, which is practising looking for the happy emotional response to substitute for the bad emotional response we get when we adopt this fear of a bad day attitude. 

Let's accept that we are , until we start evening out the good /bad experiences, having good and bad days. 

Then say to ourselves that worrying about having a bad day connects with the fear the OCD peddles, so we are far more likely to have a bad day. 

So instead, when the thoughts knock on our mental door, we dumb down, don't connect with them and engage a positive emotion -think how much we love someone, how happy we will be when we call to see our friend, go clothes shopping or whatever - we are using what snowbear calls "positive emotion generation"  instead of negative thinking and experiencing bad emotions. 

It works. And it will dovetail in beautifully with getting mindful. 

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Thanks Roy for your great advice, everything you've said here makes perfect sense, I will put this into practice and hopefully adopt a better approach at resisting these compulsions :yes:

Thank you ? 

lost 

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Hey Jess how are you! Hope your ok flower :)

I wanted to create a post with lots of positivity as well as advice on struggling with resisting compulsions and how we might be able to advise and help each other overcome our struggles on our journey to recovery and share any advice that might help us achieve that. I'm hoping that in time more people will join in and share their experience with us and we can encourage and cheer each other on along the way:cheer:

I think it's good for the forum to have more positive post, I once quoted to you that you are that breath of fresh air and snow is that ray of sunshine and I think that this lifts our spirits and that's what we all need :) 

I hope more people will join us in time and we can all celebrate our successes together onwards and upwards everyone we are cheering you on :cheer:

 

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Well how can I describe today? 

I'm still working on avoiding the same compulsion, kettle filling and drinking. 

Ive managed to make 4 cups myself today and lasted around 4 hours:( not as good as previously:(

But there is a positive to this :) even though my thoughts were running riot and my anxiety was really high, i still went a head and did it, the thoughts were really bad that I shouldn't drink it and do it again but I didn't I sat there with these thoughts and drank it any way :)

Unfortunately I couldn't drink one of them, the OCD won :( I emptied then filled, then emptied and filled and repeated this several times which is definitely a huge mistake the more you give into a compulsion the more you doubt yourself, so please guys remember this. But hey I won OCD on this occasion I didn't carry on doing it until it felt ok, I thought ok enough is enough I'm not doing this anymore, I put it on and drank it :yes:

Ive also done some outdoor therapy, I caught the bus into town and met up with my sister, I spent 5 hours out and I didn't stay glued by her side I wondered around alone and into different shops also :)

So feeling good ? and really proud of myself :yes:

 

 

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Oh bless you wonderer I too realise how difficult it can be at times, I've had a few anxious ? days myself :(

But I'm trying to instill the great advice I've recieved and soldier on regardless of my thoughts and low mood and put all my tools into practice. Only just started my erp today so I will update later how today's gone. In fact I'm sat here with a cuppa  ☕️ now and fighting it all the way I won't be defeated, it's unpleasant and hard work ? but I know I need to do this :)

We need to keep reminding ourself these key factors

Its just a thought 

Patience and persistence

Its a marathon not a sprint

Onwards and upwards all the way we can do this :cheer:

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Well it's been another good day I managed 5 hours unaided and 4 cups of tea ☕️ :) but not first thing this morning :( sadly.

Yes it's  not as good as before but hey at least I'm not avoiding it altogether and still making progress so to me it's still a good day:)

I also visited a friends house today alone and had a cup of tea there and stayed there for two hours, something I also haven't done for years :yes:

Remember guys we have to put the work in and work at it every day but we know recovery is possible and that's what we all are aiming for:)

Celebrate ? every success no matter how small :cheer:

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Yeah well done again. 

Hope everyone is taking in the vibes via osmosis - if we find out what to do and how to do it, it really is then for us to apply the necessary work - thinking and behavioural - however difficult it may initially seem. 

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Thanks Roy :)

I just want to share with everyone that even the smallest of steps are a step closer to where we want to be and to what we are all aiming for and every step taken is that step closer :yes:

19 minutes ago, taurean said:

Hope everyone is taking in the vibes via osmosis - if we find out what to do and how to do it, it really is then for us to apply the necessary work - thinking and behavioural - however difficult it may initially seem. 

Not going to lie Roy I had to look up what osmosis was :lol: 

:goodpost:Roy 

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the process of gradual or unconscious assimilation of ideas, knowledge, etc.

I think it is quite a good word to represent assimilating (picking up) knowledge and technique from the forum :)

(I must stop reading the dictionary before I go to sleep :biggrin:)

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