Is this helpful?

[Nikki79]

Just wondering has anyone used this to help them with something that is bothering them. For example my current worry really only came into fruition with images details and maybes etc during the Summer. However before this the worry was less specific and more fear of that time in my life and what happened but no detail as I was clever and didn’t ruminate tho had huge fear. I am just wondering is it good to look at when we just had fear and doubt and discount the newer thoughts? Would this help us any bit? 

[taurean]

I think any kind of looking back into the past for comparison and analysis won't be helpful. 

It's carrying out compulsions. When we search for answers, carry out tests, we just play into the hands of our disorder, make it stronger giving belief to triggers and intrusions. 

As I said on Caramoole's thread tonight, what has been also very helpful to me is:

Experiencing an intrusion, simply being aware of that, then refocusing away using PEG (positive emotion generation)  and into a mindful place of involved thinking and activity in the moment

And remembering how the OCD works in our individual OCD theme manifestation, and thinking that through during exposure - resulting in the intrusions and the OCD core belief losing strength meaning and power. 

When we get really good at this, intrusions gradually become benign and occur less frequently and, when they do - as they have lost power - they can gently be eased aside and away. 

Edited November 15, 2017 by taurean

[Nikki79]

I never heard of PEG I must google this, I like the sound of it. 

[taurean]

Don't Google the acronym, which has other connotations too - Google positive emotion generation

 

[Nikki79]

Lol ok I will certainly ?

[Nikki79]

I know you said don’t look back at thoughts etc but then how do you view the thoughts that develop from rumination and when they seem so threatening and true and come with the belief attached. How do you deal with them?

I mean doesn’t it sometimes feel you are letting it go and then the worst panic attack with thoughts come along and you are stuck again. Then you paradoxically feel bad when these begin to fade cos the ‘what if’ scenario feels so plausible that it grips you ?

Edited November 15, 2017 by Nikki79

[taurean]

What you are describing is an anxiety wheel - the circle of distress that builds when we connect with the intrusions supporting that horrible OCD core belief. 

Ruminating has no worth, it just makes things worse. 

The answer is not to connect, not to ruminate not to think back and compare. Because it just gives fuel to that anxiety cycle. 

We need to "spoke" that wheel of distress, so it comes to a halt. 

And we do that by leaving the thoughts be - just consider them OCD however real they seem, then you focus away and get mindfully involved in other things. 

[Nikki79]

12 minutes ago, taurean said:

What you are describing is an anxiety wheel - the circle of distress that builds when we connect with the intrusions supporting that horrible OCD core belief. 

Ruminating has no worth, it just makes things worse. 

The answer is not to connect, not to ruminate not to think back and compare. Because it just gives fuel to that anxiety cycle. 

We need to "spoke" that wheel of distress, so it comes to a halt. 

And we do that by leaving the thoughts be - just consider them OCD however real they seem, then you focus away and get mindfully involved in other things. 

Ok but what happens when you lets say you already slipped up ( months ago and weeks ago) and are dealing with the aftermath of those thoughts/images/possibilities that are now planted in your mind. Do we just treat these as manifestations of the worry?  How can I walk away now when they feel like the problem?

Like the current worry began in June after huge doubt first and then the mental images or worries came after you see. The possibilities and scenarios...I mean sometimes they don’t all even make sense. 

How do I look at this all postively and healthily and not in a sad depressed state over what I’m not sure of? As I don’t sound sure do I?

Thanks Taurean ?

PS am I explaining it correctly?

Edited November 15, 2017 by Nikki79

[taurean]

11 minutes ago, Nikki79 said:

16 minutes ago, taurean said:

What you are describing is an anxiety wheel - the circle of distress that builds when we connect with the intrusions supporting that horrible OCD core belief. 

Ruminating has no worth, it just makes things worse. 

The answer is not to connect, not to ruminate not to think back and compare. Because it just gives fuel to that anxiety cycle. 

We need to "spoke" that wheel of distress, so it comes to a halt. 

And we do that by leaving the thoughts be - just consider them OCD however real they seem, then you focus away and get mindfully involved in other things. 

Ok but what happens when you lets say you already slipped up ( months ago and weeks ago) and are dealing with the aftermath of those thoughts/images/possibilities that are now planted in your mind. Do we just treat these as manifestations of the worry?  How can I walk away now when they feel like the problem?

You can,and need to walk away. You are dwelling on them - that's ruminating. 

"They feel like the problem"  - that's the disorder at work, don't heed that. 

Everything is fuelling that anxiety-inducing wheel, and it's why your distress continues. 

No-one can just stop compulsing - we have to wean ourselves off it. 

But when we do and we don't give meaning to or connect with intrusions, we become well again - that is the prize, and it is achievable. 

Edited November 15, 2017 by taurean

[Nikki79]

5 minutes ago, taurean said:

You can,and need to walk away. You are dwelling on them - that's ruminating. 

"They feel like the problem"  - that's the disorder at work, don't heed that. 

Everything is fuelling that anxiety-inducing wheel, and it's why your distress continues. 

No-one can just stop compulsing - we have to wean ourselves off it. 

But when we do and we don't give meaning to or connect with intrusions, we become well again - that is the prize, and it is achievable. 

That sounds fantastic Taurean if I could do that for myself. 

I must tell you I was not bothered by OCD for about 8 weeks in the Summer just passed and I cannot remember why or how it lifted. I did rather sillily become fixated on how that happened and why. I’m letting that go however.

So any thought drawing me back into rumination on my fear has to be avoid d right? It’s gone all so strange in my head but just don’t want to be getting away with something I should be guilty for. The honest truth is I’m not sure exactly what that is without the images and ruminations I got before that it was just a feeling there was more stuff. Has that happened with you? For a long time it’s just fear and then there feels like there is tangible stuff but that is from rumination? But still fuelled by an idea that definitely something could have happened? And that was a thought i had last week.

[taurean]

Images urges or whatever, it's OCD and we are not to blame for having them. The illness says we did wrong we should be punished. But experiencing OCD intrusions is suffering from a mental illness, not doing wrong. 

This is a fundamental part of the cognitive side of OCD. 

We don't have to wonder in case we did something felt something imagined something dreamt something - we just don't. 

When we leave it be, don't connect, it will - slowly but surely - leave us be. 

So the goal is to think "Oh that's just my silly obsession"  and leave it be. 

You got there in the summer, then you slipped back down the snakes and couldn't grab hold of a ladder on the way. 

If you do do what the thread says, you will find that you can hold on to a ladder, and can climb back up. 

I am off back to sleep now, as we are some hours ahead of you. 

Read the thread again, and believe you can do this Nikki. You have been to that Utopia once and it was good - you can visit it more often. 

Edited November 15, 2017 by taurean

[Nikki79]

Oh thank you so much Taurean for that wonderfully written thread. I really appreciate you taking the time to counsel me and listen to my problems. I will read and re read this thread and hope someone else gets the benefit of it too who may be dealing with similar. Everything you said here is true and I can feel it resonating with me. Sleep well my friend and rest well.

[Nikki79]

17 hours ago, taurean said:

Images urges or whatever, it's OCD and we are not to blame for having them. The illness says we did wrong we should be punished. But experiencing OCD intrusions is suffering from a mental illness, not doing wrong. 

This is a fundamental part of the cognitive side of OCD. 

We don't have to wonder in case we did something felt something imagined something dreamt something - we just don't. 

When we leave it be, don't connect, it will - slowly but surely - leave us be. 

So the goal is to think "Oh that's just my silly obsession"  and leave it be. 

You got there in the summer, then you slipped back down the snakes and couldn't grab hold of a ladder on the way. 

If you do do what the thread says, you will find that you can hold on to a ladder, and can climb back up. 

I am off back to sleep now, as we are some hours ahead of you. 

Read the thread again, and believe you can do this Nikki. You have been to that Utopia once and it was good - you can visit it more often. 

Hi Roy I hope you are well today. Just to let you know I am making a list for a tool kit to help me with my OCD and I am taking some very valuable information from this thread that you gave me. Thank you again

[taurean]

Hi Nikki, 

I am very well thanks. I am so glad I have been of help 

Roy 

[Nikki79]

11 minutes ago, taurean said:

Hi Nikki, 

I am very well thanks. I am so glad I have been of help 

Roy 

I am glad you are well  Just wanted to run this by you also. Just wondering how you would class this type of thought. So I was doing my notebook and I am still putting it together and I feel I almost forced this thought but either way it came into my head and 'got' me as such. It came to me last night as well just before I went to bed, so it is the thought about my worry at the moment which says; ' But what if you really have done something, there could be something there, it feels like there is, it is a strong possibility'. Let me also just say looking at this unemotionally and unattached I can see why I would think this but all I have is the fear from almost three years ago, no definite pictures bar the rumination pictures that apparently I can't trust, so I get that thought with the rumination pictures sometimes but still just the intense feeling that there is something but I don't know what. I don't want to be too easy on myself either but sometimes I feel well hey Nic there is nothing you remember exactly and maybe there isn't anything much there or anything.

Thanks for reading

[taurean]

All of that is the OCD at work Nikki, pulling at you, trying to get you remembering testing did I get images or whatever. 

This mental illness uses thinking distortions and can create images thoughts dreams feelings arousals or whatever to try and convince us of a falsehood, in yours and my case a turning on its head of a true core character value. 

But it's lies fabrications and nonsense. 

So  consider it all OCD and refuse to give it time of day; if it claws you in OK, just get back in the saddle and working again on not giving it belief, time of day. 

When you master this, it will slip into the background and you will regain your life once more. 

Edited November 15, 2017 by taurean

[Nikki79]

1 hour ago, taurean said:

All of that is the OCD at work Nikki, pulling at you, trying to get you remembering testing did I get images or whatever. 

This mental illness uses thinking distortions and can create images thoughts dreams feelings arousals or whatever to try and convince us of a falsehood, in yours and my case a turning on its head of a true core character value. 

But it's lies fabrications and nonsense. 

So  consider it all OCD and refuse to give it time of day; if it claws you in OK, just get back in the saddle and working again on not giving it belief, time of day. 

When you master this, it will slip into the background and you will regain your life once more. 

I was thinking that after you know, kind of from an outside view it looks to be a sneaky form of OCD. I guess after all these thoughts do originate in our own heads and are extremely creative of leading us in just like you say. Its always but 'what if' and on and on...