Some success and some difficulty

[Guest nervous]

This past weekend I went camping with my wife and kids, I used to love camping but lately my fears of contamination have taken over all my thoughts. So we went and as soon as I was there it started, I noticed the person beside us had brought his work truck and I became convinced that he worked with dangerous materials and they were now spreading to our site and all our stuff my anxiety was so high I was shaking and trying to hold myself together the anxiety rose and rose till I couldnt stand it any longer. I would have left right away but my wife refused to leave saying everything was fine. The anxiety continued all day and into the evening, I eventually slept some time at night although my fears plagued me through the night it was a bit more manageable. When I woke up the thoughts were still there but most of the anxiety was gone, I wouldn't say it was all gone but it was a fraction of what it had been the day before.

It was the most terrible idea of a vacation but I suppose some good came as my anxiety changed I felt differently about the event.

Each day comes new anxieties, I struggle to convince myself that past success could happen again because each new fear seems so real and so terrifying. My life is not an easy one right now as I fight to change the way I think,

[IncesstantThoughts89]

Sorry your struggling Nervous.

Think this way, what did you do to lessen the anxiety?

Do you think it's because during the night,

when your trying to sleep your paying less attention to them?

Perhaps then you could try that during the day time.

Pay less attention to your thoughts, even if it's reassuring yourself.

Distract yourself with enjoyable things

[PolarBear]

Good on your wife for not leaving. That's called not giving in to compulsions.

The lesson you should have learned is that your anxiety went down all by itself, without you having to do anything. You then apply that the next time an obsession hits.

Edited July 29, 2014 by PolarBear

[mummyoftwogirls]

I think this is a big achievement , you could of still left yourself but didn't . Well done

[Guest nervous]

I dont think I did anything to lessen the anxiety, which is good, I just lived with it and it went down on it's own, although it took about 18 hours it worked. It's funny it went away like it was supposed to and I feel good for doing ERP right however I have to admit I feel humbled by the experience because I was so convinced that my family and I were in certain danger and the next day I didn't feel the same way even though the thought was still there. Also interesting is that as the day went by with much lower anxiety the thought seemed to fade away as well as if without the anxiety it didnt really seem so real. Now if only I can continue like this.

And yes Polar bear your right my wife does help me by not helping me, she is a very strong person. I admire her for it.

[taurean]

I dont think I did anything to lessen the anxiety, which is good, I just lived with it and it went down on it's own, although it took about 18 hours it worked. It's funny it went away like it was supposed to and I feel good for doing ERP right however I have to admit I feel humbled by the experience because I was so convinced that my family and I were in certain danger and the next day I didn't feel the same way even though the thought was still there. Also interesting is that as the day went by with much lower anxiety the thought seemed to fade away as well as if without the anxiety it didnt really seem so real. Now if only I can continue like this.

And yes Polar bear your right my wife does help me by not helping me, she is a very strong person. I admire her for it.

Hello nervous,

Our colleagues have given you some really good advice here.

You no doubt can see - in a rational view after the event - that your contamination fear was a gross exaggeration made by your OCD, and that it was in fact a typical OCD malicious falsehood.

if you keep working at exposing yourself to any such thoughts - and reminding yourself that they are OCD thoughts, then the time for the anxiety level to come down is likely to reduce.