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ocd negative anchors


Guest prospect100

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Guest prospect100

In what way can you extinguish negative anchors?

Example, lets just say you are watching TV and certain car appears and you have a negative thought about it, the next time you see the car you have the same negative thought. Its like the negative thought has been anchored to the car!

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I know this one and experience it too.

I have called it labelling - a "negative free association" and I think this is a better word to use than anchoring - which suggests in itself "difficult to shift".

So change the word and you are already breaking that hold.

Neutralising of course will reinforce the thought and label.

Remind yourself this is - purely and simply - just another theme of OCD. You are going to resist it.

Next time it happens, re-attribute it to OCD and give the proposed connection no time of day - no consideration at all. And keep doing that.

Hopefully this will start to weaken its grip on you.I find it really helps.

Edited by taurean
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All my OCD consists of this and it manifests in so many extensions of layers. Things that are similar or have some connection at all. It's horrible. So many bad things and bad names and numbers and endless things. Met someone I liked then found out their last name was too close to a bad one, esp combined with their first name. Never ends. As much as I tell my mind it's only a name not the same thing, or whatever, doesn't change the connection of reminders and seeming like.

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So sorry to read that ADD.

People here I think don't realise that when this sort of extremely chronic OCD occurs, it just totally consumes us.

The constantly recurring thought loops I - and now my sister also - experience are another example of extreme OCD which unfortunately isn't so well understood here.

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Yeh and logic never helps. It's so depressing and disappointing. It's like being all happy and light and then hit with bad news. And I then fear that if I don't avoid the thing right away then it could spread to associate to other things in my mind. That is a real danger cause exposure doesn't always work to change the thoughts and feelings and my mind continues to view it negatively and therefore anything that got associated to it.

Edited by ADD
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