having trouble shaking this feeling-- help please

[Guest LovetheLife]

Hi there,

I have been doing a little bit better with dealing with my obsessions as they arise, and not giving in to compulsions. (I am pure O, so my compulsions are mostly always mental rituals/ruminating).

I have one big obsession that I do exposures for, and it has helped a lot in recent months.

I have other obsessions that arise, but I deal with them through apathy, and they eventually go away.

When this happens, this big obsession comes back and I can't think of anything else. I don't ruminate and explore the thoughts, but it's this really distressing FEELING that won't go away. I don't explore it, I don't ruminate, but it's just there. And without compulsions to shake it, it just feels like a belief...

Maybe this doesn't make sense; I'm trying to not go into specifics because reassurance exacerbates the problem. Can someone give me advice on what I should do at this point????

Any help would be much appreciated.

p.s. my obsessions are based a lot around fear of uncertainty, so nothing I can prove that involves my future.

[Symps07]

I have a similar problem, in that there is no real certainty to the questions I have.

But to be honest, how much certainty is there in life? I intend to go bed tonight, wake up around 7am, shower, eat breakfast & go to work.

That's what I intend & expect to happen, but it's not certain it will happen. I may get sick, my car may break down, my work might burn down, etc...

But I don't sit here & worry 'oh heck, what if my car won't start in the morning?', 'What if I become ill?'. Because it isn't part of my OCD.

What I'm trying to say is, we live with uncertainty all the time, but how much of it bothers us? We've got to learn to treat uncertainty in OCD the same way.

Also I would treat all of your OCD the same, whether it is your big theme or the smaller ones. Decreasing the small amounts of OCD & anxiety takes away from the whole of it, that's what I'mm doing with mine.

Best of luck :original: