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  2. As you experienced yourself, the impulse to ruminate, confess, seek excessive reassurance, etc. can be strong at times. Reasoning and willpower alone cannot control it. You need a stronger passion to resist an OCD impulse. Ask yourself how you'd like to spend the rest of your life. 5 minutes of ruminating may not appear like a big deal, so your emotional self may not strongly object to it. But 5 minutes turn into 10 minutes, and by and by OCD takes over your life. So, try to look at the big picture and set some red lines. There is a time for pondering over things and a time to stop. Know when it's time to stop, for instance, when pondering over something prevents you from doing productive work. Set strict limits and resist the temptation to ruminate, even if you didn't find the answers or the reassurance you're looking for. It's very tempting to tell oneself, "I'll stop ruminating when I found the answers I'm looking for", but it spells disaster because one may never find those answers. And one may never find them because it's impossible to eliminate all uncertainties in life. So, the best solution is to make decisions in life and tolerate a certain degree of uncertainty. It's not easy, but it gets better with practice.
  3. Today
  4. Hi, Rumination is a hard one to stop as we're often well into it before we realise we're actually doing it. Like you I've found TV or reading a book is often not sufficient at keeping my mind occupied. I've found exercise and/or getting outside helps, going for a walk, and trying to be mindful of it, taking pleasure in nature, fresh air, night skies...whatever. If that's not possible, is there anything you could do alongside the TV? A jigsaw, crafting puzzles books? I like to crochet, and find doing that whilst watching TV adds another layer of concentration so its easier not to fall into the rumination trap. A phone call with a friend or family is also useful in breaking the cycle, enabling me to refocus on the here and now. These are all things that have helped me.
  5. Almost everyone has intrusive thoughts, with OCD it's not the thoughts that are the problem, it's the meaning we attach to them that then creates the anxiety. Perhaps the lack of anxiety is a sign you're on the right path in being able to dismiss the thoughts as nonsense. Not sure if I've explained that too well, sorry, but hope that helps.
  6. Focus on the first part of your sentence, and give yourself a pat on the back rather than beating yourself up. You've been giving in to the compulsions for a long time, it's become a habit, and just like any other habit, we can't always explain why we do something the way we do, we just do. Change is not going to happen overnight, but today shows you can make progress, keep at it, you're doing great.
  7. Hey everyone, Having a really bad week for my scrupulosity OCD. I keep ruminating on the most NORMAL of social interactions and trying to deal with if I did something immoral or mean or cruel or excessive. I thought I was doing a good job of sitting with my discomfort, redirecting my compulsions. On the drive home from the grocery store I repeated to myself a story about a time I did something kind like six times before I realized I was trying to quell my anxiety about being an awful person. I'm home, I want to crawl out of my skin. I'm trying not to ruminate, or cough, or confess, or seek reassurance and just sit with these awful emotions that make me want to die, make me feel like an awful person. Does anyone have any tips for sitting with discomfort and weathering through the uncertainty without feeding into compulsions? I tried distracting myself with some TV but eventually my intrusive thoughts and the skin-crawling feeling became too distracting to pay attention. What do you guys do?
  8. @Handy im waiting bc I have to wait for my new health insurance. Again, it doesn’t hurt, it’s just that small feeling when I bite down sometimes and me trying to feel if it isn’t there and it’s more about in the meantime me feeling I can’t enjoy my life and enjoy what I watch and where I go
  9. I like to study medicine. Almost every day I talk about it with a nurse friend. We already know being tired is often a lack of vitamins, B12, iron, etc. That's the first thing I add, a B complex. B12 is also anxiety vitamin. I don't know what you eat.
  10. I went to the dentist, she took care of it, including the bite. I don't know why you're waiting for an appointment. Do you think it's the first time that they saw this?
  11. Yesterday
  12. @snowbear I just need to ask you one last thing about the tooth issue. I’m again telling myself “even if every time I bite down if I feel the out of place and misaligned small part of the tooth from where the crack is. I can still enjoy my life as if I didn’t have this issue” im just having an extremely hard time feeling I can enjoy my life bc of the feeling when I bite down sometimes or focusing that I had that feeling and trying to feel that I don’t have that feeling to relax me. And yes I plan to see the dentist by end of summer
  13. I did pretty good today again, until about 20 minutes ago where I gave in. Ran the scenario. Feeling unsure. I don’t know why I’m having such a hard time just letting this go. I get so scared when I run the scenario and feel like I haven’t “viewed” it in enough detail and gotten the right feeling. I don’t like the thought, but I’m almost indifferent now, so that makes me worried too. I’m so caught up in thinking of the scenario “properly” that I cannot even tell my feelings half the time. I don’t know if this makes any sense. It just sucks. Why can’t I just let it go and decide that it’s nonsense?
  14. What you describe seems different to the comment about “fishnet pictures”.
  15. I use DuckDuckGo and Apple products because I don’t want to be tracked. The function of tracking is for google and others including social media is to sell advertising. That is why they are so rich. Taking ads from newspapers and ITV. Your profile is also sold to companies which aim to affect elections as revealed by the Cambridge Analytical scandal. With targeted biased posts. I am a member of Liberty the civil rights group. In many countries, perhaps most, I would not want this known to the state. Who knows what might happen in the future! I am a Quaker in the wars I would not want my details to be known. The Quakers revolutionised mental heath care and set up businesses such as Cadbury, Rowntree and Clarkes and had remarkably good personnel policies including very good housing for their employees.
  16. Thank you @Garfield for the clarification, exactly so! Phil, of course there are non-OCD reasons why someone might want to move house. But you also say you are thinking that some of your thoughts or behaviours are related to OCD and certainly some of the patterns you are describing other posters here with OCD can relate to. We’re wondering if therapy might help you address your anxieties, and then you would feel more confident working out whether you do really want to move house or whether that is driven by anxiety
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