Emsie

Hello everyone, Please could you explain the difference between worrying and ruminating. Thank you ?

I attended baby yoga classes when my little girl was a baby. It's great for their development and we both loved it. It's great for babies and for mums. I found the baby massage element great too to help with wind etc. Lovely songs and sensory development too for the little ones. It's a wonderful thing to do with your baby and my little girl greatly benefited from it as did I. I loved it! Enjoy your new career. It's a wonderful thing to do for everyone....teacher, mums and babies.

Hi BelAnna, It is OCD that is making you feel this way. It's lies. It makes us irrational. You've had an intrusive thought, I'm having quite a few at the moment too, and I'm trying very hard not to engage with them. It tells us that there is a massive concern when there isn't one. OCD is causing your fear. Distract yourself, keep busy and try your best to let it fade and to not engage with it anymore. Btw, it doesn't matter how often you post on here, it's what it's here for. You've made some valuable posts, like the survey of what makes OCD worse and better, that certainly helped me. Big virtual hug to you. ?

Hi djl, It's all OCD. OCD is making you feel like this. You've had an intrusive thought and OCD has made it seem like a huge concern, but it's not. It makes us irrational. I know it's hard at this time of night, but try your best not to engage in the thoughts any more. Distract yourself with something positive before you go to bed and just focus on your breathing when you do put your head on the pillow. If you wake up feeling anxious in the morning, try your best not to engage with any thoughts about it.

Great summary BelAnna. Sorry, I've been meaning to reply to this. I totally agree with all that's been said and I would add..... Better: Projects/keeping focused on positive activities Making myself do things even if I don't feel like it. Being around friends and family Feel good film or book Worse: Caffeine Having time that's unproductive when OCD is in play ?

Thank you so much Lost ?

Bless you, thank you so much! Ditto to you too if you'd like to chat. ?

Thank you to both of you for your kind words. Things are starting to dissipate a bit now. Nikki, I totally agree, the solution is simple and that's to not let the OCD thoughts in and to start ruminating. It's then that it gets complex and the more ruminating and other compulsions that we do the more questions we get and the more complex it gets and so on and so on.....then we can get truly lost. I just need some help with the cognitive side of understanding, I'm going to docs tomorrow to ask to be referred for CBT but I'm expecting a long wait. You're doing great too Nikki, well done for not ruminating, be very proud too and the further away you get from your thoughts the easier it will be for you to say that it's ok, I can let it go now. You will be able to do that. ?

Hi everyone, I just wanted to share this.... I've been doing so much better over the last week or so, just low level anxiety and I've not let my self ruminate by using the great advice from the great people on this forum. However, over the last 2 days, I've ruminated and it quickly led on to other compulsions, namely googling. I feel awful, I've scared myself and my anxiety is so horrible right now. I've lost my spark and I feel low. The reason that I wanted to share this is because before I performed my compulsions there was part of me that kind of said 'no', this happened lots, but I didn't listen. I wish that I had because I wouldn't be here now and feeling like this. Not ruminating etc is the only way to go. When I can see past the fears that OCD created and fuelled, I can see that I've let the OCD do this. It's nothing more than OCD. Writing this is also helping me. Thank you for all the help on this wonderful forum. ?

That's so wonderful to hear! Amazing! I'm so so pleased for you!! A massive well done for all of your hard work. Thank you so much for sharing your awesome progress. ?

Thank you so much. I'm doing ok thank you, trying to do all the fab advice I've learnt from all the wonderful people on this forum. So thank you so much everyone. ?

I'm so glad you are feeling good this week, such good news! ? A massive well done for not letting it in!

He so is your perfect baby! We are very lucky to have our beautiful angels. ?

Bless you Nikki. I hope you do too x ?

Hi Vikkii, I have a 2 year old little lady and I have to admit the same thought has crossed my mind in the past. I'm not worried about it though and I totally agree with OceanDweller. ?

Bless you Nikki, thank you, I just wanted to try and help as I know how you are currently feeling. Yes, small steps is a good idea. Do something nice for yourself. It will all fade Nikki. Don't judge your future on how you feel right now. Rest well tonight.

Thank you, it is hard when it's bad, but my attention and love needs to be on my little one. My danger points for ruminating and other compulsions are when she's napping, after bedtime and when she's playing with her dad, it's then that I have opportunity. And at the moment Nikki, you've got too much time for thinking and doing compulsions. I'm so sorry you are struggling at the moment with the anxiety levels but you can bring it down by doing things that you love doing or that could do with doing. You'll feel such a sense of achievement! It will take you away from ruminating. I can see myself in what you've been doing, my themes are different but it's the same things that we all do. The anxiety and false fears will fade if you stop ruminating, researching etc. They are just digging you a bigger hole. It's exactly what happens with me. OCD is a liar! Please remember that. Remember it's a disorder, your medicine is to keep busy, eat well, don't lie in and to try your best not to ruminate and when you do, catch yourself and maybe just say for now 'I'll think about that later' (hopefully you'll be to po busy later or forget). Nikki, when I stop myself from ruminating and from doing other compulsions, the anxiety fades and the fears become less and less real.

Hi Nikki, I think that your anxiety levels are so high at the moment that you can't access the great advice you've been getting. I have been there too with the anxiety levels being so high and not being able to apply advice/help and I could easily get there again, but I have a toddler and I have to think of my child and meet her needs and make her happy. I hide my anxiety from her too, which is hard but I don't want her learning any behaviours from me. Where I'm going with this is that you need to do something positive to bring the anxiety down and to distract you from ruminating. I know you're not working right now (I understand that as I was signed off work for 6 months a few years ago). But keeping busy with good little projects really helped me. Every evening I would make a list of things that I wanted to achieve the next day. Not too much, but nice things. It could be go for a walk, do some mindfulness, buy a new plant and plant it in the garden, sort out a draw and take some things to charity. I often tried to have one thing that was something that I've been meaning to do for ages, i.e. the sorting out a draw one. Anything that's good, interesting and nice to do. I also did not let myself lie in. I set my alarm and I got up. The days I did lie in were awful. I also made myself have breakfast. My opinion is that you need to bring your anxiety down to be able to access any help and advice. Wishing you a much better day tomorrow ?

This immediately reminded me of a CBT exercise that I had to do whilst in private therapy about 4 years ago. I had to write down the trigger, then rate my feelings, then the thoughts I had and then write down the reasons for and against the thoughts and then re-rate my feelings. The clinical psychologist I saw called it balancing, and reasons against my thoughts might be things like......I'm catastrophising, I've got no evidence etc. At the time I was not diagnosed with OCD and we were just calling it anxiety, I was later diagnosed by a psychiatrist as having OCD. So was this general CBT and not tailored to me and my OCD? I'm right in thinking it's the wrong approach for OCD?

Well done OceanDweller! It's so good you didn't do compulsions. You have inspired me and many others. Thank you so much for sharing ?

Enjoy your lager! You so deserve it! You have done so well!

Well done for not thinking about your worry! For me, the anxiety lingers for a while but it does dissipate. It always comes down, it can't stay at the level. It's like the waves that appear on a river when a boat has passed, each wave is smaller and with less energy. The same for feeling down, for me it goes.

Hope that helps. I'm new to this too. ?

My pleasure. Ruminating is the OCD version of worry.

Hi there, yesterday evening taurean posted a fantastic post defining ruminating and ways of stopping. It's called 'help to stop ruminating'. It's a great description of what ruminating is. I hope it helps.