ivybasil

There have been some live streams set up on animal watering holes! I've been watching some elephants on the 'Tau' channel for a while this morning and thought some others might enjoy this too? www.Africam.com

Chester Zoo are doing live streams of their animals all day today! I've just been watching the red pandas - very cute!

They are just thoughts. ❤️ Distressing ones for you, I'm sure but just because you have a thought, does it make it true? You give it significance because it upsets you. It's no different to if you had a thought that amuses you if you take away the emotional reaction 🙂 Another thought: 'what if, right now, I looked out the window and the crows were doing ballet...' or 'i want to eat 17 chocolate cakes.' A daft thought, doesn't mean anything, don't know why it was my example but I don't need to know that. Don't give the OCD thoughts the reaction they expect and it'll start to lessen.

This is exactly the feeling I've been trying to describe to myself. I'm not so afraid of getting ill as I am about the change and restrictions.

I'm finding this difficult too; you're definitely not alone. I was upset about this last night and this morning and I got some lovely words of support from fellow sufferers on this board. I think by sharing our worries and sharing how we're feeling, we can help one another get through this. As the others said, this isn't forever, and we'll all get into some sort of routine soon. I'm in isolation, as are a few of my friends, and we've tried to come up with some digital hobbies - learning a new language together on Duolingo and planning a trip to use it in the future. Allow yourself a litt

I'm sorry to hear you're struggling so much! You did the right thing in sharing how you are feeling. You will get through this. All this uncertainty and confusion will pass. Supplies in shops are being rationed to customers and it'll become easier to get these things soon, hopefully. Do you have a therapist you can talk to? The Samaritans website has some contacts for people you can talk to/email in a crisis. You're not alone in how you're feeling. Do you have friends and family around you to talk to? It's okay to share how you're feeling. ❤️ Have a read of the thread on here about

Just wanted to say thank you for this thread, Ashley. It helped me gain a little perspective. I'd thought I was being quite calm and sensible about all this but had the growing realisation that I've been spending a lot of time googling and checking. Being in retail environments has been stressful with the growing pressure that I should be stocking up. Today I did our family grocery shop and bought an extra box of cereal and a few more tins than normal but otherwise tried to carry on as normal. Going to work on cutting the googling down and rely mainly on the information emailed to me fr

It can be so frustrating! OCD makes me feel desperate to know answers; you're right though - it's absolutely fine to leave things unsolved. 🙂 Glad to hear you're feeling a little better - acknowledge to yourself that it's okay to want to look something up, just that you don't have to do it now. Do something else until the feeling passes 🙂

Hi there! You can get through this! Try telling yourself you can Google in 10 minutes time, then after that time, set another ten minutes, then maybe fifteen minutes. Keep telling yourself you'll do something about it later and keep putting off that time.

Hope today is a better day, @Cub.

Hi, Cub. Sorry to hear you're having such a hard time with this at the moment. If you do not have some medical help for this at the moment, make sure you make a GP appointment. Remember if you are feeling suicidal, there are helplines you can talk to to get support quicker than a GP appointment. https://www.samaritans.org This is here if you need it. Since you are having trouble with thoughts surrounding your faith, would talking to a pastor or a chaplain help you? They can perhaps answer religion specific questions - not in a reassurance seeking way, just helping you work out your thoug

Hi there! Sorry to hear you're having a hard time with this! I think the most helpful thing to remember here is the common forum adage: if you think it's OCD, it probably is. And isn't testing your fear part of what we do in exposure therapy? Do the thing that scares you and sit with the anxiety it might bring and allow it to fade. Remember though, if you feel you have engaged in a compulsion instead, a set back is not the end of the world. Acknowledge it happened and remind yourself that you do not have to be certain about anything - it is okay to feel the doubt. Incidental

That's okay. Setbacks happen. This is just your OCD and you don't need to listen to what it says. 🙂 The important thing now is to move on quickly and try not to engage with the compulsion to keep googling. What are your interests? Google something you like, find some new facts about something that interests you, not your OCD 🙂 replace the negative compulsion with something better

I'm a great believer in the healing power of dog pictures. No shame in dog pictures over sports! Although, it's worthwhile google image searching 'dogs playing rugby'. Very rewarding. Hope you're doing better today, @AnxiousAnnie?

Download one of those internet blockers - an app like Cold Turkey of something you can set to not let you online for a certain amount of time. If you feel the urge to check something, set the timer for a period of time instead. Then you've got a bit of back up, too, if you find yourself giving in! This helped me with a need to check my sent emails 🙂