Triple

Still feeling good. Kinda feel lost as Ive gained a lot of thinking time for other things now. Starting to feel anxious about other things but using my CBT techniques to identify them as false alarms and moving forward with the day

Today I battled an 8 year compulsion that had begun to sneak its way back into my life recently. Ive reread the same messages from an old partner over and over again, checking the content and whether I had reacted to any of the messages which would give the person a notification (silly facebook and it's reactions). Sometimes the compulsion took hours to complete as my checks would never be good enough. My worst thought would be that the person would be notified that I was looking at the messages and they would be reintroduced into my life. Something i'd desperately fought to not happen. Today, I told OCD to be quiet and I deleted the messages fully. No more checking them now 'because they're there so why not' anymore. That was my biggest drive to checking them. Because the messages were always readily available, that was a reason to check 'just to be sure' my last check wasn't wrong. I'm currently riding the wave of anxiety but I might go ahead and delete some more messages. Today I told OCD no more and stood up for myself. We'll see how this behavioural experiment turns out tomorrow and how the feeling has changed. I'll tell you what I won't be doing tomorrow though... 'checking the messages'.

Congratulations. It's a brilliant profession. Remember to be kind to yourself and remember that it's okay to say no (sometimes the job list gets filled way too high). I'm a teacher (currently taking a career break) and I wish I remembered these two things. If you're ever in need of resources or advice I'd be more than happy to help a fellow teacher out! Good luck on your new adventure!

Today, I left the house, got on a bus and shopped in a busy town center without checking behind me or retracing my steps to ensure I hadn't harmed anyone. I've crossed roads, allowed myself to not hyperfocus, brought clothes from multiple shops, changed my plans and been okay with it and even walked through crowded spaces rather than waiting for walking traffic to slow down. I walked with confidence, allowed thoughts to be thoughts and am now at home chilling with my cats. I won today and I will tomorrow.

I moved house today. I normally have a set place for everything. Keep everything secure. I find keeping documents secure really affects my OCD. Today, I packed everything, checked once and left the house. Handed back the keys with one check. Wondered if I packed something important. Allowed the thoughts to sit with me rather than check. The item was there. I beat the compulsion. Here starts my new chapter. Proud of today and trying not to let the post stress obsessions. Gonna keep myself busy tonight.

Hi everyone, I've been held back by this trait of OCD for far too long and need to start tackling it. I have more violent and horrible obsessions when I notice that I've not focused on a task. For example: walking down a street and losing complete focus on something ( not being hyper fixated on major details) leads to me having obsessions about people being killed as I 'may' have pushed them into the road or walked past a dead body. Or not checking every detail in a document leads to obsessions that Ive written something abhorrent or leaked personal information. I recognise the thoughts are unrealistic and unnecessary but I still find myself putting a lot of weight on them. They're obviously thoughts that I feel are immoral and don't align with my ethos in life. Has anyone experienced a way to tackle these obsessions. I feel like I need a new approach to it. I feel like I'm doing on a CBT ERP roundabout and starting again too frequently.

Yeah I can agree with that. It feels like it's jabbing and increasing with intensity. It's the difference between a light punch and a knockout blow. That's how I've seen it anyway

Hi all, I thought I might pick your brains for some ideas as I'm trying to understand my pattern of thoughts. I've spoken to my therapist about this, but I feel my thoughts increase in intensity to a point where it becomes unbearable. An example when I was walking my sister's dog: -thoughts about getting fined for littering (ignored) -thoughts about the dog jumping at people (ignored) -thoughts about the dog attacking people, blood everywhere (ignored) - the same thought but people dying. The same pattern happens when I walk by busy streets. For example: -thought about dropping keys and needing to check (ignored) - thoughts about bumping into people (ignored) -thoughts about bumping into people and them receiving a head injury in which I visualise the skull cracking (ignored) -thoughts about the person dying, blood everywhere, people screaming. When I say ignored, it means I've used my CBT techniques. Maybe maybe not statements, defusing techniques, relaxation techniques, sitting with the thoughts ect... I just don't understand why the thoughts increase and increase in intensity until I crack. I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced this or whether there's another condition/OCD form I should be tackling.

Thankyou for this information. I've always been unsure about this requirement and it's made my recovery, in regards to driving, very difficult.

Yeah I feel this is very true, especially since I went off sick from work. How do you manage this ? Its difficult because I'm moving soon to back home closer to family, and I've never truly felt comfortable on my own in my own place.

I guess it's a case of that, and knowing that if something ever did happen I'd know by crowd reaction. Like, for example: if I'd bump into someone people around me would react too. I feel like that's a compulsion but I'm unsure how to stop it being a compulsion because I don't control people around me. That's a good point. The thoughts are quite strong and vivid at these times. I'm finding it difficult to differentiate what I've seen to what my mind thinks I've seen. I've tried music before, but that seemed to make it worse at times. I'm not too sure really.

Hi all, I've noticed that my obsessive thoughts and compulsive actions are worse the closer I am to home. I'm not sure whether this is because I have more opportunities to give into compulsions because they are closer, like checking roads and looking for accidents (harm OCD). I'm trying to use the techniques from my ERP and CBT in the past and comparing them to when ive been out in town and can understand and rationalise comfortably. Just feels very different. I feel I can handle being out and about. But the closer I am to home feels like torture. For example, a walk through a busy town centre is a cake walk in comparison to my quiet suburban neighbourhood with barely anyone there. I'm confused to why this is. I feel like the closer I am to home the more I will be caught out. If that makes sense.

I appreciate the advice. Today I've really tried to challenge the need to fill in all the blanks. And it's been a pretty good day. Walking through town felt a lot more bearable and I was less hyper fixated on noticing every detail. Responding less to the need has meant my other obsessive compulsive cycles have felt weaker

Looking at the situation as you would do from a 3rd person (a friend's view) may be a good idea and has worked for me in the past. What would a friend say in the situation.. That being said, recognising the thoughts and labelling them may be a good approach.

Hope today went well for you! It's such a great opportunity!