Andrea

 Hi Em24  

Your story is so inspirational. Your post gives me a lot of hope in recovery. 

Thank you for sharing

faith

I remember playmobil figures were expensive too. I only had one small playmobil set. It was a small living room and 2 playmobil kids playing in the living room. The set had just a couple of furniture however I was really happy playing with it. 

3 hours ago, AmandaG said:

My Playmobil figures. I had a jousting knights set and some pirates in a rowing boat with a treasure chest. Absolutely loved them!

I agree with Amanda. I have great memories playing with playmobile figures in my childhood.

I also have great memories playing with Play Doh

Flower

Brilliant! Thanks Ashley 

Thank you moderators You do an outstanding job  

Flip flop

Thank you for your nice comments guys  

14 hours ago, gingerbreadgirl said:

I bet three dogs are a handful Andrea! A fun one though  are they all the same breed? 

 No, They aren't. The three of them are different. They are mixed-breed dogs. Two of them are rescue dogs. I love  them.

1 hour ago, Hal said:

Thanks Andrea their scent is incredible. How many dogs do you have? We have just the one cat, who's always up to some sort of mischief.

I have 3 dogs. Having a pet is one of the best thing in life  

I am smiling  because I am enjoying the company of my dogs 

Beautiful Hyacinth Hal 

Business

food

Relaxing

I agree with dksea. Treat your fear of batteries as irrational. People don't worry about the components of batteries and nothing bad has happened to them

On 18/02/2020 at 16:40, VNDO said:

Oh yes, I totally agree! I know that what I do is unreasonably, but then I think that if I dont do it I will fail the exam I have that week, or my cat will get hurt. So, even though I know that won't happen, I still must do it just in case. The hard part is to fight back and put my foot down. That's what I need to practice

My sister is a great support right now. She understands how it works and she cares, which is the most important. 

You are right VNDO, the hard part is to fight back and put our foot down. However that is what we have to do to get better.

Always remember that OCD is a big fat liar, and nothing bad is going to happen if you don't perform your rituals, that is the key.

I am really glad your sister is a great support VNDO 

18 hours ago, VNDO said:

Thank you so much for the support. It's nice to know, even though I've never met neither of you, that I'm not alone. My OCD is mostly about checking things: if the doors are locked, if the oven is off, if nothing is plugged in, etc... with that it comes the worrying and the stress. I've checked everything, but then I'm in bed and I start to worry if I'm mistaken and must check everything again. When I leave the house I have to photograph everything so I have proof that everything is as it's supposed to... I need to touch things until they feel right,  whatever that is. It is a struggle... I feel tired and I know that's my brain playing games with me, but I just can't fight back. As I've said in some other threads, besides my sister who's a nurse and understands this, I think my mother just believes it's some sort of quirkiness and that I do it because I want to. She doesn't understand how stressed and almost breathless I feel when I don't 'obey' to my rituals. I've always been this way, but I think my parents' divorce somehow acted as a trigger and it got much worse. 

Thank you for the books recommendations, I will take a look at the video

You are not alone VNDO. I am glad your sister understands you, that is a very good news.   

I am also glad that you understand very well when you are performing a ritual. You know when your brain is playing games with you. Understanding this is very important to start your journey towards recovery.

The hard part about OCD is that to get better we have to learn to stop performing our rituals. For example having to photograph everything is a compulsion. This is something you don't have to do. And you have to resist the anxiety that is going to arise when you don't take the photographs. This is the difficult part: resist the anxiety. 

The good news is that the more you practice not performing your rituals the more your anxiety will start to reduce. You have to remember that OCD is a big fat liar, and nothing bad is going to happen if you don't perform your rituals.

7 hours ago, VNDO said:

She doesn't really care, I think. I've been asking for months and she says yes, but never sets up the appointment. Even with the medication, she's not really on board with it. We don't have the best relationship as well. But I really feel like I need to see a psychologist. Just need to find a way to set up the appointment...

I am really sorry your mother doesn't care VNDO. The good news is that you can find great support here on the forum. You can share with us your symptoms and we can teach you how to face them. You are a very smart girl, I am sure you are going to find a way to have an appointment eventually. In the meantime, there are very good selfhelp books you can read to learn good tools to deal with your OCD symptoms. I recommend the book: Brain Lock by Jeffrey M. Schwartz.

Here is an Introductory Overview of the book Brain Lock, this way you can see what the book is about:

I am sure other members can recommend other selfhelp books.

3 hours ago, VNDO said:

So, basically, the meds just mute the symptoms, they don't cure it... I've been asking my mother for ages for an appointment with the psychologist to no avail. I do feel like I need to talk to a professional regarding some family issues and I think that would help me a lot with my ocd, although I also need to learn some coping mechanisms instead of relying just on my meds, if that makes sense.

 

It makes sense. You need to see a CBT therapist to help you to deal with your OCD symptoms VNDO. You are right asking your mother for an appointment. Why your mother doesn´t want to take you to see a specialist? 

1 hour ago, VNDO said:

Hello everybody, 

I've been noticing these last couple of months since I've been on medication that whenever I'm on my period, my ocd gets substantially worse. Never noticed it before starting medication, so I'm not sure if there's any correlation there. Is it just with me, my head, or do any of the ladies in here felt the same? 

Since my last post, I've gone back to my doctor and increased my meds to twice a day, as I wasn't feeling any better, except for a decrease in anxiety. It's been two months since that and I'm still struggling with my obsessions, although, I haven't seen any psychologist to help me with cbt and all that... can the meds by itself work?

Sorry for having two questions in one topic. 

Hello VNDO,

Personally, I don't think there is a correlation between meds and period. My OCD gets substantially worse when I am on my period. You are not alone.

According to what I know, Medication (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs)) helps you to decrease anxiety. And CBT helps you to deal with obsessions and compulsions.

On 17/01/2020 at 20:47, malina said:

The most powerful thing I have heard was a woman with OCD write about how she's had many fears during her life and tried so hard to prevent all of them from happening, but in the end the worst thing that ever happened to her was the experience of living with OCD. So while there may indeed be some risk of something bad happening to you, the biggest risk is not overcoming OCD. 

I love  your reply malina. Thank you for sharing 

1 hour ago, BigDave said:

Dear friends,

I wanted to write to you telling you a tale of hope. Except, this is not a tale.

Don't get me wrong, this is only a short period of time. I have been doing this now for probably no more than 30 or so hours. But for the past 30 hours, I have done my best to avoid all compulsions,. This has meant doing things that I don't like such as putting cloths that may have touched my phone back in my drawer or touching bathroom toilet handles. And to be honest, the first few times I did it I was very anxious. And while I am by no means cured, I do want to say this - I have done these things and I have, thus far, managed to survive. I am still alive. I am still breathing. No toilet handle germs have killed me yet. The point I am saying is that there is hope. And while I am not kidding myself that I am cured, I still fall back with certain things (like I just changed my t-shirt now), I actually got through a whole day relatively Scott-Free and you know what? It feels great. So I'm going to keep going with this and see where it takes me. There is also no time like the present for you to start too. As hard as it may be, just stop doing them compulsions. Expose yourself. The sooner you do that, the sooner we can get to a place where @PolarBear is. I have to say also that for people like PolarBear and dksea amongst others, these people are amazing for doing what they do. I just wanted to share the love with you guys and let you know that while there is life there is hope, and we can fight the good fight!

KEEP GOING AND GOOD LUCK!

 

Hi Bigdave ,

Congrats! You are an inspiration. Keep going  and thank you for sharing 

45 minutes ago, Ashley said:

BREAKING NEWS:  I have just had a bath for pure relaxation in nearly 2 years. This won't mean much to some, but for others who know I have had to avoid my bath because the taps and plug were #OCD 'contaminated', then you will know how much this means. That was part of victory

the other part was the fact that I had slept in a 'contaminated' bed for two nights (contaminated according to OCD, not in reality) without showering, and I felt minimal anxiety.  I still have one hurdle to overcome, but this weeks success will help make that hurdle leapable!

The above success brought to you by #CBT at home, a proactive choice to face #OCD & advice from amazing friends, so thank you SM, KM, PS, ZW, GB, CM (and anyone I forgot) for being there. And to all my forum and social media friends rooting for me. Despite wobble this year, I've always believed in recovery.

I can't pretend I set out to confront OCD this week, unfortunately (or fortunate) my body forced the issue on the night I was off to London the following day, so whilst I could have spent 3 hours doing rituals and covering myself in bleach, I knew I would have not com pleted step 4 of ritual so I would have been anxious all time away.  So, for whatever reason that morning I decided to try and challenge myself, some rituals were done (thats my final hurdle) but step 2 was minimal and step 3 not completed.  So In actual fact, by not doing most of step 2 or step 3 or 4, I believe this now sets me up to face step 1.... which would mean recovery from OCD. 

When will I be able to do that? I don't know. But I am going to consolidate gains for sure, and not run away from main step, and  maybe in time, days rather than weeks, I will confront.

Well done Ashley! Congrats!