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On 09/07/2021 at 20:55, Lollipop said:

Thank you @Caramoole. It's hard work and lots still to do but little by little. 

I'll have a think and post something in this thread. What about you @BelAnna?

Hi Lollipop,

Thank you! I would like to face some days out this week while my brother and his family staying. 

I've had quite a few challenges already in the last two days with things like shoes being handled by family members with no handwashing afterwards; baby hands covered in dog lick being put on my face/mouth; walking barefoot on grass because my toddler nephew was playing with my slippers that I left outside of a tent in the garden [and then happening to notice a tiny piece of dry poo on the grass (well actually even going into the garden was off limits last week (and for almost a year) so being in the garden was a challenge in itself) etc].

My brother even put some boxes into the recycling bin outside without gloves on (usually members of my household wear rubber gloves for everything bin-related!) and my brother and sister-in-law are coming in from shops in town without our usual routine (which is anti-viral sanitizing foam at the door for 1 minute, handwashing, following by a shower and change of clothes) and sometimes probably without even without washing hands.

I'm finding it all really difficult to cope with but at the same time I'm being forced to lose track of the 'trail of contamination' (i.e. contamination spread from one object to another) because it feels like everything is contaminated just now! 

 

Edited by BelAnna
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Sounds like a huge week for you @BelAnna and like you are doing really well. Some of that sounds very challenging (the shoes makes me wince but I guess that's usual behaviour for most people). 

I hope you can manage the days out and have some fun ?

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I brought this thread back to the top because we seriously need to see some sufferers challenging the issues that are keeping them stuck.  Of late the forum (to me) has been one of suffering, dare I say, of hopelessness ....a place of reassurance, a platform for compulsions.....rarely one about recovery, improvement or even success.  That's so sad.

My gold badge would go to Lollipop who's regularly facing challenges :)

I know OCD is tough and that facing fears is difficult but so is staying completely stuck.  Challenging our fears is necessary, even if it's by way of tiny steps.  Let's be considering a few.  The only fear that is relevant  is the fear of fear itself.

little challenges please :)

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  • 7 months later...

Let's have this one back at the top again to go hand in hand with the Achievements thread.

The achievements thread is there to give ourselves a well-deserved pat on the back, often neglected.  It's for brief acknowledgements & encouragement rather than getting into the problems and lows, just achievements.

The Challenge Thread is similar but is about setting ourselves a specific challenge, big or small and how we're doing with that goal, along with tips, advice and support from others as we face those challenges.

Any takers this time round?

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42 minutes ago, Caramoole said:

Let's have this one back at the top again to go hand in hand with the Achievements thread.

The achievements thread is there to give ourselves a well-deserved pat on the back, often neglected.  It's for brief acknowledgements & encouragement rather than getting into the problems and lows, just achievements.

The Challenge Thread is similar but is about setting ourselves a specific challenge, big or small and how we're doing with that goal, along with tips, advice and support from others as we face those challenges.

Any takers this time round?

I will but I need to think of a challenge.

I’m having a lot of old obsessions pop up at the moment as I’m working on staying in the present and acknowledging the thoughts.

Today’s one seems to be triggered by a post online (about ocd funnily enough) and an urge to check through the past to see if I’ve made any mistakes or done anything wrong. 

I seem to engage a bit and then realise and focus on the now but I’m very easily triggered at the moment. 

I have routines daily of checking social media in the morning to check anything, followed by the news and emails. I’m usually triggered by something on them and I’m afraid to not check in case there’s something important there. I do this from the moment I wake up so maybe I should set a challenge to do with this ?.

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1 hour ago, determination987 said:

I will but I need to think of a challenge.

I’m having a lot of old obsessions pop up at the moment as I’m working on staying in the present and acknowledging the thoughts.

Today’s one seems to be triggered by a post online (about ocd funnily enough) and an urge to check through the past to see if I’ve made any mistakes or done anything wrong. 

I seem to engage a bit and then realise and focus on the now but I’m very easily triggered at the moment. 

I have routines daily of checking social media in the morning to check anything, followed by the news and emails. I’m usually triggered by something on them and I’m afraid to not check in case there’s something important there. I do this from the moment I wake up so maybe I should set a challenge to do with this ?.

Okay, I’m going to set myself a challenge to not immediately check my phone as I get up. Obviously I need to check emails, messages and things like that but I think that doing it from the moment I wake up has become something I ‘have’ to do to feel safe and it starts the day off with a ‘need’ to check.

Maybe I delay it until I’ve had breakfast? I have anxiety at the thought of not checking immediately so maybe it’s a good one to try. I often feel like I have to be contactable at all times, check for things so I can fix them asap and whilst I’ve stopped a lot of the checks linked to intrusive thoughts (when noticed), I think this one is perpetuating the need to check. 

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One thing I try to do which can be seen as something of a challenge is based on the sabbatical theme.  On a Sunday morning I aim to avoid switching on media sources.  This is not always easy because there is always those thoughts that something may be missed which can lead to compulsively switching something on just to check.

I am thinking I could try to put my CBT therapy plan to work on next Sunday morning.

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Good goals @determination987and @northpaul

I have been trying to make once a week goals which are harder ones for me, so this weeks one is washing some new clothes I bought. That one feels really challenging. 

I have a deeper fear of bringing in new things to my life in a very literal sense.

New clothes are especially hard because i actually have to put them on so they feel so much a part of me-not like a book or something that i can pick up for a bit and put down and slowly get used to it being around me.

It also feels like it really triggers my contamination fears.

Strategies I'm using to tackle this is

  • recalling times that i've had the same fear in the past and gotten through it and how good it feels then to have the new (and much needed) clothes
  • working on facing smaller challenges each day as they arise so as to strengthen my knowledge that I can handle the anxiety that comes with facing the fears
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On 12/07/2021 at 01:39, Caramoole said:

Challenging our fears is necessary, even if it's by way of tiny steps. 

 

2 hours ago, L.M. said:

working on facing smaller challenges each day

Tiny steps, small steps, moderate steps or big steps.  Any step towards recovery is a good step.  ?‍♀️

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3 hours ago, L.M. said:

Good goals @determination987and @northpaul

I have been trying to make once a week goals which are harder ones for me, so this weeks one is washing some new clothes I bought. That one feels really challenging. 

I have a deeper fear of bringing in new things to my life in a very literal sense.

New clothes are especially hard because i actually have to put them on so they feel so much a part of me-not like a book or something that i can pick up for a bit and put down and slowly get used to it being around me.

It also feels like it really triggers my contamination fears.

Strategies I'm using to tackle this is

  • recalling times that i've had the same fear in the past and gotten through it and how good it feels then to have the new (and much needed) clothes
  • working on facing smaller challenges each day as they arise so as to strengthen my knowledge that I can handle the anxiety that comes with facing the fears

That sounds like a great challenge and good strategies?

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3 hours ago, northpaul said:

One thing I try to do which can be seen as something of a challenge is based on the sabbatical theme.  On a Sunday morning I aim to avoid switching on media sources.  This is not always easy because there is always those thoughts that something may be missed which can lead to compulsively switching something on just to check.

I am thinking I could try to put my CBT therapy plan to work on next Sunday morning.

This is how I feel a lot too! I might have to try one similar to yours next as I spend quite a lot of time checking media, emails and everything really. Weekends are the hardest! I check immediately and then throughout the day. It’s that fear of missing something like you said. 

Good luck with it this weekend - you’ve inspired me with your progress ?

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On 23/02/2022 at 09:03, L.M. said:

so this weeks one is washing some new clothes I bought. That one feels really challenging. 

ok so as i posted in the achievements thread, I managed to wash the clothes. It was challenging just as I suspected it would be, but I got through it. 

But now I am getting stressed about the idea of actually wearing them!

So I guess that will be a good week's challenge.

I've continued to challenge myself on a daily basis to confront smaller triggers and I am finding that very helpful as I try to tackle these bigger ones.

Maybe I will try to make it part of my practice to face smaller triggers on a daily basis and post in the achievements thread.

Also will get out my workbook and work through some cbt exercises.

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10 hours ago, L.M. said:

I've continued to challenge myself on a daily basis to confront smaller triggers and I am finding that very helpful as I try to tackle these bigger ones.

I find this too :) 

I've found that I had lots of compulsions that I was doing everyday without realising and tackling those is giving me more confidence on the bigger ones.

Hope the challenge goes well for the week. I think I'm going to look at reducing checking my phone, emails and news throughout the day. I think it's been creeping up over the weeks and I'm going to try and extend the length of time between checks this week.

 

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On 23/02/2022 at 16:59, northpaul said:

One thing I try to do which can be seen as something of a challenge is based on the sabbatical theme.  On a Sunday morning I aim to avoid switching on media sources.  This is not always easy because there is always those thoughts that something may be missed which can lead to compulsively switching something on just to check.

I am thinking I could try to put my CBT therapy plan to work on next Sunday morning.

Just switched on this machine about 20 minutes ago after a peaceful media free morning as planned above.  I kept my mind occupied doing odd jobs in the house.  No compulsions to catch up just in case I missed something.  It appears that life is still going on.  I am planning a repeat for next Sunday.

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On 27/02/2022 at 06:17, determination987 said:

I've found that I had lots of compulsions that I was doing everyday without realising and tackling those is giving me more confidence on the bigger ones.

Excellent. Yes it's neat to see this at work! 

23 hours ago, northpaul said:

Just switched on this machine about 20 minutes ago after a peaceful media free morning as planned above.  I kept my mind occupied doing odd jobs in the house.  No compulsions to catch up just in case I missed something.  It appears that life is still going on.  I am planning a repeat for next Sunday.

Wonderful!

I really appreciate you both posting on here--really helps me stay on it.

I'm just about to get out my book to look and see if there are any particular cbt exercises I can do to help me face my bigger trigger (wearing those darn new clothes!) this week.

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I've thought of a challenge for myself. I bought a book ages ago and I've still only read the first page. I do this a lot with books. I think that my mind wanders or I'm worried about coming across triggers so they've become something that I avoid even though I want to read them.

My challenge is to pick up the book this week and read it.

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1 hour ago, L.M. said:

Excellent. Yes it's neat to see this at work! 

Wonderful!

I really appreciate you both posting on here--really helps me stay on it.

I'm just about to get out my book to look and see if there are any particular cbt exercises I can do to help me face my bigger trigger (wearing those darn new clothes!) this week.

You can do it! I'm looking forward to seeing your progress on the achievements thread :). Remember that even though your anxiety will rise and feel unbearable, that it will calm down. 

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23 hours ago, determination987 said:

Remember that even though your anxiety will rise and feel unbearable, that it will calm down. 

Thanks for that encouragement. I'm having a bit of a hard time the last couple of days. The anxiety just seems to be ever present at a low-grade level. I can see that it is because I am trying to challenge myself and I know it's good for me in the long-term, but it does feel hard.

I am trying to make sure to get out to do nice things in the midst of all the challenges to keep my spirits up. Yesterday was a nice walk on some forest trails. It's nice to get those breaks where I just feel happy and good for a while.

Today's mini challenge is taking the garbage out, and bringing the bins back in.

My happy spirit-lifter will be going for a run.

Still trying to work on the cognitive side of things for the new clothes. It's actually turning out to be more of a challenge than I expected...I might have to break it down into smaller steps.

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22 hours ago, L.M. said:

Still trying to work on the cognitive side of things for the new clothes. It's actually turning out to be more of a challenge than I expected...I might have to break it down into smaller steps.

So yes, decided my anxiety levels were too high in just wearing those clothes, so I broke it down into more manageable pieces. So yesterday I washed one of the items with my regular laundry, as previously I had washed the new items separate from my regular wash. It still brought my anxiety up, but to a level I could handle--maybe about 20/100. Next I will wear that item. Slowly I will integrate all the new clothes in that same way.

I felt better yesterday than I have in a while. The run felt wonderful, and facing the challenges and breaking them into smaller pieces that I felt I could handle felt empowering and encouraging.

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