So the recent shooter in America had mental problems

[PolarBear]

So what are you going to do?

[jampot]

Stop reading news?

its like I'm looking for all the things in the news.

read today about the shooting in the church that he got radicalized so I start thinking i  radicalized it just never stops..

really think I'm very sick

[PolarBear]

I really think you have a problem, no doubt. My concern is that you aren't doing anything about it. You come on here, multiple times a day, telling us how bad you feel. And that's it. It's the same thing, day after day. You aren't moving forward. You aren't taking steps to make changes. You're stuck. Doing the same thing over and over isn't going to get you on the road to recovery. You actually have to start doing things.

This can all be explained by OCD. No doubt about that. You read a news report, it triggers you, you get intrusive thoughts that you could be like the assailant in the news report, suddenly you're ruminating over the possibility and you aren't sure who you are anymore. Pretty standard fare where OCD is concerned.

You could ease off on the news but, really, you can't wall yourself off from the world. It exists, it's out there. Bad stuff happens and you're going to see/hear about it. The thing is, what do you do about those triggers. That's the important part. Right now you're following through on the intrusive thoughts by doing compulsions and that gets you trapped. There's a different approach where you don't get sucked in by the intrusive thoughts, you take a noncommittal attitude about the thoughts and you continue on with your day without getting in the trap of doing compulsions. But you have to put in the effort to do that. You actually have to do something about it.

Are you ready to start making changes?

[jampot]

Yesi am.so what would be the compulsions here then?

[PolarBear]

No doubt you ruminate over these thoughts. You get the thought that you're just like the shooter in the Charleston church. What do you do about that thought? I know you ruminate over it. That's your big compulsion. You sit there trying to work out if you're like that or not. You scan your memory trying to figure out if you could be like that. There's your compulsions. That type of thing needs to stop. Instead, take the approach of, "Yeah, whatever" and get on with your day. Leave the thoughts alone. They're just garbage OCD thoughts that don't mean anything. You need to do this sort of thing every time you get such thoughts. Every time. Start treating the thoughts as the garbage they are. Don't put any faith in them at all. Dismiss them as irrelevant.

[jampot]

Ok I will try.

Thankyou

[Guest OCDhavenobrain]

Did you actually do it?

[jampot]

1 hour ago, OCDhavenobrain said:

Did you actually do it?

 

1 hour ago, OCDhavenobrain said:

Did you actually do it?

No tried but did not make much difference

[jampot]

Can't even do this.