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OCD - the stealer of joy


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This is what I think: OCD steals the joy from our lives. It robs of the present moment with a constant “what if” whisper in your ear. 

But it’s hard to resist that what if, even if the what if isn’t that bad and we would be able to deal with it if it happened. 

I just want the joy back in my life now for me and those around me. 

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I am, but some days it feels like a long road and one that frankly i’m a bit sick of! Doing compulsions is such a quick fix that some days that just feels easier, but not helpful long term I know. I just want to focus on the joy in front of me and only deal with issues as they are actually issues rather than hypothetical problems all the time. Easier to type it than do it! And maybe this is all just ruminating...

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OCD really does steal joy, that is unfortunately a great way of putting it.  But it's also important to remember that OCD isn't an enemy, a monster in our heads, it's just us - it's our own thinking patterns. 

There's a really great song about anxiety called "The village, the wolf and the boy" by Taylor Barrett and there's a lyric that goes "I make up ways to steal my joy." I like this line because it reminds me that although OCD can feel like an enemy, it's actually me,  I am in charge of my responses and I can choose to change the script, I can stop "making up ways to steal my joy" if I choose to respond in a different way. 

Edited by gingerbreadgirl
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Yes that is true that it is my mind, sometimes though that can make it difficult can’t it? Because they are real thoughts, in my case catastrophic versions of possible and indeed likely events such as children having common childhood illnesses. So I feel the need to check all the time if I think my child has them! 

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In other words it’s hard to stop the rumination and checking because they’re not unrealistic. But I also know I’m a resourceful person who can deal with problems and so i’m wasting my life on checking and thinking to find certainty one way or another when what I should do is enjoy my life and sort out a problem when it actually occurs

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But we can turn things around, stop it "stealing the joy". 

Doing that is all about learning, then practising, cognitive behavioural therapy. 

We learn how the illness works, what keeps it alive, makes it strong. 

How to make it weaker, render intrusions benign. 

Along the way, learning how to handle and minimise stress, eating sensibly, taking exercise and learning meditation and mindfulness are greatly helpful. 

Just copying through this piece from another of my topics shows how we get drawn into an anxiety cycle. 

"A real key to me is to gradually become stronger at not responding and refocusing away. The default mode we have sunk into is  :

obsessional thought 

give meaning to it 

react with disorder 

respond with a compulsion to try and make it better 

makes things worse, 

So when we learn to "spoke"  this wheel that becomes a circle of distress, we start to recover. "

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