Don't let ocd trick you into staying stuck!

[gingerbreadgirl]

Just a big shout out to everyone struggling on here - don't give up!! You can do this - you are stronger than ocd. 

It makes me so sad seeing so many people on here too scared to stand up to ocd and stop playing is game (I've been there many times). We think - but what if it's real? What if I am ignoring a real risk? I would be irresponsible /a monster etc etc. I need to keep doing compulsions just in case. 

This is ocd's biggest lie! Don't let it trick you!

There is a way out of this hell but you HAVE to decide to take that risk, to decide to be irresistible /reckless etc. You have to take the leap first - and in time clarity will come. But you can't get the clarity first. That's why they call it a leap of faith. You have to take a deep breath and leap into the ocean if you ever hope to swim. 

We can do this but we must take that scary first step. 

Edited December 9, 2018 by gingerbreadgirl

[beckyboo]

absolutley!! .. Ive just started ERP with my therapist the first session wasnt triggering at all, so she said she couldnt decide if i was actually futher into recovery than we first thought as the intrusions were few and far between and was able to just see them as background noise. or whether to be more hard hitting with the exposure...she suggested maybe watching 13 reasons why, naturally i was worried about this..then saw some videos on facebook and BOOM i got triggered so really struggling this weekend & feeling like its a huge step back

[taurean]

5 hours ago, gingerbreadgirl said:

You have to take a deep breath and leap into the ocean if you ever hope to swim. 

Very much so. 

Mental troubles with OCD are like storms. And the surface of the sea in a storm is really choppy and dangerous. 

But beneath the choppy surface, farther down below, will be calm. 

And similarly, below the troubled state of a mental storm will lie calm - face off the storm by taking the leap of faith, seeing out the anxiety response, and gradually the storm clouds will recede, revealing the calm beneath. 

[Caramoole]

Roy....

Eons ago, when you were struggling, you downloaded a childrens book about the last elves on the planet.  You couldn't read it.  Do you think you could today?

I remember one incident in my life when we were out on a dog walk and my Husband was letting the dogs go too near the edge of a really steep, dangerous ravine.  I was hysterically shouting at him to keep the dogs away from the edge.  He was baffled and more than a tad impatient at my hysteria, telling me there was no danger.  I was having none of it.  Some time later I saw that same dangerous ravine......it didn't exist, it was a slope that none of the dogs were in danger from, I couldn't believe my eyes. The distortion was ridiculous.  Do you think you'd be safe and secure enough to revisit that book?  It was an utterly enchanting book written for maybe 8/9 year olds........you experienced a similar thing to my ravine distortion.

Not saying you should, just wonder if you could

[taurean]

Yes I could if I wanted to. 

Now I can - and do - make choices based on my preference rather than any violent content. 

My wife has been amazed by some of the stuff I have been willing to watch or read - material I would in those days of bad OCD not touch with a bargepole. 

I read the papers and the online news feeds happily now. Unpleasant headlines don't stick and repeat. I can watch films I couldn't have watched before - hence we now have Sky Cinema on the TV. 

I could probably even take on the show "Les Miserables" now - something my wife has been wanting me to take her to for years. 

What's happening here is that the underlying OCD core belief has been put back in its box and now is not sending out scanners to locate triggers that connect back to the core belief. And any residual scanning isn't throwing up an intrusion blip on the radar. 

If we work CBT properly, truly believe what therapists and informed others tell us and not what our brain is telling us, then we can - and will - overcome the OCD. 

And if there happens to be something missing in our strategy - and I needed methodology additional to CBT - then this is the right place to come and seek it out. 

We may not totally beat the disorder ; but people may improve such that they are adequately managing the OCD whilst still working on areas still causing issues. 

[Caramoole]

I didn't expect you to be up at this time

Les Mis.... my favourite.  Get it watched.....and the elves book, it's delightful (when uncluttered by OCD doubrs)

[taurean]

My hours have changed since coming here. Instead of being a lark I am now an owl

 

[taurean]

We can consider this concept from another angle. 

Here in our lovely bungalow two sets of large French windows, at the end of the kitchen-diner and the lounge-diner respectively, look out onto what will be, after some landscaping (to be done next year) an absolutely fabulous garden, with trees at the bottom and surrounding it - and the tall grey chimneys of a nearby mansion (now converted into flats). 

What we see in the garden is beauty. Trees, plants, decking and garden furniture, and birds on the feeder. 

But if you look at the garden from the cold light of nature's reality, it's a battlefield. 

Weeds throttle plants, ivy eats into fencies, birds and toads eat slugs, disease attacks the flowers and shrubs, weather rots the fences, ladybirds eat aphids, predator birds like kestrels and buzzards eat the other birds. 

I choose to see the beauty and ignore the warfare. But an OCD-sufferer might only focus on and awfulise about the warfare. 

Edited December 10, 2018 by taurean

[gingerbreadgirl]

16 hours ago, taurean said:

Yes I could if I wanted to. 

Now I can - and do - make choices based on my preference rather than any violent content. 

My wife has been amazed by some of the stuff I have been willing to watch or read - material I would in those days of bad OCD not touch with a bargepole. 

I read the papers and the online news feeds happily now. Unpleasant headlines don't stick and repeat. I can watch films I couldn't have watched before - hence we now have Sky Cinema on the TV. 

I could probably even take on the show "Les Miserables" now - something my wife has been wanting me to take her to for years. 

What's happening here is that the underlying OCD core belief has been put back in its box and now is not sending out scanners to locate triggers that connect back to the core belief. And any residual scanning isn't throwing up an intrusion blip on the radar. 

If we work CBT properly, truly believe what therapists and informed others tell us and not what our brain is telling us, then we can - and will - overcome the OCD. 

And if there happens to be something missing in our strategy - and I needed methodology additional to CBT - then this is the right place to come and seek it out. 

We may not totally beat the disorder ; but people may improve such that they are adequately managing the OCD whilst still working on areas still causing issues. 

The progress you've made is amazing Roy and really inspiring to hear about. 

[dksea]

Whats the name of that book? Sounds interesting!