Good and bad

[Madchoc]

Hi everyone, 

I had a really positive day yesterday, the best I’ve felt in weeks, I showered quicker,  and felt slightly more confident, and happier. My daughter and grandchildren visited, then my husbands sister and her daughter visited too. I actually felt normal like I used too. Then I went into the kitchen and saw some brown bits on the floor by the cooker, I think it was chocolate off a cake we had from his sister. OCD went into overdrive and I straight away thought it was dog poop. My husband kicked whatever it was under the cooker. It just played on my mind all night and still is now. Why can’t I be strong enough to ignore it??? I just want a normal life again. I feel like I’ll never have the confidence to overcome this fear and anxiety of OCD. I just want to be a normal wife and Nan again I want my life back. I just had to talk about this sorry all. X

 

I

[taurean]

41 minutes ago, Madchoc said:

Then I went into the kitchen and saw some brown bits on the floor by the cooker, I think it was chocolate off a cake we had from his sister. OCD went into overdrive and I straight away thought it was dog poop. 

You need to work on noting that intrusive thought, labelling it as OCD (and not the catastrophic - to you - interpretation of dog poo, bringing a specific contamination threat to you) then refocus away. 

There is no actual need to connect to, give belief to, the very less likely suggestion "what if it's dog poo? ". 

When you get good at this, the intrusions will ease off in power and frequency, and you - not the OCD - will be gaining control. 

We ALL have to do this, with our own specific themes of OCD. It's still the same mental illness, and the same CBT strategy to overcome it. 

This process will need to be worked alongside structured exposure and response prevention to finally throw off the OCD chains that are binding you. 

The good news? We ALL have the capability of doing this. 

[Madchoc]

Thankyou for your reply, really appreciate it.x