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I’ve been trying to think of an analogy as to why OCD (pure O in my case) is so hard to beat. I would say that it’s a combination of both the mental distress caused by the bothersome thought, and the doubt that ignoring it is the right thing to do.

My analogy is as follows; it’s like being in the jungle and told to wear an insect repellent that will itch like hell, but whatever you do, you mustn’t scratch at it. Later on you are trying to get to sleep and itching like mad. You could ignore the itching feeling if you knew for sure it was the insect repellent but you can’t shake the feeling that you’ve got a grotesque insect feasting on you, and you just have to have a look . . .

In the same way, for me with my thoughts, I really hate the uncomfortable, unsettling feeling that comes with them but the reason I can’t let them go is more because I can’t shake the belief that these thoughts are actually important in some way. If we really believed the thoughts were just disturbing nonsense, I think we’d become used to them and just see them as an irritation, but the thought that they constitute something meaningful (about us, about reality, or about anything we consider important) makes it incredibly difficult to leave them alone and unanswered.

This makes it (to my mind) more difficult to deal with than something like giving up smoking, where the mental struggle of dealing with the cravings is generally considered as a significant burden by the person struggling to give up, but they rarely doubt that they are making the right choice. OCD, with it’s guilt-overload, won’t gift us that peace of mind.

Cheers for reading, any thoughts are welcome ?

 

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Koala i have suffered from pure o for a very long time and i can very much relate to your post intrusive thoughts random thoughts and the meaning ocd puts on them the importance the doubt and the fear of letting it go. The being stuck.The tough part is seeing the thoughts as ocd and not reacting to them knowing you feel this way because of ocd. That you are not you thoughts or your fears. To refocus shift the gear until it lifts and not be drawn into the arguement

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On 25/08/2019 at 10:56, Koala17 said:

In the same way, for me with my thoughts, I really hate the uncomfortable, unsettling feeling that comes with them but the reason I can’t let them go is more because I can’t shake the belief that these thoughts are actually important in some way. If we really believed the thoughts were just disturbing nonsense, I think we’d become used to them and just see them as an irritation, but the thought that they constitute something meaningful (about us, about reality, or about anything we consider important) makes it incredibly difficult to leave them alone and unanswered.

yes i can relate. If we were able to know that our ocd worry thoughts were nonsense for sure we would just move on. It is how OCD grips us and holds us because it latches onto things that are important to us. However if we are able to just move on with that niggling feeling and choose to not respond to the thoughts with compulsions the thoughts do fade...eventually...sometimes quickly, sometimes it takes a while...that's what i have found anyhow. It is hard, but it does work. (that's a nice analogy with the itchy insect repellent!)

 

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