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When I read people's posts on here I can tell their worries are caused by OCD. 

Yet with mine, although I know I have OCD and all the things I have worried about in the past have proven to be just that, I can't stop thinking yeah but what if this one time is real. 

I have just searched my name on this forum and looked back at my old posts  from a few years and all my fears are the same , that I have harmed or contaminated someone and live in mental and physical fear caused by guilt.

Each time I think it's not ocd, yet I can see clearly it is for other people when I read their posts.

Can anyone help me with this please. It's so hard to live with

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The difference between observing other people's OCD and experiencing your own is feelings. As humans we use feelings to judge situations all the time, but with OCD, feelings become massively distorted. Compulsions build belief in taking action and it's that belief that keeps OCD going. When we hear about someone else's beliefs we don't feel anything so observe it as OCD. 

The best way to challenge OCD therefore is to understand what you believe your compulsions are doing, like keeping you or others safe somehow and begin to challenge that belief. Usually sufferers don't factor in the real impact of their compulsions and so it's easy to lose your way. A self-help book like Break free from OCD would be a good guide. 

When you challenge that belief you learn that in fact compulsions only make you feel more scared, their affect on keeping you and everyone safe is minimal to none. Challenging the belief reduces your feelings making it easier to challenge and see that it's OCD that is the problem :)

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Thanks Gemma for making the time to reply to me .I have hyper responsibility and my compulsions are ruminating about what harm I think I've caused.i believe that if I ruminate long enough I will find evidence I haven't done it and will be happy again 

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19 minutes ago, ecomum said:

i believe that if I ruminate long enough I will find evidence I haven't done it and will be happy again

So how has that worked out for you so far? Does it make you more sure or less? Has it had an impact on your happiness and life in general? 

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Then it's time to start challenging OCD Ecomum :)

Have you read Break free from OCD? Because it talks about inflated responsibility in sufferers and it might speak to you. I know things seem hard, but doing more compulsions isn't the answer. Once you start tackling your problem everything will get a lot easier x

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Hi ecomum,

I sound pretty much like you. My OCD has been ok for a while, but yesterday I went back a bit. 
Gemma’s advice is great, it’s really helped me reading that, so thank you for your post and thanks to Gemma.

When I get myself together in a bit I’m going out for my days exercise in the form of a walk with my dogs. It’s always helped me in the past, as did short meditations, which I done one earlier. Maybe you could try those too? 
 

Anyway, just wanted to let you know that you’re not alone. Stay as strong as you can x

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Thank you for reply dragonfly. I've ordered the e book and am reading it now. I will look for some meditations too.

Yes it helps a lot to know I am not alone especially from people who genuinely get it . So thank you.

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Ah the book is brilliant. I think I’ll dig my one out again too actually. 
For the Meditation, I just googled 10 min mediations and free ones come up on You Tube. The one I done earlier was called A Powerful 10 minute guided mediation. There’s lots though x

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