False memory

[Ziggyy]

I’ve been really struggling with intrusive thoughts this month. I’ve had so many incidents where a thought based around the same topic (of contamination) occurs multiple times a day and usually I can try and see logic vs ocd thought but I’ve been believing every single one of them and acting as though they were real. I think since the clocks went back and with winter coming I automatically start becoming nocturnal and finding my anxiety is a lot more frequent. Does anyone have any advice on how to cope with winter months affecting their ocd?

Something someone said to me yesterday has got me thinking and it might be helpful for anyone struggling. When I’m gripped by fear over a thought whether I did something or something happened etc, they said ‘if you have to think about whether it happened or not, it didn’t. If you did something you would know, there wouldn’t be a debate or doubt’. It’s very difficult to try and apply that and believe it but taking a step back I realised that’s true, it’s only the things I worry about that I second guess.

anyway, I’ve had major changes in my life recently and I just wanted to reach out and see if anyone had the time to give some encouraging words to help me in this dark time. 

[Gemma@OCDUK]

Hi Ziggyy,

I'm sorry to hear you've been struggling more this month with intrusive thoughts. It can be hard to apply things that we know are true, like ''if you worry about it, then it probably didn't happen'', but try to remember that taking a leap of faith that things are OCD is an important part of CBT, and that feelings are slow to catch up with how we act. So if you can change your behaviour, the worry and doubt will reduce over time, you just need to be consistent in not doing compulsions. 

We do have some great advice for coping with Seasonal Affective Disorder here https://www.ocduk.org/related-disorders/seasonal-affective-disorder/ that you might find helpful. 

Please know that you are not alone in finding this time difficult, but you can get through it  Remember that from the 21st December, days start getting longer again!

Gemma

 

[northpaul]

Hello Ziggyy, doubts wether I did something or not have been a constant factor for me in my life with OCD.  This has led to checking  behaviour at varying levels dependent on my mood.  My mood during the cold and dark winter months does tend to dip.  Last winter was very bad with the added effect of lockdown isolation.  I was referred for CBT therapy again.

One thing that I learned years ago in a previous therapy session was to try to divert my thinking away from the immediate thing that I am currently anxious about.  I have recently bought this new laptop.  Last night I was anxious about locking up and getting to bed without constantly rechecking my doors.  I put in to practice  a diversion plan.  I went on the internet and typed in a place in North Africa where I enjoyed working many years ago.  Happy memories!

I went to bed, did no more door checks or any other checks.  Fell asleep, slept like log.  Completly forgotten what I was anxious about this morning.

Maybe having a few ideas ready to divert your attention might help you for when you have those repetetive nagging doubts.

[UpsAndDowns]

"if you have to think about whether it happened or not, it didn’t"

That's such good advice, thank you.

I need to apply that better in my work, where sometimes I'm tempted to check things just in case something bad happened.  I work with lots of data in databases, so OCD can be a pain sometimes when I'm editing data and I'm worried I did something wrong.

[pizzaman]

Yeah man i've been getting the same thing for a few weeks now just not knowing wether what i worry about with ocd actually happened or didnt. Thanks alot for that advice, i hope you feel better soon. Its sometimes like the ocd just covers you in anxiety so you dont know wether what you worried about happened or didnt, for me whenever my anxiety starts going down i feel like a can think alot more clearer and mor logically.