Checking whether the thought has gone

[determination987]

It sounds silly but is this a compulsion?

I’ll be concentrating on something else and feeling better for a little while and then suddenly my mind will be like ‘you’re doing well not thinking about that thought’ and Bam, there the thought is again and the twinge of anxiety in my stomach.

I’ve got the Breaking Free from OCD book coming tonight which I’m hoping will help! 

It’s like my mind won’t let me be happy as I should be thinking about solutions to the problems caused by the thought. I’ll be enjoying something then I’ll feel guilty for not fixing or checking whether it’s a problem. Then I’ll have the horrible catastrophic consequences that come from the bad problem that my mind just thought of.

It feels like my mind is literally constantly scanning for potential doubts in every area of my life and things that I never considered at the time as a problem, seem to haunt me years later when I can’t check or do anything about them.

Sorry, just venting really as this is a tough one and learning about how ocd works is helping.

[northpaul]

48 minutes ago, determination987 said:

I’ve got the Breaking Free from OCD book coming tonight which I’m hoping will help! 

This book is the one that my therapist gave me and was the basis of much of the therapy I had.  I hope that it will help you - I certainly found it a good learning tool and really helped on the road to recovery. Put the kettle on, sit down and dive in to your new book!  

[determination987]

10 minutes ago, northpaul said:

This book is the one that my therapist gave me and was the basis of much of the therapy I had.  I hope that it will help you - I certainly found it a good learning tool and really helped on the road to recovery. Put the kettle on, sit down and dive in to your new book!  

Thanks , as soon as it comes I will be diving straight in! Glad that you found it helpful. I think I get a false sense of feeling better between the tougher intrusive thoughts and need to really stop the ruminating now. Hoping the book will help. I’m aware I’m doing it but there’s that ‘what if in this case it’s a real problem’ in there which is making it difficult.

[northpaul]

47 minutes ago, determination987 said:

I think I get a false sense of feeling better between the tougher intrusive thoughts

When you have those moments of a sense of feeling better, what could you do to reinforce that feeling?  Talk yourself up?  Treat yourself in some way?  Sometimes, I have found that one positive thought perpetuates the positive thinking.

[Serenity77]

I can resonate with this so much as I do exactly the same!

The book you are waiting for is an amazing book, it is one of the best ones in my own opinion 

[determination987]

37 minutes ago, Serenity77 said:

I can resonate with this so much as I do exactly the same!

The book you are waiting for is an amazing book, it is one of the best ones in my own opinion 

I can’t wait for it to come! Still waiting on it to be delivered and looking forward to giving it a read tonight hopefully .
 

Sorry, you feel the same. It’s exhausting isn’t it?

[determination987]

1 hour ago, northpaul said:

When you have those moments of a sense of feeling better, what could you do to reinforce that feeling?  Talk yourself up?  Treat yourself in some way?  Sometimes, I have found that one positive thought perpetuates the positive thinking.

I’ll give that a go, thanks. I tend to be a positive thinker in terms of everything else but when it comes to myself I’m so harsh and negative, judging myself far too much. I’ll try and focus on thinking positively about myself too.