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A lot of my thoughts end up going to worst case scenario. For example, a simple failure to check a form thoroughly could end up with me being in prison or harm happening to other people or my family. I can see that my thoughts become distorted and no amount of reasoning helps, it often becomes more unclear and catastrophic.
 

I think I’ve always felt like things in life could easily turn catastrophic (likely due to traumatic experiences) and I think I’m always on high alert to prevent or tackle these things. I think my ‘what if’ thinking goes to dark places quite quickly rather than a balanced view.

I know with OCD that the best thing to do is to leave the thoughts as what they are and not to fight/avoid/reason with them. I think I read somewhere on here though something about tackling the distortions.

Is that a different thing? I feel like whilst I’m understanding more and more about the compulsions and what not to engage in, I’m wondering if I need to change my thinking so that it’s less black and white, but wouldn’t that be tackling the thoughts and giving them meaning, particularly if trying to rate their chances of happening etc which is usually very low.

Sorry, if that’s a stupid question. 

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57 minutes ago, Saffron37 said:

That is so not a stupid question--it is an incredibly smart question! The cognitive part of OCD treatment--reframing my thoughts and understanding the distortions--has been a game-changer for me.

Here's my advice as to where to start: https://positivepsychology.com/cognitive-distortions/

 

 

Thanks Saffron,

I’ll have a look through it, thanks so much. I had a brief look through now and can see that I have most of the types of distorted thinking. 
 

I think I get a random thought about something and get a sudden ‘what if’ thought and then the anxiety strikes. Then I seem to go to really far fetched catastrophes which mostly centre around being judged negatively. Then it becomes obsessive and the cycle continues with more ‘what if’ scenarios which then become vastly distorted and the need for certainty hits deep and the compulsions start.

I’ve stopped most of the compulsions and I’m catching a lot of the ruminating ones early and stopping the cycle but I can see that most of my thoughts that stick come from that black or white thinking, a need to be perfect. It’s like everyone in the world doesn’t make mistakes and that they have it all together but I feel like if I make a slight mistake that it will be horrendous and unforgivable.

I’m hoping to reframe my thoughts to not buy into the worst case scenario and think more positively but that seems impossible and I worry that I’ll spend too much time on thoughts if I try to reshape them.

Sorry, I got carried away but thank you for the link. I’ll try some of those strategies ?

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2 minutes ago, determination987 said:

worry that I’ll spend too much time on thoughts if I try to reshape them.

That's a very sensible observation.  Whilst identifying distortions, black & white thinking, catastrophising can be a good Psychology tool to understand when & how we are doing this......but there does come a point where we have to try and identify, with reasonable probability, that this is OCD at play and we don't need to give it further attention, then to work on resisting rumination and other compulsions.  You seem to be working nicely in the right direction.  Keep at it :)

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2 hours ago, Caramoole said:

That's a very sensible observation.  Whilst identifying distortions, black & white thinking, catastrophising can be a good Psychology tool to understand when & how we are doing this......but there does come a point where we have to try and identify, with reasonable probability, that this is OCD at play and we don't need to give it further attention, then to work on resisting rumination and other compulsions.  You seem to be working nicely in the right direction.  Keep at it :)

Thank you ?. I’m realising that so many actions I’ve done, particularly in the last few years have been a result of OCD. I’d been moving from one intrusive thought to another and wearing them out with compulsions until a new one took hold.

I’m not willing to miss out on so much life anymore. Living like catastrophes are constantly happening isn’t living.

I want to enjoy life, not just survive as OCD makes me feel like I have to.

 

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