No, really. Having OCD is like having a two year old throwing a tantrum in your brain that if you don’t do A then B will happen, and they’ll keep screaming till you do A.
And you have to do the same thing you do with a two year old. Spank their bottom, tell them no, and say, “We don’t negotiate with terrorists.”
But you first have to realize that’s what’s going on, because until you do, you just think you’re following your instincts and doing what you have to to prevent, fix, whatever.
When I’m having an OCD episode, I don’t have instincts I can trust, so I have people that I do trust telling me what a rational thing to do is, and what not to do.
That works for me, it may not work for you, but could be worth a try.
My OCD is very mild compared to the cases most people think of, and it is very helpful when I am obsessing over a test or getting a book done because when I obsess, I. Get. Shit. Done.
Unfortunately, OCD isn’t always helpful, and when I have a flare up, it pushes a lot of other stuff out. Also, as you can read in the articles I’ve linked, we tend to have an extra large sense of guilt, which is detrimental in many ways, mostly by making us constantly check that thing we’re worried about or try to “fix” something.
Since my OCD has flared up recently, I’ve been looking up ways to deal with it.
Usually when it comes up, it presents in an “I need to do this to prevent this bad result,” way. So I just have to force myself not to do the thing my head says I need to do and that calms it down. It may take weeks, but it works.
Right now my OCD is presenting in a different way, a fixation as opposed to a do this to prevent this, so my old tricks don’t work, so I’m researching and the article above has a lot of great ideas and ways of dealing and thinking through the obsessive thoughts.
My friend J says it’s like a grease fire and you only have water and rum in the kitchen. The OCD is screaming to do something, anything to see if it affects the fire, so you want to pour one or the other on it, when really you just need to get the hell out of the house, and if it burns down, oh well, at least it wasn’t with you in it.
Here’s a few more sites I’ve found with helpful tips and ways of thinking about your OCD:
Happy reading and good mental health.
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