Does anyone have any tools to stop their compulsions ? I’m really struggling at giving into the urge of checking
Tools? : Does anyone have any tools to stop... - My OCD Community
Tools?
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Wolf06
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I am looking for some as well. One that helps me is I salary- I will tell myself to delay it today and see if I have the same compulsion tomorrow. Usually by the next day, the compulsion isn’t as bad or no longer exists.
There’s no way to get rid of a compulsion in one day ?
You can stop doing the compulsion by choosing to not engage with it, but most likely the thoughts will still be there. The trick is to see them as irrelevant. Find something that you want to do and set out to do it. Know that OCD is going to distract you. Your brain will tell you that there is something really urgent that you need to figure out or reach some sort of conclusion about. These are both lies. Just because the thoughts come up does not mean anything. Your brain is trying to be helpful and passing on the sort of information that you respond strongly to. Just ignore the OCD thoughts and stop responding to them. Paying attention to the OCD thoughts has done nothing to help you. Continuing the same course of action and treating them as important will keep giving you the same results. The goal is not to get rid of the thoughts, but to learn that the thoughts present only a choice of what to pay attention to and that you can live your life even if the OCD thoughts/fears/worries are still there.
Right. That’s what I understand conceptually, I’m just having a difficult time mastering it on my own. I’ve realized that I did the compulsions for so long and they were so mild that I didn’t think that they were anything harmful.
Try not to think of it so much as mastering a skill as learning to deal with things imperfectly. The OCD thoughts are going to come, and they are going to seem urgent. Sometimes you are going to pay attention to them until you realize that it is just OCD and not a real concern. As long as you can bring yourself back to doing what you want to do, then it counts as a win for you. You don't have to do this perfectly (and you won't), you just have to keep going.
Know that it is OK to struggle and be imperfect. You are where you are right now, and that's OK. It will not be easy, but it is possible if you want to make a change.
I’d like to first and foremost get rid of the physical compulsions of checking and be able to function in crowds of people again.
It sounds like you know what to work on then. If those are triggering situations then you can go into them with an expectation of what is going to happen and have planned out how you are going to respond.
Hopefully you have someone that you can work with to do ERP. If so, they can help you through the exposures and plan how to respond. Any slow, small change is better than giving in to the OCD fears right away and staying with the compulsions because they feel safe. You will feel uncomfortable, but that's OK. I found that it took a lot of repetition before I would start to cope and not just retreat into old OCD habits. Learning how to accept the uncertainty and function anyway is really difficult, but it can get better.
I have severe checking compulsions.
I know it is not easy to deal with it.
I will share what I have learnt in therapy about it, in my experience.
When we get the urge to check, it usually comes with high levels of anxiety, fear, and a
sense of responsibility.
There are a lot of "What If's" which occur in the brain.
If we resist the checking, we will be flooded with the feared consequences of not doing the compulsion.
Thus, we have to sit with the anxiety, in a room, let those dreadful thoughts occur, and
eventually, the anxiety will fade away, and these thoughts will be just background noise.
Try not to have any conversations with OCD.
This is my daily struggle, so you are not alone.
We are here to support each other.
Let's keep trying and continue our efforts.
Take Care.
Can we talk ?
