Hi. I feel helpless during compulsions. And I am taking Prozac right now, at my 1st week. Not sure if it's because of the medication or because I am giving in to compulsions all the time that's why my triggers increased.
I want to know if the ultimate solution they say is NOT TO GIVE IN TO COMPULSIONS, how do you manage them? It's very hard not to! I feel suffocated, dying and nuts. I feel so helpless and unable to focus. I feel scared and I don't know what to do! I want to control myself and not do the compulsions but it is very difficult.
1. How do you manage your compulsions? How are you able to control yourself?
2. When you don't give in to compulsions. What happens? Do you have severe anxiety and just succumb to it? Let the anxiety consume you? Does it go eventually after a few hours? minutes? When you don't give in to compulsion, you feel sooo terrible right? But after some time, does it go away? Do you feel relaxed after??
I tried it once nit because I want to but because there was no available compulsion. I am not able to do it. I have other ocds but specifically hoarding OCD so I was not able to find this object that I lost. And so I was not able to do the compulsions which is to find something like it or find the exact same thing. I suffered the entire day thinking about it, where I lost it etc. I thought that if no compulsions, I will feel better after... I had to take anxiety pill to relieve me.
3. Do you know any free CBT with consultation cause I need to talk to a specialist or have counselling but I can't afford it. I have a 1 year old baby and I can't live a life like this.
I pray that God will lead me to the right people that can help me with my OCD...
I will high appreciate any feedback, comments, sharing, testimonies or advise
Thank you and God Bless!
Jen- All-is-well!
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Alliswell2021
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1. I'm not sure, but I get the general impression that not doing a specific compulsion and then later thinking about it a lot and ruminating over it, is also a compulsion. I had a "checking if I missed something" or "checking if I made a mistake" OCD, and not checking once, but worrying about whether that was the right call, whether I was right to "label that as OCD", was also OCD.
2. I have no clue how useful or good this is, but there is a (therapist) who created a purchaseable online course for CBT for OCD. This is one of the videos on his youtube channel
You can find the link to the course in the video description.
I was briefly contemplating signing up for this course a few months ago when things were not going terribly well for me, but I think I was afraid of failure and ended up not going through with it.
Would it be possible at all to maybe get a one time visit with a psychiatrist or something, so that both you and them can maybe work out some type of a more fleshed out diagnosis (Or have you had one of this in the past)? I just thought that if you've never been formally diagnosed with OCD before, might be better to be safe than to be sorry? I don't know.
Edit: maybe what I'm trying to say is that there might be other non-OCD stuff too. I'm wary of us being our own diagnosticians, if you get what I mean.
I've already been to a Psychiatrist which is why I was given Prozac. It's terrible yes because my OCD triggers increased but I'm fighting it hard and just getting as much as support as I can even in this trying times and I'm away from family. Anyway, I'm seeking for a therapist who I can talk to one on one.
Someone who know exactly what I am going through and can provide techniques and strategies to combat OCD entirely. I want to learn how to strategically not give in to compulsions without worrying too much about the anxiety and panic.
At the same time I want to fight it with a calm heart. I want peace of mind and serenity while I deal with my OCD. I'm not sure if it's possible but nothing is impossible if you believe in something.
Anyway, I'm just blabbing. Bottomline is, I want to heal without being too harsh on myself or without having to struggle severely with anxiety every time I control the compulsions. I hope there's a way to heal peacefully. I know we all have to go through the tough process in order to heal but I also hope there's a GENTLE WAY to go through this.
It is very hard sometimes not to give in to compulsions. Sometimes it is like I am watching a movie of myself doing senseless compulsions that I know I shouldn't do. However I agree with everyone who says that resisting compulsions is the best way to recover from OCD. I take Prozac as well and it helps me resist, but it's not enough on its own. Hopefully the Prozac will help you do therapy -- give it at least 6 weeks to have a noticeable effect.
You should check out these two websites. There are articles here that address a lot of your questions:
anxieties.com/94/ocd This site has some advice on changing the way you do your compulsions that can help you eventually give them up. If you can't just stop completely at first, you can try gradually ending your compulsions by reducing the number of times you repeat them, doing them differently, etc. These techniques help break the OCD feedback loop. There are also articles here that might help you rethink the way you've always responded to OCD, and ways to separate the content from your anxiety so you no longer believe that the fears represent real concerns.
drmichaeljgreenberg.com/art... This therapist puts a lot of emphasis on eliminating rumination. He argues that it is critical to stop ruminating in order to recover from OCD, and he maintains that it's possible to resist compulsions without severe anxiety IF you can stop ruminating. I have come to believe that rumination is what fuels a lot (if not most) of my OCD episodes. It sounds like you have the same problem when you can't or don't do your compulsions ("I suffered the entire day thinking about it, where I lost it etc."). Thinking about the obsession, replaying the trigger, trying to get a reassuring "feeling" while your rational brain tells you the whole fear is ridiculous -- all those things are definitely compulsions and they keep the anxiety going as surely as throwing wood on a fire. You have to find ways to stop engaging with the thoughts -- read some of the articles on this site and see if anything is helpful.
Sometimes, stopping compulsions and rumination is easier than I anticipate that it will be, and sometimes it's very hard. It is normal to be very distracted and experience severe anxiety that lasts a few minutes, hours, or (in the worst cases) days. However, the more you can stop yourself from ruminating, the quicker the anxiety will fade. It really is one of the most useful skills you can develop.
You are taking a good first step in recognizing that you need to address this problem in order to be the best parent you can be to your baby. Use that as a motivator when you are suffering through an episode. You will give in to compulsions sometimes but don't get frustrated with yourself. I think it is normal to have days where you feel you're not making any progress. But keep at it and you will begin to notice a change. The more compulsions you resist, the easier it will be to resist new ones, and the fewer triggers you will notice.
I don't know about free treatment options, but the IOCDF has some suggestions here:
Good luck and feel free to ask specific questions here. Most of us are going through the same challenges, and I think one of the most effective ways to recover is to always keep in touch with the truth that you have a mental disorder. Your fears are not unique; they have a medical cause that affects many people in the same way.The thoughts that bother all of us so much really have nothing to do with our themes (hoarding, washing, harm, whatever) -- it's all about anxiety and the way we respond to it. If we do compulsions when we are anxious, our brains will keep telling us we need to do them. If we resist, our brains will eventually realize that we don't have to do compulsions, and they'll stop torturing us with the urge to do them.
Thank you so much MothFir. You've been a great help! I need one more advise.
I am currently struggling with one major trigger but with no compulsion available. And I am frustrated and scared because you know that when there is a trigger, it makes you anxious. And since there is no compulsion available for it, it's like there's no way out.
We do compulsions to make us feel safe right? So now I have no choice but to face the trigger!!! I feel like I'm going to crazy or I'm in danger again. Please help and let me know that the trigger might give me anxiety but it will go eventually. Not forever. Not in days. It will go.
I don't have a therapist to consult to... I know I need reassurance and it's not good to seek reassurance but I need it right now that everything will be okay. I will not go crazy or anxious forever just because of this one major trigger...
And that having OCD does not mean you're insane or going in that direction. It's just thoughts that kept bouncing back to scare us. But nothing more than that. We can get over it with experience and practice.
I need your gentle, affirmative and supportive feedback...
Every therapist I know says that the anxiety from not being able to (or choosing not to) do a compulsion goes away on its own, although it may take days or longer. This has been my experience.
About a year and a half ago I had a strong trigger that I couldn't do a compulsion for. I was afraid I may have caused property damage to a stranger and there was no way for me to contact them to make sure everything was okay or make amends for whatever I had done. I ruminated about it for days (this was before I had done much ERP therapy). I worried that I would never stop thinking about it because there was no way to contact this person and get closure about the situation. Eventually, though, it did bother me less and less and after a few weeks I did not think about it.
In this situation I also got to a point where I had to realize that I am human and that I am not always going to do the right thing. Everyone causes some unintentional harm to other people at some point. I basically had to let go of the situation and admit to God that I may have made a mistake that I couldn't fix, and that I needed forgiveness, and that I hoped everything would be okay with the person I was concerned about.
The goal of therapy of course is to experience anxiety from a trigger and then purposefully not do a compulsion. This is manageable with smaller triggers that we can handle, but if we get a big one and don't do the compulsion for whatever reason, we can expect the anxiety to be bad. You may choose to do this intentionally to speed up therapy, or you may be forced into the situation because you just aren't able to do the compulsion. Either way, the anxiety should go away in time.
By the way, since my original reply and this one I have had two strong triggers with my contamination OCD. In the first case, I resisted doing a compulsion and the anxiety was very bad -- I thought I was going to throw up at one point. But I tried not to ruminate and I got through it. After a few hours I felt a little nervous but I could handle it, and it got better. Then I had another trigger where I gave in and did the compulsion (cleaning), thinking it would be easy enough and then I'd move on. But I got stuck in a loop and in my mind the contamination spread, and I ended up cleaning for hours. The point is that not doing a compulsion can be very unpleasant, but so can giving in and doing a compulsion. I wish I'd resisted the compulsion the second time, as I still ended up being miserable, wasting lots of time, and taking a step backward in my recovery. I don't think resisting compulsions can make you "crazy," but giving in to them regularly and letting them grow definitely results in "crazy" behavior.
I hope this helps some. Taking the bold step of resisting compulsions can be scary, but when you get through an episode you often feel empowered as you realize you don't have to do exhausting rituals every time you are triggered, and the anxiety becomes less each time.
Oh MothFir. I think I just found a very good friend here. Someone who understands and responds to my posts very diligently.
Whenever you respond to me, I always feel like you are an expert in OCD since you know better than I do. Sharing that you are still overcoming it and still experiencing triggers makes me feel that I am not alone. On the other hand, it made me feel a little disappointed (just a bit) because really I want to get to know someone who really really really got over OCD. A living proof that things went eventually better!
My husband has psoriasis (Side-story). And he has accepted that it will be there and he just need to manage his lifestyle. I can't accept and won't ever (yet) maybe accept that OCD will be a life that I just need to manage and enjoy and be expert with the skills of resistance. I believe in GOD'S MIRACLES. I know it sounds cliche or whatever. But I know faith can move mountains and I have just started learning about OCD, just recently diagnosed last month and I still want to not believe it completely. I want to believe that this is just due to stress factors where I am now but when things get back to normal and I am able to get back to my life and be with my family, things will slow down and my OCD whatever anxiety I am experiencing right now will just go.
My psychiatrist (not sure if they just say this to all patients) says that I don't have to worry about anything. OCD can be cured. It can go. Just give the medicines a few months and maybe a combination of therapy (which I can't afford at the moment).
I believe and I want to believe this will be over and we can possible go back to our normal life.
For me, there's another side of the world that says my OCD is just a Spiritual Warfare. If you ever believe in that. In general we have to overcome all fears (these are just created by "the enemy".) Faith and Prayers can make miracles.
Don't be discouraged just because I still have problems. I have had OCD nearly 40 years and just started therapy a year and a half ago because it was becoming more disruptive. Also my OCD concerns have shifted a little in the last few weeks and I'm still learning to adapt. The therapy works for me, except when I don't do it consistently. My rough spots are good encouragement to be more consistent in the future.
I really do encourage you to learn about ERP therapy and try to practice it, even if you can't access a therapist and have to do it on your own with books or online materials. Medication can help a lot, but if you rely on it alone, and continue to do the behaviors that keep your OCD alive, you will probably struggle and be frustrated. I took Prozac for 20 years without therapy, and I wish I'd started therapy a lot sooner. Just knowing the basics about how to stop compulsive ruminating, resisting physical compulsions, etc., can help a lot, even if you don't follow the therapy perfectly.
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