Struggling to do anything.

[Gwen_Stacy]

Hi everyone I need help. I am struggling to do anything without having to fight off intrusive thoughts. i can’t work because with every click of my mouse if if didn’t think the right thing while doing it or if i thought the wrong thing i have to start over. i’m so scared and i don’t know what to do.

please help and advise me if you can. thank you.

[SCC1]

Hi Gwen_Stacy. I'm not sure how to advise you but I know how you feel. The thoughts can be paralyzing at times. I had felt really stuck at times with not being able to basically think or even move without an intrusive thought and compulsion happening. What helped me was meds. But I've been on so many over the yrs, I don't remember which one(s) had worked. I'm not on them anymore, though, because they stopped working.

Are you seeing a Dr or therapist for OCD?

[Gwen_Stacy in reply to SCC1]

Thank you. I have considered medication. I am just a bit scared but at this point it is urgent .

[Sallyskins]

I've had similar OCD for many years. If I didn't think 'good' thoughts but thought of unpleasant things while I did something else, I'd have to do it over again - to the point of exhaustion occasionally!

But there are lots of things that can help. Medication, as mentioned in the reply above, can be really helpful in damping down the OCD. It isn't the only answer, and some people don't get on with it, but for those who do it's a real help. And it makes CBT easier to do.

It takes a few weeks before it kicks in, and you may feel really grotty before it starts to work.

CBT can really help - it's quite hard work, and takes a lot of effort and emotional energy, but it really gets results.

It does mean practising doing things while thinking adverse thoughts and not redoing them. For example, making a cup of coffee while thinking these 'bad' thoughts and then drinking it rather than chucking it away. And the more you practice, the easier it gets.

Remember that these are just thoughts, and we all have a mixture of good, bad and often random and downright strange thoughts! For most people, these thoughts go in and our of their heads - often they're barely conscious of them and certainly don't connect them with anything else that they happen to be doing.

But for those of us with OCD, these thoughts are 'sticky'. Instead of letting them float in and out, we take notice of them, and then they stick in our brains and can be hard to get rid of.

Once starved of attention, though, these intrusive thoughts get fed up, as it were, and leave us alone. It's about noticing them without pushing them away - the more you push them away the more they bounce back at you. And then not giving them the attention they crave.

I've been at a point where I could barely move from the sofa - it's hard to keep busy when anything you do feels like you have to redo it. But the more you can manage, the more the intrusive thoughts don't have room to get in the way.