My bad lucky OKB

[shaynokb]

Hello again everyone, today I will talk about my OKB. My OKB is related to bad luck, for example, when I shake hands with a friend, I suddenly think that it will be unlucky for me to shake hands with that person, and to get rid of this, I wash my hands and wash my hands more than once at a time, that's why my hands are dry most of the time. In another case of my OKB, when I do the words or behavior of a person I don't like, I slap my own face to avoid being like him. Sometimes I do it so much that I get a headache. I don't know how to get rid of it. That's why I want to talk. It's nice to talk here and read other people's difficulties and feel that I am not alone.

[Natureloverpeace]

You are not alone in having OCD. People can have different obsessions and compulsions but the OCD cycle is the same. Thought, urge or image>>>>attach meaning to the obsession>>>>intense distress>>>>compulsion is done for relief and certainty>>>>And then the cycle starts over again because we’re chasing after certainty which doesn’t exist. Doing the compulsion brings temporary relief until the next “what if” comes, and there’s always another “what if”. The more we do compulsions, the more we reinforce the obsessions. Response prevention breaks the cycle.

[Mcfly64]

Hello. Are you getting any help?

[Dolphin_08]

You are definitely not alone! You are so strong and I have faith that you will get through this. In the hopes that it may be of some use to you, I will share one strategy that was really effective in helping me to fight the strength of my intrusive thoughts and my compulsions. Whenever I had an intrusive thought, I would try taking deep breaths and counting to a certain number (choose what is manageable for you, for example start at 10 and work your way up to 30) before I would carry out my compulsion. Although sitting in an intrusive thought can be terrifying, I found it to be oddly calming as well - and most of the time, the anxiety went away and I didn't feel the need to carry out my compulsion anymore. When you take a moment to do this, things will weirdly fall into place and suddenly the intrusive thought loses its power.

Of course, this may not work for everyone. However, it was super effective for me and helped to reduce my struggles so much - so I thought I would share in the hopes that it can do the same for you.