afraid to be alone.. sick of crying

[OCDlivrecovery]

hello, this is a follow up to my last post… I had to take a day off my office job because I woke up in sweats and a panic attack.. my ocd has been ruminating so badly at work so everyday I wake up sick to me stomach that I’m awake, my guilt and shame is really affecting me because some of the things my ocd brings up I did do in the past, I don’t feel like I’m every going to forgive myself. I can’t talk to my boyfriend because my ocd stems around him and feeling like I’m not good enough for him or deserve him.. now I’m home trying to relax but I don’t feel like I deserve to be happy and I really want to just stop crying & get out of this cycle .. all the things I feel guilty about happened in 2021, and have felt bad ever since… any advice would really really help

Thank you

[Lauragbr]

Are you getting treatment by and OCD therapist and a psychiatrist for meds?

[deValentin]

There could be external (a picture or a place, for instance) or internal triggers (a thought or a memory, for instance) to your ruminations about a past event. You may think that once you're exposed to triggers, you can't help but let them push you into a rumination cycle. However, triggers don't have an irresistible power over people. I know people whose binge drinking used to be triggered by walking near a bar. Now, they can see a bar and not start drinking.

Where does the power of triggers over the mind come from? It could come from a trauma. For instance, if you fell off a horse and injured yourself, the first time you see the horse or the place where you fell, you may feel some anxiety. However, with habituation, you can get over that apprehension.

The key is to expose yourself to triggers and not engage in compulsions or ruminations (ERP exercices). As soon as you start to ruminate, the game is over. You lose trust in your ability to handle the situation in a reasonable manner, and the only hope you have left is for your ruminations to reach some kind of conclusion, which is unrealistic. Some people called it the "rabbit hole".

If you manage response prevention successfully, you realize that what made you lose self-control before was not the triggers per se, but the manner you reacted to them.

"Only by avoiding the beginning of things can we escape their inevitable ends" (Tao).

[vencedora in reply to deValentin]

Você é tão necessário, suas palavras traz alivio e acalento. Continue assim ajudando a todos que puder! Deus lhe abençõe!

[deValentin in reply to vencedora]

Obrigado.

[Mcfly64]

Lauragbr asks a good question