to my therapist and to me it’s clear that my responsibility related OCD was drilled in to me through domestic abuse, now I’m stuck living with it. I take medication which helps me greatly, but I get so stuck in rutts of extreme depression and obsessing. don’t know where to start to I try better to manage the compulsions or to heal from the triggers, how do I heal the triggers when compulsions cause flashbacks. Does anyone have experience with this. I’m lost for where to turn.
Trigger Warning - Domestic Abuse : to my... - OCD Support
OCD Support
Trigger Warning - Domestic Abuse
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Domestic abuse has consequences beyond the immediate harm. Having myself grown up in a violent household (my father was a decent man when sober, but he wasn't sober very often) I'm sure that my OCD is at least partly down to that.
Medication is certainly helpful to many of us, but does your therapist do CBT as well? CBT involves learning not to give in to the compulsions. Often the urge to give in will be too strong, and you will give in, but the more you can resist, the easier and less frequent it becomes. Triggers can be difficult to manage as they can come out of the blue.
It might be worth having CBT for the depression as well. Clinical depression can be hard to pull yourself out of, but it can be done. It involves learning not to beat yourself up, amongst other things. I've found Paul Gilbert's book Overcoming Depression helpful and practical. He deals with responsibility related problems.
Incapacitating though OCD can be, there are ways of managing it!