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Stopping Reassurance
Any tips on how to ease and stop Reassurance? Will stopping my reassurance cycle help my anxiety and ocd to lessen ? I'm am now ready accept uncertainty and trust in the process and answers of experts but looking tips on how to control reassuring cycle ?
Yep. Look up Exposure Response Therapy, ERP. Stopping compulsion is important. They take it one step further and make you desensitize to the thoughts by making you say over and over, maybe I have HIV. Maybe I have HIV. After a while, it's just a thought and doesn't bug you. But to begin with, NOT doing your usual rituals is important. So, Don't ask anyone about your exposures. Don't test. Don't read the forums. Don't check your body. Don't look anything up. Etc. https://iocdf.org/about-ocd/ocd-treatment/erp/
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What can I do if the thoughts came , can I tell myself the facts and challenge that thoughts but not rereading anymore the answers of the experts
just say it's just a thought. Be uncomfortable. What an ERP therapist will have you say is "I have HIV.". Yes, they want you to lean into it. But what you can do for now is acknowledge it's an ocd. Nope, wrong to challenge the thought. That's a mental ritual. Just do nothing. Go work on an unrelated project.
Noted ! Thank you , that would be my goal for this week. In our country it's very very difficult to find psychiatrists specially ocd or erp specialists. My goal for the week not to seek reassurance , don't reread my answered questions , lay off google, don't talk about my exposure , don't seek anything about it and don't challenge my thoughts just let my thoughts be there, be uncomfortable and ACKNOWLEDGE it's my OCD @#&$ing with me . Is it okay if I update you here from time to time about my progress . Thank you so much
Yes, you can report back. Have some go to 'other' things you can do if you get too uncomfortable. Your mind can only do one thing at once. So, focus it on something else. Humming also helps alleviate anxiety. Deep breath in through nose out through mouth, etc.
3rd day of not seeking reassurance, no googling and not rereading my answered questions in this forum and from Dr. Handsfield ( whom also stated zero risk ). The fear and mind clutter yesterday lessened. Today I came back a bit with intensity but I'm trying to say to myself " maybe I got it maybe I don't , maybe there is really milk I ingested , I'm still safe and still loved " . The anxiety lessens a bit. Am I on the right track ? Anymore advice you can add for me to manage this more even better . Is it also normal to the thoughts and fear to sometimes intensify but I don't do my usual compulsions and rituals of internet reassurance no more ( trying my best not to ). Thank you
Good Morning
The thoughts became less sticky . I think what's causing my irrational thoughts and triggering my anxiety and ocd is the guilt from the act that I did . Just wondering any additional advice to move on from my guilt and this thoughts . Thank you
The thoughts became less sticky . I think what's causing my irrational thoughts and triggering my anxiety and ocd is the guilt from the act that I did . Just wondering any additional advice to move on from my guilt and this thoughts . Thank you
I have this feeling and my mind is ruminating on testing even if I have the facts , would I be defeated by my ocd if I give in to test ?
If you test you gave into the ultimate compulsion and made the ocd thoughts real. Don't test and just do OTHER things than ocd rumination.
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