HOCD thought I can't shake off...help!

Suffering from OCD? Post your history, experience, comments and/or suggestions
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~Noelle~
Posts: 49
Joined: Fri Nov 10, 2006 11:31 am

HOCD thought I can't shake off...help!

Post by ~Noelle~ » Mon Jun 18, 2012 10:39 pm

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Last edited by ~Noelle~ on Thu Oct 17, 2019 11:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.

NeverQuit
Posts: 162
Joined: Mon Dec 06, 2010 1:22 pm

Re: HOCD thought I can't shake off...help!

Post by NeverQuit » Tue Jun 19, 2012 1:24 pm

Hey Noelle,

This is just your brain trying to scare you. The fact that this thought scares you mean that it's not real, it's not who you really are. You need to know that OCD is a condition where your brain is ADDICTED to scaring itself. It WANTS to obsess. You need to put up a STOP sign over and over again, telling yourself that you are NOT going to react to this thought, it's just an obsessive thought and you are not going to allow it to scare you. You need to under-react to the thought, and eventually it will lose it's scariness. Do the obsessive thinking lesson with the program. Do something to distract your mind from dwelling on the thought and "what does this mean?" It's just a false alarm.

I used to have blasphemous thoughts come into my mind when my anxiety was really bad. Ocassionally this will still happen to me, but I recognize it now as my brain just trying to scare me and am able to see that it bears no weight and does NOT define who I am.

In OCD, your brain is not reacting normally to thoughts. Any scary thought, and your brain says "FIRE!" when there is none. Normal people will react like we do when they actually have something to worry about - "Oh no, I am about to hit that car!" or "My 2 year old son is hanging over the balcony!" We react to silly, ridiculous thoughts as if they were REAL. Basically, a weird, obsessive thought that a normal person could dismiss, gets stuck. Your brain isn't able to shut the thought off because it is stuck in this cycle of obsessing and worrying. With lots and lots of practice, re-training your brain to not let those thoughts cling, you will be able to see the thoughts for what they are and NOT react. That's the most important thing - even if the thought scares you, try to under-react. Do something else. This breaks the cycle and is incredibly important in OCD.

If you are spiritual at all, I would encourage you to pray and ask God to relieve you of these thoughts. Ask Him to reaffirm to you who you are. Invision yourself taking the obsessive thought and placing it in God's hands, asking Him to handle it for you. This really helps me to be able to lay it down, even if I have to do it 500 times. :)

Praying for you!

Shann24
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Jul 23, 2012 5:15 pm

Re: HOCD thought I can't shake off...help!

Post by Shann24 » Mon Jul 23, 2012 5:27 pm

Hi All,

I am so sorry that you are going through this. I know firsthand what it feels like to obsess about your health. I have certain rituals to calm my nerves (which only work for a short period of time before the anxiety builds again), such as checking my pulse and my O2 levels on a monitor, as well as feeling different parts of my body for lumps and bumps and constantly asking for reassurance from my husband who's a nurse on the symptom du jour. All of these rituals can actually feed in to the OCD and make it worse. I have really tried to break the cycle of checking my vitals repeatedly. It was horrible at first anxiety wise, but I am now to a point where I'm not spending every waking moment obsessed over my health. There are times when little thoughts pop up that go, " Hmmm I have a bruise on my leg, must be such and such disease", and I tell myself, " Okay this is my ocd, and I will not feed in to an unhealthy coping ritual." Then I immediately turn my attention and energy to something else. It feels impossible at first, but you actually can retrain your brain to stop going in to the "loop" of catastrophic thoughts that lead to hypochondria. It has worked for me, I know this technique can work for others. The key is to be consistent and not give up. It takes time to get better.
My Well Wishes To All =)

coachchris
Posts: 757
Joined: Wed Jun 06, 2012 2:34 pm

Re: HOCD thought I can't shake off...help!

Post by coachchris » Tue Jul 24, 2012 1:57 pm

Well said! Keep moving into truth. It takes lots of practice but it will come.

~Noelle~
Posts: 49
Joined: Fri Nov 10, 2006 11:31 am

Re: HOCD thought I can't shake off...help!

Post by ~Noelle~ » Thu May 23, 2013 6:42 am

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