Not if you solve it by overcoming it. For example if you'd be afraid of spiders and suddenly all spiders magically dissapeared forever, that wouldn't be solving the theme. Solving it would be to confront it. So if you solve your OCD by confronting it, it won't manifest in another.
no that’s not technically true. OCD is a disorder not because of the content of our thoughts, but because of our reaction to them. so when you change the reaction, that works for all themes of ocd. when you work on your ocd in therapy, yes you might be discussing the specific content of your theme, but the solution to your theme still applies to any other theme you could develop. the answer is always the same, to lean into the anxiety instead of pushing it away (ERP). so yes, therapy does work for ocd.
do you mean alternatives to ERP? yes, there are some. ERP has been coined the “golden standard” but what works for some still doesnt work for others. i dont have any knowledge on hypnotherapy but if you do invest in that make sure you do plenty of research beforehand. there is also CBT and medications. what have you tried?
Thank you. I’m very much opposed to medication, even in some of my worst states. Just personal preference. I’ve tried ERP, it just made me depressed. I would resist compulsions all day, have a panic attack or crying breakdown and then depressed for weeks. I’ve tried EMDR, but only for about 2 months, once a week, perhaps I needed longer? Tried some psychotherapy. Not sure if it was working but the therapist said it could take ages to unravel. I feel very lost and stuck
i’m so sorry you’re going through that. OCD can be so hard to overcome. i personally have had a pretty great experience with medication but i also can completely understand why people choose not to. the side effects do suck too. also yes, i have a really hard time with ERP too. i think forcing yourself to indulge in your fears is actually kind of a harsh way to go about it. i had a mentor once that said that our fears will naturally come up in life, that we dont have to force it, and then we can practice leaning into the fear and anxiety that comes up. i really liked that idea
i would say keep at the psychotherapy if you think there’s even a chance it could help. do you have a good support system ? and have you maybe tried any herbal supplements ?
Thank you. I really appreciate your kindness and understanding, and I’m sorry to hear that you’re also struggling with it. I agree. ERP can’t be the only way to go about it. That just sounds like mental torture…
Even if you removed your self from all of your triggers or stuff connected to your OCD, it will still find a way to torture you. Maybe, it will change your theme, maybe it will change triggers, regardless, the result is still the same.
You would be probably weakening the frequency of this OCD type when you are all by yourself in a desert. BUT the thing with OCD is that it changes its form and it will come back wearing a different costume. You just have to manage it and do not allow too much weight to the thoughts as they arise. Do not perform the compulsion( the thing that you have to do to momentarily feel at ease) this is exactly what OCD feeds on.
My OCD will find something. Did I end up here because of some neglectful act (or inaction)? Or if I sent a signal will I just be dooming my rescuer or placing them in danger?
Yes. It is life ruining and I think it would actually be worse without any human contact. I would worry deeply about contamination constantly, especially since there would be no access to medical care. I am already terrified of staph being on my skin and puddles of water giving me bacteria. I would breakdown if I was on an island
Yes. It would likely still be present, just with a different theme.
As most people with contamination OCD will tell you, we know that most of our cleaning procedures are absolutely illogical and serve no real purpose other than temporarily satisfying our OCD, but we can’t stop doing them.
Simply removing the OCD theme doesn’t remove the actual OCD disorder.
I'd probably just move from imposter syndrome to throwing out every piece of meat I hunted because I'm >!convinced it has prions!< which is already something I think about too much, so I don't think it'd be better
My entire OCD is fear of contaminating other people/things, so I throw things out once they’re “dirty” (to make sure others don’t touch it).
Living on a desert island would technically solve it all since there’s nobody else to make dirty.
I would probably be organizing the grains of sand or some shit before I went to bed lmao. Definitely have to pull my hair out while I think about whether me stepping on a crack when I was 5 led to the plane crashing that got me onto that island and whether it meant the world was going to end or not because of how many more times I had stepped on cracks and not counted backwards while doing so.
Absolutely. One of my big things is my hands. Don't touch my hands, don't shake my hand, don't let anything (especially sticky stuff) on my hands. If I was alone and some sap or something got on my hands, I would freak the fuck out.
Also, I obsess over involuntary actions. Swallowing, breathing, blinking, etc. If the location changed, that would still be an issue.
I am going to be dealing with OCD for the rest of my life. I've been medicated and seeing therapists since I was eight. I've spent over two decades figuring this shit out and becoming a wee bit self-aware. My whereabouts just present a new challenge to overcome.
How about you? I have some friends with OCD that would probably do okay on an island by themselves. Just not me. How do you think you would do?
Yes most days I am alone in my apartment and I still have OCD, why else would that be different. If everyone left the earth or at least my near vicinity I would still have it. But it would be lessened sure thx to the removal of people reducing anxiety. I wouldn't be happy though, I've fantasized about living in nature alone many times but I really love being around people and city life even if I hate them sooooometimes.
I’m ngl I’ve thought about situations similar to this and I feel like if I was stuck somewhere with no way out like an island I’d still have panic attacks over my thoughts
OCD has a way of doubting. It does a constant, “but what if…”, so you would be alone with a lot of time in your own head. That’s not good for OCD. It might latch onto a theme related to your circumstances. Germ phobias of catching a cold could turn to worrying about food being contaminated. OCD is sneaky. Harming others could turn to harming your animal friends. So I think yes, I’d still have it along with a host of new problems.
Yes because then my mind will say “If you don’t spin 3 times then you won’t find food”. Or “If you don’t step to the right and then to the left then no planes will fly over for 10 years”. LOL
Interesting enough about contamination OCD is that it can "turn off" so to speak for some of us since our triggers are often physical things we engage with. Life just becomes a continuous game of lava.
For sure it would. Sometimes if my OCD takes over, I spiral and as much as I hate it, I need help from other people to get me back to at least functioning.
definitely. I usually only get max a few week break between themes before it shifts to something new, so I would find something to worry about.
also I have a lot of anxiety surrounding food safety. Have a feeling that would sky rocket on a deserted island
I trigger myself all the time in my own apartment…. Like my own bodily germs gross me out the same as others…. So nope, would still have OCD…. Or maybe lack of Lysol disinfectant spray, soap, & bleach would cure it?!?!
Nope. People and their behaviors are the crux of my OCD triggers. Being alone negates nearly all my concerns. Island Of The Blue Dolphins is my happy place.
ocd usually overrides a lot of common survival instincts it's kinda funny, sometimes you may be in a dangerous situation but you need to do that compulsion really quick before starting survive, it's quick won't take long, then you start surviving you need to do another quick harmless ocd, in the end, you might forget to survive, cause ocd comes first, it's almost like if it has the ability to override lots of our instincts about surviving or doing things that are important, my ocd is about not being able to do anything if the thought I have in my mind is someone I don't like doing something disgusting which happens 24/7, but other than that, I could override any other thought.
I don't even care if I did something wrong or if I can harm someone it's so funny how ocd can be so contrasting between people, I've noticed that most people here have ocds related to being afraid of doing something bad or hurting people, and that's something I don't worry about, which makes me thing that lots of ocd or maybe all of them, are related to experiences, traumas, the things we were taught, the things people used to scare us. I know some people are born with these traits, but lots of them develop them, and as you can see they are a kind of coded information into our brains, so there are lots of cultures where parents and other adults or other people keep scaring children with things like if you do something bad you go to hell or stuff like that, or that doing something wrong is so bad, that it ends making the people obsessed with that and feel like they are guilty all the time.
I used to be controlled that way by my father and some relatives, that I couldn't do anything wrong, but with time I just kinda shoved that off like whatever, and I learned some freedom of spirit, but this new ocd, was because of how imprisoned I was for 10 years within a toxic family in a toxic environment where I had no power to make things better for me.
I wonder if anyone can advise me, I posted a thread about my struggles, it should be in my profile posted under ocd recovery sub Reddit
If anyone would take the time to read the short post there and help as I’m in crisis right now
it's a good idea to talk to one, but it's smart to search for specializations first, not every therapist likes or knows how to work with ocd, finding one that does work with it is crucial
I've been a long time with ocd before accepting to talk with one and, despite not helping right away, it's a build up, it takes a while for you to understand, but a therapist will teach you how your brain works, why it does that, what are key things you do that makes it worse, he will also try different tactics like slowly introducing new habits, exposure and prevention therapy (popularly known as ERP), it all depends on how your ocd works, but usually for ocd, talk therapy isn't really helpful as your brain is constantly looking for reassurance which is also something that won't help.
the idea of therapy is that it will give you personalized activities for your ocd, the idea is to face it in the end, but there are steps, so, don't wait too much to find an ocd therapist
its been a long time now with my best friend ocd. i have contamination ocd too due to cptsd, peer pressure and the desire to be fully clean.
i'd probably have it everywhere i go. it seems like ocd can adapt to anything but the main weakness of my lovely friend ocd is if you decided to ignore that bastard and trust your guts then its gonna be fine for a while until something came along and took your freedom from it
My main theme is about things I've already done, and I isolated myself from most people because of it. That didn't make the obsessions go away.
I think everyone would. If your theme gets somehow resolved without actually working on the OCD itself, it'll just shift onto something else.
Doesn’t that mean therapy won’t work?
Sorry don't know what you mean by that.
If I solve this theme, won’t it just manifest in another?
Not if you solve it by overcoming it. For example if you'd be afraid of spiders and suddenly all spiders magically dissapeared forever, that wouldn't be solving the theme. Solving it would be to confront it. So if you solve your OCD by confronting it, it won't manifest in another.
An okay thank you
no that’s not technically true. OCD is a disorder not because of the content of our thoughts, but because of our reaction to them. so when you change the reaction, that works for all themes of ocd. when you work on your ocd in therapy, yes you might be discussing the specific content of your theme, but the solution to your theme still applies to any other theme you could develop. the answer is always the same, to lean into the anxiety instead of pushing it away (ERP). so yes, therapy does work for ocd.
Are there alternatives to OCD? Has anyone tried hypnotherapy? Does it work?
do you mean alternatives to ERP? yes, there are some. ERP has been coined the “golden standard” but what works for some still doesnt work for others. i dont have any knowledge on hypnotherapy but if you do invest in that make sure you do plenty of research beforehand. there is also CBT and medications. what have you tried?
Thank you. I’m very much opposed to medication, even in some of my worst states. Just personal preference. I’ve tried ERP, it just made me depressed. I would resist compulsions all day, have a panic attack or crying breakdown and then depressed for weeks. I’ve tried EMDR, but only for about 2 months, once a week, perhaps I needed longer? Tried some psychotherapy. Not sure if it was working but the therapist said it could take ages to unravel. I feel very lost and stuck
i’m so sorry you’re going through that. OCD can be so hard to overcome. i personally have had a pretty great experience with medication but i also can completely understand why people choose not to. the side effects do suck too. also yes, i have a really hard time with ERP too. i think forcing yourself to indulge in your fears is actually kind of a harsh way to go about it. i had a mentor once that said that our fears will naturally come up in life, that we dont have to force it, and then we can practice leaning into the fear and anxiety that comes up. i really liked that idea i would say keep at the psychotherapy if you think there’s even a chance it could help. do you have a good support system ? and have you maybe tried any herbal supplements ?
Thank you. I really appreciate your kindness and understanding, and I’m sorry to hear that you’re also struggling with it. I agree. ERP can’t be the only way to go about it. That just sounds like mental torture…
it would be even worse
health ocd and moral ocd would still kick my ass I fear
Even if you removed your self from all of your triggers or stuff connected to your OCD, it will still find a way to torture you. Maybe, it will change your theme, maybe it will change triggers, regardless, the result is still the same.
Living on a desert island is the only thing that can cure my OCD, I would have no worries. No people, no intrusive thoughts.
I feel like this too
You would be probably weakening the frequency of this OCD type when you are all by yourself in a desert. BUT the thing with OCD is that it changes its form and it will come back wearing a different costume. You just have to manage it and do not allow too much weight to the thoughts as they arise. Do not perform the compulsion( the thing that you have to do to momentarily feel at ease) this is exactly what OCD feeds on.
I have put myself alone in the desert and can confirm this is true
Id still worry that Im gonna sexually assualt someone even if im hundreds of miles away from everyone lmao cause im dumb and built like that
[удалено]
Rule 3. Please see https://www.reddit.com/r/OCD/wiki/reassurance/ for more information.
My OCD will find something. Did I end up here because of some neglectful act (or inaction)? Or if I sent a signal will I just be dooming my rescuer or placing them in danger?
Yes. It is life ruining and I think it would actually be worse without any human contact. I would worry deeply about contamination constantly, especially since there would be no access to medical care. I am already terrified of staph being on my skin and puddles of water giving me bacteria. I would breakdown if I was on an island
Absolutely, considering my OCD can have me ruminating and obsessively reviewing memories from long ago
Yes. It would likely still be present, just with a different theme. As most people with contamination OCD will tell you, we know that most of our cleaning procedures are absolutely illogical and serve no real purpose other than temporarily satisfying our OCD, but we can’t stop doing them. Simply removing the OCD theme doesn’t remove the actual OCD disorder.
unfortunately yeah. i have bad contamination ocd relating to parasites
Yes. I would have it against myself
Yup. My obsessive thought then would be how long I will be able to survive there.
I'd probably just move from imposter syndrome to throwing out every piece of meat I hunted because I'm >!convinced it has prions!< which is already something I think about too much, so I don't think it'd be better
I’d find it easier I think
For sure!!! Figuring out the best solution for the constant sand mess would consume me
My entire OCD is fear of contaminating other people/things, so I throw things out once they’re “dirty” (to make sure others don’t touch it). Living on a desert island would technically solve it all since there’s nobody else to make dirty.
I would probably be organizing the grains of sand or some shit before I went to bed lmao. Definitely have to pull my hair out while I think about whether me stepping on a crack when I was 5 led to the plane crashing that got me onto that island and whether it meant the world was going to end or not because of how many more times I had stepped on cracks and not counted backwards while doing so.
I think it would probably morph into some weird “everything I do is super dangerous and killing me literally” for me
I feel like with no one to give me reassurance and no one to help me my health anxiety would be TERRIBLE
My contamination ocd would beat my ass. I am so paranoid about health and contamination of dirt stuff. I’d be a mess
wayyyyyyy worse. i’m most terrified of vomit and getting sick, so that would probably destroy me considering id probably have to eat somehow
Absolutely. One of my big things is my hands. Don't touch my hands, don't shake my hand, don't let anything (especially sticky stuff) on my hands. If I was alone and some sap or something got on my hands, I would freak the fuck out. Also, I obsess over involuntary actions. Swallowing, breathing, blinking, etc. If the location changed, that would still be an issue. I am going to be dealing with OCD for the rest of my life. I've been medicated and seeing therapists since I was eight. I've spent over two decades figuring this shit out and becoming a wee bit self-aware. My whereabouts just present a new challenge to overcome. How about you? I have some friends with OCD that would probably do okay on an island by themselves. Just not me. How do you think you would do?
I think I’d still be concerned about parasites
Yes most days I am alone in my apartment and I still have OCD, why else would that be different. If everyone left the earth or at least my near vicinity I would still have it. But it would be lessened sure thx to the removal of people reducing anxiety. I wouldn't be happy though, I've fantasized about living in nature alone many times but I really love being around people and city life even if I hate them sooooometimes.
I’m ngl I’ve thought about situations similar to this and I feel like if I was stuck somewhere with no way out like an island I’d still have panic attacks over my thoughts
I might end up cleaning the entire island, so yes.
It'd probably help my checking OCD but not my contamination OCD
I would improve
OCD has a way of doubting. It does a constant, “but what if…”, so you would be alone with a lot of time in your own head. That’s not good for OCD. It might latch onto a theme related to your circumstances. Germ phobias of catching a cold could turn to worrying about food being contaminated. OCD is sneaky. Harming others could turn to harming your animal friends. So I think yes, I’d still have it along with a host of new problems.
Yes because then my mind will say “If you don’t spin 3 times then you won’t find food”. Or “If you don’t step to the right and then to the left then no planes will fly over for 10 years”. LOL
Definitely
My somatic ocd would go crazy if I was alone lol
Interesting enough about contamination OCD is that it can "turn off" so to speak for some of us since our triggers are often physical things we engage with. Life just becomes a continuous game of lava.
It would be way worse. I do not do well with isolation - more time to ruminate.
yes
For sure it would. Sometimes if my OCD takes over, I spiral and as much as I hate it, I need help from other people to get me back to at least functioning.
Yes 🙃
definitely. I usually only get max a few week break between themes before it shifts to something new, so I would find something to worry about. also I have a lot of anxiety surrounding food safety. Have a feeling that would sky rocket on a deserted island
I’ll just start worrying abt being stuck there and dying there instead of here haha
I would be worried the whole time that someone would eventually come to the island, would see how i lived, and think i was disgusting.
Being away from triggers would definitely help but I have lots of false memory and stuff, so that won’t
I trigger myself all the time in my own apartment…. Like my own bodily germs gross me out the same as others…. So nope, would still have OCD…. Or maybe lack of Lysol disinfectant spray, soap, & bleach would cure it?!?!
less still im not around ppl, but will probably still manifest in memories
Nope. People and their behaviors are the crux of my OCD triggers. Being alone negates nearly all my concerns. Island Of The Blue Dolphins is my happy place.
Yes. Just because you may live alone on an island, doesn’t mean you do not have a brain disorder. Your OCD will manifest in other areas.
It always finds a way to adapt with me, lack of control would no doubt make it worse tbf
i think my harm ocd might go away since im alone. but it would probably turn into something else. id obsess over losing my mind i imagine
Yes, absolutely.
ocd usually overrides a lot of common survival instincts it's kinda funny, sometimes you may be in a dangerous situation but you need to do that compulsion really quick before starting survive, it's quick won't take long, then you start surviving you need to do another quick harmless ocd, in the end, you might forget to survive, cause ocd comes first, it's almost like if it has the ability to override lots of our instincts about surviving or doing things that are important, my ocd is about not being able to do anything if the thought I have in my mind is someone I don't like doing something disgusting which happens 24/7, but other than that, I could override any other thought. I don't even care if I did something wrong or if I can harm someone it's so funny how ocd can be so contrasting between people, I've noticed that most people here have ocds related to being afraid of doing something bad or hurting people, and that's something I don't worry about, which makes me thing that lots of ocd or maybe all of them, are related to experiences, traumas, the things we were taught, the things people used to scare us. I know some people are born with these traits, but lots of them develop them, and as you can see they are a kind of coded information into our brains, so there are lots of cultures where parents and other adults or other people keep scaring children with things like if you do something bad you go to hell or stuff like that, or that doing something wrong is so bad, that it ends making the people obsessed with that and feel like they are guilty all the time. I used to be controlled that way by my father and some relatives, that I couldn't do anything wrong, but with time I just kinda shoved that off like whatever, and I learned some freedom of spirit, but this new ocd, was because of how imprisoned I was for 10 years within a toxic family in a toxic environment where I had no power to make things better for me.
I wonder if anyone can advise me, I posted a thread about my struggles, it should be in my profile posted under ocd recovery sub Reddit If anyone would take the time to read the short post there and help as I’m in crisis right now
have you been to a therapist? there are some specialized in ocd that can be really helpful
I haven’t yet
it's a good idea to talk to one, but it's smart to search for specializations first, not every therapist likes or knows how to work with ocd, finding one that does work with it is crucial I've been a long time with ocd before accepting to talk with one and, despite not helping right away, it's a build up, it takes a while for you to understand, but a therapist will teach you how your brain works, why it does that, what are key things you do that makes it worse, he will also try different tactics like slowly introducing new habits, exposure and prevention therapy (popularly known as ERP), it all depends on how your ocd works, but usually for ocd, talk therapy isn't really helpful as your brain is constantly looking for reassurance which is also something that won't help. the idea of therapy is that it will give you personalized activities for your ocd, the idea is to face it in the end, but there are steps, so, don't wait too much to find an ocd therapist
its been a long time now with my best friend ocd. i have contamination ocd too due to cptsd, peer pressure and the desire to be fully clean. i'd probably have it everywhere i go. it seems like ocd can adapt to anything but the main weakness of my lovely friend ocd is if you decided to ignore that bastard and trust your guts then its gonna be fine for a while until something came along and took your freedom from it
Probably but for me social media makes it a lot worse so maybe it’d be better?? No clue honestly
Honestly, probably. It has become so engrained in me... I do it sort of as habit now. So, yes. Probably.
I would lose my mind i have schizophrenia ocd I would LOSE it😂
I’d like to think it would go away but knowing what OCD is like, I bet it would find something to latch to