Check, double check, triple check.
OCD knows no bounds.
OCD doesn’t discriminate on who it affects.
And it tends to attack the things we love most.
OCD is defined by a cycle of obsessions and compulsions. Obsessions are intrusive thoughts. Compulsions are the behaviors we do to satisfy the obsessive thoughts.
Intrusive thoughts are scary, involuntary, and fear provoking thoughts that pop into our head, leaving us feeling stressed out, afraid, and the bigger idea: out of control. Too often, sufferers will ask loved ones for reassurance, will research answers, or engage in other compulsions until something “feels right.” Once it feels right, the fear goes away and all is safe…
Until the cycle starts again.
Are Your Intrusive Thoughts Normal?
Everyone experiences intrusive thoughts. But do your intrusive thoughts cross the line by making you feel stress, worried, or scared? You're not trying to think about these things on purpose. It's a thought that just keeps happening. With your intrusive thought, it is bringing up a visual, or an image, or it could be like a movie scene playing out in your mind. Here's the other part, with the intrusive thought, not only is it involuntary, because we all get involuntary thoughts, but the intrusive thought creates fear. It triggers that fight or flight, makes you feel scared, and the intrusive thought is inconsistent with your values, which is why it causes so much stress. A lot of times, someone who experiences these intrusive thoughts, hasn't shared them with anyone because it’s embarrassing, shameful, and traumatizing. You are not alone.
OCD Compulsive Behaviors
The cycle of OCD includes a combination of obsessions and compulsions that all in all take up an hour a day…. at least. If you have OCD, you have probably noticed that you can spend more than hour worrying, checking, researching, and getting reassurance. Compulsions happen because this is how you get your relief. Common compulsions are:
Handwashing
Checking
Reassurance Seeking
Doing things in a certain order or a certain way
Doing things until it feels “just right”
Avoiding certain things
Researching things on the internet
Prayer (yes, even prayer can be a compulsion)
Okay, so you may be like, “I’ve lived with this my whole life, why change now?” Well my friend, would you not throw someone a life raft if they were drowning? If you knew that you had the skills to save someone from their situation, would you let them drown? Of course not! Let me give you that life changing life raft to help you stop drowning in your OCD and come to the shore where you can breathe easy. Together, we can accomplish peace and healing.
Let’s also consider the time you will save when you will no longer have to research your fears for hours online, the relief you feel because you are not worrying if that aching in your chest is a heart attack waiting to happen, the skin on your hands looks healthy since you don’t have to wash your hands til they’re bleeding…need I say more?
Therapy can change your life.
Schedule your free consult today.