
greengiant1
Any advice for struggling with existential OCD for months and somatic OCD for about a month? I started Lexapro about 6 weeks ago and have been in ERP, CBT, and ACT therapy combined but I don’t feel much change yet. This has been my toughest theme so far.This is going to sound like a stupid tip- but it’s actually helped me a lot. I call it the “so what” method. Where when my OCD is like “You left your oven on.” “Everyone hates you” “That speed bump was actually a person” “What if this- what if that”- you just kind of repeat the thing back to your brain in a mocking voice and go “So what?”. At first it makes you feel really shitty. But after a while your brain stops doing it because the compulsions don’t give you a dopamine boost anymore.
Thanks for the tip, I have used that for other themes and it really does help your brain ease up after a while. I have been doing that as part of my ERP with the existential theme, and it’s been very hard because my compulsions are mostly mental, but I am trusting the process. Any advice for the somatic OCD (specifically hyper awareness of blinking that is for some reason distressing)? If not that’s ok, this was helpful to know that I’m on the right path for the existential theme at least.
Unfortunately I don’t have any advice for that. Honestly that’s probably the worst part of my OCD. Like suddenly I’ll be aware I have skin- and I start compulsively trying to claw at myself because I feel like trapped in my own body. 😳 Yes I probably would have been lobotomized in the 40s actually.
Yea, realizing you are a human with natural processes and body parts sucks lol. It still doesn’t make sense when I say it out loud, only makes sense to my brain. Well I really appreciate the advice nonetheless, you have been very helpful. Let me know if you need any tips idk if I can help but who knows.