7 Signs You're Recovering from OCD

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Welcome back. My name is Danielle Thornton. I'm an anxiety and OCD recovery coach who has recovered from multiple subsets of ocd. I stay in the recovery stage, and I help other people get there to lifetime recovery as well. So today we're going to talk about seven signs that you're actually on that recovery journey and that you are recovering from ocd. And the first sign is that you're learning ERP skills and you're practicing those skills daily. So at the beginning of this recovery process, we're learning to recognize when OCD shows up and respond with ERP every time. So at the beginning, you're going to be doing a lot of ERP and putting it to practice almost daily. In fact, what you'll learn about me being in the recovery stage is I actually use ERP almost daily to stay in the recovery stage. But once you understand it and learn it very well, it becomes very automatic. The second sign is that you have identified your compulsions, and you're a lot more aware of them. You're more aware of when those compulsions are showing up when you're doing them, and over time, you're getting better and better at having that awareness and choosing to stop them. Now, that doesn't mean that you're not going to have a bad day from time to time where they come up a little bit, but generally, over time, you're working on bringing them down lower and lower. In order to do that, you have to know what they are. So one of those signs is that you've worked with somebody who can help you identify all of them. Because unless you've worked with somebody that can help you, you are probably aware of many of them, but there are probably some that you're not aware of, and they're very sneaky and they are feeding the oc. So it is important that you identify them all. The next sign is that you're recognizing your intrusive thoughts earlier. So before we start learning the recovery skills, the thoughts are just coming in all the time. And sometimes we don't even realize that we're caught up in the OCD cycle until we're in the rabbit hole and experiencing a lot of anxiety. So through the recovery stage, you're going to get better at recognizing as soon as the thought shows up using ERP in response. And over time, that immediacy is really important. I use this V all the time, recognizing when it shows up so that you can do erp, because otherwise you're doing compulsions. And doing compulsions is leading you down the rabbit hole. So through the recovery process, you're going to be recognizing more quickly and immediately when those thoughts show up so that you can immediately use your ERP skills. Sign number four that you are in the recovery process is that you still understand that you're going to get negative or uncertain thoughts, but you're getting better at accepting them. You're getting better at leaning into the uncertainty, not pushing them away or being upset that they are there, but just learning how to lean into them versus pushing them away. Trying to get rid of them are not one thing to wanting them to be there. Sign number five is that you're having more and more good days. Number six is that the bad days are less and less, they're less uncomfortable. And again, throughout the recovery journey, you're going to have ups and downs. That's part of the process for everybody. There's nobody that just learns ERP and it all goes away. You learn by trial and error and applying these skills every time your brain wants to throw something new at you. So the good days become more often and they're more comfortable and the bad days happen less often and they're less uncomfortable over time. Again, this is when you're using the ERP skills regularly and consistently. This is what you're going to notice as you're recovering. And number seven, you're starting to notice the subtle ways that OCD shows up in your life or maybe even OCD tendencies. So one of those examples might be that when you're physically uncomfortable, maybe you don't push yourself very far physically because you notice that when you get uncomfortable, you tend to quit. Or when you have a big project to do, you tend to procrastinate. Okay, these aren't necessarily ocd, but I call them OCD tendencies because they are discomfort followed by avoidance. And it's the same pattern in the brain. I'm uncomfortable, so I'm going to run away from that discomfort in some way, which is typically avoidance. So the more you go on this recovery journey, the more you're going to recognize these subtle ways that OCD or OCD tendencies affect your life. And you're going to apply ERP and you're going to notice that your life grows in so many fascinating ways and gets better in ways that you didn't even realize. So I hope this video was helpful for you. Please hit subscribe and like if this was a helpful video for you, subscribe so I know what to do, what you like and can provide more information like this for you. If you want help getting to that lifetime recovery stage for any OCD subset, Check out the link in the description below. I have a lot of new programs coming up in the next couple of months, but right now you can work with me with Coach one on one coaching privately or the PATH is a very cost effective program that can help you to learn all of the ERP skills and get the support you need so that you can recover from any OCD subset. It was really good to see you today and we'll see you very soon.