What does recovery from OCD look like?

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Hi. Today I want to talk about what full recovery looks like when you have ocd.

So with ocd, we have obsessions, right? These are the thoughts, the fears, and the rumination that we have an obsession about things that we just can't shake or we can't stop thinking about, things that give us a lot of anxiety. Then we have the compulsions, which are the coping mechanisms, either mental or physical, that we've created as ways to alleviate that anxiety in that moment after we have those anxious thoughts. The problem, as you probably already know, is that these compulsions only reinforce the anxiety. So why is that? Why do these compulsions reinforce these fears and the obsessions that we have there? But our brain perceives the threat, and then the warning bell goes off, right? So once that warning bell goes off, we feel the anxiety that comes up, the fear, the worry, and the concern. And then OCD wants you to do something about it. So that's where the compulsion comes in. Now, a lot of times, these compulsions are not things that we consciously created, but subconsciously we created these in order to ease our anxiety. So some examples of compulsions might be to ruminate, to start to think about and try to start to solve the problem. You might think back about past memories or look at the future. We might use the law of attraction as a compulsion. We might seek reassurance from somebody. You might feel like you need to wash your hands, you might need to check something or. Or even a physical act, like having to touch something a certain number of times or create a list, and then, boom, you've actually done something, because you really bought into that thought and hooked into it, and that's why it's reinforcing that anxiety for you. And so it thinks it's doing a good job, right? And so your brain's going to start to give you more of these warning bells and more of these intrusive thoughts, because what it's doing is actually working.

Recovery from OCD means that we're no longer doing the compulsions. We're no longer feeding that OCD loop that is happening in our minds when OCD wants to give us a thought or we have a trigger that OCD latches onto, and we no longer participate in that compulsion, which means that we're not buying into what it's trying to sell us. Then it no longer continues to feed us these intrusive thoughts, at least not very often anyway. We can actually rewire our brains back to where it was pre OCD with the right tools. Now, does that mean OCD ever goes away? Not necessarily. Some people can get it to the point where their intrusive thoughts are just like anybody else's intrusive thoughts and they just kind of have to be aware and they move on with their day. Other people might experience small relapses. If you are aware of your compulsions, your intrusive thoughts, making sure that you're not doing these compulsions and you've received the right help with this, which is erp, and you continue to be aware and conscious of your OCD and any compulsions that you might feel like doing. Because when we go through stress or changes or difficult situations, our brains want to revert back to old coping mechanisms. So. So we just have to keep our thumb on our pulse of our OCD to make sure that once we're in that recovery stage, that we continue to be conscious of what's going on so that we don't spiral back down into any OCD loops. So in the next video, I'm going to talk about a lot of the hidden compulsions that you may not even be aware of, because a lot of things can become compulsions. So we'll talk about that more. If you want a notification of that video, just hit subscribe below.

Lastly, if you have never received ERP treatment or you have not been in full recovery from ocd, which means that you are doing zero compulsions at all and no longer bothered by intrusive thoughts, then this is definitely something I can help you with. Just know that recovery is possible. It takes getting the right help and going through the right process, which is why I created my nine week program that mirrors the exact program that I went through that finally helped me feel better from my relationship ocd. There's a link below where you can schedule a free call with me to learn more.