@@imagiman893 that’s my problem too when I try to feel the anxiety it gets so overwhelming. I feel like I’m about to throw up or I feel like I’m getting stabbed in the stomach over and over again. Sometimes ERP works other times it doesn’t it really just does seem like a game of mental Russian roulette with anxiety or at least that’s how I see it.
Seeing beautiful women when I'm out and about and having intrusive thoughts and thoughts related to rocd symptoms and then my enemy brain side tries to combat me, I've been dealing with this for a while ever since I kissed another woman and was not able to tell the truth right away. I've been trying to find a good therapist to be able to talk about this stuff I already told the truth and everything is fine but I still have like PTSD symptoms. I've also been trying to learn how to desexualized my mind
I try this with anxiety too. "What would non anxious me do?" and learning to sit with the feelings and not rush to change them. Slowly I'm seeing progress.
The first time I learned how to just sit with my feelings I realized I can move my arms and legs despite how I feel. So I can do my work no matter what. I am still in control. At this moment my anxiety just dropped to almost zero. It was an enlightening experiment. Finally I knew what accepting means. First milestone in my OCD journey.
@@danielocsai36 Thank you for sharing your milestone with me! I feel like it'll take a while to unlearn patterns. It's wild how tricky it is when it's a case of going "okay but what can i control? Okay i'll do thst instead"
My ocd themes keep changing. As tou always say accepting the fear and sit with it but everytime i tey to do it , it feels like im actually agreeing with my thoughts and I'm actually that kinda person which i don't want to be.
It's tough when the themes keep changing, but you're on the right track by trying to accept the fear. It feels weird and wrong sometimes, but it's showing that words are words, just like the intrusive thoughts that come in.
I used to to ERP really incorrectly--I would just shove down my anxious feelings and kinda gaslight myself about how much fear I have, rather than accepting the anxiety and fear. This method helps me do exposures with more self compassion, because if I had no OCD, I would still have fears and live life anyway! Thank you for your videos!
Your truly unique way of explaining ERP makes a lot of us feel understood and at the same time gives us a way/chance of trying to deal with the OCD and fears. One that feels difficult but doable. A glimpse of hope to live with the risk of changing how we deal with our fears and experience some good things despite the loud false alarms in our heads. Thank you. I'm still working on it every day, but I believe this is a way to live in the now as good as possible, despite all the fears. Also doing your online course, but sometimes those short youtube videos that always tackle the same topic from a slightly different angle give me a bit of the necessary awareness to keep on going. Thanks again and all the best to everyone here! 😊
@@ocdandanxiety Hi mate love all of your content. My ocd centers around mental ordering and importance which can take up so much of my day. A lot of mental compulsions. My therapist told me i have a bit of ocd and a bit of ocpd a bit of each. And the questions is it right is it correct what task im doing etc. Would you say my ocd is around symmetry and proportion and feeling just right? I have to feel a certain way before i do a task etc the right feeling. I was trying to find one of your old videos where you said you woke up oneday and decided to start living life i really loved that video. I seem to feel better when i watch that video now and then. It always reminds me live your life to the full. But ive lost track of that video do you mind telling me what video that is on your channel again if thats ok. I will keep that one in my bookmarks. Keep up the good ocd treatment videos. Thanks.
I know this sounds naive, but as someone who also struggles with ocd, I would like to share another perspective on ocd treatment. First, we should take a step back for a moment and don’t see ocd as a constant event but rather several individual events. In the end, yes I know very well, it’s a long term mental disorder but if we break it down and focus on this one individual event it’s basically just a fear from our body that’s warning us in weird way. My point is that in order to make small progress you need to start slowly and see it from a different perspective. Just like in this video, act as if this fear / thought isn’t due to the thought pattern of ocd that has been influenced by a past event but as if this fear is actually the result of this very situation in the current moment. You will see that #1 it doesn’t make much sense because this fear actually hasn’t much to do with reality and #2 that it will be a much easier step because it’s not the whole ocd that you have to overcome but rather one small situation,
I sometimes say that to myself when I'm stuck ruminating, or having anxiety. I ask myself, if I didn't have OCD, would I really be tripping over this? More than likely, no. That often helps lessen the anxiety.
Just act if... Difficult but as simple as that. One prerogative: act based on you, on what you are, want, believe and cherish... Not on what the others want you to act/be.
you are one in few youtubers who speak truth about these problems. Others says meditate, get medication, distract your thoughts and so on. But the real truth is what you are saying. Had a severe insomnia for past 3 years and only thing that helped when i let it go and stopped doing all those things to “sleep better”. It was hard, but it is only way that truly worked
Hi Nathan, I really hope you see this. I just wanted to say that you have changed my life 🙏❤️ I am an alcoholic/addict in recovery and I am now over a year clean and sober when i couldnt even get one day for most of my life. A lot of my issues were that i couldnt quiet my mind because of ocd or adhd i dont even know. Rumination was a big reason for my drinking and using and your videos have honestly helped me more than any therapy or fellowship ever did. I just think youre an incredible person and i cant thank you enough. Love Sean, from Ireland
Appreciate this channel so much! Even if I overcome OCD, I will never ever forgive it for everything it's done to me, and not to mention messing up my relationships with my family. Having OCD makes me feel like my own brain hates me and loves to torture me. I would never wish OCD on anyone, not even the most horrible people in the world. EDIT: To anyone else with OCD, know it's not your fault for having it, you're not alone and praying everything gets better for you. 🙏🙏🙏❤
I love you doc i am a gay dude with SO-OCD And i have other ocds like religion one But suddenly i stopped feeling anxious from my SO-OCD intrusive thoughts and i watched ur video about it and imma say i will get better because of you dont stop new subscriber ❤
How to deal with head-health OCD? My mind seek many things that can be dangerous to brain and after that stress I feel it in my head, pressure etc. Feeling in the head, sensitive strange sensations caused by a thought or some movement, ahh... Just accept, just ignore? But how? I want to be healthy etc.
Your advise excellent for the time where I am doing a good deed. but if I get repeated thoughts and mostly negative that is were I sit with it, meaning don’t react to it. Watch it, hear it let it pass. But when I have positive and useful thoughts this is where I leave out the doubt.
I keep worrying that the OCD is secretly me and that I hate myself and I WANT to have the thoughts It genuinely feels like a part of my brain is out to get me
So many of my OCD thoughts don't affect my everyday life. (I have had debilitating thoughts to( but right now They are just very annoying and all day, but they don't affect getting my work or school done. I've asked the question multiple times latly, "Do i actually have OCD? Even though I've been diagnosed, do i really have it? Others seem to be struggling worse than i am."
I’m trying my best to take action. I do the chores even though I feel like I can’t. I go to eat with my husband even though I feel like I can’t…..still no relief. I’m so frustrated that my anxiety is still so high and the health anxiety is still constantly pestering me with all these sensations….I want to get better, what am I doing wrong?😢
Hey! I’ve been using ERP phrases against my intrusive thoughts, and it’s been working really well. I usually say “maybe yes, maybe not” or just say “and so what” whenever i have a scary intrusive thought. Last day a thought popped into my mind: what if saying these phrases have become a compulsion themselves? It’s really a scary thought, because these are my only weapons to fight my ocd. Do you have any suggestions? Is this just another ocd “what if” thought of mine?
Hey Nathan , very good video . I can do better editing in your videos which can help you to get more engagement in your videos . Pls lmk what do you think ?
Please help me I don’t know what to do I’ve had ocd and depersonalization for so long and I’m scared of losing it please help I’ve been so close to ki11ing myself because I’m so scared
Love this Nathan! Looking at the world in a different perspective or how I would respond before I was triggered with certain themes and engage with the world was a real game changer for me 🙌🫶
Hi myself tania i had ocd for past 6 years i thought that ocd is untreatable but not my friends its actually treatable you just have to master courage for it you have to be patient because curing requires some time i was working on my self from last 4 months i am moving toward recovery.
I have OCD on and off now for 25 years. It will never completely go away. But I'm living with it. Accepting it. Sometimes accepting is difficult. It's there but it isn't dominating my life anymore... I think in the case of OCD that's the definition of "cured".
@@Anyoneoutthere89 do meditation like breathing exercises,the 5 sense technique to detach yourself from either past or future or if you're are holding some thing I mean some thought release it I know in the beginning its hard but trust the process believe in god whatever religion you belong believe in your self that you can do it nothing can stop you other than yourself and last but most important seek some help from physcatraist or phycologist
I have a childhood trauma and I've lost 20 years of my life because of debilitating OCD cleaning. I'm exhausted and Exposure Therapy is so difficult that I feel physically ill, similar to a panic attack... My body aches, I get dizzy and almost faint. Thanks for giving us hope but I don't think I can improve.
Don't worry it might seem useless to do these treatments at the beginning but little by little you're gonna realise that you are getting better. Anxiety gets weaker and you stronger. Keep fighting 💪💪
Ocd off the charts, scared I had a silent heart attack, because am tired most times, have been checked out a dozen times, nothing, can walk around lake I fish,lift weights, just tired, have hypothyroidism and osteoarthritis 66 years old,,wife has cancer am I alone
So this method isn’t compulsively trying to avoid a fear or uncomfortable feeling? For example, w/ relationship ocd. If my thoughts are making me feel disgust or avoidant towards my partner. Acting like I don’t have OCD would be acting playful and sweet. That isn’t compulsively trying to avoid feeling that fear and disgust? This can be SO confusing sometimes!
I understood it to mean doing the thing you'd do if you didn't have OCD, regardless of how it feels. What you're talking about falls down to intent. If you're mentally deciding doing XYZ will make me not feel XYZ then that's the unhelpful intent. If you're doing XYZ because if you didn't have OCD you'd do that. The intent is more helpful and in alignment with your value. At the end of the day you can feel avoidant or disgust AND be playful and sweet towards someone you love because you're choosing to love them. It's no different to healthy couples feeling mad at each other but choosing to remain connected. Hope that has helped. It is confusing and a fine line!
It’s hard to stop my anxiety from saying “oh you’ve been forgetting all this bad stuff you did, you need to worry about it again, how did you ever forget” I’ve had OCD my whole life (now that I know what it is) what do I say to my OCD about a bad future event that I’m certain will eventually happen? Do I say I don’t care if it happens? I feel like my brain knows that a lie :(
The one thing that stops me from seeking treatment is feeling like i deserve to suffer or be punished due to my false memory and real event ocd - because if i am as bad as my brain says i am man i dont feel worthy of a good life... i think i might just go to treatment anyway even though i don't feel like i deserve it idk maybe i dont but i cant keep "living" like this - i am starting to sleep all day to avoid everything including my college classes - i have been hurt so much i never want to hurt others but in my past it seems like i have a lot and its hard when my brain always reminds me of it and adds in more stuff too to make it worse - do you guys ever stop feeling like worst person alive or like you deserve to? does it ever stop?
I have pocd. I am pregnant with my first, and I’m scared. I keep thinking bout how I had an intrusive thought and still decided to do something and part of me is like oh it is erp but then I’m like no I’m just covering it up. I feel like i deserve death.
I go through the same thing. You don’t deserve death- you deserve a happy and joyful life. It’s hard to remember at times, but remind yourself that this is a disorder that you’re fighting and your values will always keep you in line. As I type this, I am struggling- but I believe that one day we will all beat this. Sending prayers.
my new obsession is the thought of earth spinning and it scares me and I have visions and different thoughts about it and what could go wrong even if it’s logically unproven it just is uneasy for me sitting with the thought that we are rotating, anyone else ??
