Remember, at the end of the day OCD is an anxiety disorder. What does that mean and why am I telling you this? Because we forget! We are so deep in the throughs of the feeling and the obsessing that we forget why we are feeling this, and that why is our way out.
Anxiety takes over our minds and we lose sight of our hearts and our core. OCD makes us think that the thing we are obsessing about is the thing we have to “fix,” “solve,” change, and answer. IT IS NOT. The thing we are obsessing about is a manifestation of an INNER fear or belief that we have not yet healed. Read that again please! Understand it fully.
We think we need to check the stove, or touch the light five times, or in my case, our partner isn’t the “right” one for us because of something internal that we believe to be true. This internal belief (the house will burn down and you will lose everything, the light isn’t off and you won’t be able to pay the bill and that makes you a failure, or for me, you aren’t worthy of love and dont love/trust yourself to trust someone else to love you) is covered up by these compulsions as we look to rid ourselves of the feeling these fears and beliefs conjure up.
So then you ask ok well how do I stop feeling this way? How do I not feel like my life is ruled by obsessions and compulsions and rituals? First thing is first, do this with a trust professional-a specialist in OCD is a MUST. You have to focus on getting the anxiety at bay first. This means facing the obsessions-check the stove one less time than you normally would and handle the anxiety that comes with it. It will feel AWFUL at first but it eventually does lessen, and the more you do it, the less time the peak remains. Once you are able to handle the anxiety, only then can you dig into the core of where it all is coming from. If you don’t get the anxiety at bay first, anxiety will get in the way of you actually uncovering the root cause.
I will leave you with this for now and will be back for more later! Let me know how this sounds to you and I am happy to help you any way that I can.
SEROTONING 