OCD – Page 3 – Conquering OCD

Mental health is like a garden; I really love this analogy.

Mental health is like a garden; I love this analogy.
I have found over the years that I go through peaks and troughs with my mental health, and it is quite often the case that a trough will occur when I’ve become a bit lazy with my ‘gardening’ so to speak.

The ‘weeds’ don’t pop up all at once of course, it’s quite insidious in that respect, but over time they sneak in. Maybe you let one compulsion go or you avoid a situation which might be a bit uncomfortable – because after all one little slip can’t hurt right?

Well here’s the bad news, it can!

Know the brain believes what it sees, it notes down what you do and it’s watching ALL THE TIME! One missed exposure is not just one missed exposure, it’s evidence to your brain that you can’t cope with the situation at hand and so you should do the compulsion, avoid the situation if possible and in the future too – just in case. You can see how this can lead to a spiral effect and how those weeds can take hold.

It can very quickly become a slippery slope and before you know it, you’re snowballing, your obsessions (intrusive thoughts) worsen, the brains monitoring systems ramps up, along with your anxiety. You feel more on edge & you start to loose trust in your own judgement.

‘Last time we did the compulsion and it worked out OK, best do the compulsion again – just in case’.

But if you never give the brain the opportunity to see that you can cope, then how will it ever know?

It’s tough living with OCD and anxiety. Every day can feel overwhelming and it’s hard to be constantly putting yourself out there and sitting with uncomfortable feelings, which let’s be honest are designed by nature to try and stop you doing the uncomfortable thing! We are literally going against our built in mechanisms to stop us doing the scary thing and so it is hard and it’s tiring but it is worth it.

When you get to drive to the shops without worrying about having hit someone on the way, when you can leave the house without having to check the doors multiple times, when you can use public toilets without fear of contamination, when you can hug your child and not worry about doing something inappropriate, when you can cook the tea without fretting you’ll lose control and stab someone, the list is endless.
Maybe some of these resonate with you or maybe you have some other, obsessions (intrusive thoughts), anxieties or fears that hound you daily. Whatever they are, know they are not bigger than you, you can overcome the ‘weeds’ and thrive, but you must live the ERP (Exposure, response, prevention) lifestyle.

It sounds so easy right, ‘just sit with the feelings’, I get it, it’s hard, it’s overwhelming at times, but it is worth it. When you get a moment and your mind is quiet – yes it can happen – when your body feels more relaxed because it’s not in fight or flight all the time, when you can connect with friends and family because you’re not distracted and irritable, it’s worth it. It’s freedom, it’s the best feeling.

So, how do we keep the weeds at bay?
Well some of it comes down to keeping what I like to call ‘The 5 foundations’ in check

Ask yourself now, do I…

…Sleep enough?
…Eat well?
…Move my body everyday?
…Have good relationships?
…Allow myself to relax?

All of the above will help build your resilience up so that when you come to your exposures you are in the greatest mental space to deal with them. We need to give ourselves the best chance to sit with the feelings that come up and the 5 foundations will do this for you – know that when they slip you will be more vulnerable to OCD thoughts and ERP (exposure response prevention) will be more difficult.

Making ERP a lifestyle, is important. We should be pushing outside of our comfort zones, just a little bit, each day proving to our brains that we are strong, resilient and that the thoughts are irrelevant.

Know that you are not alone, recovery is slow but not impossible and definitely worth it.
As always,
Stay Strong xxx

stay strong xxx

I’m sad to see that It’s been just over a year to the day that I’ve written a full post. I have been updating social media a bit and in all honestly I was considering letting this blog go, but I’ve just read some of the comments and I’ve realised that that’s not an option so I’m back!

I started conquering OCD in 2017 when my mental health was in a pretty good state. I felt strong and as though my OCD had pretty much gone – if only I had known what was coming my way! I have been on a rough ride the last two years after a series of events ‘took me down’, so to speak. I jest and I can start to laugh about it now but I really have been to hell and back.

The upside of my ‘journey’, man I hate that word, is that I have learnt LOADS and so now I am able to share all this knowledge with you guys.

To get us started again here are four things that are helping me right now:

Exercise – I practice yoga daily as I teach – I realise this sounds a bit ‘perfect’ and I want to make it clear that I am very far from that. Sometimes a daily practice is just 5 minutes on the mat but showing up every day no matter what, tells my brain that I can do hard things. I also love box fit classes, this gives me the cardio I need but can also be quite triggering for my OCD. I quite often have to deal with intrusive thoughts of ‘what if I hit the person in front of me by mistake’ or if the face of someone I love pops into my head during a boxing sequence, OCD really is the gift that keeps giving.

I know for a lot of people it’s hard to fit the exercise in but it doesn’t have to be big workouts at the gym. It can be walking the dog or just taking the stairs instead of the lift. I’ve heard it said that exercise can be as effective as SSRI’s for mental health so it’s got to be worth a try right?

Reducing caffeine – This ones so super tough! The brain likes patterns and routine and so most of us nowadays are addicted to tea or coffee, or whatever hot beverage you enjoy. This is why I’ve put reducing rather than eliminating. If we tell the brain, you can’t have something, it’s going to get mad at you but if we just try and substitute that third cup of coffee for a hot water you might be surprised how easy it is. Most of the time I find that the brain just likes the habit of making the drink and the feeling of sipping something warm and comforting rather than the coffee itself. Hot water will tick all of those boxes, so why not give it a try? Also try not to drink caffeine too late in the day, it’ll mess with your sleep, which if you have OCD I’m guessing isn’t great already.

No TV at bedtime – You didn’t think it was going to be easy did you? This has been so hard to implement for me. I used the TV as a massive crutch for literally years to get myself to sleep but ultimately all it was doing was disturbing it. The result of stopping the TV has been that I’ve slept deeper and better. I then have more energy in the mornings and I’m more resilient when the OCD thoughts come. I find focusing on my breathing helps get me to sleep and is enough of a focus for my mind, it’s as simple as breathing in for 3 breaths and out for 6 breaths. Another option is to think of something kind you can do for someone else the next day. This takes your mind away from you and your OCD intrusive thoughts and puts it on someone else and in a positive way, hello happy hormones – which by the way help to get rid of the stress hormones, yay.

Learning to sit with uncertainty – Again stupidly hard I know. When things feel real you just want to work out the truth but ultimately your memories are made up of your memories so you’re not going to find the answers when you ruminate. To add to this when we feel worried about a situation we will only focus on the negative or ‘evidence’ in the memory and so it becomes distorted. ‘Overthinking only leads to unhappiness’, do your best to let the thoughts be.

So those are some little nuggets I’ve been working with recently. Unfortunately, there are no quick fixes when it comes to OCD. We have to be proactive in our recovery.

I hope you’re all doing well out there, remember you’re not alone!

Stay strong xxx

Category: OCD

Does giving into just ONE OCD compulsion matter?

OCD – 4 things that are helping right now