What if your OCD themes change when you make progress?

If you notice your OCD or anxiety topics changing when you feel like you're progressing, it can help to shift the focus from the obsessions to the compulsions. If you're measuring success by getting rid of a theme, that's only going to encourage your brain to change topics and give you more to check on and control so you can get more of that high from cleaning your mind. Instead, it helps to look at cutting out patterns of behavior, across any topic of brain stuff. The topic of the intrusive thoughts is just a variable the brain throws up because you'll react to it. Cut out those reactions and judgments, and then it can't push you around.

#ocd #pureo #intrusivethoughts #psychology

[moulee]

This happens all the time... Just when I have learnt to handle one theme, the next theme follows out of no where...
Thankyou

[funkyshade]

It became so obvious to me that once I started focusing on my values, OCD would bring up anything in order to see what sticks and makes me ruminate. It’s like clockwork, so I’m definitely trying to stay focused on values regardless of what my brain throws up.

[danielwalker]

Really important.
A few old mindfulness based books I had had CBT addressing a few common themes of obsessions. This may be helpful in the beginning, but it's far more useful to realise it isn't the topic at all. Even though if you start to realise that, it's about knowing it experientially. The experience is, judging the thought/ idea / which could be an old obsession, or a new one, or any brain stuff. It could be anything. Even if spent years having the debate trying to get rid of the pain.
It's about knowing that, in OCD, and in many other areas too. It's most prominent I suppose with the anxiety experienced in OCD.
The rumination is the problem not the topic. How do we know this, truly, our brains want to get rid of, say, the anxiety, and is doing anything to do that I suppose, but it's wrong, it's more than wrong, it just wants to keep us safe but it doesn't know how to do that with these internal things. It's taken some time with regards rumjnation, it was so heavy and the feelings would never go even tho I wasn't ruminating. But to shift to not believing any rumination and knowing that is the problem and there's no truths in it. (Even if there appears to be or uses anything real.)
🙂 👍

[downspiral]

I’ve had all kinds of OCD thoughts that is not listed on Wikipedia. Changing themes is an example of focalising on specific thoughts like they are special when that’s part of the illness, your OCD loves to deprive you and make you obsess about your own thoughts.

Not to mention it’s arbitrary and redundant because OCD is about anything and everything. You need to be prepared for anything your OCD can throw at you.

[smartbit]

i love the end 🤣🤣 " having sort of feeling, about...." that's almost chanting 🙌🏻

[donlumians]

Very true. I had themes around HOCD when I was I highschool. I knew they weren't true but it scares the hell out of me that I couldn't get myself out of that. What made it worse was that it was accompanied by chronic pain.

Right now, I'm not suffering with that theme but I've another theme that has been focused on some past event and now, the event has become traumatic. It's been almost two years

[patriciariosgonzalez]

Even when I try to be in the present, when I try to follow my value of learning mindfulness, my mind is always solving problems. Not related to the regular themes but related to any real everyday situation, life worries. Automatically I get engaged in rumination going to the future to solve them. Do I have to stop even those solving problems patterns??
I was at the point of not knowing which is an OCD thought and which is not.
Any minor problem could be a source of high levels of anxiety because I try to solve it.
I noticed that I have too many “should do”, negativity. In my thinking, or doubts about my decisions. Exhausting, makes me sad thinking that I will never feel better and free. Hope you can guide me with some tips. Thank you Mark♥️

[gibbers]

This is happening to me alot at the moment, never made the connection of the feeling of the brain giving you more stuff to think about as you are getting better at solving them.. what a fascinating organ the brain is haha

[erickp]

I feel like the OCD or rumination kicks in when I am in worried state. The anxiety comes from thinking about the future so I find to ground myself. Putting my mind in the now helps.

[hussainak]

I’ve been suffering from OCD for the past 3 years. Everything in my life feels OCD, the themes keep changing, like I try to reassure myself of things I normally wouldn’t worry about prior to OCD, but then there are thoughts that require thinking/problem solving and understanding before making a decision, now I worry if I should disregard such thoughts, or reassure until I feel content, problem is I know I need to cut rumination down to 0% to recover, but then I worry there are areas of life that will require problem solving/analysing to grow and develop I.e learning a new technical topic, reading and not understanding then I try to reread until I am content, or when I’m in the middle of a convo and don’t understand something, I try reassuring to confirm I understood what the other person said instead of staying in the present and following the conversation….. I know it sounds silly but I normally never worried about such stuff until 3 years ago… can’t recall exactly but even if I did overthink/ruminated over such themes prior to OCD I guess I disregarded within a few secs or didn’t think they were that important ……. Now there are some themes that I know ruminating over them adds zero value but I’ve trained myself to do mental compulsions and always regret it in the end, just so that I am safe and know exactly how to deal with the problem theme in future, but the cycle never ends…..and if I feel like I stop every single compulsion/rumination I’ll miss out on important stuff that requires thinking/analysing for my own development, and I’ll become an average person and won’t sound intelligent and be able to have constructive arguments/conversations with others and it’ll make me look stupid. I want to be successful so bad but OCD is a struggle! I’ve bought your book Mark and am trying to take OCD positively as I think it’s an opportunity to turn my life around and hopefully be in a much better position mentally that I was in even prior to OCD, by making real changes that I always knew that are good for me but never did…. Now is the time I guess 🙂

[jishajain]

Great! Ques- i say "i choose to be in the present" and then my awareness is in the present..sometimes i forget..sometimes i get sucked in rumination..am i relying on a thought for fixing or this exercise is helping me bring my focus back to present and build skills of being in the present?

[zzzcocopepe]

I have almost cured my OCD. I'm so close I can feel it. Right now I just tell myself to say how instead of why. And I'm also trying to be completely nonreactive. Because, even if something is bad, that doesn't mean I have to be reactive. There's a difference between being reactive and responsive. And I guess when you get stuck in OCT, your brain thinks every response is being reactive. So I'm trying to be completely nonreactive. And anytime I start to ask why something's happening instead I just asked how I got here and how I can resolve it.

[Real_Iron_Smith]

I feel called out lol.
That said, therapy DID help me get over this... for the most part. I just get anxiety spikes sometimes that make it resurface, but even then, it's way easier to control these days.

[shawnleong]

My themes don’t change, and it is horrifying me because it makes me feel like I’m “different”…

[joqahtani]

Got sick a lot growing up (weak immune system) but with ocd it’s gotten harder when to decide to go for a check-up for the pain or is it my brain conjuring up symptoms... sometimes I decide to ignore it for days and if it’s still there then it’s worth going to a doc but.... yikes it gets exhausting!

[harryom]

I have gotten rid of Violence OCD ( intrusive thoughts ) but somehow after 1 month it calls me like it's too late now get back to the normal and it has started 4 days ago again getting compulsions and having violent thoughts in mind. It's a silent loud scream.

[princessawesome]

OK, would OCP like something where if you’re cleaning your hands and you feel like you have to clean like five times because like you feel like I don’t know is that what it’s like

[David__Z]

How can somebody get out of hyper stimulation ?
Ive had contamination ocd for years but I've recently stopped cold turkey and now i have sensory ocd like breathlessness, lightheadedness, dizziness, brainfog and just general anxiety like i stay with one symptom for about a week then it moves to another and the cycle just keeps repeating and now that i got kinda use to those symptoms my mind just came up with a new one (tinnitus). So basically i know i can put all those in under the anxiety umbrella so instead of having 1000 problems i only have 1 (anxiety). How can one come out of fight or flight is it a chemical imbalance or is there something i can do naturally ? The struggle is real but i just don't understand why im still anxious

[Steamprod]

Can OCD manifest like a paranoia?
I have constant thoughts that people can cause me harm - physical or mental, and that I’ll feel so terrible after someone harming me that I’ll harm them a lot in return. It involves the thoughts about me getting into a physical fight and then into jail. I get terrible anxiety from this and become afraid to accidentally piss off someone, or at other times becoming very angry for being afraid and even start behaving somewhat aggressively/mean to others, still being afraid they will fight me but not wanting to feel the fear of being socially constrained anymore.

[jishajain]

Oh so it's about KNOW WHAT TO DO AND JUST DO IT WITH ANY THOUGHTS, EMOTIONS, BODILY SENSATIONS, FEELINGS. And keep bringing back the focus to present moment.
so' knowing' beforehand (proactively) rather than deciding later or reactively after i decide to be mindful and being distracted.