How do you cope?

[americus]

I'm new here. I've had therapists tell me before that I have a form of OCD-- mostly the obsessive thoughts. Last night was the last straw for me-- I could NOT stop obsessing about a problem. I could not let it go. I even dreamed about it. I'm so tired of the hamster wheel constantly turning in my head.

I can't afford counseling right now. So, I'm doing my best to cope.

What do use to cope? Do you read the bible? Listen to Christian music? I need more ideas to try. I'm at my wit's end trying to relax and give all of these worries and thoughts to Jesus.

One thing that has worked for me in the past is listening to affirmations. There is a great CD by Sister Janet Lovell. One of the healing affirmations/chants is "Only Godly thoughts can enter my mind." It does help me.

Thank you for your suggestions!

 

[gracealone]

Hi Americus,
Welcome to the forum.
There certainly is a form of OCD that is mostly obsessive thoughts. It's called "Pure O". What has been most helpful to me with myt own obsessive thought cycle's is to learn and practice a form of therapy called Exposure Response Prevention therapy. Since my therapist didn't teach it I've had to learn to do it on my own. There are some really great articles about Pure O and using ERP methods to manage it at:
www.ocdonline.com
Dr. Philipson's article's are excellent and really give great examples of how to use ERP.
The most important thing about obsessive thoughts is to learn to just let them be in our heads without fighting them by rumination. Of course that takes a lot of practice since our instinctual fear/anxiety response is to do the exact opposite.
Medication is also a helpful adjunct to therapy depending on how severe the disorder is and what the impact is on daily functioning.
Hang out and read some of the posts on the forum also as their lot's of people here who give great advice along with encouragement and compassion.
God Bless,
Mitzi

I'm new here. I've had therapists tell me before that I have a form of OCD-- mostly the obsessive thoughts. erLast night was the last straw for me-- I could NOT stop obsessing about a problem. I could not let it go. I even dreamed about it. I'm so tired of the hamster wheel constantly turning in my head.

I can't afford counseling right now. So, I'm doing my best to cope.

What do use to cope? Do you read the bible? Listen to Christian music? I need more ideas to try. I'm at my wit's end trying to relax and give all of these worries and thoughts to Jesus.

One thing that has worked for me in the past is listening to affirmations. There is a great CD by Sister Janet Lovell. One of the healing affirmations/chants is "Only Godly thoughts can enter my mind." It does help me.

Thank you for your suggestions!

 

[annrobert]

welcome to the forum,
there is wonderful helpful advice here and lots of people who identify and understand.
annrobert

 

[americus]

welcome to the forum,
there is wonderful helpful advice here and lots of people who identify and understand.
annrobert

Thank you to both of you. I've had a really tough few days. I keep trying to remember the verse, "He will quiet you with his love." I repeat it over and over in my head. The thoughts won't stop. There's nothing I can do about this situation and yet I nit pick it in my brain to death. I can't let it go. Then I feel like I'm not trusting God with this and I feel guilty.

 

[gracealone]

Thank you to both of you. I've had a really tough few days. I keep trying to remember the verse, "He will quiet you with his love." I repeat it over and over in my head. The thoughts won't stop. There's nothing I can do about this situation and yet I nit pick it in my brain to death. I can't let it go. Then I feel like I'm not trusting God with this and I feel guilty.

Hi Americus,
Since several therapists have diagnosed you with Pure O OCD then you need to try and treat this obsession as OCD. Do you think a Diabetic should be blamed for the lack of insulin that their pancreas won't produce?
Then neither should you blame yourself for the imbalance of chemistry in that portion of your brain that controls the fight or flight response. That means you don't blame yourself for the thoughts getting stuck in your head. That means recognizing that it's the instinctive fear response that is sending you wrong signals. If this is creating an overwhelming feeling of anxiety than you can feel confident in labeling it as OCD. The more folk with OCD fight the unwanted instrusive thoughts the bigger and more insistent they become. The key is learning to ignore them as so much meaningless static on the radio.
Hope you'll check out those articles I mentioned. They were a God send to me.
Praying for you.
Mitzi

 

[kaykay9.0]

Thank you to both of you. I've had a really tough few days. I keep trying to remember the verse, "He will quiet you with his love." I repeat it over and over in my head. The thoughts won't stop. There's nothing I can do about this situation and yet I nit pick it in my brain to death. I can't let it go. Then I feel like I'm not trusting God with this and I feel guilty.

I ditto what Grace said above too. I also encourage to look at the ocdonline articles. (He clearly discusses how ruminating will usually just deepen the OCD response.) I just noticed and picked out the part in your post I bolded. A couple of weeks ago at Bible study, we were talking about worrying and one lady said that her husband never worried about anything really. He piped up then and said that "well, the way he looked at it was this~ if you need to do something or prepare for a potential problem, then do it. But if there's nothing you can do about it, then you might as well just have fun till it happens!"

Now I know that this was from the perspective of a non-OCD person!!! And maybe it sounds humorous or even flippant. But seriously, I think there's some wisdom and perspective there to consider. And again, YES, I know that with the OCD spiking, it's not that easy. Believe me, I know! But just some perspective...

 

[ObsessedButBlessed]

Hi Americus, welcome to the forum. You'll find lots of helpful and loving people here who also suffer from OCD.

I'd like to point out something - these lines you are chanting over and over in your head in order to alleviate the obsession/anxiety seem to me like a compulsion! Sometimes compulsions are not overt, like we tend to think of with "classic OCD" (such as washing hands or checking locks). We Pure O sufferers tend to have mental compulsions, though sometimes they are outward ones, too. A month or so ago, I realized that I had started a praying compulsion whenever a thought about a loved one getting hurt entered my mind - it took me awhile to even realize I had begun doing this, and I consider myself a "seasoned" OCD sufferer!

I can also relate to obsessively thinking about a problem in your head to the point you feel you are going crazy (just read my post below called "worrying what others thing?" lol). Like Kaykay mentioned, my husband has an easy time letting go of things. In a recent conflict I had, he said "yeah, just let it go!" and I thought WHAT??? Are you kidding me?? How on earth can I just let it go?! Like you, I obsess to the point of dreaming about the problem, it wakes me up at night and is on my head all day long.

This is one aspect of Pure O I have not yet been able to overcome - the obsessive worrying about day to day problems or situations. However, I have overcome some of the more troublesom obsessions (knock on wood) by using ERP that Mitzi discussed. I highly recommend reading the articles from www.ocdonline. Also, look up "Fred Penzel" who has written a ton of articles on OCD and OCD treatment. He is a fantastic leading OCD therapist that discusses different obsessional themes and how each one is treated. Lastly, a good deal of my therapy had to do with acceptance - acceptance of thoughts and feelings. It didn't mean I agreed with them, it just meant that I allowed them to be there without fearing them. It took awhile, but I feel it's greatly worth the effort. Books by Claire Weekes discuss this type of therapy which goes hand in hand with traditional OCD therapy (ERP).

 

[QUannie]

quote from KayKay:
A couple of weeks ago at Bible study, we were talking about worrying and one lady said that her husband never worried about anything really. He piped up then and said that "well, the way he looked at it was this~ if you need to do something or prepare for a potential problem, then do it. But if there's nothing you can do about it, then you might as well just have fun till it happens!"

The only problem is when i do something to fix a problem or whatever, it usually is not done right{in my mind} or i need to go fix what i fixed....or there is obsession weather it is good enough ect. ect. ect.

GRRRRRRR!

Q