Help with my compulsive thoughts?
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yesss. you are not alone. i believe i have ocd as well. i have horrible reccuring thoughts of me dying, my roommates dying, even my cats dying. i cant leave the house without making sure my cats are safe, and the oven is off, and my cigarettes are fully put out lol.
i lay at night thinking about situatons like, what if someone breaks in? i'll have to hide in a closet and call 911, and hope nothing happens.
or i have completely different disturbing images, like of what i would look like after being dead, or my friends. i hate it. you're not alone though, by any means.
i have ocd sooo bad, that sometimes i cannot walk because i dont like thinking about how your bones in your knees slide when you walk. ughhhh i cant take it sometimes lol.
if you need someone to talk to, let me know. :)
what;s Ocd?
and, go to the doctor
You'd be able to tell if you had OCD, but if you do have anything, it's probably OCPD (obsessive compulsive personality disorder), the compulsions are your thoughts, instead of actions as in OCD. It's normal for a person with OCPD to have thoughts like that, after a while it just seems normal.
I'm not psychologist, but I can give advise on this subject because I think I may have it as well!
First of all, don't feel alone or crazy because it is completely normal to have these kinds of thoughts as a person with OCD. I have them and the best thing I've found is to just tell yourself to shut up lol. Having OCD means being repetitive, getting stuck in routines/ rituals, thinking compulsively- anything compulsive...
I know how hard it is to have those horrible thoughts. I don't know if you have this issue, but a lot of times I'll WISH over and over that a certain person would die, or I'll think about them dying- a certain event. I know that I don't mean those things, but I feel guilty.. and I can't imagine how I'd feel if something really happened to them. Its really difficult! I totally understand your frustration.
When you start thinking about bad things, just try your best to divert your attention to something else. Tell yourself no, and remind yourself that what you're thinking isn't true, and think about how much you love and care about the people you're having these thoughts about.
I know you don't mean those things you think. You know you dont mean them. Don't let them take you over or make you feel guilty! It's all in your head! So just tell it to go away. Take control of your mind and think good things. It's YOUR MIND and you control it, don't let it control you!
and when you can, try to see someone about it! I hope I've helped :)
What other kinds of compulsive thoughts/ideas/rituals do you have?
Psychotherapy
For many years, OCD was seen as a purely psychological disorder, related to a desire to control one's environment or to undo some perceived wrong action. Insight oriented psychotherapy has been singularly unsuccessful in treating this group of disorders, however. Behavior therapies have had much more success, especially those with specific small steps geared to the exact obsessions.compulsions involved in the individual case.
Behavior therapy has a lot to offer individuals with this disorder. Two common and popular techniques are systematic desensitization and flooding. Systematic desensitization techniques involve gradually exposing the client to ever-increasing anxiety-provoking stimuli. It is important to note here, though, that such a technique should not be attempted until the client has successfully learned relaxation skills and can demonstrate their use to the therapist. Exposing a patient to either of these techniques without increased coping skills can result in relapse and possible harm to the client. Relaxation techniques may include imagery, breathing skills, and muscle relaxation. It is important for the client to find a relaxation technique which works best for them, before attempting something like systematic desensitization or flooding. Flooding allows the patient to face the most anxiety-provoking situation, while using the relaxation skills learned. Systematic desensitization is the preferred technique of the two; flooding is not recommended except in rare uses. Flooding's potential harm usually outweighs its potential benefits (e.g., traumatizing the individual further).
Additional behavior and cognitive-behavioral techniques which may have some effectiveness for people who suffer from this disorder include saturation and thought-stopping. Through saturation, the client is directed to do nothing but think of one obsessional thought which they have complained about. After a period of time of concentration on this one thought (e.g., 10-15 minutes at a time) over a number of days (3-5 days), the obsession can lose some of its strength. Through thought-stopping, the individual learns how to halt obsessive thoughts through proper identification of the obsessional thoughts, and then averting it by doing an opposite, incompatible response. A common incompatible response to an obsessive thought is simply by yelling the word "Stop!" loudly. The client can be encouraged to practice this in therapy (with the clinician's help and modeling, if necessary), and then encouraged to transplant this behavior to the privacy of their home. They can also often use other incompatible stimuli, such as tweaking a rubber-band which is around their wrist whenever they have a thought. The latter technique would be more effective in public, for example.
Medications
In the last 25 years, medications have been found to be fairly successful in the treatment of OCD. First was the tricyclic antidepressant clomipramine (Anafranil). This has been followed by several of the newer SSRI class anti-depressants that act selectively on the re-uptake of serotonin, a neurotransmitter. In the last few years, neuro-imaging studies have begun to disclose the underlying pathophysiology of OCD. The area of the brain that functions abnormally is directly next to those areas that relate to tick disorders such as Tourette's Syndrome and to Attention Deficit Disorder. It now seems that variable amounts of dysfunction produce clinical symptoms that may be virtually all in one of these areas, or may be overlapping. Many people with ADD also have tics, as do many people with OCD. Most unexpected is the finding that children who have Rheumatic Fever and develop Sydinham's Chorea have a significantly increased risk of OCD. Therefore treatment with antibiotics early in an infectious illness may reduce the chances of future obsessive thinking.
Summary
Imaging studies have also demonstrated that both medications and behavior therapy alter brain metabolism in the direction of normalcy. This then is one of the few areas in all of mental health where clear proof exists for the efficacy of multiple types of treatment.
With medications, generally the dose used to treat depression is not enough to control OCD symptoms. Patients often will take 2-4 times the usual amount. Behavioral therapy with medications seems to offer the best long term improvement. Virtually no treatment is curative for OCD. Most treatment can be expected to reduce symptoms by 50-80% or more, however. The illness is cyclic, and worsens when the individual is under stress.
how old are you and you have the word dead in your name .i believe you need to grow up life has its ups and downs and highs and lows you need to get hold of you and start acting mature.we think about death and hope nothing bad happens this is normal andwe all lose thing so grow up and live your life kara
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