Early this morning I woke up and didn’t make a move out of bed for about a 1/2 hour. Ten minutes after waking, the OCD thoughts started coming. With the OCD thoughts came waves of anxiety. They washed over me and subsided for a few seconds, washed over me again and then subsided.
I surrendered to my compulsion to argue with the OCD thoughts (My OCD is what they call “pure O” or basically just obsessions and compulsions that are primarily internal). I tried to reason with the thoughts. I tried to wish the waves of emotion and fear away. Then I did two things that changed the course of my day. The third thing on this list I will do as soon as I hit the publish button for today’s blog. Hope this helps someone else out there.
1. Acceptance
Thankfully, after a minute or two I decided to stop the madness (not the emotions) of mental rehashing and accept that the waves were going to crash over me. I had no more control over them than I had over the waves of the ocean. So I rested my head on my pillow and let the waves and the sensations roll over me.
I said hello once again to my old enemy, OCD. I leaned into the emotions for a few minutes- but the waves didn’t take me under or slam my face into the sand on the shore. They simply put some pressure on me. And I was able to come up for air.
Right now I still feel the emotions (two hours after waking) but they are much less intense. And I am smiling through the emotions because I once again have realized that they are not going to kill me. I will survive the emotions that OCD brings to my life.
2. Prayer for others (read: focus on others)
At that moment I felt the Holy Spirit urging me to pray. Maybe you aren’t a religious person and this doesn’t work for you.
Maybe all of your obsessions and compulsions revolve around religion or your relationship with God. Prayer may be the very thing you want to avoid. I don’t know.
But prayer of the right kind might be a way to take your focus and switch it to something more worthwhile- Reality. The reality is that you are hurting, but so are others. Reality is OCD’s greatest enemy.
Start your prayer with petitions for others in your life. I started to go down the mental checklist of people who are struggling, causes worth defending, the people in our life and their needs, our financial situation, my husband’s health, etc., etc.
The emotions were still present from my OCD anxiety but I kept praying.
I finally ended with a prayer for myself. That God would continue to help me with my anxiety and help me do something worthwhile with my life. And that God would make truth evident in my life and help me to focus on truth (reality) vs. the fantasies of OCD.
Important: To keep your prayer from becoming an obsession, you must begin praying AFTER you have decided to accept that OCD is going to be there- and you must accept the emotions that come with it. Otherwise, prayer will just be a ritual to try to get rid of the OCD and we know how well that works- not very well at all!
3. Exercise (I like to move it, move it!)
I am going to take a walk this morning with my family. One of the best things for my body when experiencing OCD is to MOVE! Meditation/yoga and deep breathing also help tremendously.
Hope this helps somebody out today. Blessings
ocdandback 