Do not feed the monster! – 5 things that keep your OCD alive.

I have always imagined Obsessive Compulsive Disorder as a big, cruel monster that does not want to stop torturing me. So would anyone like to feed such a beast?

Of course not!

So, in today’s post, I will talk about 5 things that are just like a delicious meal for our OCD monster and that we should stop doing: unless we want to keep our little monster alive, but if you’re reading this post, I do not think that would be your intention.

Negative Internal Monologue

Has your inner voice ever told you that the things that you’re planning would not work out? Or if you are not perfect enough, people won’t love you?

This is exactly what a negative inner monologue would look like, and it has a lot of different types. Your inner voice may be:
– very critical: telling you that you’re not good enough
– anxious: convincing you that a disaster is about the happen
– perfectionist: you have to be perfect, otherwise, people will not love you
– victim: you will never be able to get rid of your problems

Now as you can see none of these thoughts sound too reassuring and having them will definitely make your anxiety (and your OCD) much worse.

So what can you do to stop your negative internal monologue?

Challenge your negative thoughts and replace them with positive ones! Now, it takes time to learn how to do it, it’s not something you can do overnight. However, there are a lot of useful techniques that will help you turn your negative self-talk into something much more positive – But this is a topic for another post 🙂

False Beliefs

So why is it difficult to stop having our negative monologue? Because of our False Beliefs.

It would be impossible to list all the false beliefs that OCD sufferers might have in one single article. Especially because everyone has different beliefs and opinions – that’s what makes us individuals.

But I think one of the most common ones would be the way we perceive uncertainty:
One thing that’s always been extremely difficult for me was accepting uncertainty and understanding that if there’s a possibility that something terrible might happen it does not necessarily mean that it will happen.

How did I combat my false beliefs?
It’s been a very long journey. And to be honest with you, I am not sure if it’s something that you can do without a therapist.
Simply because there has to be a person in your life who tells you that your beliefs are false – otherwise, you would not be able to decide as one of the main things about OCD is the constant feeling of doubt.: how can you know that it is true or false, what if you think it is true but actually it’s not? Or the other way around.
Once you’re able to recognize your false beliefs, it will be much easier: they may still be there in the background, but you’ll be able to control them to a much greater extent.

Suppressed Feelings

Have you ever struggled with expressing your feelings? Well, you are not alone. Sometimes it’s difficult to speak about the way we feel.
Showing your emotions to others will significantly improve your life:
First of all, it just feels good: if I’m angry, I will usually call one of my friends and tell them about the way I feel, and it just helps a lot.
And then the other reason why it is important to tell others about your feelings is to fight the feeling of loneliness. A few years back, I used to think that I was the only one who’s suffering from different mental disorders and if I told others about the way I felt, they would think I am absolutely lunatic.
But sharing my thoughts and feelings with others made me realize that I am not alone: it’s impossible to find a person who’s absolutely perfect and who does not have any problems – it is sad, however, knowing this will give you more confidence and you will feel less lonely.

Stressful Life

It’s likely that stress on it’s own does not cause OCD, however, it will definitely make it worse. The anxiety caused by your stress can get in the way of your OCD treatment: when you’re stressed, you’ll be doing worse at combating your false beliefs or at turning your negative internal monologue into something more positive.

How to deal with stress?
There are a lot of useful techniques to manage stress. For the moment, I do not have too many posts on my blog about stress management techniques, but you can find more on this link:https://stressmanagement1.ga/

No purpose in life

Well, having a purpose in life is important for everyone. That is what keeps us alive and that’s why we wake up every morning. If you feel like you have no sense of direction and no purpose in your life that can make you sad, depressed, anxious and at the end of the day, that will worsen your OCD symptoms.

Define your short and long term goals – believe me, it will help you a lot! 🙂
New Year is coming soon, so I will talk more about the different goal setting techniques in my next post – let’s make a few effective New Year Resolutions!

So these were 5 things that we stop doing if we want to get rid of our OCD monster. If you would like to read about things that you should keep doing, check out this article: https://over-coming-ocd.com/2019/12/19/12-things-that-will-help-you-overcome-ocd/