Handmaid going through the same thing

You’re saying you were afraid you had schizophrenia?

I have the same thoughts 😂

Guys don't worry. I've had this theme and felt like its the end of the world, but then found out that it is a very common theme. It feels like, you are quite sure its true, but its not.

Same here

Thanks, Jaye!

Same

@angellightrose There are many books that can teach you the skills. I have a book that covers everything that helped me. You could share it with your therapist and work through the exercises together: bit.ly/youarenotarock

I hope you learn many useful tools at therapy!

🙌

@@everybodyhasabrain 🙌

Kaise kiya plz btye

Fuck GOD ! GOD who fucking GOD WOULD PUT HUMANS IN SUCH A SUFFERING! FUCK HIM HELL MY ASS WE PEOPLE WITH OCD LIVE HELL EVERYDAY !

See, your husband's move was completely political. He wanted the sole custody of your kids. Don't go back to check your morals.

Thanks, Neil! Congratulations on cutting out those compulsions. I have a video on something called The Uncertainty Curve and it's a tool that can help you track how long it takes for the urges to engage in the compulsions to subside. You can find the video in my channel. Whenever we cut out compulsions, it's a great opportunity to learn about how our brains change. I hope you find the experience useful for the future, whether you're cutting out other compulsions or bringing healthy behaviors into your life. Happy New Year!

Owais Kahloon I was prescribed pregablin by my psychiatrist for my anxiety, starting at 25mg and going to 50mg then 75mg and so on so forth going up each week, until i found the dose that made me feel really calm

And I told my parents I suffer from anxiety... and one day I was getting really close to telling my mom and she stopped me and said, “Those aren’t bad thoughts are they?” And that freaked me out... so I just steered away from it. I just don’t know how I would explain this.

It's ok to find this challenging. Overcoming the fear of talking about this stuff is one of the first compulsions we get to tackle. One thing that can be useful is keeping the focus on where you want to go and how the stuff in your head is interfering with life. For example, if it's interfering with school, you could talk about wanting to study and needing some help to do that. Or if it's interfering with relationships, you can talk about how it's getting in the way of that. It's always difficult to talk about our mental health but by focusing the conversation around where we want to go, and can be a bit easier because we're talking about the thing we want, the thing we like, instead of the stuff we don't like. That stuff we don't like is just a challenge we're going to overcome on the way to doing the stuff we want to do. Enjoy the steps ahead!

Mark Freeman thank you so much for responding! I will do this! Thank you!

That last part...You have intrusive thoughts about harming people to handle anxiety causing situations? Or you are saying you are thinking of actually acting on the thoughts just to get rid of the anxiety?

Trying to chase certainty about causes is actually something I consider a compulsion. It's not possible to time travel so it's not possible to take action on that stuff in the past. Instead, we can shift the focus to the present. Compulsions are all about chasing certainty, trying to control and avoid uncertainty. So in the present, that's something you can work on accepting and put your time and energy into where you want to go.

@@everybodyhasabrain I had intrusive thoughts about the doku so i know that i got them because i watched it. But i completely unterstand that searching for possible causes or OCD related behavior in the past won't change anything. Thank you for answering!

I wouldn't see those as different at all. It can help to not get caught up in labels like that. There's just mental health.

The question part, I was going to ask a question but I started weighting something else! My bad. 😜

sabrina mudgett

That's a very common fear! It's useful to cut out the compulsions.

Same dude your not the only one I can imagine horrible things and think I’ll do it

It's important not get caught up on the superficial symptoms and perceived differences amongst OCD symptoms. Reacting to the fear of harming somebody is no different than reacting to the fear of leaving the stove on, or reacting to the fear of having germs on you, etc. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy can be a great way to tackle OCD symptoms so it can definitely help to get started on therapy.

Thanks for the clarification. :)

Can you be more specific about the advice you're looking for? Are you doing therapy right now?

I'm doing wonderfully. I just got back from a conference and I've been writing a book. But I'll get back to videos soon. Thanks for asking!

Does imaginary exposure works for harm ocd? Is it right to do imaginary exposure for harm ocd?

interesting, my harm ocd is related to past, not now.. it seems more rare, i cant find anyone else with this.

Hi, I have false memory OCD that I might have killed someone in the past. We're all in this together!

Hi, from what I've researched it is equally common as future harm thoughts. But I don't know, I've come across fewer people who have thoughts about past harm. That makes me scared. We're all in this together!

I have had self harm related thoughts about the past; generally fearing someone hates me because I did something terrible to them (like sexually assault them) but then fear that I can't remember and maybe I did the terrible thing and am waiting the day they send some authorities on me and find out the terrible thing I did and can't remember and am sent to prison or the like; and then I can't ask the person if I did the terrible thing to them because they'll hate me even more for not remembering...fun times! That theme kind of just goes away on it's own for me(?) but perhaps because I can't really engage in any compulsions, and know I can only wait until time passes and no authorities are sent on me. I would usually also (If I knew the person) dare to just go up to them and say hi and see if any ill feelings were held. That might be considered a sort of unhealthy check, but it was instead of avoiding them (like I did with some people for...half a year to a year or more in school) like my anxiety wanted me to do.

No you're never alone. Power to you!!

How are you doing now? I struggle with this as well.

Want to talk. I'm so sorry to hear about your brother

I lost my brother too. My intrusive thoughts have gotten worse. How are you doing?

Tell yourself that your thoughts are not you, they're just thoughts. I've dealt with harm ocd for 6 years so I know how fucking awful it is but I promise you it's just thoughts and there are techniques to help you get them under control. Also you should know that usually people with harm ocd are some of the least likely people to act on these thoughts and ironically you're probably a more peaceful and empathetic person than others and that's part of what makes the thoughts so distressing and makes you start to obsess over them and think having the thoughts means that somehow you want to act them out. Because studies show that almost everyone occasionally has these violent thoughts but most people just shrug them off and people like us don't and obsess over them and convince ourselves that these thoughts say something about who we are. The thoughts don't represent desires. Also therapy can help an insane amount even without any drugs. Also a way to make it worse is to try really hard to avoid the thoughts, because you can't run from your mind and fearing the thoughts will just turn them into more of a monster when really all they are is fleeting thoughts. When you accept the thoughts and know that they're just thoughts and have nothing to do with actions and have nothing to do with your desires you'll start to demystify them and they'll become less distressing. That's just one of the many ways to help manage it. I know it's a living Hell, trust me, just know there are ways to get over it and deal with it and become normal again. 6 years ago I thought I'd have to kill myself to escape the thoughts. And it got better. Try to reach out and talk to someone you trust closely about what you're going through and seek help from a therapist because it seriously can help. Stay strong love, it'll get better.

One way of approaching ERP that I found useful was recognizing that it's all about changing actions. So I want to cut out the compulsions and do things I value instead. Watch out for getting caught up in thinking that somatic symptoms are somehow different. It helped me to see that I tried to check and control experiences in my body the same way I did to things around us. Checking the stove top to see if it's hot is the same as checking my heart rate to see if it feels too fast. Focusing on whether my hands feel clean or contaminated is the same as focusing on whether my blinking feels right. Avoiding particular foods or situations because of swallowing fears is the same as trying to avoid particular foods or situations because of social anxiety fears. Etc. ERP is about seeing that the way we're interacting with experiences inside and outside of our bodies isn't working well for us, so we change those interactions! If you don't have experience making changes with how you interact with experiences, it could help to start learning how to make changes with something external first. For example, the exercise I often give clients first is to learn how to not check their phones. If somebody can't accept an uncertainty about whether they got an email or not and then not check, how are they going to accept an uncertainty that's much bigger, like uncertainty about dying, and not check that?! Just like with physical fitness, when working on mental fitness, it helps to start small.

Your second paragraph is why I recommend that. People bring a lot of assumptions and unhelpful beliefs and judgments to harm fears. The fear of harming somebody "on purpose" is no different than any other fear and set of compulsions around that fear. Seeing it as different is part of the compulsions. So starting to work on cutting out compulsions in other areas is a way to see that compulsions are compulsions, regardless of the content. The superficial topic is irrelevant. It's no different than saying we need to talk more about Harm OCD around alpacas. Many people live in fear of being judged for having thoughts of harming alpacas. It's not discussed enough.

You're welcome!

I'm wondering, do you think distracting yourself is a good method to keep these horrible intrusive thoughts from occurring? I've suffered from Pure-O for years now and I'm tired of it, especially since Harm OCD has become part of the picture. Distracting myself works well, but only as long as I'm distracted. These thoughts continue to come back and it's difficult to ignore and/or suppress them. They take control of everything and oftentimes when I have a harm-related obsession I feel like I'm actually going to act upon this, that I'll turn crazy, go down a dark path and think I'm still sane but do some insane, terrible thing. Thoughts about how I would do something pop into my head. I've thought that confronting them and just going through the entire thought process would help but it scares the living hell out of me. Thank you again, that one sentence reminded me that the reason I find these thoughts horrible is that I'm not crazy. But then the thought comes back that maybe it's that all of society is crazy, and that the horrible thoughts aren't that bad after all, which scares me half to death. It's this incessant circle of doubt and fear and anxiety and it controls my life.

BarracudaProd1234 I think you answered your question. You try to distract yourself already and the thoughts keep coming back. Not only is that not working, it may actually be part of what's causing them. An anxiety disorder is all about trying not to feel things or think things or experience things. So the more you try to avoid these things, the more you'll experience them. These are treatable issues. I used to experience what you're describing and I don't anymore. I'd strongly recommend help. They don't have to control your life. If you go to get help, you might find it useful not to focus on "Pure O". What you described sounds like totally normal OCD. You're describing compulsions in reaction to obsessions so I wouldn't get too hung up on labels. I found it really helpful to deal with my mental health. I wanted to change the state of my mental health. Being open to look beyond the labels can help with making helpful changes in many areas of your life. All the best as the journey continues!

Thank you. I've seen a counselor a few times and am planning on seeing a psychiatrist soon.

I think you might be trying to get too specific, which is a common compulsion. So taking a step back and looking at the bigger picture is a great step you can take in tackling this. All of the videos are about reviewing events in your head, just as all of the videos are about every OCD compulsion. What you describe is just another way we try to cope with, check on, or control uncertainty. With OCD, we run into an uncertainty (ex: Did I harm somebody?!) and then we try to do things to cope with, check on, or control that uncertainty. That's the point to the "Themes" video you also commented on--they're all the same and I found it really helpful to tackle them at that fundamental level. The superficial qualities of the compulsion don't matter. You're doing something as a reaction to an uncertainty. Learning to embrace uncertainty and not answer the questions your brain throws at you is going to help you, regardless of the specifics of the compulsion.

Are you able to access a therapist that's experienced with helping people recover? That can be a great place to get started on cutting out compulsions.

It's great you can see that the fear is about how people see you. That's really common. Quite often, harm obsessions/thoughts aren't about the harm at all. They're about social anxiety and our identity. It really helped me to see that because I was actually doing a lot of compulsions throughout my life to control what others thought about me. And I saw that as "normal" and necessary. But what I was doing was teaching my brain that I needed to avoid anything that would make people think bad things about me. So then the helpful brain started thinking about the worst things that would make people judge me. The brain is just doing that to help us chase that certainty and control we're craving. The most helpful way to tackle this was to cut out all of that "normal" stuff I was doing in my life to control what others thought about me.

Same 😭

I don't understand what you mean. Can you give an example?

Well I haven't been doing therapy so I dont recognize all my compultions ...but I want to start practicing acceptance now before even finding a therapist

Meebo Meebo I think practicing acceptance is the same as cutting out compulsions. Acceptance is the thing we do instead of compulsions.

Checking for reassurance about this is a really common compulsion. It might seem like you want to chase certainty about whether it's OCD or not but it helped me to recognize that's exactly the thing that fuels these intrusive thoughts. The more we chase the high of certainty, the more we teach the brain to give us the withdrawal of the uncertainty and intrusive thoughts. And then the brain has to keep thinking up worse intrusive thoughts so we can keep checking and get even more relief highs. So it helps tremendously to cut out compulsions like this to check for reassurance.

@@everybodyhasabrain Thank you!

I wouldn't get too caught up in the semantics of it. You can label that whatever you like. It's the pressure one feels in the short-term to engage in some activity.

I find it helps to recognize the content/topic of an obsession is irrelevant. It helps to shift the focus to changing actions and cutting out compulsions.

@@everybodyhasabrain thanks Mark...even tho my brain says its ok to keep replaying the same anxious worrysome loop, solving, figuring, gnawing, regurgitating and its ok to live in Hel- because you will solve this thing, and then you will thank me for tornenting, torturing in misery and destroying any shred of joy you might have...your going to be so happy...keep mentally repalying, dont quit now, you are so close to freedom. I guess im too sick to realize it, Mark...but is this the compulsions you are referring to. The docs and my twin bro clearly see its the same as if someone is checking for ie a door over and over...but it seems like life ir death to get this thing figured out, or else. Sorry mann, Im so worn down and exhausted and ashamed that Im not smarter after 50 years of meds and treatment. Your videos have inspired me... Take care Mark, Im really proud of you and grateful. Ive watched so many of your videos over the years, and tried to apply, and meditate w, you, i feel like you are a friend. I really feel like a burden on my family and society, but all i can do is my Best. Take care and god bless.

Something to watch out for is a way of thinking I've heard referred to as: "Special Snowflake Thinking". It's common with OCD when we believe that our superficial symptoms make treatment different for us and mean that what works for other symptoms or other people can't possible work for us because of our unique special snowflakeness. But all symptoms follow the same patterns. It's OCD that makes us judge and discriminate and try to fit things into tiny boxes of certainty and reject anything that doesn't conform to those boxes. Try not to get caught up in that. All of the videos can you help you with doing ERP for anything. Check out the series I did on "5 ERP Tips for Anxiety".

Will do. As I am watching your vids I am realizing how much I can relate to other OCD's and their symptoms. I am also reading a book called Overcoming OCD by David Veale. Thanks!!

This is very normal to experience and it's very possible to overcome these challenges and learn how to cut out the compulsions. If you can work with a therapist or a workbook that focus on recovery, those can be good places to start.

shaylen sanders Ruminating is the compulsion so that's the thing to practice cutting out. Like any compulsion, it helps to start by cutting out ruminating around things that don't bother you as much

The way to identify compulsions that helped me was cutting out anything that was an attempt to cope with, check on, or control uncertainty (or any other feeling/thought I didn't like).

Thanks.

***** Hey Mark, I know therapy is the way to go with Harm OCD but what medication would you recommend along with it or in general ?

Awais Khan I've never taken any medication or any supplements for my mental health. So that's not really a question I can help with.

Awais Khan But I can tell you that posting the same question three times is just a regular OCD compulsion, not a Harm OCD compulsion. Believing there are "themes' can just create more challenges for yourself. It helps to tackle the entire OCD monster. So as you're doing therapy, you might find it helpful to look beyond the particular symptoms that are bothering you.

This is very common. I struggled with compulsions around knives. Here's a blog post about getting over it: everybodyhasabrain.tumblr.com/post/141269270954/how-i-got-over-knife-ocd-symptoms

@@everybodyhasabrain what about when you're resting with your eyes closed and those images from thoughts jus pop up non stop and they bother you how u get rid of those

@@luh4682 Those details wouldn't make a difference. It can help to see that checking on stuff like and believing it's somehow different is the compulsion. It also helped me to recognize that thoughts weren't bothering me, I was bothering them!

You might be reassurance-seeking. It's very normal for somebody to have those compulsions and many others. I avoided driving and had lots of knife compulsions. But the specific compulsions don't matter. what can help the most is eliminating whatever compulsions are getting in the way of living your life. If you can access a therapist experienced with helping people recover, that can be a helpful way to get started

katia daldegan I was scared of Driving cuz I was scared of getting stuck in traffic and having harm ocd thoughts come on when I was sat there not doing much. But thing is if you are scared of Driving due to intrusive thoughts, YOU MUST DRIVE!! otherwise you give the thoughts power and this is what makes them more of a problem

No, ERP involves cutting out the compulsions. So whatever the compulsions are that you're doing around something like speeches, it's those compulsions you'd cut out.

@@everybodyhasabrain During speeches, my compulsion is to try hard to speak right because my mind becomes over-stuffed and ultimately blank and if I don't speak wrong intentionaally or otherwise do compulsion..I wouldn't be able to deliver properly..

If you're in LA, I'd recommend the OCD Centre of Los Angeles (OCDLA). They cost money, but they might be able to connect you with a support group that is free. Peer support groups that focus on recovery and supporting each other through the ERP process can be very effective.

+matt234567 Here's a video on mental compulsions that might be useful: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/ip6mirqlnMCYd2g.html Accepting thoughts can be a great way to practice ERP. For example, if somebody were leaving the house and they had an intrusive thought about the door being unlocked and somebody breaking in, they could accept that thought as a thought, and not have to engage in a compulsion because of it.

Well, I'd talk it over with the therapist you're working with and see how it can support the homework this 11 year old girl is doing to overcome these issues. If you're not working with a therapist experienced in using evidence-based therapies to help people recover from OCD, then I'd recommend that. Structured, methodical approaches to dealing with OCD are very effective. It is possible to recover. But showing a random video here and there is not going to have any magical effect. These videos are meant as supports, not replacements for the healthy changes that need be happening at home every day. So I would suggest working with somebody that can help the entire family make those changes and support recovery.

Do you have any knowledge of anyone in the Pittsburgh area that specializes in this? She has had an extreme amount of stress over the past year which ended in a loss of her normal home and other things several days before all this began. I admit I am totally lost as it is an intangible and I am a fix it person.... very heartbreaking. If you know of anyone I'd appreciate the input. Thanks!!

Connie Malinski I am not personally familiar with anyone in the Pittsburgh area so I would try calling the University of Pennsylvania OCD Clinic: The Center for the Treatment and Study of Anxiety. Since they're in the same state, they would likely be more familiar with local options. The director of that clinic is Edna B Foa, who has done a lot of great research on effective OCD treatments.

I suffered from "harm OCD" and I don't have it anymore. It is 110% gone. I also only developed full-blown OCD later in life. Acceptance & Commitment Therapy helped me tremendously. But it's important to remember that OCD is much more than the symptoms that bother you. So try to go beyond the harm-related stuff. One of the common mistakes I see people making with recovery is that they only focus on a narrow part of the illness, the part that causes the most anxiety. But then they keep practicing OCD in other areas they like, so they keep relapsing. Tackle the entire beast!

+Mark Freeman thank you. no idea how much you helped me

It helps to look for patterns of thinking and behavior that mimic the other compulsions that bother you. For example, a few weeks ago I left the gym and as I was walking away, I wondered if I might have forgotten my water bottle in the locker room. It had happened in the past. I felt the urge to open my gym bag and check. So there was an uncertainty about something happening that I didn't want, and there was an urge to do something to try to be certain that the unwanted thing hadn't happened. So I did NOT check my bag. That's because that pattern of reacting to an uncertainty about something "bad" happening is how people practice OCD. If I'd reacted by checking, that would only encourage my brain to give me more uncertainties. And the more I would react, the more complex and frightening the uncertainties would become.

+MTL 514 That's where being mindful comes in. In the past, when I struggled with anxiety disorders, anxiety was the fuel for all of my actions. I had constructed my life around compulsions. Cutting out compulsions meant finding a completely new way to live. So I had to learn how to live by my values and be mindful of the present, instead of depending on reacting anxiously in the future.

+Mark Freeman I have Contamination/Health OCD. That stems from me having allergic rhinitis or sinus disease frequently I've been to medical doctors and I receive allergy shots but I still always have to deal with mild-moderate sinusitis and this caused the OCD. I use to go to the gym now I can't go. I use to go out now I don't. I'm on zoloft 100mg and xanax 1mg daily. My fear is that I'm sick already and I don't feel like getting sicker. I don't want to risk getting sicker than I already am. I been told to stop ruminating about it and to do imaginary exposure. Like go into the situations I'm afraid of and in my mind say this might make me sicker this might make me sicker. Also been told to say I might be sick or I might just have a medical condition over and over. My hands have to be clean before eating, I don't eat at restaurants, I try to avoid crowds and you know the rest. What sucks is not just the contamination fear which would be easy to beat but what sucks is the fear that I'm sick or will become sicker. Like I said I was told by different drs It's a medical condition that wont kill me. But one dr scared me to death when I had an acute infection and thought it was a mycrobacteria which I took antibiotics for a month and than got tested and chest xrays and blood work everything came back normal and the test for bacteria came back negative but I told him I think it was still there he goes why I said Its a false negative because the antibiotics and I said it will come back he than gave me Zoloft and said to stop obessing that it was a medical condition but common or nothing hazardous. I HATE MY LIFE ITS SO HARD TO DEAL WITH THIS THING!

There are many therapists who now offer help online via Skype or Gchat. So if that's something you can access, that might be an option as well. Books can help guide the process, too.

Checking for certainty about whether somebody else has had the same thing is what's known as "reassurance-seeking". It's a very common compulsion. Engaging in compulsions to chase certainty like this would also very naturally create challenges around other things that involve lots of uncertainty, like relationships and other commitments! I found it really helpful to recognize that OCD doesn't just appear suddenly. We work our way up to it and often like the compulsions, until those compulsions are no longer effective, particularly in situations where it's not possible to get the certainty we crave, and then the compulsions end up being problematic and we blame that particular situation. But these experiences just help us see that we can change how we interact with uncertainty in our lives so we find more useful ways to take steps ahead on our journeys.

Mark Freeman thank you so much for your reply! Certainty is definitely point on. Also, needing approval of significant people?-I’ve been listening to Bowen Theory (Family Therapy)-I wonder how much OCD even stems from a differentiation of self that is not developed in a person’s life and assertiveness, too. Maybe those are some reasons why certainty and needed approval are so high up in value. Thank you for your thoughtful response and informative vids-well done!

Yeah, the diagnoses are just labels. The important thing is, no matter what label it is, it's possible to make changes and leave it behind

+dolton kenway Have you talked to a therapist experienced with helping people recover from OCD? That can be a great first step. It's possible to get rid of these thoughts but not by trying to get rid of them directly. With OCD, your brain tries to help you: Whatever it is you're most worried about, it checks to make sure it's not happening. It's possible to get over this but it involves cutting out compulsions. So talking with a therapist to help you understand the compulsions can help. It's likely there are other OCD compulsions you have, but they probably don't bother you as much as this one, but it can help to be open to cutting those out. For me, it was actually cutting out all of the other compulsions I had that I didn't notice that helped me get rid of the harm-related symptoms.

+Mark Freeman ohhh ok thank you!

ive been doing erp most of my obsessive intrusive thoughts are gone!

+dolton kenway how you doing know bro?

+nightowlkid the intrusive thoughts came back im about to get rid of them again though

Talking with your doctor could be useful. They can often refer you on to other people. There are many directories online of therapists. Finding a book to help walk you through exercises can be useful.

Mark Freeman Doctor said it is normal to have such thoughts and learning sahaja yoga.

It might be useful to not see these other changes as "small" or the other one as "big". There are just things you want to do. If you're struggling with doing something, then you can look at what supports will help you do it.

@@everybodyhasabrain yes..thank you !!

+Robert Benitez also how much is therapy i have no insurance

+Robert Benitez OCD can go away indefinitely if you cut out the compulsions and learn healthy ways to handle the stuff in your head. The cost of therapy will vary depending on the therapist.

+Mark Freeman i'm trying to find some therapy. i have the thoughts daily i never get rest and they make me feel insane i panic and freak out. they come and go as they please. i was doing good with out them then one day i went to a place with my wife and boom there they flooded the mind. i feel crazy and then i envision what if i'm like a character on criminal minds where there was a guy who was talking to dead people and all who were dead were by him. i then grip in fear and panic bad i envision a lot of stupid shows i used to like and think what if im like them. i read the bible daily and theres days i have no thiking all day long i stopped video games, scary movies, crime movies

How did you deal with it

Same

🤣 do you have anxiety about your hair?

Mark Freeman Yes, why is this happening? No one ‘s going to care about me

@@colormen12 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 why are you anxious about it? Because you're engaging in compulsions around it. But in your response there, you can see the fear at the root of it: that nobody will care for you. That's a very common anxiety and useful to work on. The fear of being alone is at the root of many unhealthy compulsions

Mark Freeman I guess being alone is okay

I don't know what "retroactive jealousy" is but any OCD symptom can happen with anything.

+Mark Freeman It is jealousy to someone's relationship's ou sexual past.

Jess Smi

Did you remove your question? I don't see it anymore.

One of the common problems I see is that people just end up practicing compulsions and they make it worse. I encourage people to approach it like physical fitness: it's going to help to ask somebody that's already accomplished the exercises you want to do. Even if somebody is going to do it on their own, they're probably going to follow a workout plan prepared by a trainer until they've developed the skills to be their own coach.

@@bukkyadewole3882 I can't reply to a question that's removed. But what you did there is the perfect example of why it's useful to work with a professional: that's the exact same compulsion that goes into the fears about harming somebody. Fears about harming others are often social anxiety compulsions. We're afraid of what others will think, that they'll judge us, etc. Your earlier questions completely made sense. But then the compulsions start--the judging and the ruminating, adding clarification, and then removing all of the comments to control what others think. Those are the types of compulsions we have to work on cutting out. That's what ERP is about. An example of an ERP exercise would have been to post one comment and leave it. No clarification, no removing, accepting whatever the brain threw up, so you can show the brain you're not going to chase certainty about what others think. It really helps to look past the topic troubling us at the much broader patterns of compulsions in our lives.

@Bukky Adewole There's research showing that people can work on their own. BUT the person does need to know what they're doing. It's just like physical fitness--an individual can get into great shape without a personal trainer, but do they know how to exercise? If they don't know how to exercise well, they will probably struggle on their own.

People can do basic exercises on their own, but what you described in your original comment was not how to do ERP. It's likely that the source you found online is not a good one. Just like with physical fitness, many people share exercises online, but that doesn't mean they're effective.

This is an important tip to keep in mind for almost anything in life: If you have to ask if you can do it on your own or you need to work with a professional, then you probably don't know enough to do it on your own or you would already know the answer to that question. Here are a couple of other things to consider: 1) With ERP, it helps to start with something that doesn't bother you very much. So if HOCD symptoms are bothering you so much that you want to ask about getting rid of them, I wouldn't recommend starting there. 2) I get around one panicked email each month from somebody that claims to be doing ERP for HOCD but is actually just engaging in HOCD compulsions. Please don't become that person. Remember that ERP is about eliminating compulsions you're already engaging that are feeding the obsessions. 3) I have not yet met anybody that only has one "theme". It helps to understand the complete picture of OCD in your life because when you start to cut out compulsions in one area, they tend to grow in another area. If you don't recognize that those other areas are also compulsions, you just end up trying to put out a fire in one area while inadvertently fuelling the fire in multiple other areas.

Thanks for the great response, Mark! I honestly don't know enough about ERP to do it on my own I believe. I know for certain that I have had many, many themes of OCD (such as going to prison, going blind, etc) though HOCD seems to be the primary one at the moment. Unfortunately the therapist I have now is pretty bad and thinks that OCD obsessions are metaphors for underlying feelings. You can imagine why I didn't take that too well. I'm going to make a list of things that frighten or trigger me and decide which one would be easiest to start with.

Anthony Di Francesco That's too bad about the therapist. That's not an evidence-based approach to dealing with OCD. That's like a 1950s-era approach. Can you get a more experienced therapist? Using a workbook by a reputable author could be a helpful approach as well.

Yeah, the therapist makes me feel worse every time. I had a dream and he kept trying to figure out if it was erotic or not. Didn't help me too much. I have "The Mindfulness Workbook for OCD" which is very good. Even so, it's just not the same as getting professional help. It's very difficult to find a better therapist.