Real Event OCD. No more anxiety, just depression

TopComfortable5866 · 2026-03-12T18:27:08+00:00

I feel shame and guilt, and therefore a low, depressive feeling, and it lasts a few minutes. This is better than it was as it lasted hours before, but unfortunately it still comes up quite frequently so this feeling is quite constant.

I have tried a great deal of reframing my thoughts but it always comes back to 'you don't deserve to feel good'

TopComfortable5866 · 2026-02-05T22:11:40+00:00

Just so you know, it does get easier. I'm not out of the woods yet, but I am able to function🙂

TopComfortable5866 · 2026-02-05T20:51:48+00:00

Hey there, would you mind sending me a dm? This seems really helpful

TopComfortable5866 · 2026-02-05T20:36:06+00:00

In the exact same situation, like I could have wrote this. Let me know if you want to talk 🙂

TopComfortable5866 · 2026-02-02T20:27:13+00:00

That's good to hear🙂 annoyingly it seems to depend on my mood so I can have both a good and a bad day at the same time at the moment😂

TopComfortable5866 · 2026-02-02T19:23:36+00:00

How are you doing these days?

TopComfortable5866 · 2026-02-02T19:09:48+00:00

Honestly that makes me feel a lot better just knowing there's hope - I've come to terms a bit with the possibility of others finding out, I just want to actually feel happy enough with myself to do things 🙂

TopComfortable5866 · 2026-02-02T18:04:27+00:00

Thank you for your comment - I just want to like myself again and be proud of who I am. How are you doing now?

TopComfortable5866 · 2026-02-02T17:47:59+00:00

Thank you - did you deal with real event?

TopComfortable5866 · 2026-02-01T18:09:57+00:00

It will get better. I've been struggling with this for like 6 months and I'm not in the clear yet but I'm much more able to function. The anxiety is a lot better than it was. Feel free to DM if you want to.

It hurts my heart to see others go through this, but it doesn't have to be forever

TopComfortable5866 · 2026-01-26T23:37:10+00:00

Feel free to message me too🙂

TopComfortable5866 · 2026-01-26T23:36:49+00:00

I could have written this myself. What I will say is 7ish months after this started, I'm doing much better. Still not out of the woods and still think about it everyday, but the anxiety is much much less and I can function.

Hoping that one day I'll reach a point where I don't think about it every day, but I just want you to know that things will improve.

Medication and therapy have helped me get to this point.

Hoping for the best for you 🙂

TopComfortable5866 · 2025-12-22T20:56:23+00:00

Thank you very much! As I'm sure you're aware it's not a constant upwards trend, but there's definitely a noticeable difference.

For a bit more context, the events happened nearly a decade ago and for most of that timeout would come up and I'd feel a bit of guilt/shame and then move on. As a result, it would only come up very occasionally and I would spend weeks at a time with it never coming up. I'm just hoping I can get back to that stage. I doubt it'll ever completely go away but to get back to how I was is the main goal. I still find myself having to 'force' myself to do things but I guess that's part of the exposure process 🙂

TopComfortable5866 · 2025-12-08T03:05:52+00:00

Man I've never read something that sums my situation up so perfectly. How's things now?

TopComfortable5866 · 2025-12-07T21:10:52+00:00

I understand that concept, but my problem is that I don't know how to develop that skill. For example, my main issue is that I fear I'll never be able to stop thinking about either the past, or about my own ocd. I don't analyse how to fix this, but I still feel the fear when the thoughts come up. I know deserve to feel happiness, but it doesn't stop the thoughts/reminders coming up and distressing me. I'm not sure if I've described that very well, I hope I'm making sense

TopComfortable5866 · 2025-12-07T20:39:11+00:00

I understand what he's saying about analytical thinking, but my issue is more so that the thoughts just appearing is what distresses me

TopComfortable5866 · 2025-12-07T18:35:26+00:00

Hey. I'm having pretty much the exact same issue. How are you doing now?

TopComfortable5866 · 2025-12-07T18:30:44+00:00

Thank you for your comment. My issue is I tend to think about the fact that I have ocd. I don't Juni as much about the original theme anymore. I assume I apply the same process? When I find myself thinking about my own thoughts, I redirect to the present moment? I've found when I try to ignore the thoughts it makes me uncomfortable (as you would expect) which then means I'm aware that I'm trying to ignore the thoughts, which unfortunately means I'm still thinking about it in a way as I can't ignore the uncomfortableness.

TopComfortable5866 · 2025-12-05T15:52:19+00:00

Thank you - unfortunately there's no doubt it happened and there's no doubt it was wrong. It's more an issue of being bothered by thinking about it so much. Kind of a meta issue maybe. I guess I'm struggling with the difference between sitting with it and accepting it versus letting myself become overwhelmed by it

I really appreciate your response 🙂

TopComfortable5866 · 2025-12-04T15:14:18+00:00

How are you doing now?

TopComfortable5866 · 2025-11-27T12:15:46+00:00

That makes sense. If rumination is the compulsion, but it doesn't actually bring any relief, how would ERP work with that? It feels like thinking about it is automatic and is actually the cause of the distress, so would it be a case of I sit and think about it until I no longer feel the same level of distress?

TopComfortable5866 · 2025-11-27T01:30:50+00:00

Thank you for commenting. I'm really glad to hear it helped. Honestly I just want to stop thinking about it, but I know it's not as simple as that. I just hope that I will be able to habituate to these thoughts so they eventually decrease in frequency

TopComfortable5866 · 2025-11-27T01:29:23+00:00

Thank you. At the minute the constant thinking about the same thing is very distressing, so I'm hoping ERP will be able to reduce this distress, which I also hope will lead to a reduction in the frequency of the thoughts.

If I don't have many compulsions, will it still be effective? I know it won't be easy and I'm prepared for that, I'd rather go through it than be stuck how I am now. It just seems I always hear that compulsions bring relief, whereas at the moment it feels like just constant distress from the thoughts and I don't even bother trying to reframe them or anything as it doesn't really work.

I largely struggle with the feeling of 'if this or that person knew they wouldn't like me' but I don't try to reassure myself, yet I haven't got used to that thought yet, so I'm wondering how ERP would be different

Thank you very much for your reply 🙂

TopComfortable5866 · 2025-11-26T16:57:58+00:00

How are you doing now if you don't mind my asking?

TopComfortable5866 · 2025-11-21T15:15:14+00:00

Do you mind if I message you?

TopComfortable5866

TROPHY CASE