OCD

Hi all, having a bad day today MY OCD is over drive today not having a good day, i have my theripist in an hour so hopefully, it will settle down also can i ask when your thoughts are really bad can you litrally feelm the pressure on your brain, as i can and was wondering if anyone has this too. thanks

mine is not so much headaches but more Pressure like someone has a brick on my head and like my scull is about to break or something, my i ask how have you manged your PTSD eg what type of theropy have you done if you dotn mind me asking

HI @Gypsie

Welcome tot he forums 🙂

I'm sorry to hear that things have been so hard but it sounds like you have come a long way to understanding yourself and some of the reasons behind your difficulties - i also have a lot of trauma stuff from my past and have a diagnosis of ptsd. which my psychologist just refers to as trauma stuff. 😄

I think the pressure in the side of you head is really interesting in a way. I wonder if its your brain/body's way of saying that things are getting overwhelming similar to how other people get sensations in the body from anxiety? I get chest pains when im really anxious and sometimes if i can stop and do a body relaxation/breathing exercise it will subside a bit, other times it just stays all day.

I really hope you find the forums helpful, there are many people here who are recovering from ptsd/trauma stuff.

take care

Hi @Gypsie

Welcome to the forum and it's great you have opened up here and shared your difficulties -

I don't have OCD myself but I can share that I had a bestie who had it way back when I was young - I couldn't understand what she was doing but I was just learning how to run a house myself and learned a lot - but her obsession made her very ill and that is her story - I know though how distressing it can be from the outside

Not having family that will talk about things - my original family is still like that - I don't have anything to do with them now but it does make things harder when you can't discuss these things

About the intrusive thoughts - I saw a programme on SBS a couple of weeks ago - called OCD of you have playback or can get a DVD - it explained what happens in the brain of a person with OCD and I can tell you a little

We all have random thoughts - mostly we either act on the thoughts once or we ignore them but sometimes some trauma causes our brains to have a loop in our thinking and this causes the random thoughts to bounce through the brain and return to the same area and the need to act on whatever those thoughts are because essential and people have to act on them even though this is entirely unnecessary and exhausting - wearing you down day after day

And they are all sorts of thoughts - varying from one person to another - and this is so difficult

So going back to my best friend years ago - I could see from the outside how ill she was - I have a bit of knowledge about the trauma she had experienced and was still having in the PTSD - I have PTSD myself

Best thing is to know you are not off the scale - not alone - and it is so good you have shared here and I think this can be made less through therapy

My best thoughts

Dec

Hi @Gypsie,

I am sorry that your post has not yet received an answer. How did your your experience with the therapist go? Have things gotten better for you?

If you are interested in hearing more about others experiences with OCD, you can check out a Topic Tuesday thread that aired in July 2017, here. You may also be interested in reading the guides @HannaBanana13 uploaded via this thread, here.

I hope things have gotten better for you, @Gypsie!

Kindest Regards,

Amour_Et_Psyché

Hi @Gypsie,

It's almost been a couple of weeks since your original post, how is everything going? Did you have a chance to check out some of the links Amour_et_psyche posted?

Hope to hear from you again,

- Flipper

Hi @Gypsie,

I have just merged your two discussions together here so its easier for everyone to be part of your journey with OCD. We will get notified when you post updates on how you are feeling or progressing now within this thread.

Best wishes,

Lauz

Hi @Gypsie how is everything going? Would be interested in hearing a follow up post from you..

@Gypsie hello.

I live with C-PTSD and OCd (and a couple of other things Anxiety, BiPolar.)

This past year has been a hell of a ride as I finally undertook a deep passage into the past to put it all to rest.

My pain build up is in my lower back (not my head). I wonder if you are a reader? I found Bessel Van der Kolk's book "The Body Keeps the Score"very instructive about trauma and how it impacts our bodies and minds. more here: a review from a trauma book club about the book

http://emdrandbeyond.com/showcase/trauma-book-club-summary-the-body-keeps-the-score/

My greatest mountain to climb was to overcome repetitive thinking and rumination.

I managed years ago to break the nexus between OCD thinking and repetitive actions through body awareness and changing behaviour, I had a large impetus to do so as I did not want to look odd at work, I used to shake my hands (like shaking water off) and rock in my seat - I haven't done that for years now.

I think though that what I did was turn it all on the inside when I did it so my anxiety grew and grew. So while I might not have looked odd I felt terrible.

The greatest breakthrough for me has been to practice being "present' in the now.

(I write a lot about that practice and how I misunderstood what mindfulness was for a long time on a thread about mindfulness: here in the forums)

Every day I remind myself a hundred times to come back to the present. I check in with my body and whether my eyes are focused or unfocused. If my eyes are unfocused, I am likely to be ruminating, so I take myself in hand and come back to the present. It takes practice but you get better at it. That above all else has relieved me of being chucked about by my thinking/feelings.

Hope you find what works for you.