One thing I did about the past was the following.

Because it's the past...I couldn't change it. I wanted to but I just couldn't. So I let it go...it doesn't matter how long it takes, just let it go....

Then because it's the past, it's going to stay in the past. I will now focus on now because that is where I want to be....

Hope this helps...

J

Thank you but that doesn't help. I feel like I did something wrong or bad when I was a child, and even though I really didn't OCD is making the guilt eat away at me for might have possibly have done something wrong. Even if I try and tell myself it's in the past, I'm not even sure that I really did even so that I was a kid and I didn't know any better but now as an adult I know that it was wrong, OCD tells me that I'm still a terrible person.

We shouldn't allow the OCD to change us. I know it's easy to say, but I've been in the hole of despair for too long...I made a choice that the OCD cannot win the fight. I will fight this with all I have. I felt like monster too. Then I separated me from the OCD. It took a while. After we separated I worked on me...who I was and who I want to be. Then I let the OCD do it's thing, but I don't listen to the OCD voice anymore. I tell myself it's not me. If the OCD knocks I listen but I don't open the door anymore...J

Arg... So sorry you're dealing with that. That's the direction my ocd takes, and I know how terrible it can be.

I worry about things from the past: Did I do something bad or immoral I shouldn't have done back in high school? I can imagine doing something, but am not 100% certain that it's imagination instead of memory..? At worst, I spend time trying to remember exactly what happened vs what MAY have happened or could have happened, and I keep going and going, trying to get over that mental hill, or get that "just right" feeling when everything kind of makes sense and balances out. Oh my goodness. It's so ridiculous.

My thoughts and prayers are with you. Remember that you can imagine any possible past event at any time -- and that we don't have to attach meaning or anxiety (or trust) to those thoughts. You're innocent unless proven guilty; the burden of proof isn't on you to somehow need to "acquit" yourself, checking and re-checking to make sure you're ok. The burden of proof is with your ocd. Why didn't these events come up and bother you in the past? Your conscience would have known what was right and wrong then too. :-)

Does any of that help at all? : ) I'll have to think of some other things that have helped me and write again!

Here's something... There's a difference between how you feel, and reality. Something I've learned about having OCD and anxiety and depression, etc. is that we have a lot of feelings, good, bad, inbetween.... especially anxious, and guilty, and afraid.... on and on.... but you need to learn that feelings (especially for someone with OCD) are not always based in reality. True, you might have done something bad in the past, in which case you could 1. say to yourself, "I love myself just as I am, and forgive myself for everything I've ever done", or 2. think about who you feel you have wronged, and ask once to be forgiven for everything from them, even though you might not know everything that you've done to wrong them... But if you can't think of anything to feel bad about, or you think it might just help you, try to see the feelings or emotions perhaps by writing them down (maybe in a diary/journal) and then try to ground yourself, or see the reality of it.... are they coming from real evidence.... or is it irrational? A tool I use constantly to separate my feelings from reality is something called R.E.B.T. There is an Rebt worksheet by Albert Ellis that I use all the time. It helps me see irrational thoughts and feelings for what they are. I have a lot of guilt too, about the past, and a lot of it is from how people in my life have treated me, such as my parents shaming me for not going to church or not living up to their expectations of what they thought I should be.

Hey guys! Hope you are doing better....
I have having one of those really bad days. It is weird how one day you can be feeling so normal and then two days later you don;t even want to leave the house...
I have had various different obsessions before but now I am obsessed with my skin and how I look. When I look in the mirror all I can see is acne and wrinkles and just over all horrible skin! I have been compulsively picking at my skin for the past few days too! It is so strange because when I ask my mom if the acne and wrinkles are there she tells me she doesnt see a thing I am seeing and worrying about. It is strange how OCD makes my version of reality different than everyone else's....
I am on lexapro and thinking of going up on my dosage, what do you think?

The thing about OCD is that it is not logical. You can try to talk yourself out of your obsessions, but that is not really the way it works. In my experience, the more you try not to obsess about something, the more you do obsess about it.
Compulsions, I've found are slightly easier, because if you do have enough self-control, you can stop yourself from doing the behaviors (that is my experience; I am not saying that it is everyone's.)
But with obsessions, well, how do you stop your thoughts? How do you say, I am not going to think about this and actually do it? Is it just a matter of keeping your mind occupied with something else?
And re: batgirl's comments about OCD and guilt, I think there is definitely a guilt component, because you feel like if you don't do a specified thing, something bad will happen. Therefore, you are responsible for the fate or outcome of a situation which may not actually be under your control, or for someone else's well-being.

I seem to have the same problem with obsessing about the past. Im up half the night sometimes fretting over memories. Its crazy. I am taken on a emotional rollar coaster but mostly I end up feeling down about myself. Feeling like a let down. but i think thats probably common. so sorry you're going through this awful stage. i hope you can push through it. if you are successful let me know.

If it makes you feel any better i am exactly in the same boat as you are. I think the most powerful tool that i have is to hope that things are going to get better in the future and that one day we wouldnt be as troubled by the past as we are now. I hope you feel better