This is one aspect of OCD our worries keep on changing , just now i read an article that more number of engineers are graduate are passed out every year . I got worry about my feature and my children's feature . this will change tomorrow to some other thing.

Sorry to hear you're obsessing too , I feel like the anxiety has just taken hold and I'm looking for anything to pin it on.

What has worked for you from a coping perspective. when you want to switch the thoughts off ?

Fidgos,

When my OCD was "extreme" absolutely nothing helped me "cope" with it. The only thing to help me was getting properly diagnosed by a competent professional, seeing OCD specialists who put me thru ERP (aka CBT) and trying different meds until I found one that helped me feel a little better.

Reading my a$$ off and learning all I could about OCD also made OCD seem less menacing, less mysterious and less powerful.

Good luck.

Thanks for responding, I've been to the docs and he has agreed to refer me for CBT, doing that in itself has made me feel more in control.

Read up quite a bit about OCD and I can understand how it works, it's just the emotional aspect and the pain of it that obscures my thinking, then I get so exhausted that it becomes harder to keep at bay.

Education can definitely help, it can help fight the irrational when you have facts to fight with. Medication has helped me get a handle on my OCD and now I am able to better manage my obsessions. The best advice though is not to try and tackle to much at once. This disease already causes enough anxiety and trying to battle against all of your obsessions at once is overwhelming. It is frustrating but small steps will lead to larger ones.

Thanks for replying, I'm going with the whole "one step at a time" routine, although sometimes it's hard not to think ahead, maybe just need to be a bit more disciplined.

Has anyone found meditation helpful, I started a few years back when I felt good an really enjoyed it, however it is hard to do when you feel like shit...

When things were starting to spiral for me I would go to my room and remove all possible stimuli from myself. I would sit in the dark and close my eyes and try to remove the constant noise from inside my head. This would usually help but it took some time to calm myself down and this wasn't always convenient. It definitely helped though if you can commit the time.

Fidgos wrote, "it's just the emotional aspect and the pain of it that obscures my thinking, then I get so exhausted that it becomes harder to keep at bay. "

I agree 100%. During my worst years with OCD there was absolutely ZERO escape for me with the exception of when sleeping. The pain was mind boggling and its ability to cripple or disable me was amazing (hurt me academically, professionally, socially, romantically and athetically).

Also, there were many nights I would get a full 8 hours of sleep but when I woke up would feel so exhausted as if I had not slept at all.

ERP and meds are the answer for most of us.

PS I agree with UiCsam about trying to deal with each OCD symptom one at a time and not all at once but a good BT who is putting you thru ERP will already know that and will treat each O and C as they see fit. Some times, we may need to need to see more than one BT (behavior therapist) over the years to treat ALL our Os and C's but the lucky OCDers will find one of the best therapists (usually in a major metro area) and get ALL their O's and C's dealt with then (one stop shopping I guess :)).

I'm currently being treated by a therapist at the OCD Center of Los Angeles and I really like him. My thought process has shifted a bit (for the good), but I still get the thoughts and the depression. It's very frustrating, but I guess it's about patience too. Right now I'm going through ERP and for homework this week my therapist is having me make a list of why I think I'm a bad person (I have Harm OCD). I'm reluctant to make the list, but I guess it's necessary to get my feelings out there.

Thanks for responding, CBT feels like the way forward, although I have been referred it can take weeks, so just need to hang in there for the time being.

My obsessions vary from panic driven intrusive thoughts that cripple me, which I can normally control or distract myself from, however they have recently returned and have made me depressed. To ruminating/worrying over different things - the number of friends I have, the size of the Universe, how is my relationship etc.... when I'm feeling "ok".

The background worrying is almost always there, but the intrusive thinking usually coincides with exhaustion and major change in my life.

Hope this makes sense, has anyone rid themselves of their obsessions or is it a case of just dialing them down like I do?

I have had many different bouts with OCD and have rid myself of all but hand washing/contamination. I was able to use a coping method to reason my way out of: counting, touching things, doing things perfectly, issues with certain numbers/words, horrible cause and effect ie if I don't do something someone will die...etc...the only one I could not effectively reason away was hand washing because I could always logically think of a reason to wash my hands. It is the only one I live with currently and it's strength over me can be overwhelming at times. I have made a lot of progress but I have not been able to overcome this part of my OCD.

What was your coping method, UicSam?

Kmiyagi,
I had issues with contamination, counting, touching, terrible cause and effect ie if I don't do something this person will die, repetition until something was done perfectly...it was really tough. I decided that I needed something to fight back with. I am an extremely logical person and believed if I learned enough about my disease and about what I was afraid of I could will myself better. I started with the ones I felt were easiest and worked on each one individually. First I would identify one of the rituals I was trying to stop, let's say touching something because I feel like I have to. Before I did this I would always stop myself and then try to have an internal discussion with myself about why I was doing this. If I could link it to my ocd and I could logically think that I didn't need to touch something I would try not to do it. Then I would immediately try to distract myself with something positive to keep my mind active on something else. I would hold on for as long as I could, sometimes I would have to go back and complete the ritual but sometimes I did not. I would build on the little wins until I eliminated them. It was draining...but I was able to rid myself of almost all of my issues. This has worked over the years and I have been extremely effective with this except against my contamination issues. I can always find a logical reason to wash my hands...for this I have started to take medication and have gone to therapy. It has helped a great deal but I still battle with it. I hope this helps!

Thanks for the responses folks, it is reassuring to know that I'm not alone in struggling to deal with obsessive thinking.

I mean, I KNOW this to be the case, but it is such a peculiar illness that sometimes It's easy to feel like you're the only person in the world who is experiencing it.