“OCD is ruining my life,” are five words that will go through the obsessive minds of people who are suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder. While people make jokes about it, it can be a real struggle for individuals who are suffering from OCD. So, if you or your loved one is looking for support for treating and managing OCD, then you have come to the right place as Inland Empire Behavioral Group is more than equipped to help you manage and treat yours or your loved one’s OCD. With our help, you won’t have to say, “OCD is destroying my life” now. Let’s start a discussion on some basics about OCD and how you can stop it from ruining your life.
What is OCD?
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder is a chronic mental disorder that is characterized by repulsive yet intrusive thoughts and the follow-up repetitive yet ritualistic behavior that affected individuals dwell in to get rid of the thoughts. These specific characteristics of OCD are bound to make affected individuals think that “OCD is ruining my life.”
The repulsive yet intrusive thoughts can be summarized as obsessions and the following are some of the examples:
- Contamination fears
- Fear that you or your loved one might deliberately or accidentally hurt your loved one
- Obsession with uncertainty
- Unpleasant and unwanted thoughts like sexual imagery
- Excessive worry about the way you or your loved one behaves
- Always thinking about symmetry
To get rid of these repulsive thoughts, affected individuals will practice some ritualistic yet repetitive actions that they think will help them do that. One can say these are compulsions:
- Turning on and off something like lights
- Closing and opening something like doors
- Excessive checking, for example, checking if the stove is on or off
- Putting everything into symmetry or ensuring it in everything they do
- Cleaning something or washing yourself over and over again
- Asking for reassurances
Severity of OCD
The severity varies and due to that the question of how “OCD is ruining my life” might not be justifiable. While an ailment like OCD is a mental health issue nonetheless, its milder symptoms can easily be treated by just following one to two steps to treat and manage OCD. But if they continue to be intrusive and you can’t ignore them then you will need to follow whatever guidelines we are going list down below! Then your diligence will be needed every step of the way.
What Can You Do If OCD Is Ruining Your Life?
You can take certain steps, so you don’t have to say, “OCD is destroying my life” ever again. OCD is highly manageable if the treatment is done right. Once these steps are properly followed with diligence, then you are absolutely right you or your loved one will be on a path to recovery that paves the way for a life that is not handicapped by symptomatic obsessions and compulsions of OCD.
Learn More: OCD And Depression: Understanding The Connection
Step 1: Educate
It is important to be educated about OCD or educate your loved one who is suffering from the ailment. Know the nervous tics associated with it or become knowledgeable about the triggers that might be leading to a severe form of OCD. Rather than saying that OCD is ruining my life, fight it by educating yourself about it and educating your loved one.
Step 2: Find The Most Effective Therapy
Something that is highly treatable should never be left untreated. OCD is a mental disorder that can be treated by therapies such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). A type of CBT called Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) is extremely effective in treating the symptoms. What it will do is expose you to the feared object or subject of obsession and it will continue to do so until they stop acting like triggers. It basically “retrains the brain” to stop the compulsive behavior in the presence of the triggers, which lose their power gradually.
Step 3: Try Medication
One way to treat OCD is to take medication or medication management services. Usually, antidepressants like Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) are prescribed to get rid of obsessions and compulsions but sometimes a mental health professional may also or solely prescribe anti-psychotic medicine. It really depends on how suitable it is for you or your loved one when it comes to side effects or general response and progress in terms of treatment.
Learn More: Anxiety Symptoms in Women
Step 4: Find A Support System
Treatment alone will not help in treating your OCD and stop you from saying OCD is controlling your life. For one who suffers from a mental ailment as severe as something like OCD, finding them or yourself a support system can do wonders for the affected individual seeking treatment. In a support system, friends, and family members can understand how OCD works and how to deal with people suffering from OCD to provide not only ease to them but for yourself too, or vice versa. Support systems are especially important when OCD can lead to harmful consequences like suicidal thoughts.
Step 5: Self-Care & LifeStyle Changes
If you or your loved one practices self-care and brings about lifestyle changes in terms of physical health, mental peace, and overall balanced life, the symptoms of OCD that ravage the lives of affected individuals can significantly be decreased. Evidence has been published in a lot of recent studies that lifestyle changes like the ones mentioned below can help reduce the symptoms that help stop OCD from controlling your or your loved one’s life:
- Exercising
- Journaling
- Meditation
- Socializing
- Better Sleep
- Avoid Substance
- Balanced Diet
These self-care techniques can be done easily and can complement treatments like therapies and medication. Self-care also comes as a result of self-realization, so it is important that you do it first.
Step 6: Never Forget That You Have OCD
You might be thinking that isn’t it contradictory, especially when it comes to the question of “OCD is ruining my life”? No, it isn’t, and due to a reason. While we want you or your loved one to be 100% cured, OCD is not curable but it is indeed treatable. Treating also involves how it should continue to go on even after progress has been made. Once you forget that you have OCD and start telling yourself that you are OCD-free and leave the treatment, the ailment’s symptoms come roaring back and this time much stronger. So, it is always a good idea to keep things like treatment running in full swing.
Step 7: Target Compulsions Not Anxiety
Once you realize that anxiety, while problematic, is not the issue in OCD, compulsions. If the compulsions with treatment are not the other way around. You see if the compulsions increase, anxiety will automatically increase as a result as you will grow worrisome over the increase of the compulsions. It will become a sort of vicious cycle until after either of them is done.
Conclusion Words
If you consistently ask things that are said along the lines of: “OCD is ruining my life”, OCD is destroying my life or OCD is controlling my life, then some serious steps need to be taken and once you take them, then they need to be followed with diligence. Our experts at Inland Empire Behavioral Group will help you or your loved one follow these steps with ease for OCD or even related steps for other mental disorders like anxiety or depression. So, book an appointment today.
