For people with OCD or Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, feelings of anxiety and obsessive thoughts can become overwhelming. Even worse, these thoughts and feelings can make it challenging to concentrate, focus, and work.
While living with OCD isn’t always easy, and you should always follow the advice of your healthcare professional, the good news is there are steps you can take to manage your symptoms holistically.
Here are three tips to help you live with OCD more effectively.
Don’t Be Afraid To Face Your Fears
Fear is one of the strongest feelings all human beings face. For people with OCD, learning strategies to face fear helps break the cycle of OCD.
The first step in facing fears is identifying the triggers that set off an attack.
Perhaps it’s the fear of germs or a low tolerance for disorganization.
Maybe you have trouble throwing things away, so your home has become cluttered with items that aren’t particularly helpful.
Whatever the trigger might be, knowing this information helps you to deal with the problem, as well as manage your relationships with others more effectively.
Journalize or Log Your Episodes
Once you’ve identified the most common triggers, keeping a journal can prove helpful in working through feelings when confronted with an uncomfortable situation.
For future reference, you might use a scale system ranging from one to ten, to rate the severity of the attack. Circumstances that caused low levels of stress should get rated lower, and events that resulted in increased levels of stress ranked higher. If possible, log your entry promptly after the attack, so that you remember to add as many details as possible about the event before you forget.
By keeping an ongoing log, you can come to understand your symptoms and triggers more intimately, providing you with more sense of control over the disorder.
Types of information to notate when journalizing an episode could include the time of day it happened, what events occurred leading up to the incident, any feelings or physical reactions you experienced before, during, and immediately afterward, and how long it took to compose yourself.
These journals and notes help you monitor your progress in dealing with triggers and symptoms associated with obsessive-compulsive disorders. Further, they can help to empower you if you have a repeat experience at a later time.
It’s OK To Ask For Help
In a society where being healthy, reliable, and independent are highly desirable personality characteristics to possess, it can be not very easy to admit that you might need help, and despite what you might think, it’s OK to seek advice in dealing with OCD. An excellent adjunct to regular therapy would be a hypnosis program for OCD.
Life is a learning experience, and often, seeking the advice and guidance of an unbiased third-party who isn’t intimately involved in your situation can provide valuable insights.
The most important thing to remember is that you don’t have to go through the experience alone. No one has the answers to everything, but sometimes a bit of understanding and help goes a long way.
For instance, if your home is cluttered and filled with items that could potentially cause a hazard to yourself or others, getting assistance to clean up and clear away unneeded items helps to make your home a safer and more sanitary place to live.
In extreme cases, such as hoarding situations, high levels of disorganization and mess can create an ideal environment for pest infestations, fire hazards, and other potentially life-threatening conditions.
Always remember, there is no shame in asking for help when you need it, especially when it relates to your health and well-being.
Keep an Open Mind
For many people, regardless of whether they struggle with OCD or not, it isn’t always easy to keep an open mind.
While you don’t have to follow every piece of advice given to you, you don’t necessarily need to discount all of it, either. Instead, listen intently and apply whatever parts are most helpful to you.
When you’re able to combine and synchronize tactics and strategies to overcome the issues you’re facing effectively, you gain greater control over your life while improving your overall sense of vitality, while solidifying your feelings of stable mental and physical health.
Alternative treatments such as hypnotherapy may also prove helpful in overcoming obsessive or compulsive thoughts or behaviors that are hindering you from living your best life.
