Hello,
First of all, I appreciate your courage in sharing your experience. It sounds like you’ve been dealing with a lot, and I understand how frustrating and exhausting this cycle can be. OCD can be challenging, especially when it starts interfering with your daily life and studies.
Since you’ve already tried reducing the time spent on compulsions, that’s a great step forward! Here are a few things that might help further:
1. Cognitive Restructuring – When you feel the urge to check or arrange things, try to challenge your thoughts. Ask yourself: “What’s the worst that can happen if I don’t do this?” Often, the fear is much bigger than reality.
2. Gradual Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) – This is a proven technique where you expose yourself to the discomfort (e.g., not realigning things) and resist the compulsion to fix it. Start small and gradually increase the difficulty.
3. Mindfulness and Relaxation – Techniques like deep breathing, meditation, or grounding exercises can help you manage the anxiety that comes with resisting compulsions.
4. Professional Support – Since it’s affecting your daily life and causing distress, consulting a psychologist can be really beneficial. Therapy, especially Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) with ERP, has shown excellent results for OCD.
5. Self-Compassion – Please don’t be hard on yourself. It’s not “foolishness” or “useless” – it’s a mental health challenge that many people face, and recovery takes time and patience.
You’re already on the right path by recognizing the issue and actively trying to improve. If you’d like, I’d be happy to guide you through specific exercises to help you manage OCD effectively. You’re not alone in this!
Take care, and I’m here to help.
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