by Russ
I have been suffering from OCD and depression for about 7 years now. The depression has lifted through medication (10mg Lexapro and 50mg 5-htp…yea yea I know you are not supposed to combine but I do), exercise, and diet. The OCD persisted as it likes to do.
Tonight I read Mind Over Back Pain. I have to say this is the first night I have not felt the demon knocking on my door. My demon is that will become an insomniac and my life will gradually fall apart. Well guess what?
The OCD is a manifestation of a deeper fear. It is my subconcious trying to express itself, while my concious was oblivious to the fact that I was scared of failing my wife and 4 kids.
I know what some of you might think, “How can anyone beat OCD in a night.” Well I believe I did. Here is a quote from the book which is about beating false back pain by understanding the root of most of it is your minds fear manifesting into physical problems.
“Perhaps the question can be answered by an analogous situation. People with an irrational fear (Phobia) that results from extreme stress (anxiety) lose the phobia when they discover the true source of the fear.” (p 85)
This quote knocked me down and I feel great and have suffered so much, and fought like hell to beat these thoughts. I have tried loving them, shutting them out, inviting them in, and everything in between. Come to find out the demon was just a messenger trying toget me to understand my true fear of failure, and the subsequent degredation of my wonderful family. You see my wife is Mexican and cannot work or drive here, so it has always all been up to me.
I URGE YOU ALL TO DIG DEEP AND FIND OUT WHAT THE REAL DRIVING FEAR FOR YOUR OCD MESSENGER IS.
God Bless us all,
Russ
But there was no “confronting” of the root fear. I honestly don’t know why I was so messed up. All I know is that I’m basically cured now. That’s all I care about.
This sounds like a fabulous technique. I don’t really know how, but after years of suffering, I managed to defeat my OCD, without even trying. I never took drugs or anything for it, even though it was suggested by the shrink who diagnosed me with barely-under-severe OCD. Even when I was a little kid, I would spend hours stacking spices in the proper way on the kitchen floor, making sure all the labels faced me perfectly. And for the longest time, my disease wouldn’t let me touch cash or coins. It was extremely crippling, to say the least, and no one knows quite how crippling that is unless they’ve experienced it themselves or were very involved with the one experiencing it (my mother knows very well how crippling it was, since she always had to be careful with it).
But somehow, I don’t know how, but somehow, I beat it. I didn’t touch money for probably eight months. And then when a quarter fell out of a chair, on a whim, I picked it up, and I felt nothing. No film creeping up my fingers and hands and arms overwhelming me with claustraphobia, nothing. I was elated. And then a few days later, at my birthday party, my hand brushed against a one dollar bill in a friend’s bag. I realized that nothing happened. FREAKING out, I grabbed the dollar and ran rushing through the house showing everybody. I was so excited.
I haven’t had an “episode” for about ten months now, and I feel amazing. :]
It is very hard to live with OCD. Congratulations on overcoming this horrible sickness.