OCD Forum - OCD and Agoraphobia
According to Wikipedia (tm), this is what Agoraphobia is...
Agoraphobia is an anxiety disorder, often precipitated by the fear of having a panic attack in a setting from which there is no easy means of escape.
As a result, sufferers of agoraphobia may avoid public and/or unfamiliar places.
In severe cases, the sufferer may become confined to their home, experiencing difficulty traveling from this "safe place.
" (the above definition is from wikipedia.
com (tm)) I used to have anxiety when I would get away from my "safe place.
" My home was my safe place and I remember after having my first anxiety attack, I had a really hard time getting away from the house.
I felt like I was going to have another panic attack, so I would quickly run back to the house.
OCD is a byproduct of an anxiety issue, so this information should be very helpful.
First what I would do is set markers in my mind.
For instance.
I would get up in the morning and go outside and say to myself, I am going to walk to that telephone pole right there.
Then I would go and do it.
If I felt a lot of anxiety, I would go back home.
The next day I would try again, but try to go a little bit farther.
Every day I would go farther and farther.
Some days I wasn't able to go as far as I did before, but I kept trying every day.
After a while it became easier once I realized that it wasn't going to hurt me how far I went.
This needs to be applied to your OCD.
If you feel like performing a ritual.
Don't and see how long you can go without performing it.
Sometimes you'll fail, sometimes you'll succeed, but you must try every time to not do it.
Really don't just try, just don't perform the ritual, period.
Take action: Now you know how to get over agoraphobia and you know how to use the same principle in your OCD.
Set markers for yourself, say, I am not going to perform rituals for at least three hours.
I guarantee you by the time three hours is up most of the time you would have forgot or the anxiety related to the ritual has greatly subsided.
When the three hours are up, just tell yourself that you won't perform any rituals today.
Just commit to today.
Everyday repeat this process and you will find yourself becoming OCD free and it will make you happy, trust me, it made me really happy to watch my progress!
Agoraphobia is an anxiety disorder, often precipitated by the fear of having a panic attack in a setting from which there is no easy means of escape.
As a result, sufferers of agoraphobia may avoid public and/or unfamiliar places.
In severe cases, the sufferer may become confined to their home, experiencing difficulty traveling from this "safe place.
" (the above definition is from wikipedia.
com (tm)) I used to have anxiety when I would get away from my "safe place.
" My home was my safe place and I remember after having my first anxiety attack, I had a really hard time getting away from the house.
I felt like I was going to have another panic attack, so I would quickly run back to the house.
OCD is a byproduct of an anxiety issue, so this information should be very helpful.
First what I would do is set markers in my mind.
For instance.
I would get up in the morning and go outside and say to myself, I am going to walk to that telephone pole right there.
Then I would go and do it.
If I felt a lot of anxiety, I would go back home.
The next day I would try again, but try to go a little bit farther.
Every day I would go farther and farther.
Some days I wasn't able to go as far as I did before, but I kept trying every day.
After a while it became easier once I realized that it wasn't going to hurt me how far I went.
This needs to be applied to your OCD.
If you feel like performing a ritual.
Don't and see how long you can go without performing it.
Sometimes you'll fail, sometimes you'll succeed, but you must try every time to not do it.
Really don't just try, just don't perform the ritual, period.
Take action: Now you know how to get over agoraphobia and you know how to use the same principle in your OCD.
Set markers for yourself, say, I am not going to perform rituals for at least three hours.
I guarantee you by the time three hours is up most of the time you would have forgot or the anxiety related to the ritual has greatly subsided.
When the three hours are up, just tell yourself that you won't perform any rituals today.
Just commit to today.
Everyday repeat this process and you will find yourself becoming OCD free and it will make you happy, trust me, it made me really happy to watch my progress!
