Follow my OCD rules yet Things still happen!

[anxious1985]

Things still worry me, I still have anxiety attacks, bad things have still happened and so why do I do it!? I feel really angry that what I do to 'protect' myself and family doesn't really help! When I did my OCD activity, my son still banged his head and had to stay in hospital scarily overnight with mild concussion (hate head injuries, he was 6, now 7!). Did my OCD activity stop it from being severe concussion!!?!! Not what I hope for, I want more 'protection' with my OCD, so what is the point really when bad things still happen!?! This is a positive thought really, one that may help me battle it in the future :-)

[cathy s]

Hi there

I think you have made a very important point and it's great you have come to this realisation. Bad things will always happen no matter what, it's difficult to learn to live with uncertanty but thats what we must do! Are you going to try to stop your OCD activity now?

Good Luck with it

cathy

[Emz]

It would be nice if these little rules could help protect people, sadly they don't. I think you knew that before really but you couldn't stop yourself 'just in case'. Now that its been proved that these rules don't help maybe you can slowly stop doing them.

[anxious1985]

That is my plan, my most difficult one is counting my sons breaths each night, I used to fear something terrible would happen in the next 24 hours(to him) if i didnt - stems from a febrile convulsion he had when he was 2(a one off- he cooled down to quickly when ill, common in children but thought he had died as he was limp and grey :( ) I have struggled to fight this even with CBT and now I feel ready to tackle the short term issue (to reduce them when he is off school so with me the whole time and do it when he seems pretty healthy and not about to come down with horrible ear/throat infection etc.!) now I am concerned stopping them will cause a long term health effect, basically horrible thoughts that I would lose him. Theres no logic to this other than hypochondia over things some parents wouldn't even notice(new moles, etc.). I am going to try maybe reducing them slowly over a period of nights, then alternate nights, if its something I can do once a week it will be a victory for me and may be something I will eventually forget about(like a lot of ocd habits and routines, some have dissapeared when Ive been to busy with uni/work etc) or I have forgotten new extensions I have added. Ive felt a lot closer to tackling this recently as in the past 18 months I had support of counsellor and still nothing. The head injury happened well into the course of doing these counts and sure as eggs, I did them the night before it happened! Hoping to get more CBT and tackle it once and for all... thanks for comments, hope you dont mind long post, thought an explanation was courteous x

[cathy s]

Great to have a long post! It's good to understand, and after some of the things you have mentioned it is easy to understand how a condition can start. I have to hear or feel my sons breathing before I go to bed at night too.
Your plan seems really workable and reasonable.

I wish you all the best with it, I hope you can free yourself from these chains.

Cathy X