justwannabefree wrote on 20 Jun 2025 22:59:
I was never officially diagnosed but I don't doubt that I suffered from at times paralyzing anxiety and doubts. I broke my longest streak of over a year during my first encounter with these extreme anxiety feelings. I'm definitely not a therapist but you said as long as you suffered you can offer advice so ill just say that what finally worked for me was acceptance. Tell yourself you accept everything even the anxiety itself. Say welcome anxiety so glad your here. Oh your afraid of fill in the blank? Yes that's definitely very possible your right that blankblankblank might be true or might happen. I'm just fine with the thought of that lurking in my mind I don't need you to leave.. whatever you get the idea.
Also another thing that helps is that sometimes (not always) it's possible to quickly switch topics in your mind, not to fight your current thought but start thinking about something else preferably that interests you. Can't say I'm perfect( and I accept that too! I accept that I may live with this to a certain extent) but I'm bh very far along after some effort with this stuff. Hatzlacha raba this is a really hard fight but I really believe you can get past it
yours truly jwbf
Interesting. Did you come to this idea/conclusion yourself? Thats quite remarkable. My therapist calls this exposure therapy. (The actual therapy can be more intense, not just saying "ok" to thoughts, but actually triggering the obsessive thoughts with action and sitting with the thoughts in "ok, lets say that's true mode".)
This was what worked most for me, too.
I second trueme!! brilliant post. the second mehaleich also fits with the whole psychology of obsessive thinking, that dismissing the thought, tells your brain that it's not a threat and you don't have to think about it so much. I also found that I needed a combo of both these mehalchim.
