1.5 years ago I thought I was going insane and had a terrible ocd episode that lasted for months. It was living hell. Your videos saved me. You gave me hope and the tools to get out of that madness. I'm doing really well mentally these days. To anyone seeing this currently suffering,I get you. I truly do. It really does get better. But you HAVE to do the work. And by "the work" I mean to literally just do nothing. Stop letting random things in your brain control you. Live your life. Do whatever you want. That's it. All you need is to just let go. It's scary, I know,but it's so worth it.
Mark you always help me put things into perspective. The way you approach these topics with light heartedness and humour is so refreshing. My brain has been braining a lot recently. And that's perfectly ok 😊. Hope you're having a good sunday ❤.
Hey Mark I’m a huge fan of your content and would appreciate your time if you have any to spare! Prior to developing OCD, I was training to be part of the Olympics. It’s been the goal I’ve had since I was a child and I think I worked tirelessly to fix the problem because I thought it would ruin my chances of living my dream and passion in life. I struggle with sensorimotor OCD and some physical symptoms of anxiety. I’ve done therapy with Dr. Greenberg as well as other rumination-focused practitioners who believe in recovery and I believe I’ve come along way. I see now, that the point is to live my life the best way I can alongside the awareness. I feel like I get tired more easily and experience anxiety anytime I get frustrated (possibly a nervous system response) I’ve started back training and it’s a high-demand situation. One that I don’t want to let go of because I love and I’ve lived my life with this love long before OCD came around. The issue is that whenever i do things regarding it I get really anxious and I think about my life before or how it’s difficult to train and be aware of the sensation Do you have any tips? Thank you!
It's great you're exploring skills and you're back to training! When somebody brings up sensorimotor compulsions, there are two things I'm always curious about first: 1) I ask if there are things in life they like to control or get "right". And that stuff will seem normal. I try not to give examples at first, but just ask: "What do you like to get right?" and explore from there. The reason for that is because sensorimotor compulsions have a lot to do with checking around experiences we judge as wrong (contaminated), and wanting to get right (clean) experiences. The second thing I'm always curious to look at is 2) What have your experiences been with trying to control your body and looking for feelings in your body (ex: motivation). This one might get into some experiences you've had with training. They might not seem bad. Another way to describe this might be: Have you had experiences where controlling your body seemed to solve other uncertainties in life, like social anxiety, relationships, what to do in the future... The reason for exploring that is because we sometimes get into using our bodies as the ritual to get "right" to control/ prevent loss around uncertainties we want to control in life.
When I was struggling I found it useful to remind myself that people who don't struggle with mental health don't really think about their mental health or try to "fix" their mental health. They just live their lives, go on with their day and do the things they needed or wanted to do with their day. Combining that action oriented mind set with cutting out compulsions wherever I could brought me to where I am today. Am I recovered? I don't know, maybe, maybe not. It doesn't really concern me that much anymore. But I'm doing the things I want to do and what more could I ask for in life? I spend time with my family, I am enjoy my physical fitness practice, I'm exploring my faith and actually enjoying the challenge of taking on life's responsibilities. The things that used to terrify my in the past I actually look forward to in a sense. Even life's tough things.
Thanks for sharing that! This is so true! I've fallen into the GAD\OCD cycle 2 years ago after having a panic attack, and developed alot of compulsions around preventing this experience - which developed these diagnosis and they really took over my life. But if I try and remember how it was before that, It was pretty much how you described it - if you were to ask me "how are you feeling" I'd honestly say "umm fine?" because honestly I couldn't tell you, never paid too much attention to how I was feeling, never was too self absorbed, just had my daily routine and hobbies and my mind was always focused on that, on the things I want, life was very simple back then. I didn't have to "TRY" to be like that, It was all I knew back then, it was effortless and natural. The behavior between now and then changed SO MUCH if I compare the two, also how I behaved internally (on what things I put my attention 24\7, how much I worried, ruminated, what did I put as high priority for me? is it my values or problems I invented?) it was completely different too, comparing and contrasting the 2 behaviors made it very clear to me how I ended up struggling and why I didn't previously. I believe we can all change our behaviors slowly and re-learn healthy living when we notice the unwanted behaviors\compulsions we developed, or even learn it from scratch! :)
Sorry I had to leave shortly after asking my question (about hyperawareness of self), but I watched the VOD and thank you for replying! :) I always assumed it was something automatic and out of my control, but as I suspected, I was wrong and it is a "do"ing compulsion as in - i'm doing this constantly. Dropping my guard down and not monitoring thoughts and feelings constantly can feel like i'll lose control or the anxiety symptoms might get worse, by me "controlling" it i'm keeping it tamed, preventing a horrible\dangerous thing... at least that what was I believed to be happening, that i'm preventing panic attacks by monitoring and controlling myself. Reality is that these efforts produce more of what I don't want, more panic attacks, more anxiety, more stress, also distracts me from focusing on the things I want. I can see the looping behavior that i'm in, I also recognize that I want to quit being the full-time police officer of my brain and physiology, I never willingly signed up for this job lol! I guess i'll just have to "act recklessly" then by dropping my guard completely and trusting my mind and body to do its thing, even tho it FEELS so wrong, while I focus on whats truly important to me :) Thanks for the brain support episode!!!
It's great you can see that looping behavior! Enjoy exploring how it's possible to make space for "wrong" feelings, and that they might not actually be wrong when we start to look behind the judgments and beliefs we're holding onto.
Hey, thanks mark! I found it a really significant point with the social anxiety (sometimes I watch some sometimes more lol), the brains trying to help us with checking and often controlling, which can take us into disastrous situations but really we care, we care so much that's why our brains doing that. So, thankyou brain, what do we wanna give tho? It applies to anything similar. Great stuff tho.
Hello mark! I have a eye contact problem with females and random thinking. I watch your videos too but I would like to get some advice from you, Thanks!
Have you considered the compulsions are broader than just eye contact with females? Because the way you communicated this comment is an example of a related compulsion. You didn't ask a direct question or explain what the problem is. Like other people, I am not a mind-reader. But do you maybe do a lot of thinking about what others are thinking about you?
Thanks for the great video. I am currently doing recovery work but while im doing it im wonderung if im doing compulsions automatically or without knowing. What should i do in this situation? Keep going on withiut working things out? Cheers
I approach recovery as being about building and growing the things we want to see in our lives. By looking at how to do those things well, we can see what we want to spend time and energy on. The question you asked above sounds like a common fear of doing recovery "wrong"--it's just like any health anxiety where we fear doing some wrong things that will cause bad things in the future. But I don't see in your comment anything about where you want to be going and what you want to be growing.
@everybodyhasabrain OK makes sense. Just one more thing, when I resist the compulsion or resist responding to the thoughts, I get all tense and kind of squeeze my muscle, is that common of people doing erp? Like did that happen to you to? Cause I'm getting some physical pain when I resist the ocd as I'm squeezing muscles, just curious if that's the same with everyone that's all, thanks a lot
@@Bray-sy4eu Checking for reassurance and saying "just curious" and "one more thing" are very common compulsions! It wouldn't matter if everybody did they or nobody did that. The more useful thing I'd look at is how you interact with that experience. If we judge some physical experience as a bad thing we need to check on, then we'll probably experience many more strange physical experiences so we can do more compulsions around them. Also, if we notice we're tensing up around a particular action and don't want to, it's also possible to explore doing ERP differently. It is just like any other action. If you don't tense up when opening a door, you can also explore not tensing your muscles when doing other actions, if that's something you want to explore
Hi mark, how do you look at relapses, after trying to improve and live healthy in certain level you go back doing the same conpulsion, checking unintentionally. So how to look at relapses after month of trying to live healthy and not feel exhausted or guilty about it.
@@everybodyhasabrain my whole life I have living with compulsion, I never never realised how bad it got until few months ago. I think after long time I could live freely, thanks for your videos and support. It's not perfect, I am not free of compulsions but I could choose my compulsion having locus of control of what I wanna do. I am not letting thoughts decides what my life should be. Keep on doing the good work Mark 😃.
Hey Mark I’m a huge fan of your content and would appreciate your time if you have any to spare! Prior to developing OCD, I was training to be part of the Olympics. It’s been the goal I’ve had since I was a child and I think I worked tirelessly to fix the problem because I thought it would ruin my chances of living my dream and passion in life. I struggle with sensorimotor OCD and some physical symptoms of anxiety. I’ve done therapy with Dr. Greenberg as well as other rumination-focused practitioners who believe in recovery and I believe I’ve come along way. I see now, that the point is to live my life the best way I can alongside the awareness. I feel like I get tired more easily and experience anxiety anytime I get frustrated (possibly a nervous system response) I’ve started back training and it’s a high-demand situation. One that I don’t want to let go of because I love and I’ve lived my life with this love long before OCD came around. The issue is that whenever i do things regarding it I get really anxious and I think about my life before or how it’s difficult to train and be aware of the sensation Do you have any tips? Thank you!
1.5 years ago I thought I was going insane and had a terrible ocd episode that lasted for months. It was living hell. Your videos saved me. You gave me hope and the tools to get out of that madness. I'm doing really well mentally these days. To anyone seeing this currently suffering,I get you. I truly do. It really does get better. But you HAVE to do the work. And by "the work" I mean to literally just do nothing. Stop letting random things in your brain control you. Live your life. Do whatever you want. That's it. All you need is to just let go. It's scary, I know,but it's so worth it.
Thanks for sharing your journey for others navigating this wilderness!
Mark you always help me put things into perspective. The way you approach these topics with light heartedness and humour is so refreshing.
My brain has been braining a lot recently. And that's perfectly ok 😊.
Hope you're having a good sunday ❤.
Thank you for the kind words. I hope your brain brains easily this week!
"If you have a brain, welcome. I'm sorry :)" Hahahaha
It's a thing you can have :)
Hey Mark I’m a huge fan of your content and would appreciate your time if you have any to spare! Prior to developing OCD, I was training to be part of the Olympics. It’s been the goal I’ve had since I was a child and I think I worked tirelessly to fix the problem because I thought it would ruin my chances of living my dream and passion in life.
I struggle with sensorimotor OCD and some physical symptoms of anxiety. I’ve done therapy with Dr. Greenberg as well as other rumination-focused practitioners who believe in recovery and I believe I’ve come along way. I see now, that the point is to live my life the best way I can alongside the awareness. I feel like I get tired more easily and experience anxiety anytime I get frustrated (possibly a nervous system response)
I’ve started back training and it’s a high-demand situation. One that I don’t want to let go of because I love and I’ve lived my life with this love long before OCD came around.
The issue is that whenever i do things regarding it I get really anxious and I think about my life before or how it’s difficult to train and be aware of the sensation
Do you have any tips? Thank you!
It's great you're exploring skills and you're back to training! When somebody brings up sensorimotor compulsions, there are two things I'm always curious about first: 1) I ask if there are things in life they like to control or get "right". And that stuff will seem normal. I try not to give examples at first, but just ask: "What do you like to get right?" and explore from there. The reason for that is because sensorimotor compulsions have a lot to do with checking around experiences we judge as wrong (contaminated), and wanting to get right (clean) experiences.
The second thing I'm always curious to look at is 2) What have your experiences been with trying to control your body and looking for feelings in your body (ex: motivation). This one might get into some experiences you've had with training. They might not seem bad. Another way to describe this might be: Have you had experiences where controlling your body seemed to solve other uncertainties in life, like social anxiety, relationships, what to do in the future... The reason for exploring that is because we sometimes get into using our bodies as the ritual to get "right" to control/ prevent loss around uncertainties we want to control in life.
When I was struggling I found it useful to remind myself that people who don't struggle with mental health don't really think about their mental health or try to "fix" their mental health. They just live their lives, go on with their day and do the things they needed or wanted to do with their day.
Combining that action oriented mind set with cutting out compulsions wherever I could brought me to where I am today. Am I recovered? I don't know, maybe, maybe not. It doesn't really concern me that much anymore. But I'm doing the things I want to do and what more could I ask for in life? I spend time with my family, I am enjoy my physical fitness practice, I'm exploring my faith and actually enjoying the challenge of taking on life's responsibilities. The things that used to terrify my in the past I actually look forward to in a sense. Even life's tough things.
Thanks for sharing that! This is so true!
I've fallen into the GAD\OCD cycle 2 years ago after having a panic attack, and developed alot of compulsions around preventing this experience - which developed these diagnosis and they really took over my life.
But if I try and remember how it was before that, It was pretty much how you described it - if you were to ask me "how are you feeling" I'd honestly say "umm fine?" because honestly I couldn't tell you, never paid too much attention to how I was feeling, never was too self absorbed, just had my daily routine and hobbies and my mind was always focused on that, on the things I want, life was very simple back then. I didn't have to "TRY" to be like that, It was all I knew back then, it was effortless and natural.
The behavior between now and then changed SO MUCH if I compare the two, also how I behaved internally (on what things I put my attention 24\7, how much I worried, ruminated, what did I put as high priority for me? is it my values or problems I invented?) it was completely different too, comparing and contrasting the 2 behaviors made it very clear to me how I ended up struggling and why I didn't previously.
I believe we can all change our behaviors slowly and re-learn healthy living when we notice the unwanted behaviors\compulsions we developed, or even learn it from scratch! :)
That's great to hear! Thanks for sharing about your journey 😁🙌
Sorry I had to leave shortly after asking my question (about hyperawareness of self), but I watched the VOD and thank you for replying! :)
I always assumed it was something automatic and out of my control, but as I suspected, I was wrong and it is a "do"ing compulsion as in - i'm doing this constantly.
Dropping my guard down and not monitoring thoughts and feelings constantly can feel like i'll lose control or the anxiety symptoms might get worse, by me "controlling" it i'm keeping it tamed, preventing a horrible\dangerous thing... at least that what was I believed to be happening, that i'm preventing panic attacks by monitoring and controlling myself.
Reality is that these efforts produce more of what I don't want, more panic attacks, more anxiety, more stress, also distracts me from focusing on the things I want.
I can see the looping behavior that i'm in, I also recognize that I want to quit being the full-time police officer of my brain and physiology, I never willingly signed up for this job lol!
I guess i'll just have to "act recklessly" then by dropping my guard completely and trusting my mind and body to do its thing, even tho it FEELS so wrong, while I focus on whats truly important to me :) Thanks for the brain support episode!!!
Do you know when this was talked about thank you!
@@Fisherboy007750:20 :)
It's great you can see that looping behavior! Enjoy exploring how it's possible to make space for "wrong" feelings, and that they might not actually be wrong when we start to look behind the judgments and beliefs we're holding onto.
Checking in from Los Angeles!
All love
😁🙌
Hey, thanks mark! I found it a really significant point with the social anxiety (sometimes I watch some sometimes more lol), the brains trying to help us with checking and often controlling, which can take us into disastrous situations but really we care, we care so much that's why our brains doing that. So, thankyou brain, what do we wanna give tho? It applies to anything similar. Great stuff tho.
Exactly. The brain is just trying to be extra helpful!
wow nice to see you in shalwar qameez ❤
I often wear clothes in my videos.
Hello mark! I have a eye contact problem with females and random thinking. I watch your videos too but I would like to get some advice from you, Thanks!
Have you considered the compulsions are broader than just eye contact with females? Because the way you communicated this comment is an example of a related compulsion. You didn't ask a direct question or explain what the problem is. Like other people, I am not a mind-reader. But do you maybe do a lot of thinking about what others are thinking about you?
Thanks for the great video. I am currently doing recovery work but while im doing it im wonderung if im doing compulsions automatically or without knowing. What should i do in this situation? Keep going on withiut working things out? Cheers
I approach recovery as being about building and growing the things we want to see in our lives. By looking at how to do those things well, we can see what we want to spend time and energy on. The question you asked above sounds like a common fear of doing recovery "wrong"--it's just like any health anxiety where we fear doing some wrong things that will cause bad things in the future. But I don't see in your comment anything about where you want to be going and what you want to be growing.
@everybodyhasabrain OK makes sense. Just one more thing, when I resist the compulsion or resist responding to the thoughts, I get all tense and kind of squeeze my muscle, is that common of people doing erp? Like did that happen to you to? Cause I'm getting some physical pain when I resist the ocd as I'm squeezing muscles, just curious if that's the same with everyone that's all, thanks a lot
@@Bray-sy4eu Checking for reassurance and saying "just curious" and "one more thing" are very common compulsions! It wouldn't matter if everybody did they or nobody did that. The more useful thing I'd look at is how you interact with that experience. If we judge some physical experience as a bad thing we need to check on, then we'll probably experience many more strange physical experiences so we can do more compulsions around them. Also, if we notice we're tensing up around a particular action and don't want to, it's also possible to explore doing ERP differently. It is just like any other action. If you don't tense up when opening a door, you can also explore not tensing your muscles when doing other actions, if that's something you want to explore
Hi mark, how do you look at relapses, after trying to improve and live healthy in certain level you go back doing the same conpulsion, checking unintentionally. So how to look at relapses after month of trying to live healthy and not feel exhausted or guilty about it.
I'd look at them kindly! What a wonderful opportunity to learn what pulls you off the path so you can predict it and prevent it next time.
@@everybodyhasabrain my whole life I have living with compulsion, I never never realised how bad it got until few months ago. I think after long time I could live freely, thanks for your videos and support. It's not perfect, I am not free of compulsions but I could choose my compulsion having locus of control of what I wanna do. I am not letting thoughts decides what my life should be. Keep on doing the good work Mark 😃.
@@Bronsonnarrator 😁🙌
Hi can you turn on subtitles
They should be on. Because the livestream was recent, they'll probably just need time to get generated.
Hey Mark I’m a huge fan of your content and would appreciate your time if you have any to spare! Prior to developing OCD, I was training to be part of the Olympics. It’s been the goal I’ve had since I was a child and I think I worked tirelessly to fix the problem because I thought it would ruin my chances of living my dream and passion in life.
I struggle with sensorimotor OCD and some physical symptoms of anxiety. I’ve done therapy with Dr. Greenberg as well as other rumination-focused practitioners who believe in recovery and I believe I’ve come along way. I see now, that the point is to live my life the best way I can alongside the awareness. I feel like I get tired more easily and experience anxiety anytime I get frustrated (possibly a nervous system response)
I’ve started back training and it’s a high-demand situation. One that I don’t want to let go of because I love and I’ve lived my life with this love long before OCD came around.
The issue is that whenever i do things regarding it I get really anxious and I think about my life before or how it’s difficult to train and be aware of the sensation
Do you have any tips? Thank you!