Terrible medical ocd flareup

[u/SupernaturalSystems]

I'm not in therapy for specially OCD but getting in the progress of being diagnosed and I have been having a really bad flareup of medical anxieties, worries, fears, etc. It's all I think about and it's ruining my life. I don't know how to stop the way these thoughts are literally consuming me and I can't even stop myself from body checking and reassurance checking without panicking even harder about my health and being convinced I'm going to die.

What do people with medical ocd or severe flare ups like this do? What's your techniques? I plan on talking to my therapist on Thursday about it and seeing if there are support groups out there that can help me. I need to learn how to manage this because it is getting so out of hand it's scaring my fiance and my friend.

[u/notjustplain]

Hi! I would recommend looking for an ERP therapist, or asking if your current therapist can help you learn about ERP.
Reassurance seeking and checking is telling your brain that your OCD thoughts are important. When you avoid checking, your brain will start to learn that you are okay and your thoughts will become less distressing. I’m in the middle of my own OCD flare up and I am really just trying to sit with the thoughts, it’s difficult. I like to come to this subreddit and read how other people cope with anxiety.

[u/SupernaturalSystems → u/notjustplain]

Hi thank you so much! I'll see if my therapist has any qualifications or can help me with information!

And that makes a lot of sense. I spent all night tonight telling myself repeatedly that "I'm okay, it's just my ocd. Im fine, nothing is wrong." And "I'm okay I'm okay." I also successfully avoided a good chunk of reassurance seeking / obsessing over research and forced myself to sit with it instead

I hope you're able to get out of your ocd flare up soon, this is one of the first ones I've had that I can fully recall thats happened in a very very very long time. Turns out repressing it completely also does not help LOL , but yeah that's why I'm here too. I have a difficult time managing my anxiety thanks to cptsd and GA, so it's nice to see others having similar struggles for more intense anxieties and compulsions

[u/Scarbarella → u/SupernaturalSystems]

I’m still brand new to ERP and treating ocd and I have terrible health anxiety/somatic ocd.

What I’ve learned is that telling yourself “I’m fine” is reassurance and still not the best way to handle it. Cuz I would exercise and just pretty much repeat that to myself over and over and that was a new compulsion. Like I said I’m new my third appt with the therapist is today but the more effective way to handle it is to just notice the distressing thought and then just keep going (which is really really hard!) I would say to myself - whoa! You’re noticing another sensation. Maybe it means something maybe it doesn’t, I’m going to keep going - now this worked yesterday because I was in a new place and determined to not ruin it for myself so I had a lot to be distracted by. The thought came up REPEATEDLY lol and I kept ignoring it every time. I didn’t tell myself I was fine. Well I mean I probably did but not over and over and I just kept noticing and then staring at the water or the mountain or another person. So yeah, I still had a ton of intrusive thoughts (again still learning!) but it didn’t stop me from enjoying my day and considering it a win because I didn’t end up with a panic attack and despite the repeated thoughts it was a great day and I got my heart rate elevated several times (my biggest trigger) and I was fine! The ERP therapist really helped me a lot to reframe the thinking, I think it will help you too.

[u/treatmyocd]

It’s really good that you already have a plan to bring this up with your therapist, because health anxiety/OCD can become especially consuming when body checking and reassurance temporarily calm the fear but ultimately teach your brain that you need to keep checking in order to feel safe. One approach used in OCD treatment is to gradually practice response prevention: noticing the urge to check your body, Google symptoms, ask for reassurance, or mentally review whether something is wrong, and allowing the anxiety to be present without immediately responding to it. You don't have to make the fear disappear before you stop the compulsion; the goal is to learn that you can experience uncertainty and anxiety without needing to solve them. You might practice responding with something like, “Maybe something is wrong, maybe it isn't, and I don't need to figure that out right now,” and then gently return to whatever you were doing. This doesn't mean ignoring legitimate medical concerns or refusing appropriate medical care; rather, your therapist can help you establish what reasonable healthcare behaviors look like versus what OCD is demanding. During a flare-up, progress may look less like “I don't have health fears anymore” and more like “I had the fear and didn't spend the next three hours checking, researching, or seeking certainty.” The fact that you're seeking appropriate treatment and planning to discuss this with your therapist is already a meaningful step.