I’m sorry you’re feeling so unwell. I believe you can get better. I have similar problems and have extensive experience with medication, talk therapy, exercise etc. You can talk to me (email/Zoom etc), I’ll try to help. My email address is in my profile. Take care!
Ask HN: Have OCD, suffering from extreme procrastination, please help?
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Re: Ask HN: Have OCD, suffering from extreme procrastination, please help?
#22You might find it helpful to go through books written by therapists such as The Perfectionism Workbook and The CBT Workbook for Perfectionism to understand the causes of perfectionism and the beliefs and fears behind it.
This book isn't specifically about OCD but Overcoming Unwanted Intrusive Thoughts could be helpful as well. It talks about how to observe and accept thoughts, even if they're unwanted, repetitive or disturbing, instead of trying to suppress or fight against them.
Re: Ask HN: Have OCD, suffering from extreme procrastination, please help?
#23No post body was provided.
Re: Ask HN: Have OCD, suffering from extreme procrastination, please help?
#24Sorry about your mother's condition. Check out Jordan Peterson's early lectures on YouTube.
Also lift weights and eat healthy
Re: Ask HN: Have OCD, suffering from extreme procrastination, please help?
#25I don’t have actionable advice but want to say to those saying this is a wrong forum that - maybe OP is needing a community to vent or simply share feelings, away of reaching out.
Re: Ask HN: Have OCD, suffering from extreme procrastination, please help?
#26Try deep ketosis via ketogenic diet and try high fat carnivore diet. These things are super hyped up right now and seem like scams but they touch upon very real and very powerful metabolic pathways and mechanisms. They have helped many people with severe mental illness including myself.
Hey there! Very happy to see someone here with the same recommendation, hopefully that will boost the credibility of this recommendation to OP and others.
Re: Ask HN: Have OCD, suffering from extreme procrastination, please help?
#27I've got fairly bad ADHD. Do you drink coffee? I'm able to focus a lot better when I keep my caffeine intake low. For years I thought it was helping me be productive but it was really just causing me to get overwhelmed. It sounds like cutting caffeine might not be enough in your situation but its worth trying if you havnt.
Re: Ask HN: Have OCD, suffering from extreme procrastination, please help?
#28That sucks, man. I relate. My graveyard of unfinished projects is... expansive. I haven't "figured it out" yet, but here are some things I do to improve my chances of success and ameliorate the personal damage of failure.
0. Remind myself that work is a cruel mistress and a crummy source of self-worth. Find some hopeful, bedrock truth to fall back on when life doesn't seem worth living. (God, in my case. YMMV.)
1. Focus on the good things happening in my life and in the world. Along those lines, I cut out all news and any social media or entertainment that leaves me feeling worse afterward. Even HN can be a source of emotional drain -- some days my brain translates every headline into "that person makes $10K per week without even trying; what's your problem?"
2. Find a partner to work with closely on a day-to-day basis both to share the load and to build momentum.
3. Iterate (and fail!) faster to establish a fast feedback loop. Even weekly is too long. For my most successful projects (not saying much), I found a way to "ship" my project at least daily, even if "shipping" is just showing it to a friend. One time I modded a video game for a 4-year-old, the two of us taking 5-minute turns at the computer.
HN doesn't appear to have a DM feature but reply if you want to connect on Discord or something.
Re: Ask HN: Have OCD, suffering from extreme procrastination, please help?
#29Procrastination is the result of an emotional response to an activity.
You are cruising along in your new project, making good progress, then you get stuck on a difficult problem. You understand the solution and it's tedious. You stop and take a break. You try and think of a better way that isn't tedious, but you never do. You keep coming back to the tedious solution.
The break never ends, and now you are procrastinating. You know the solution but don't want to do it. Too tedious. The project slowly loses your interest and before you know it, the new shiny has popped up and you have a new project.
If you don't want this to happen then you need 'suck it up' and do the tedious work. Get over your emotions. It's always less tedious than you imagine it.
Re: Ask HN: Have OCD, suffering from extreme procrastination, please help?
#30First of all, this is not the place for health advice. None of us here are qualified in Psychiatry and Psychology. Please seek medical attention. I don't know which South Asian country you live in but you must seek help for your condition. Maybe therapy and medication would be necessary. Please take care of yourself and seek professional help. Take care.
The number one source of relief for many people in mental health is communities of people who are also suffering.
This “go find professional help” dismissal is unhelpful. Obviously he’s aware because he mentions it. If you can’t help, don’t say anything since this is idiotic advice.