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Best form of treatment for my false memory OCD: ERP/ACT etc.?


Guest Havefaith

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Guest Havefaith

Hi guys, 

Just wanna enquire what is the best approach to help deal with my false memory OCD, where I think i have harmed someone at a particular place. Is it ERP (Exposure and Response Prevention) or ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy) or any other form of treatment? I'm going to see my psychologist mr to discuss about it:) 

PS: I think PolarBear knows what I'm talking about.

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Understanding the cognitive side of how OCD works, whatever the theme, will help you. But also, here is a part  extract, part revision,  from a piece I previously wrote - purely as a fellow OCD-sufferer - as i have taken an especial interest in false memory OCD, and read a lot of posts here about it,  so you may find it helpful.this summarises issues that I noticed seemed to be helpful in tackling it. 

Sufferers are worried about whether or not they have done or could do something that would horrify them, might  be criminal  or they or others would find disgusting.AND THAT THEY WANT 100% CERTAINTY THAT THEY DID NOT OR COULD NOT HAVE DONE IT. Typically the false memory takes a catastrophic form. 


How clear is the recollection?

The difficulty is that  we can NEVER REMEMBER SOMETHING THAT SIMPLY DID NOT HAPPEN. But, we because we are sufferers from OCD, and the OCD is suggesting it DID happen, we want that certainty - and the compulsive urge from the OCD is telling us that unless we get 100% certainty, then the doubt will remain.

OCD is perfectly capable of creating a false recollection, often with vague imagery (convenient that!) 

Now it can clearly be seen that this is an UNRESOLVABLE PARADOX - we have to have proof, but there is no proof, because it most likely didn't , or wouldn't, happen !

Doubts remain, and feed the OCD - and remember, the OCD knows what you are thinking - it's inside your brain. Because we have a feeling of being  responsible (because we may have done something wrong) we feel implicated in wrongdoing, fuelling again the desire for 100% certainty, otherwise  we cannot accept that we weren't wrong.

So we go on and on, round and round, perpetually stuck in the problem and the distress.



The way forward?

• Accept it's the work of OCD - that is to blame for all the rumination and distress.


• Expect and anticipate its guile to fool you, and determine not to buy into it


• Accept that there can be no certainty - and that the more you think you may have a responsibility, the more the compulsion to ruminate on that possibility will strengthen, again making the whole problem and distress worse.


UPDATE AS OF FEB 2015

At least 3 forum members have recovered from this form of OCD. They have done this by realising the futility of seeking certainty . They accepted the possibility hwever remote that they might have done the thing feared, but realised they could never know and the overall probability  that OCD had faked it all was high.

They determined after that to be indifferent . Stop compulsing stop giving any time to the thoughts when they came calling. 

What happened? - the thoughts and worry about the "deed" started to tail off and the sufferer began to be able to shrug them off when they came. 

It may seem impossible to take that view but it may well be  the only possible way to recover . It requires a leap of faith 

In OCD false memory OCD is like a "blackmailer without photographs or negatives". Of course, if alcohol is involved, it plays into the hands of the OCD doesn't it - people can't remember anyway.

 

So 4 key words/phrases

 

Acceptance

Probability

Indifference

Leap of faith

 

Good luck everyone. I would love to see more and more of us overcome false memory. 

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Great post Roy :goodpost:

Havefaith, ERP is a type of CBT, but you need to have ERP as part of a whole CBT package in order to overcome OCD. It is no good just exposing yourself to your fears without doing any work on the cognitive aspects that keep your obsession going. There are also other elements of CBT such as detached mindfulness which are useful for when you get the intrusive thoughts in the first place.

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I would like to know how the obsession that I may have done something wrong to someone in past (harm ocd with False Memory) is dealt with cognitively in CBT. Is the false exaggeration of the whole scenario by OCD is explained?

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OCD peddles lies falsehoods and exaggeration of minimum threat based around fear or revulsion. 

It can turn a character value such as care on its head and substitute harm. Or steadfastness and faithfulness into suggesting promiscuity and unfaithfulness. 

It makes us dream up false scenarios - magical thinking and false memory. 

Since it channels the false images and thoughts through the normal communication pathways in the brain, it will seem totally real totally believable. 

And so it throws up doubt - and uses that doubt to demand certainty - and maximises emphasis on any shred of doubt. 

Understanding this way that the disorder works is essential. 

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2 hours ago, worriedjohn said:

That means we have to know how OCD works and how the entire thing is "false". That is why it is "Cognition".

Cognition is thinking. We need to understand what is going on in our thinking with OCD fisrtly, then the "false memory" theme, before we are going to be in a position to defy it - not listen to the falsehoods, not connect with or compulse around them.   

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