Are You Stuck? - The "False Messages" Of OCD Seem Like Normal Thoughts & Images

[taurean]

That is the problem isn't it - they are so believable, that they question our acceptance that they are caused by OCD. But they are only believable because they reach us in the same way that non-OCD thoughts do - through our brain.

But, if you look for the evidence, and apply that, you can then see how the OCD is operating, anticipate its next move, and then get into applying the acceptance and disconnect mechanisms - or doing if appropriate what OCD is telling you not to do - not allowing it to bully you.And we can wean ourselves off the physical or mental compulsions caused by the OCD.

Living with it, as many people have been doing for a long time, isn't the option - it will just take over more and more life and joy.Only the sufferer is able to make the changes to overcome the OCD and get their lives back on track.

So remember, OCD uses fear doubt and uncertainty and falsehoods to create its distress. Often it reverses core values fundamental to us,like our faithfulness, honesty, sexuality and alleges that we are the opposite to them.

It has the capability to plant images and thoughts into our consciousness that we will believe are our thoughts and images.

it demands certainty if you are to accept it is OCD at play, and magnify doubts.But certainty is not available, you have to believe on evidence and probablility

Are you stuck? From what I see reading the topics and threads loads of people are at the moment..

Remember, only you can make the changes - and you must accept initial anxiety in the short term to gain peace and calm in the long term - but you are anxious anyway, so that should be no problem?.

You have to see the evidence and believe OCD is your problem.

We can initially advise what you need to do, and for a short while some supportive re-assurance, but of necessity to help people go forward, re-assurance seeking will be highlighted and discouraged by the community..

[Guest imalright]

That's so helpful - thank you for that

[Guest lizinlondon]

Yes this is helpful and correct advice. Hopefully it will motivate people that are stuck right now.

[Bodge]

That is so helpful. I was doing really well in my battle against ocd until a few weeks ago but unfortunately it is creeping back. It's making me petrified with loads of doubts and I can feel it spiralling again. I have decided to be strong and try to beat it again but it's not easy. I keep checking 'just one more thing' but that is never enough! Your post is just what I needed to help me see ocd for the bully that it is.

[FoosBoo88]

Hi Taurean,

That's great and I'm one of those stuck in a rut at the moment. Last night I made myself stand in the kitchen for 10 minutes and accept I could use the knife and stab my husband, I also went to bed and accepted I could strangle him. I pick at my OCD all the time, I can already label it as anxiety and, if I catch myself ruminating, I can tell myself to get up and do something else.

FoosBoo88 x

[gingerbreadgirl]

Another amazing post. You explain things so well x

[taurean]

It's a benefit from 44 years experience in presenting risk and insurance to people Gbg! during my career I also gave presentations, training sessions, and wrote technical bulletins, guidance notes and marketing material - and short stories for a house magazine.

i love writing, i like making a difference, and I enjoy taking the "difficult" out of things, especially when i can use that skill to help other OCD sufferers.

[bobbyassustado]

thanks, great topic. OCD thoughts are killing me. But i will not surrender

[Guest lizinlondon]

Well done Bobby!

[bobbyassustado]

lizinlondon ((:

Edited September 30, 2014 by bobbyassustado

[taurean]

I wrote the post because I have read so many topics and posts where the flavour of the disorder is thoughts but the OCD torments people with its heavy guns of doubt and uncertainty - from the outside looking in, its easy to see the OCD- but they can't seem to accept that OCD is within their brain so the thoughts and images seem real even thought they are false.

Until people accept it and don't ruminate or google or get put off-track by reading other material - then stuck they will stay.

Those who have recovered all say that acceptance was crucial - they then could then see the OCD for what it was, anticipate further "convincing" thoughts and images but not buy into them. and that over a period of time the effect of the OCD fades and they start regaining the control as their brains reconfigure.

Another good way to "view" the OCD is to consider your own true values, and compare that with what the thoughts are telling you. since OCD loves to turn those values upside down, this is likely to be apparent, "outing" the OCD.

So, look for this together with a fear fuelling obessions and compulsions (often mental not physical), thoughts or visuals creating doubt and uncertainty that you could be surffering from OCD, and you will find the OCD!!!.

Once you've found it, apply The Four Steps together with any necessary weaning away from compulsions.

[Guest Saz]

I'm really trying Roy and I love your posts because they really explain whats going on-which I do find helpful.

I just can't seem to keep hold of that confidence that it is all ocd for very long which is a real shame. Some days are a lot worse than others, some days I actually have a nice day and it all seems so ridiculous!

At the moment I'm stuck thinking this...I feel ok, calmer now but I think to myself...why did I feel the way I did back then, so anxious/images/thought's etc. I know I should realise that I didn't ask for the thoughts but when it all mixes into a 'possible memory' its scary stuff. So basically im feeling ok and am planning nice things ahead, getting excited for xmas etc but I can't stop thinking back questioning things. Doesnt help that I'd never felt that way really before.

Hope your well x

[taurean]

Keep planning expect doubts ignore the doubts and "hooks" to try and claw at you.

It is all OCD and all what ifs burs nsybe must be jgnored.

I am on this path myself today, looking to shut out some intrusions.Why can I do this sometimes and not others? The answer is all down to brain chemistry - and I am working on that aspect because I have periodic "Brainlock" when the thoughts won't unstick, and we are working some new things to try and do that.

[Guest HeadAboveWater]

Taurean, you are always so helpful in explaining and dissecting the motives and tricks that OCD plays on us sufferers. I always feel comforted in reading your posts. I have a question, though... Lately, I have been having my usual obsessive thoughts and trying to resist ruminating and checking to make sure they are not true. However, sometimes I give in and play a scenario in my head to see if I would actually want to do it or to check for proof that it isn't something that I want. BUT the worst part is that every time I try to play this scenario in my head to negate the obsessive thoughts it ends up TOTALLY feeling like I actually do like it and want it and I sometimes even get the urge like I'm going to do it. Why does that happen?

I know that the intrusive thoughts can feel real but why when I am testing myself (consciously checking for desire) I feel that I actually do desire it. I then get extremely uncomfortable and anxious/depressed because I feel it is true.... and then constant doubt and I just end up back wondering if it is true or not! UGH!

Do you experience this?

Thanks in advance for any responses - in desperate need of understanding!

[taurean]

Don't play those tests because the OCD will jump onto them and give you the answer it wants and provide a compulsive urge.

And any attempt to neutralise a thought will make it stronger.

So don't test or oppose the thought.

You can seek to defuse it by imagining it leaving your head in say cloud of smoke then floating away.

I imagined thoughts draining out of me in the bath and going dosn the plughole yesterday.

[Guest HeadAboveWater]

Thanks, Taurean! I will try that!

The only thing that always confuses me about OCD is how real it can feel... it feels true sometimes. And that is what's crushing me.

[Caramoole]

If OCD didn't feel real it wouldn't have any impact on us

It's sort of like saying I wouldn't mind having arthritis if it didn't feel so painful.

Another good way to "view" the OCD is to consider your own true values, and compare that with what the thoughts are telling you. since OCD loves to turn those values upside down, this is likely to be apparent, "outing" the OCD.

Getting through these things can be like picking our way through a minefield....some techniques work, sometimes we can unerringly be doing things that can actually add to the problem. We can think we're working through things logically when in actual fact we're putting too much attention on trying to make it stop. It's a very fine line we tread, even reading and re-reading books say can become more harmful than helpful. Oh that it were simple :crybaby:

[Guest HeadAboveWater]

Thanks, Caramoole!

I see what you mean about if it didn't feel so real we wouldn't be so affected by it.

I obviously don't want to be what my thoughts say that I am, but even when I try to compare them to how I believe I truly am, it always somehow gets twisted into confusion and a feeling like I truly am what the thoughts say. Sometimes it gets to the point where I am having thoughts that maybe I am what the obsessive thoughts are saying but I'm in denial or I just don't want to be or know it yet. The doubt.... always, the doubt.

What do you mean by core values?

When I try that it seems like I don't know anymore what they are. I tend to believe the thoughts so often and feel like those are my real feelings.

Is that normal?????

[Caramoole]

but even when I try to compare them to how I believe I truly am, it always somehow gets twisted into confusion and a feeling like I truly am what the thoughts say

This is why I say it's like walking across a minefield applying advice sometimes. We can start out by "looking at the evidence" (comparing the thoughts against our true values) only to find that we're actually just entering into debate and rumination with the doubt....and that has the opposite effect.

We have to learn about OCD so that we know the general rules, we know how it works, what type of thoughts it produces and then when it strikes.....try to take it on the chin and move forward despite the thought or the doubt. Trying to work it out and make comparisons doesn't usually work. Looking at the evidence is often suggested in therapy for anxiety say.... but in OCD it can quickly turn into a detrimental compulsion. OCD provides false error messages and we have to try and move forward despite them, not wait to work them out before moving on.

Caramoole

[Guest ocd_matt]

V. Helpful post

[taurean]

Thanks I appreciate the feedback and the extra input from Caramoole.

[bendylouise]

Great thread.Roy.

[Guest HeadAboveWater]

We can start out by "looking at the evidence" (comparing the thoughts against our true values) only to find that we're actually just entering into debate and rumination with the doubt....and that has the opposite effect.

And the opposite effect being that it feels completely real that you are what you fear?

Like when I test a thought in hopes that I will finally know that it is not true and then end up feeling completely that it is true and that I really would want to do it?

[Guest HeadAboveWater]

I think also that sometimes my level of insight into my OCD is good but lately it has been quite poor. I know that when people go through extreme OCD moments and are suffering a lot of intrusive thoughts and ritualizing quite often, their insight may decrease. The levels of insight are: good or fair insight, poor insight, or absent insight/delusional beliefs. When someone has poor insight, they might totally believe and feel that their thoughts are real and true and that their compulsions are necessary. I believe I have been experiencing very poor insight lately because I haven't been able to get away from the thoughts or manage my compulsions correctly. At the moment I feel a bit better but earlier was just terrible.

Edited October 1, 2014 by HeadAboveWater

[Ascend]

Good post Roy but there is something I disagree with.

I don't believe that OCD 'plants' distressing thoughts and ideas in our heads, we do that ourselves by giving these fleeting irrational thoughts far too much importance than they deserve.

We all have 'bad' thoughts, society has conditioned us into what we must believe is right or wrong, moral or immoral.

It doesn't really matter who we are, or what we believe is important. What we really need to do is to become comfortable with ourselves, to accept that thoughts are just thoughts and they need not have any significant meaning about us as an individual.

As you said yourself OCD feels real because it comes from your brain. We should stop trying to comb through the thousands of thoughts and urges we have each day and just learn to live with them being there. This is the approach I have taken and I've had massive improvements in the past year.