If It Feels Like OCD........

[Caramoole]

"If It Feels Like OCD........It probably Is"

One of the classic quotes from Dr.Jeffery.Schwartz book 'Brainlock'

......and it's very, very true. Even when the thought seems strange, perhaps not instantly recognisable or read about before.....look to the accompanying feelings, the anxiety, the sense of dread, the flash of hot panic and you can usually identify that it is OCD, albeit perhaps in a different guise.

Every day we see dozens of new threads on the Forum.....Am I gay? Would I harm a child? What if I stabbed someone? What if I catch HIV? What if that was blood?........

........The list is infinite.

This is usually followed by sincere replies underlining how rare it is to catch X,Y or Z, or how we would never do such a thing, what a good person we are etc. All really helpful, sincere posts but often just a form of reassurance.

The one skill that each and every one of us has to develop is recognising it as OCD, whatever or however it manifests itself.

Without that skill we are doomed to the endless circle of dealing with each OCD 'Type' on a blow by blow basis, as though it were a different thing each time. My Gay OCD, my violence OCD, my contamination OCD and so on.

The enemy is OCD regardless of the particular flavour it's taking on at the time.

I really urge people (and I include myself in that) to work to recognise OCD full stop, and try not to get too involved with the various types. The cognitive approach is the same for all types and that is recognising that this is the false message of a percieved danger and unwanted thought. It is OCD.

This way we deal with one illness, not 101 separate aspects of it.

I know it's hard to do but it's vitally important to all of our well-beings.

Caramoole

[Guest PeaceOfMind]

I agree..very good points! When we are always trying to class our ocd into sub-groups I think it makes it harder for us to see the big picture, that it's all part of the same thing and comes from the same place.

Edited July 17, 2008 by PeaceOfMind

[Caramoole]

When we are always trying to class our ocd into sub-groups I think it makes it harder for us to see the big picture, that it's all part of the same thing and comes from the same place.

You got it

Easier said than done sometimes....but a goal worth working on

Caramoole

[Guest ppyvabw]

Good post Caramoole, Nice one

[Guest legend]

Thanks caramoole...ocd is ocd...whatever flavour,

legend.x

[Stephen]

Spot on Ms C as usual.

Can you bring out the wet fish again at some point?

Seriously it's a great point. I am often conscious of people categorising their OCD into sub-groups which may in some ways help a little in terms of people feeling affinity with other people in the same 'sub-group', but when they talk more about their OCD it's often the case that they've suffered from other 'types' in the past. The common themes of anxiety, doubt, guilt, hyper-responsibility, fear and the need to feel in control characterise most or all experiences of OCD.

Well said.

Stephen

[Guest Vic]

Thank you Caramoole for enlightening post!

vic

[Guest alison]

great post caramoole, a very basic point, but as you said, one we forget all too often.

my therapist spent a great deal explaining to me that its no different me worrying about a red mark, or picking up a tube of blood in the lab, ocd is ocd regardless of the situation, yes some ocds may be harder than others but that is still what they are.

she encouraged me to use a generic term to refer to my ocd, i chose "my anxiety", and i just say, oh thats my anxiety causing trouble, rather than get into the vicious circle of is this real or not.

i tend to find that if its in my life and causing me trouble its ocd! perhaps a bit simplistic, but 99.9% of the time its right!

thanks for bringing the issue up.

[Guest frazzle]

Thanks Caramoole great post :clapping: xxx

[Guest Roami]

Hi Caramoole,

I think you've made some really good points - thank you :original: OCD is OCD and many of the feelings associated with the different types and the strategies used to treat it are the same.

However I just wanted to say that my experience of contamination OCD (yes I'm sub-categorising again) was completely different to the type of OCD I am experiencing at the moment which is more a pure O form of OCD. It felt so different that that it took me quite a while to identify it was OCD!

I personally feel it can sometimes help (or it has helped me) to talk to people experiencing the same type of OCD. For some reason it seems to provide some comfort, ease feelings of isolation and you can share the more 'specific' feelings generated by it and strategies to deal with and cope with it. I feel those people who have experienced the same 'type' of OCD can empathise with each other better.

But going back to what you have posted, if you look at the bigger picture, OCD is OCD whatever form is takes.

Many thanks again for your post :original:

Love,

Roami xxx

[Tez]

Hi Camaroole.

It's so true isn't it: that horrible feeling when gravity seems to give way, your blood runs cold, your head feels like it's in a vice, prickly sweat starts running off your forehead (where's that deosrant!?) and the urge to neutralise becomes pretty much all powerful. That's how it feels to me when I have an attack of OCD. But it is that relabelling stage that Dr Schwarz recommends that is (personally) so difficult. Even though I know that I have OCD and have been diagnosed for years, and even though I work in the mental health field, it still floors me, like th rational part of the brain detatches and goes on holiday somewhere. But his words are so simple and true: that feeling is the giveaway. It's flippin OCD.

Enjoy the sunny weather.

Best wishes from

Tez

[Caramoole]

I personally feel it can sometimes help (or it has helped me) to talk to people experiencing the same type of OCD. For some reason it seems to provide some comfort, ease feelings of isolation and you can share the more 'specific' feelings generated by it and strategies to deal with and cope with it. I feel those people who have experienced the same 'type' of OCD can empathise with each other better.

Yes, I agree, it's very true, hence we have Forums like this to provide such friendship and support. I think it's particularly helpful in the early stages when we're trying to get to grips with how the condition affects ourselves and others.

I do think it can have a downside as well and have seen many examples of it. I think we have to take care that we don't fall into the trap of just swapping our experiences and providing each other with what can become constant reassurance. There is no doubt that it provides us with comfort and the feeling that we are not alone but it can hinder as well.

However I just wanted to say that my experience of contamination OCD (yes I'm sub-categorising again) was completely different to the type of OCD I am experiencing at the moment which is more a pure O form of OCD. It felt so different that that it took me quite a while to identify it was OCD!

Again, I agree, there can be differences....but at the core there is usually the same problem, an unrelenting anxiety created by a thought, an urge, a feeling or when we resist a particular thing. That's why I feel it's important that we all try and learn to identify OCD itself, regardless of the way it's manifesting at the time.

Caramoole

[Guest alpha]

Hi all.

Caramoole :original: Thanks for this. It's so spot on. I really needed to hear this advice this week. I know it in my heart but it's my flippin' brain that doesn't play along ...

"If it feels like OCD.........." I love this quote and have used it before myself. It is actually so tremendously powerful and almost contains a complete short guide to CBT in one sentence. (Okay, maybe a slight exaggeration, but you know what I mean.)

Tez: It's so true isn't it: that horrible feeling when gravity seems to give way, your blood runs cold, your head feels like it's in a vice, prickly sweat starts running off your forehead (where's that deosrant!?) and the urge to neutralise becomes pretty much all powerful. That's how it feels to me when I have an attack of OCD. But it is that relabelling stage that Dr Schwarz recommends that is (personally) so difficult. Even though I know that I have OCD and have been diagnosed for years, and even though I work in the mental health field, it still floors me, like th rational part of the brain detatches and goes on holiday somewhere. But his words are so simple and true: that feeling is the giveaway. It's flippin OCD.

So true Tez, so true. That urge to neutralise .................aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh. Maybe your brain goes on holiday with my brain. :original:

Alpha

Edited July 23, 2008 by alpha

[Tez]

Hi Alpha

Yes, I agree about the holidaying brains - they go down to Weymouth, and sometimes seem to disappear out the country altogether!

I personally find it intriguing (although excruciating too!) how a rational human being can be outflanked by OCD when these spikes occur. I think this is what a lot of people without OCD find difficult to comprehend, even my dear father who has become a firm supporter of OCD-UK and my partner who I have also persuaded to join. They find it difficult to process the fact that sometimes it just feels well - "Real".

Best wishes

Tez :cool:

[Caramoole]

They find it difficult to process the fact that sometimes it just feels well - "Real".

I think that's the problem, it just doesn't really translate in the telling does it? :crybaby:

Caramoole

[Guest alpha]

Wow, I'd forgotten how helpful this board is. Caramoole and Tez you are personally pulling me out of the crater I am in with your posts. It's just what I need to hear right now.

They find it difficult to process the fact that sometimes it just feels well - "Real".

So true. So true. I read somewhere, I think it was Brain Lock, how it was amazing that the same thought could intrude about the same situation many times in a single day and the OCD sufferer reacts to it with the same amount of dread and fear as if they were experiencing the thought (and accompanying feelings) for the very first time.

I personally find it intriguing (although excruciating too!) how a rational human being can be outflanked by OCD when these spikes occur.

Absolutely. My thoughts exactly.

I think that's the problem, it just doesn't really translate in the telling does it?

Nope. :dry:

Alpha :original:

[Tez]

Thank you for your kind words Alpha. Mutual support works in my book: even if it doesn't itself dissipate the symptoms, the online community that has been created by OCD-UK helps see people through the day and that's a major achievement. These are the only OCD forums I use, and the reason is, they are properly moderated by people with experience, so you don't get any unhelpful stuff like people coming on saying "your religious obsessions are real", for example.

Tez :cool:

[Guest millicentbystander]

you are so right!

i am currently getting really hung up on what type of ocd i have or even if it really is ocd. i think i just have to learn to except it and not ruminate on it!!!

thanks Mills x

[Tez]

Hi Mills

Yup, that's how it is for me too. I think about whether a particular thought / intrusion / compulsion is OCD, as part of the way in which I try to convince myself that it is okay to ignore it: I believe the official term for this is "metacognition" where you think about thinking (and sometimes think about thinking about thinking). According to one book I have recently been reading ("Cognitive Therapy for OCD" by Clark [Guilford Press]) there is a school of thought that holds that this metacognition is one of the ways that OCD keeps going and going around in the mind.

Anyhows, it's gorgeous weather here. Hope it's nice where you are: enjoy your Saturday.

Tez :cool:

[Justine]

*

Edited October 16, 2008 by Lily

[paradoxer]

Caramoole, many thanks for the sagacious words. And Tez, cheers to you, I think your few lines there are about as succinct a description of a reaction to a spike that I've read.

Re the tendency to categorise OCD - I remember - years ago - when my OCD was more primarily Pure O, at an OCD group, one guy - who suffered from Pure OCD - suggested that his variant of OCD was more deeply felt or more substantial than hand washers. I knew then that was a mistake. Since then my symptoms have morphed - and it has confirmed what I knew then -all OCD is terrible - though some spikes (no matter what the variation might be) will be worse than others. I think the need to listen to - or connect - with sufferers whose symptoms resemble one's own - is understandable. I've done it myself. And I think it has some value - in that it puts the symptoms into context - but I remain convinced that anything more than a cursory focus on the content of the obsessions is antithetical to beating the beast.

[Tez]

Quite true, Paradoxer: I've also had "morphed" symptoms in more than 20 years of OCD, including some of the classics - paedophilia, religion/evil, magic, curses and hexes, and of course those "Do I have OCD" type questions. But all OCD is utterly debilitating, which is why we need to support each other. This provides the additional benefit of allowing a sympathetic but detatched viewpoint on our own obsessions.

Tez :cool:

[Guest Lucia]

THANK YOU Caramoole, You are absolutely right and you put it really well in your post.

I sometimes just judge my ocd by whether the thought sort of 'smells' like, or feels in my body, like ocd. To give an example today I said to someone I had been working very hard, and then immediately felt a worried jolt that they would think I was being exploited at work by my employer and so do the employer's reputation harm!

What I did was to think to myself, okay does this feel, smell like ocd, kind of being aware of how it felt in my body, the anxious feeling. It was quite clear it felt like OCD, and knowing this made me feel quite a bit better.

A little later , to really knock this OCD symptom on the head I wrote down a quick CBT exercise of Rational Self Talk, It went something like this.

First of all, I wrote down a reminder of something I have learned from David Veale's book and other OCD books, that people with OCD often excessively fear harming others, in all sorts of different ways. Then I wrote:

1. Does this person know where I work? Answer: I think she does, though she may not remember.

2. Ok then, Does a comment about working very hard always have to mean you're being forced to do it by the employer. No this is silly! And if by any chance she misinterprets what I said, that is not my responsibility or my problem.

By then it didn't bother me at all and I moved on easily. Now, this evening, it seems utterly ridiculous as a worry.

These worries are all kinds of rubbish and nonsence. The content really doesn't matter, it's all static on the radio, it's all brain malfunction. Taking them seriously and seeking reassurance can make them worse, though I appreciate sufferers at the start of treatment may simply need to off load on line cos the pain of this illness can be horrific.

Thanks again Caramoole, I was so happy to see your post!

Lucia

[Guest Charlotte]

I have just found this thread and... wow! Thank you

[Biccy]

some very good advice on here so i moving it up the forum x