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  2. Napalm
    But it's true. Public transport isn't very clean. So the logic of not feeling comfortable on public transport because of a fear of catching something unpleasant makes sense. Of course, you're unlikely to die from standing next to someone repeatedly sneezing on the bus so I would agree that is an extreme form of thinking. But we are encouraged to wash our hands regularly especially before preparing food or eating a meal to reduce the probability of getting ill and it is sound advice. Ever since I started washing my hands regularly before preparing or handling food, I've noticed I rarely become ill. There is a logic to it -- if there wasn't the NHS wouldn't be advising people to wash their hands often to reduce the chances of becoming ill. You are discouraging regular handwashing and by doing so you are encouraging the spread of illnesses. That to me is not only unhelpful, it's also irresponsible.
  3. Ashley
    I don't think anybody did suggest OCD treatment was just about cognitive therapy. I don't want to put words into BelaAnna's mount (or forum typing fingers) but the point was that here in the UK the NHS do NOT recommend behavioural therapy on its own (or ERP) or cognitive for that. It recommends up to 10 hours of CBT (with ERP). But all too frequently I am seeing people present to therapists (mainly IAPT) who are told that overcoming OCD is about writing a few worry diaries and facing your fears. Simply stating facing your fears to overcome OCD is not how we treat OCD and should not be the focus of therapy. As Dr Bream wrote, CBT makes use of two evidence-based behaviour techniques, Cognitive Therapy (C) that looks at how we think, and Behaviour Therapy (B) which looks at how this affects what we do. In treatment we consider other ways of thinking (C), and how this would affect the way we behave (B)…. It's all linked. So it's not unreasonable for a patient to expect to be offered the full recommended treatment of both parts, C and B if that's what they want, in fact they shouldn't even have to push for it. The NICE guidelines are pretty clear that we recommend CBT. Doing one without the other is only half the job. In my opinion, based of years of anecdotal evidence on here and the phone lines by only doing the behavioural we're most likely leaving ourselves open to relapsing or OCD shape shifting.
  4. Phil19
    That is true I agree. My goal with therapy is offcourse to improve the ocd but I also want to see if I can reach my goals like flying or learning to drive. She spoke a lot about comfort zones. She said there is times my ocd is dormant that’s perhaps the best I can hope for? I find it hard to believe I can ever fully recover. I have been battling this for months and years now and just feel I am always going to be battling? I worry I need to stay in my comfort zone to avoid the ocd becoming any greater.
  5. Today
  6. PolarBear
    I absolutely agree that you need cognitive therapy as well as behavioral. I certainly went through it and it opened my eyes when I saw my cognitive distortions, how I generally perceived the world. That said, a number of people have raised this issue about too much emphasis on ERP. I think some of that comes from a fear of doing ERP. It is scary. But it has to be done. You can have all the cognitive therapy in the world, but at some point you will have to face your fears. Slowly, building up.
  7. Connor03
    That’s good to hear, I was worrying that my thoughts were what i desired to do😰
  8. Gemma7
    The thoughts you have are no different from the thoughts anyone else has. OCD sufferers tend to get stuck on thoughts based on their worst fears. That's why they do compulsions and get stuck in the cycle.
  9. Connor03
    So the thoughts i have are the things i’d never want to do?
  10. Gemma7
    Yes i understand. Anxiety will definitely make you unhappy, it tends to dominate over all emotions, it's designed to do that from an evolutionary stand point. And as for feeling agitated and spaced out, they are also likely to be the consequences of anxiety. The thing is although you find the thoughts anxiety provoking, they don't actually have to be. Studies have shown that the type of thoughts you describe are common to everyone. They are not specific to OCD sufferers or bad people, they are just random thoughts that everyone experiences. With OCD it's usually the thoughts furthest away from how we want to be that bother us the most.
  11. Ashley
    Honest answer is I don't know BelAnna. The pot of money is small, and I assume to give Oxford part of the pot would mean the existing clinics would have to lose a share of the pot... I think. I keep hearing rumours the central/national funding may be pulled... but I have ben hearing those rumours years and it's still there. What is your worry about the CMHT? Anything I can help with?
  12. Connor03
    Hi Gemma, Thankyou so much, It’s just that the thoughts bring me anxiety which lower my happiness at times and i get agitated easily at the moment, i also feel quite spaced out as though i’m not actually here, do you understand what i mean?
  13. Gemma7
    Hi Connor These thoughts are common in people suffering from OCD. They are just thoughts and don't mean you are a bad person, despite how distressing they are. Have you been diagnosed with OCD? The gold standard treatment for OCD is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). If you are in the UK you can access it via a referral by your gp or in England you can self-refer. In OCD it is the compulsions in response to the thoughts that drive the disorder. The compulsions that people with thoughts about harm often do are to try to stop the thoughts happening (thought blocking), think back to make sure nothing has happened (mental checking) and avoid certain people or places that bring on the thoughts (avoidance). They might also think a lot about what the thoughts mean (rumination) or ask others if they think they are a nice person (checking through reassurance). All of these compulsions make you believe that the thoughts you are having are important, they increase doubt in who you are, so you look for more certainty via more compulsions, they build your belief further about the importance of the thoughts creating a vicious cycle called OCD. CBT is all about recognising that cycle and changing how you respond to the thoughts. There is a great book on having thoughts about harming people by Adam Shaw and Lauren Callaghan called Pulling the trigger. It takes you through Adam's journey through therapy from his perspective and from Lauren's his therapist. It teaches you what CBT is too, so is a good place to start before you manage to access therapy. If you have more questions feel free to ask
  14. Gemma7
    Hi Alex Aside from really trying to apply CBT to your OCD problems, try fitting into your day something that gives you pleasure. It might only be ten minutes in the day, but do something fun. Sometimes it can be easy to get bogged down in only negative emotions especially when you haven't had a break all day. Also, notice that negative emotions get driven by our focus, if you spend time comparing or hoping for something else then you become more likely to notice differences, therefore feel worse, continuing the cycle further. Break the cycle for yourself, start with ten minutes, then next week maybe 15 minutes, the following maybe 20. You deserve that break, everyone needs it. Happy Birthday!!!!!
  15. BelAnna
    Ah amazing; thanks Ashley! Hopefully if it's brought up at the conference it might filter down so that CBT therapists realize that it is an important aspect of CBT! Surely if it was that easy no-one would have OCD? I am having Eye Movement De-sensitization and talking therapy- they've both been quite helpful to be honest- at times more helpful in terms of facilitating my own ERP than has my previous CBT!
  16. BelAnna
    Thank you Lost! There were so many challenges and it did actually help me to make some progress. I had a horrible time with the PMDD/OCD when we first got home on Saturday; I think probably this was made worse by being in pain, dehydrated (I cannot drink on long journeys because I can't use toilets along the journey but dehydration causes psychological symptoms) and terrified of catching Norovirus from my family members after they used the toilets at a busy service station. Friday was really rainy in Cornwall wasn't it! We still had a nice-ish day- walked into Port Isaac, went to Tintagel Old Post Office and looked in the church; even ate a pasty in the car. I missed surfing though!
  17. Ashley
    Yes and to Adam Radomsky too who both told me they tend to go with CBT over just ERP)... and yes to conference, it's on my draft agenda to discuss more at this years conference actually.
  18. BelAnna
    Hi Ashley, Thanks, that's exactly what I've found too and I've had quite a lot of CBT over the years! The therapy at the ADRU seemed somewhat more ERP focused than 'C' focused but then that might have just been my therapist. I was just wondering whether you have spoken to Paul Salkovskis about this at all or whether it has come up at the OCDuk conferences? Thank you everyone for the replies; that is true that ERP exercises can impact on the cognitive side of things but I do think that the 'cognitive' side of CBT is very important; Behavioural therapy by itself has been around for decades and has not produced the same results as CBT.
  19. Connor03 gingerbreadgirl started following Am struggling on public trans...
  20. Connor03
    Hi, i’ve got anxiety for a few months now and as it is fairly new it was quite scary, but now i’ve gotten used to it, i’ve now started to get intrusive thoughts of hurting people which distress me quite abit, i feel as though i’m a bad person because of it and that my thoughts are future reality, can someone help me out?
  21. Ashley

    Having ridden 60 miles on the bike yesterday. I have to say, sitting down is rather uncomfortable today.

    1. Gemma7

      Gemma7

      Well done on the 60 miles :)Unlucky with the sitting down, no pain no gain though! 

  22. gingerbreadgirl
    Washing your hands every time you eat because of a fear of viruses is a compulsion. Considering your zero tolerance approach to others' compulsions I'm surprised you'd be happy with this as an approach.
  23. Ashley
    Absolutely, even within some teams (one therapist knows more than another). A look at the national recovery rates for OCD highlight this too, although I tend to take that data with a pinch of salt. One of my biggest jobs on the helpline is spending more and more time having to encourage people to give CBT another chance (after multiple failures).
  24. Ashley
    Was that Clara's Sussex clinic?
  25. felix4
    Having had several lots of one to one CBT and group CBT, I have to say that no two lots were the same! Therapists seem to have different interpretations of what OCD is and how it effects the sufferer, and the therapist also appear to set out their own ratio of CBT to ERP. The best I found at a proper clinic was about 1-7 hourly sessions covering CBT, and sessions 8-12 of actively doing ERP, with a kind of de brief with CBT after each hour of ERP. This was over the course of 12 weeks, and included homework each week.
  26. Ashley
    Do you think I just put my hand in toilet water? No, I spent weeks and weeks understanding my thoughts and beliefs to get me to that point. I also managed to work out what my real fear was (not the germs), and all that helped do the behavioural aspect. P.S. Cut the sarcasm.
  27. Angst
    I had wonderful treatment at CADAT with two therapists for OCD and hoarding. My local Clinical Commissioning Group is blocking me from a brief return there because of ageism. About 18 months ago I had top up with a clinical psychologist who worked with the older persons’ team. First of all I was screened for dementia by a nurse and then saw a clinical psychologist for four sessions. She simply asked me to remember what I learnt at CADAT. She lacked basic knowledge of hoarding such as the idea of churning. I was granted a long period at CADAT by a supporting letter from a consultant psychiatrist because hoarding tends to be quite intractable and requires deep cognitive and behavioural work. What I am saying is that the quality of therapy varies.
  28. OCDhavenobrain
    Ok fine for you. Most important after all is that we find some theory we can get emotional involved in.
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