taurean

I didn't have a great experience of the Priory as an outpatient for my OCD. The documentation I was given to work on was poor photocopies not prints. A psychiatrist was also delivering the CBT - which I think is much better done by a clinical psychologist, not a psychiatrist. And the treatment he was proposing I totally disagreed with, so I terminated the treatment. But that might just have been a poor experience for me. However, I have had great treatment elsewhere from clinical psychologists who devised a bespoke treatment plan especially to suit my needs, and The Priory psychiatrist did not do so.

I who that. Had a bad relapse towards the end of 2022, but hoping that all the work done in therapy will keep me well now.

One thing that isn't helpful is to enter into ruminations. This is like going round and round an issue, without ever coming to a decision. Look at your problem needing a decision. Consider all possible solutions, however unrealistic they might seem. Now consider each one more deeply to see if, in fact, they do have "legs". Then pick what seems to get the best one, implement it and dismiss all anxiety about the decision. When you get good at doing this, you will stop procrastinating, quickly come to making decisions and stop worrying about those decisions. Ir works. And it changed my life. I used to worry about all sorts of things, it caused much anxiety. But not now.

What helps for me is taking vitamin and mineral supplements which help keep my mind and body healthy. Plenty of exercise, incorporating mindfulness awareness. Meditation to calm my mind and body. And of course applying the teachings of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, so I don't respond to any triggers and don't carry out compulsions. When I am in an episode of OCD, and anxiety is a problem the doctor prescribes me with a low dose of propranolol, the betablocker, which eases down the symptoms.

My Christmas present to all the forum users is a £100 donation to our wonderful charity OCD-UK. Where on earth would we be without them?

The body produces serotonin naturally and a healthy diet aids that process. Tryptophan is part of that process.

I echo this. Eating a healthy diet, with your five a day, plenty of pulses salads vegetables and fruit, chicken, and not much red meat will help the body naturally produce serotonin, which is beneficial to better mental health, and provide essentials for health and wellbeing. I do also take supplements. A multivitamin and mineral pill, extra vitamin C and vitamin D. What won't helpvis too much emphasis on fast food, fat, sugar smoking and alcohol. And I also make sure I get plenty of exercise. Do check out my thread on meditation and mindfulness too.

For those of you who would like to use guided meditations, where the guide talks you through going to a beautiful setting, accompanied by relaxing music, these can be found on music streaming services, or you can purchase them on CD from British company New World Music, as well as other sources no doubt. My favourite guide is the Australian psychologist Simonette Vaja. Her voice is like liquid gold, beautifully ra-assuring and soothing, and my favourite of her CD's is "mini meditations for stress-free living", some 10 minute guided meditations of such subjects as green rolling hills, a spa treatment, visiting a house in the Bush, and a morning meditation.

Yes, you can use a safe place visualisation meditation. Think of a place that you really like, and where you feel happy and calm. This is your safe place. Then when you start up a meditation, picture that place in your mind. See the sights, smell the smells,feel the texture of the ground beneath your feet as you take a walk around this wonderful place. Savour the feelings of peace and calm that this place gives you. Follow the visualisation as your mind takes you on this journey around your safe place. When you are ready, return to the here and now. My safe place is the gorgeous narrow boat Marina at Braunston, near the meeting place of the Oxford and Grand Union canals, and around a half hour drive from home. The boats are colourful, the marina has a narrow boat café, boat workshops and a chandlery and it is so photogenic.

You know, there are books written, lectures given - and good stuff, of course - and very necessary. But,yes, the absolute essentials of dealing with OCD really can be summarised on a flyer - the devil is in the detail, which is needed to explain how all the variants of OCD work, and why, and why we have to believe it is OCD and not real.

That's good. I think we have got some good messages over on this thread. OCD-UK is a great support organisation. It's focus on CBT is because it's the bedrock evidence-based treatment for OCD. When we go through a course of CBT we will learn how to accept our intrusive thoughts label them as OCD and learn how not to respond to them. And how compulsions only worsen the disorder and maintain the cycle of distress. That it's easy, but counterproductive, to spend too much time on OCD. Over-researching will be a compulsion, as spending too much time in the drive to desperately find answers ( and I have been guilty of this myself). Far better, once we know the cognitive stuff, to work on putting it into practice, reducing time the OCD has to cause trouble by getting busy on other things. And, yes, there are other tools which in addition to CBT can help us, such as being kind to ourselves, compassion-focused therapy ( boosting up our "soothe" with relaxing and enjoyable activities), and how to calm our mind and body using meditation and mindfulness. So hopefully readers will resist that temptation to go searching, spending too much time, when the solutions are not far away, using OCD-UK.

It is, but it is part of a process to steer our thoughts away from the obsessing and compulsing, which in themselves are tiring and debilitating. Try the meditation process afterwards to calm yourself down and ease distress.

Let's be really clear. In order to get better from OCD we need to learn and follow the principles of CBT, so that we can accept and not respond to intrusive thoughts, and cut out carrying out compulsions. This is essential. But there are additional psychological tools that can help us, and meditation snd mindfulness work to refocus our minds and calm down arousal. Here is a quote from St Francis of Assisi, one of the most venerated people in history. "Where there is peace and meditation, there is neither anxiety or doubt". During a recent episode of OCD I was struggling to sleep, and prone to excessive anxiety. My therapist told me I would struggle to sleep unless I became more relaxed. And I was to do this by meditating before trying to sleep - and also it would help to launch my day by meditating in bed before getting up in the morning. In meditation, in a safe place without any responsibilities we lie or sit down, close our eyes and begin to focus on our breathing. We slow the rate of breath, and observe the breath as it enters our nostrils, passes down into our lungs, and also expands our diaphragm. Then we hold for a short count - maybe 5 seconds, then release the breath up and out through our mouths. This is a basic breathing meditation, and there are lots of variations including body scans and mantra meditations. If we get distracted we simply stop and refocus back to our breathing. As we get good at this practice, our anxiety levels will fall, and thanks to the refocus, it can help break obsessive thinking. I am now sleeping beautifully - still more work to do, but steadily improving. Mindfulness is all about anchoring our thinking into the here and now, and only on what is immediately in and around us. There are plenty of simple guides to learning and practising mindfulness out there - you don't need to go on courses, it's very easy to learn and it can really help take our thinking away from our obsessive themes. Here is a simple example. Next time you go to the supermarket, try to focus purely on that exercise. Think about what you see around you, the traffic, people, the weather, parking the car or catching the bus, what others are wearing, what items you are especially looking out for. Savour the sights, smells, sounds, feelings, good emotions, companionship- and successes when you find things you like. The more you enter into the moment, the more benefit you will experience. And when we become good at mindfulness practice, it will help steer us away from troubles in the past and worries about the future.

I think you should stay here with us, summer, and your therapist and apart from that do lots of non-OCD things to ease down on the drive which I personally know only makes our OCD stronger. I think you are doing great summer. Don't try and rush things. You will get there by following the principles of CBT, some of the additional tools I mentioned, and getting refocused . You havent offended anyone. On the contrary, you gave given learned folk like me the chance to explain things, to everyone's advantage 👏