taurean

My christian name is Roy, from the french meaning "King", I live in Northampton, England and I'm a retired former insurance professional.

I think of myself as "mister average" - excellent at some things, able to do a lot, but also useless at a number! 

For me, understanding how other people tick, respecting their position, showing humility - and apologising if justified - but otherwise trying to help, inspire and bring people together, is my outlook.

I'm proud of the fact that I managed to keep working despite episodic OCD intrusive thoughts. These take the form of a constant loop of the same distressing thought/thoughts whirring round in my head.

My wonderful wife and I have been married for over 30 years, and I marvel at how she copes with the periods when I am struggling with OCD thought loops.

Tackling OCD is all about believing it is OCD, accepting you suffer from it and carrying out the necessary exposure tasks and behaviours to weaken its power.

In general distraction and refocusing is good for me, and when I switch out of the active "doing" part of the brain, which obsesses and tries to find answers - rumination - into the just "being "part of the brain in mindfulness, that focuses just in the here and now and on what I am doing, then I operate pretty well. But obtaining that state in an "episode of OCD" can be very elusive.

I have learned that logging severe intrusions the meaning OCD wants to give to them and a way to challenge them is a good tool when really struggling with specific ones;writing them down is a way of easing the distress. As is also inserting a prefix such as "I am having the thought that" .

And using metaphors and discard tools helps me to shift on and away from some intrusions.

I have been guided by friends and therapist into the benefits of using positive emotion generation, love kindness meditation and mindfulness to help break loops and vicious cycles. 

"Brainlock" where Jeffrey Schwarz has helped me understand why my thoughts loop ,and using "The Four Steps" self-treatment method contained in the book helped my understanding.

I am also very impressed with the analysis and guidance on how to deal with intrusive thoughts and ruminations in "Break Free From OCD Overcoming Obsessive Compulsive Disorder With CBT"