OCD Can the brain learn something new

[Guest summerleft]

I was thinking about fred penzels thoughts on OCD yesterday and he states it can be controlled but not cured and then watching a secret history of the brain, it seems that our brains can change the way they work, so many examples, but I do beleive that with OCD and when we are going through CBT or own self help our brains can change the way they work, i.e stroke victims have shown that the brain almost rewires itself so it can work as well as it possibly can.

Throughout my journey to beat OCD Ive noticed how this is actually happening, at first it was like a battle going on up there, but now i can feel my brain doing things differently, some days though i can still wake up and thoughts are there trying their best to get back in, a memory perhaps or just habit. Im not posting this to say how im doing, Im not there yet but more that it seems to me that we can control OCD and change how our brains work and strengthen it. I do hope this makes sense :doh: :haha:

Edited January 26, 2011 by summerleft

[Guest legend]

Hi summer. I feel that the brains a thing that can be changed in more ways than one.

as in my case when i was getting better, like yourself, i would wake and the thoughts were there

and tried to play the ocd game, but because you have that knowledge of why its happening, i sort of said

well i know why my brain works this way, thats not my fault, but i can carry on with my life with the

thoughts being there, but not doing the compulsions i did before.

Another interesting thing i learnt, was that when they filmed aviator, leonardo di caprio played the

part of a ocd sufferer. After filming it took a few months of therapy to re-wire his brain back to

where he was pre-filiming.

so all humans can have the ocd installed on that basis, and all humans in theory can therefore retrain

there brains back to a good place.

Yep i get the ol critters from time to time .....dont all humans..... perhaps i get more than others...

so what... thats how i was designed, but i understand fully why it is this way and i found because of

this those moments are very very few and far between.

legend

[Guest Whatif]

My problem I have is I now sometimes think 'has my mind just changed to forget the aweful things I have done and now I am trying to blame OCD' rather than the fact it is just OCD but then the Whatif's kick in, what if its not OCD yaddy yaddy di ya

Edited January 26, 2011 by Whatif

[Guest legend]

if it feels like ocd then it probably is, and if your doubting it isnt, then id say thats the ocd making

you doubt that its is...... " how can i be sure ??? with ocd you will never have that 100% certainty

but when we get better we see that " .01%" and are able to laugh at .

remember the thoughts are what all humans have .... we react.... reactions are part of why they get

stuck ,and then we doubt and look for answers

[Guest Whatif]

if it feels like ocd then it probably is, and if your doubting it isnt, then id say thats the ocd making

you doubt that its is...... " how can i be sure ??? with ocd you will never have that 100% certainty

but when we get better we see that " .01%" and are able to laugh at .

remember the thoughts are what all humans have .... we react.... reactions are part of why they get

stuck ,and then we doubt and look for answers

Yeah I tend not to have a problem about irrational thought for the future its when my mind trys to remember back to an event and then twists it and then I question is it a doubt etc.

Ah well it will pass

[Guest legend]

horrid isnt it? because its still an unwanted part of how we perceive things from the past, and because

its flagged up in our minds and we have the inabilty to re-call the actual events, it therefore means

it must of happened.

my mind told me that i licked my daughters vagina when she was a baby..... and it was like a film playing

and i went over and over it..... and because i couldnt find a conclusive answer, it therefore meant i

must of carried out the act.

looking back to that point where the what ifs kicked in ... i now no why it entered my mind.

because i suffer with ocd. but as ocd sufferers we have uncertainty, we carry doubt, we carry hyper-responsibilty, but we can let go of these lables with the correct approach.

did i do this past event ? no. could i if i wanted to you ? yes.but i know that its not me, thats not what i represent... thats the area that i now feel comfortable with because i wont sit here now or the next few days weeks going over and over what i i might of done or what i might not of. because im an ocd sufferer. and ocders dont act on there fears,

they fear that they might have .

legend

Edited January 26, 2011 by legend

[Guest summerleft]

Interesting about Leonardo Legend, it does seem that we can change our brains but that we really need solid information to go about it, because otherwise its so easy to doubt ourselves. But I am sure as time goes on even more so now that we can 'cure' ourselves although i suppose if you look at it where some days we need to put what weve learned into practice i.s cbt methods etc it is more control, but Im leaning towards the other at the minute simply because its getting easier as time gets on

[Guest legend]

Good to see that things are continuing to improve for you summer. Keep chipping away, it really

does get so much easier. ! as you are proving.

Legend