CBT and Me: Learning to live with my dark thoughts

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CBT & Me: Learning to live with my dark thoughts is a blog written by Nick Arnold and recently published on the BBC Three website. This blog is a fantastic piece of writing that explains his journey of discovery that OCD is not just about being a neat freak and his experience of CBT treatment at the Centre for Anxiety Disorders and Trauma (CADAT). A blog that is well worth a read, especially if you are new to dealing with OCD.

This following extract and analogy from the article is a fantastic explanation for what therapy should be trying to do. CBT is not just about removing OCD thoughts from our mind, which is a common mistake many people initially think therapy should be about.

"CBT aims to re-wire a patient’s brain. But how do you change something you’ve genuinely believed to be true your whole life? Take, as an example, the colour of grass. We all (hopefully) know that grass is green. We were taught at school that grass is green, when we sit in the garden we can see that grass is green, as far as we’re aware we have always believed that grass is green. Now imagine somebody telling you that your whole life you’ve been wrong and grass is actually pink. That’s what CBT tries to do: dissemble the complex network of beliefs, behaviours and actions you’ve built up for yourself, and re-build them in a different way."

To read the blog in full please visit the BBC Three website by clicking here.

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[Ashley]

A really well-written article which also gives some great explanations about CBT and therapy for OCD.   

If you're on this forum looking for help, don't ignore this, before you post asking for help take the time to click the link and read the article!