Do some people never recover?

[Isthisreality]

No but it could be a step to easier recover. 

I have good news in your case - you have lots of potential for recovery - because you are doing compulsions like crazy and i am 99.82% sure that you did this before and that's why you didn't recover fully. 

 

I hope you find the strength and try to take up training!

[gingerbreadgirl]

1 minute ago, Isthisreality said:

 i am 99.82% sure that you did this before and that's why you didn't recover fully.

I appreciate your input but you seem to make a lot of assumptions about me.  I do understand you're trying to help but I don't think this is fully accurate.

[Isthisreality]

4 minutes ago, gingerbreadgirl said:

I appreciate your input but you seem to make a lot of assumptions about me.  I do understand you're trying to help but I don't think this is fully accurate.

I don't. It was a semi-joke. But i am pretty confident about your past. About this very time do you do compulsions a lot. 

I would also want you to try, i know it is really really hard to feel hope when you are being told those awful things by your head,  but try to come from a position of power and not from hopelessness. Don't even argue with your head when it says it is just faked hope.

 

Training is great!

Edited March 17, 2018 by Isthisreality

[gingerbreadgirl]

Hi isthisreality.  Thanks for your reply.  I agree about trying to come from a position of power Not sure what you mean about training though?

[Isthisreality]

2 minutes ago, gingerbreadgirl said:

Hi isthisreality.  Thanks for your reply.  I agree about trying to come from a position of power Not sure what you mean about training though?

"Training" as in exercise.

I really do find the OCD to be much less intense when i train. 

Edited March 17, 2018 by Isthisreality

[gingerbreadgirl]

oh right i see.  yeah i already do that.  although actually sometimes i find it can make OCD worse, funnily enough.

[Symps07]

Hi Ginger,

I have not read a lot of the comments on this post (there are 7 pages!) but going back to your original question, I am starting to think the same thing. I just seem to keep getting 'hits' of OCD all the time. When I think it has gone, it comes back again, & it's so wide spread in it's 'themes' I just can't see to deal with all of it!

I read about people who overcome OCD, but that appears to be be when they only have one theme to deal with & doesn't appear to come back on another theme.

Like you, I try to stay positive (or anti negative) & do feel so much better than I used to be, but I do wonder if this will be something I just have to accept will be with me for the rest of my life?

I should also add, for others reading my comment, that I am able to work full time & am in a relationship with my partner. My OCD is no way near as bad as it was & is much more 'manageable' & I do believe that thanks to CBT & listening to a lot of the advice from people on this forum, my life is so much more enjoyable than it ever was before. So I do not wish to put anyone off treating their OCD as it is definitely worthwhile!  

Symps

[snowbear]

21 minutes ago, Symps07 said:

I read about people who overcome OCD, but that appears to be be when they only have one theme to deal with & doesn't appear to come back on another theme.

I've possibly already said it on this thread, if not on a hundred other threads.  

Try to get away from thinking you have OCD about multiple themes. Think of it all as just OCD - one faulty thinking process that leads to similar symptoms across a wide range of issues. 

Learn how to fix the faulty OCD thinking process rather than aiming to overcome a theme and you gain the tools to overcome ALL your differing themes at the same time, regardless of how many there are or what they are. 

[Caramoole]

Must endorse Snowbear's comments

[Symps07]

13 minutes ago, snowbear said:

I've possibly already said it on this thread, if not on a hundred other threads.  

Try to get away from thinking you have OCD about multiple themes. Think of it all as just OCD - one faulty thinking process that leads to similar symptoms across a wide range of issues. 

Learn how to fix the faulty OCD thinking process rather than aiming to overcome a theme and you gain the tools to overcome ALL your differing themes at the same time, regardless of how many there are or what they are. 

You're dead right! & this is where I fall down, I see each new theme as a new problem instead of the same issue I am dealing with.

I am failing to adapt 

[PolarBear]

1 hour ago, Caramoole said:

Must endorse Snowbear's comments

I must endorse Caramoole's endorsement of Snowbear's post.

I had pedophile obsessions. I had multiple types of Harm OCD going on. I couldn't drive without getting the urge to turn the wheel so the car went into oncoming traffic. And many more. They were all the same thing. Intrusive thoughts that cause distress and lead to compulsions. The content of the thoughts is irrelevant. It's what you do about them that is the problem.

[gingerbreadgirl]

Hi Symps,

Nice to hear from you, and glad to hear you're doing better than you were even if you're not completely better.

Caramoole's, PB's and SB's advice all spot on as usual - we have to try and change the thinking patterns rather than targeting the obsession itself (something I am only just learning).

Hopefully we'll get there! x

[Symps07]

On 3/18/2018 at 12:53, gingerbreadgirl said:

Caramoole's, PB's and SB's advice all spot on as usual - we have to try and change the thinking patterns rather than targeting the obsession itself (something I am only just learning).

Hopefully we'll get there! x

Hi Ginger,

Always nice to hear from you too! 

Totally agree with what you say here, it's just after 17 years, I thoughts I'd be learning! 

 

[Isthisreality]

7 minutes ago, Symps07 said:

Hi Ginger,

Always nice to hear from you too! 

Totally agree with what you say here, it's just after 17 years, I thoughts I'd be learning! 

 

You need to do different to learn. We with OCD have done the same because it relieve our anxiety. Now do we need to do something which increases it.

[gingerbreadgirl]

27 minutes ago, Symps07 said:

I thoughts I'd be learning! 

 

I know it can be depressing! But you've come a long way so nothing to say you won't finally kick it to the kerb

[taurean]

If one only took an overview of the last couple of week's activity on the main forum, one would see a pattern of people reporting in with their stumbling blocks, and the membership offering insight from their own experiences. 

I have  myself gratefully drunk from that fountain of knowledge - and it's brilliant. Really can make inroads into the issues holding people back. 

More and more people are learning what they are doing wrong, finding out how to get therapy, which self-help books to use, how to up their cognitive knowledge of OCD, the best way to work exposure and response prevention. 

As our charity grows, this work can only get better - and reach out to more sufferers - and I myself am hopeful that more and more people will overcome their OCD issues, at the very least to a manageable state. 

[gingerbreadgirl]

19 hours ago, taurean said:

If one only took an overview of the last couple of week's activity on the main forum, one would see a pattern of people reporting in with their stumbling blocks, and the membership offering insight from their own experiences. 

I have  myself gratefully drunk from that fountain of knowledge - and it's brilliant. Really can make inroads into the issues holding people back. 

More and more people are learning what they are doing wrong, finding out how to get therapy, which self-help books to use, how to up their cognitive knowledge of OCD, the best way to work exposure and response prevention. 

As our charity grows, this work can only get better - and reach out to more sufferers - and I myself am hopeful that more and more people will overcome their OCD issues, at the very least to a manageable state. 

Totally agree Roy

[Isthisreality]

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/319519.php?sr

 

Beside making clear there are actually happening things in the brain when you recover do it say something intresting: which you guys shouldn't care about before you have recovered (done the recovery-work), because it will just be another obsession of yours. But it says this: "The changes appeared to compensate for, rather than correct, underlying brain dysfunction. The findings open the door for future research, new treatment targets, and new approaches"

 

The study: 

https://www.nature.com/articles/tp2017192

Edited March 21, 2018 by Isthisreality

[taurean]

For me, and certainly this ties in with my own experience, those that follow the CBT therapy are likely to find that the old obsessive and compulsive neural pathways that caused all the damage fall out of use, and are replaced by beneficial more positive neural pathways where the obsessions no longer occur - they are back in the mental background and no longer a problem. 

If this desired state does not eventuate, then something is going wrong. 

Maybe the sufferer does not have sufficient knowledge of the cognitive side of OCD. 

Perhaps they are not carrying out exposure and response prevention correctly. They could be continuing to avoid and therefore not treat, certain obsessions and triggers. 

Maybe they are still carrying out hidden compulsions. 

Or just not carrying out the therapy and behavioural changes correctly. 

Of course, some people sadly do have more serious manifestations of the condition that require more detailed psychological work. 

But, again based on my own experience if all the elements causing the problem are fully flushed out and being correctly treated by therapist and sufferer, I think we would see more people improving their day to day mental and physical health. 

For me, alongside all the therapy, there is a strong support role to play by learning time management, stress management, taking me time, learning social skills and how to relax, meditate and experience mindfulness. 

Being happy in our working environment will also help. A mundane job can be rendered far more interesting with a few changes in activity or perception. 

Maybe a different workplace, or more understanding employer and fellow workers might help. 

But in my case, I practised the awareness training that helped my employer, and my colleagues, understand this condition better. 

And that benefited me greatly. 

Edited March 21, 2018 by taurean
amendment

[Isthisreality]

I am curious how i feel recovered. I have some memories of how i functioned as a child, i have had OCD since i was around 8. Sure not all the time, it goes on and off. But i want to be free. NOW this can be obsessive i know i know. 

This forum motivates me, seeing other suffering from the same condition but being so deep down in the thoughts even if they KNOW what they should do and need to do. It is a strange condition it really is!!

Edited March 21, 2018 by Isthisreality

[taurean]

I think relapses are quite commonplace, but we can find out more about how our OCD functions and then why we think we relapse. 

That knowledge really is power, and allows us to set in place the building blocks to accept the illness, learn the behavioural changes we need to make to render it benign, and what psychological tools to use to curtail a relapse.

For me it's best to codify this in brief note format, preferably in the computer so updates and amendments are easy. 

Applying for one to one CBT will bring experienced knowledge to this party.