Jump to content

Cutting out every single compulsion. Is this a good idea?


Recommended Posts

So I ruminate. A lot. But trying not to do it so much, past day or two have been better for it. 

I have other 'things' I do which are not focused on my current worry. For instance I take some medication every night and I have to spin the tablet in my mouth 5, 10 or 15 times, take a drink of water to swallow it and then check the water to make sure the tablet didn't fall out of my mouth into the water. Sometimes I still don't think I have taken the tablet even though I feel the residue in my mouth (the film on it sometimes melts a little because I spin it in my mouth for so long), or I think it fell in the water and it dissolved, even though a tiny part of me knows it didn't. I also do a massive check of my work every Friday before I leave work in case I've done something wrong and to avoid worrying over the weekend. It has become a bit of a joke in work. Other little things such as pressing the car key to make sure the car is locked three times, over cooking fresh chicken to make sure I don't give myself or others food poisoning (now my partner overcooks it as he knows I sit and investigate the chicken if it isn't overcooked), sometimes I count/have a sort of chant I recite in my head if I'm checking locks, windows but I don't do that everyday, only sometimes if my checking is playing up. Although, think my checking is only minimal now as I don't have to ever leave the house on my own rather than the fact that I'm over it. It used to take about 20 mins for me to leave the house when I had to lock up the house myself, I'd get up earlier to do it so I wouldn't be late for work and sometimes I'd have to return after leaving, and my partner won't let me lock doors etc now as he knows I'll doubt and check so it's faster for him to just do it so we can leave. These are only small things and don't cause much disorder to my life but I'm aware they're not normal. 

My question is, am I supposed to cut out all of these things? Do they feed the alleged 'current obsession' in a round about way, even though they are not linked? Are these behaviours linked in any way? My current concern about a past event seems completely unrelated to the checking etc. that I do? 

 

Edited by Headwreck
Link to comment

Hi Headwreck, 

Cutting our all compulsions in one go is better known as flooding. I don’t personally think this is a good way of doing it because it can have an adverse effect often resulting in things becoming worse. Even though lots of compulsions are related to the same obsession doesn’t mean you have to stop them all at once, choose the least anxiety provoking one first and when you’ve worked through that one and it no longer affects you move onto the next and so on :yes:

Link to comment

Hi Headwreck, so many of your themes sound like mine have been, or are now. The cheating theme I also suffered terribly with in the first few years of being with my husband. 

Completely agree with Lost. My therapist and I done a compulsions ladder, where I had to rank my compulsions on the ladder, with hardest being at the top. I then began with an ‘easier’ compulsion, and over the course of the week had to change the way I thought and dealt with the situation that lead to that compulsion, and rank the anxiety level before and afterwards. We did quite a bit of work beforehand in our session before I began tackling each one, so for my checking locks for instance, we discussed responsibility etc. I did gradually see my anxiety go down, but some took more work than others. 

I didn’t see my therapist for two weeks at one point, and thought as being as I was doing well, I would try and knock a few more off of my ladder - I completely flooded myself, and knocked my confidence though, so from my experience I would not try doing too much at once. 

 

Link to comment

Thanks Dragonfly and Lost. 

My therapist just keeps giving me ERP stuff to do, for example talking to my partner about other people's relationships and if they have cheated, watching films with cheating in etc. but if I'm honest none of this seems relative to my problem, I can do these things without an issue as I know that they are completely different situations to my own. I feel like there isn't much more I can do exposure wise, everything I need to do now is cognitive. Does this sound feasible, can you get to such a stage? He's not really done much in terms of the OCD as a whole ie checking behaviour, just mainly concentrated on this one obsession.

If I'm honest, I'm really struggling to keep up financially with the therapy so probably going to stop after my next session. Which then begs the question, how do I get better without the intervention of a therapist? 

Edited by Headwreck
Link to comment

I’m by no means an expert, but from what you say in your threads I would have thought it’s the cognitive side that now needs the work with you. Have you asked your therapist about this? Maybe get him to explain where he’s going with this and what he hopes to achieve. You’re paying him, so you’re entitled to ask. 

 

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Guest PaulM

My therapists used something similar to Dragonfly describes as the compulsion ladder. This gradual approach is important for some of us.

One of the key things, especially when we're not feeling well, is to recognize the achievements. Every step is something to be proud of. In a lot of ways OCD gets in the way of us seeing how profound these steps are. All of those cognitive distortions like negative filtering or polarized (all or nothing) thinking can get in the way of recognizing progress just as they mess up other things.

Link to comment

Thanks everyone. I don't think I'll do the flooding then, especially without guidance. 

I think one thing I'm unsure about is if OCD can broaden it's horizons so to speak. So I have had checking OCD since childhood but during my 20s have started with another theme out of nowhere which has kind of dwarfed the checking. Is this common? Or is it more that OCD will stay in one area of your life and not involve itself in others? Hence the question about whether unlinked compulsions fuel OCD as a whole rather than just the theme the compulsion belongs to. Hope this makes sense.

Edited by Headwreck
Link to comment
Guest OCDhavenobrain

I am pretty certain that those questions are just compulsions.

 

Can i ask you if you actually are doing the work hhhe gives you?

Link to comment

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...