Turning Minuses Into Plusses - Resisting OCD "Rules"

[taurean]

Negative Bias 

OCD imposes on us unwanted negative obsessional intrusive thoughts, and seeks to impose restrictive rules by implying the need for avoidance. 

We can watch for negative bias forming in our general thinking, which quickly aids a downward spiral of mood and emotion. 

In therapy my therapist tested my "free association"  of thoughts to see how much negativity was built up inside me - the store was amazingly large and had a really weakening affect on my resilience to OCD and made me sad and depressed. 

It follows that if we can shift that negative bias more towards the positive it may help us to challenge our OCD, and raise our mood. 

So let's take a look at our patterns of thinking and see how much negativity we are shocked to find. Then reappraise those experiences to look for, then apply, a more positive interpretation and course of action. 

When we learn how to do this it can become an autonomous action and gradually steer our bias back more towards the positive. 

OCD Rules 

Watch out for the illness forcing you towards avoidance and restrictions. Start to practice the compulsion of avoidance, and life will get more and more restricted. You may feel you can't meet with others, have a relationship, go out, earn a living. 

A good way to tackle this is to reject the shackle - don't buy into the need for the restriction, see it as OCD and refuse to play along. 

Rather, walk on that crack between paving stones; refuse to count a set number of times, do things symmetrically or  in strange sequences. 

When we really get good at our cognitive understanding of OCD we learn that practising a ritual prevents nothing - and that our feared obsessions are in fact nothing more frightful than silly nonsensical mental chaff. 

  

 

Edited July 17, 2018 by taurean