Almost there with recovery! LONG post

[Imhotep]

Hi all, 

I was gripped by OCD intrusive thoughts just over 2 months ago, with the same topic going around and around my head every few minutes, heightening my anxiety and fear. Now I'd say I've got it under control, where I rarely notice intrusive thoughts and my anxiety is non existent. 

I wanted to share what worked for me and how I reached this stage where I can have unpleasant  thoughts without having to make snap judgements of my future actions. It may all be stuff you've heard and read before, but it's always worth reminding ourselves of techniques that do work, and knowing this condition is treatable.

Accepting Anxiety: the most uncomfortable process yes, but it won't cause any lasting damage, and will improve your tolerance.  There's a quote I've seen, can't remember who by, where it states: "If you learn how to suffer, you suffer less" and this can be applied to anxiety, where you let your anxiety build and build to the point you can't cope....and yet here you are, just doing whatever you were doing. This teaches the brain of false messages, that not every spike of anxiety is a sign of impending doom. Or is it? Which leads onto.....

Accepting uncertainty: we live in an uncertain world. It is what it is. There's not much you can do about your surrounding environment or the people in it. There is such a thing as wrong place, wrong time and there is little that can be done about it. However, you can still make positive contributions for yourself and the people around you. Without sounding like "what's the point in trying if I'm just going to get hit by a bus"  the fact is you don't know this is going to happen anyway, so you might as well be productive and take time to appreciate the good and important things in life.

Challenging your despotic brain: It can feel like you have a little dictator in your head, commanding what you must/should/need/deserve to do. Of course the rational side of your brain is taken aback by what these intrusive thoughts are saying and what they could mean about you. You panic, get anxious and check mentally or using rituals to ensure the dictator does not assume full control. But it NEVER does. Since it never does, you can drop the rituals and checking, and create your own rules to suit YOU. Be easier on yourself when having a disturbing thought: everybody gets them, and there's no guarantee of what you are fearing will happen. "I can't be having thoughts like these, it means I'm a monster/ danger to myself and others etc" is completely counter productive and a snap judgment, and just reinforces the idea that these thoughts pose a risk and need to be dealt with, focusing time and energy on pointless scaremongering drivel. Allow yourself to change perspective on the thoughts. This is not the same as losing your dearly held values and morals. Using the above example, you can have the weirdest, vilest thought, respond to it like "Hmm that was unpleasant. My brain does come up with weird stuff from time to time. Oh well." Or not respond to it at all, whichever method suits you to tackle intrusive thoughts. It's important to just move along and refocus.

Within OCD, there are three core factors at play which work together to maintain the condition: ruminating, checking and judging. All thankfully use the same techniques 

Ruminating is like going around a roundabout and trying to choose an exit, but your passenger/dictator keeps changing their mind over which exit to take, thus rendering you going in circles, and not going anywhere. A way to beat this is notice that you are ruminating. You do this by refocusing, meditation or cognitive techniques. You want to be moving forward regarding the rumination, and if that means you leave your doubt unanswered, so be it, this tells the brain that that thought wasn't worth worrying about anyway. 

Checking is when the brain is firing the same thought/image/scenario at you to see if you react to it the same each time, thus proving your tightly held values. However, once is enough, no need to do it thousands of times a day. Again, the thought pops in, you get a reaction in the form of a spike, find an explanation to that thought (It's intrusive, no meaning, leave alone) and move on. It's so important to move on, as this can lead to rumination. 

Judging is simply where you've made a snap judgment of the thought and it's implication, and/or judge yourself negatively based on that. How useful is calling yourself bad/evil/worthless etc in trying to overcome OCD? It really isn't. Be understanding of your condition and yourself as a person, these negative judgments are irrational and unhelpful.

Thanks for reading, and I hope this helps you guys, you are stronger than you think and can beat this!

Love all x

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest OCDhavenobrain]

I think everybody should read this! 

And do whatever it takes to ditch the notion that one is different, this is a big obstacle, but when it comes to anxiety and human beings are we very alike. The thoughts differs

Edited August 12, 2018 by OCDhavenobrain

[bendylouise]

Good post Imhotep. Thanks and well done.   

[orange]

Thank you for this.

[taurean]

I also would wish for every sufferer to read this. 

Intrusive thoughts  will only get stronger and more frequent if we keep giving belief to them, buying into the falsehoods exaggerations or revulsions of what the OCD is telling us through its erroneous core belief. 

Let's uncloak the real underlying thought image or feeling that is that OCD core belief. Why do we feel like a monster, why do we fear being near children, attractive others, dirty environments, sharp objects, human or animal waste - or whatever? What is OCD telling us that creates fear threat or revulsion? 

Having uncovered that OCD core belief then we can challenge it using CBT techniques and, as our colleague Imhotep says, we must work on stopping resultant compulsions - which just strengthen the intrusions and make them more frequent. 

Edited August 13, 2018 by taurean
amendment

[orange]

19 hours ago, taurean said:

Having uncovered that OCD core belief then we can challenge it using CBT techniques and, as our colleague Imhotep says, we must work on stopping resultant compulsions - which just strengthen the intrusions and make them more frequent. 

Would a contamination OCD core belief be 'the world is dangerous' or  something like that? I'm not sure how to figure mine out but it's along those lines. Not sure where it came from.

[taurean]

1 hour ago, orange said:

Would a contamination OCD core belief be 'the world is dangerous' or  something like that? I'm not sure how to figure mine out but it's along those lines. Not sure where it came from.

That's not specific enough. Try this method from CBT to find your OCD's specific take on contamination. 

When a core belief isn't obvious clinical psychologists use the "downward arrow"  principle to look to find it. 

You can yourself try the downward arrow principle to find out what the core belief is that is causing you a problem .

On a piece of paper write down a statement as to what you think is your OCD issue. 

 Then underneath it, draw a downward arrow and then write in the answer to this question. If this were true, why would it be so bad?

 After writing in the answer,  put in another downward arrow underneath, and ask the same question again.

 Keep going until no further answer is possible – your last answer should reveal the core belief

There is no need to understand where the core belief came from - but a traumatic event is one possibility. The source may become clear once the core belief is revealed - but whatever, you go about challenging the truth of the core belief when you have uncovered it. 

 

 

 

Edited August 14, 2018 by taurean

[orange]

Thank you taurean, I will try that.