OCD UK Conference

[Rox]

Hi everyone,

Yesterday I attended the conference in Brighton and I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who worked hard to put it together. It was a really interesting and helpful day and although I spent most of the day on the verge of tears, hearing others stories of recovery was very inspiring. 

Im still struggling to truely believe that what I have is OCD and I think that’s what’s definitely holding me back from full recovery. I’m so much better than I was a year ago but at one point in the conference we were asked to put up our hands if we were a sufferer and it took a lot for me to raise my hand, in fact I cried as I did it because even yesterday I still felt like I was lieing to everyone and that I didn’t deserve to be there.

Anyway, thank you Ashley and everyone else involved! 

 

Xxx

 

[taurean]

Rox thanks for posting this topic. I have been wanting to write a piece on this subject so hope it will help you. 

Remember OCD has a moniker "the doubting disease" for exactly the reasons you describe (though it actually is an illness, not a disease). 

Because it cloaks itself behind "evidence"  that it is true not OCD, and demands certainty - it won't even accept 99% - it states that 1% still means that it could still be true, so it will continue to try and haunt us. 

For me, who has had a lot of CBT therapy, been active on the forums for 6 years and read a number of OCD CBT self-help books, I now see - when I read stories like yours - that that experience in itself is the evidence that it is OCD and not real or true. 

And I know from my learning that the way to beat doubt, and that demand for certainty, is to be determined to accept probability instead - and not listen to intrusions to the contrary ; when they come just think "oh that's just my silly obsession"  and refocus away to something involved and distracting. And keep on persevering doing this - through any distress - until a new learned behaviour is formed and the power of the intrusions begins to fade. 

The fact that you got to the conference, and sat through your distress, is a magnificent achievement. Well done you

 

[Rox]

I’m on my second round of private CBT in 3 years and have just been told I’m at the top of the list for NHS CBT. After yesterday I also realised that my CBT therapist has taken me as far as we can go together and it’s definitely time to change things up. I get a lot of ideas for ERP but I think I’m still lacking understanding of the cognitive side, or is it that I have been told and I’m still looking for the ‘real’ answer. 

Thank you so much for your reply Taurean. I have always struggled with lack of certainty. It’s definitely something I still need to work on. 

X 

[Gemma7]

It's good to hear you enjoyed the conference Rox

I hope your NHS therapist helps you make your next step towards recovery. It's hard but you can get there x

[lostinme]

Hi Rox, never give up hope, one day you will get there, it is hard but achievable 

If someone had told me 3 years ago that I would go to a OCD conference alone, stop in a hotel alone, eat out, use public toilets, mingle with strangers, make a drink, eat a sandwich without washing my hands first and be a six hour journey away from home etc, the list is endless, I would have said no way, it’s something I have never done in 50 years, but I did, I did it and not only that it’s unbelievable the unexpected things I also had to face on top of all this and if I can get through that I can get through anything. I think I’ve suprised myself and Im so proud because I didn’t breakdown and crumble even under such awful circumstances. So never give up hope, don’t give in trying because there is always a way it’s just you need to find what works best for you 

 

[taurean]

Very well done lost for getting to the conference despite all the challenges you have faced. Absolutely brilliant achievement

Hope you enjoyed it - what I picked up from the OCD-UK twitter feed, including photos, showed a lot of excellent ground was covered and some amazing stories told. 

[lostinme]

58 minutes ago, taurean said:

Very well done lost for getting to the conference despite all the challenges you have faced. Absolutely brilliant achievement

Hope you enjoyed it - what I picked up from the OCD-UK twitter feed, including photos, showed a lot of excellent ground was covered and some amazing stories told. 

Thank you Roy  if it wasn’t hard enough to face these challenges as it was you just wouldn’t even begin to believe the extra challenges I had to face too, it was unreal, but I came out of it unscathed, absolutely amazing feeling astonished, is this the new me? if it is I just love it

The conference was just amazing  the time, hard work and effort put into making this take place from all of the courageous people was absolutely outstanding to say the least. Ashley and all his co workers did OCDuk proud, this must have took an awful lot of preparation, hard work and time and they did the charity very proud. Everyone deserves a special thank you for making this a great informative day for us all. So a massive Thankyou to Ashley, Sue and all of his OCD charity co workers, volunteers, all of the exceptional health professionals, Claudia and jo for sharing their own experiences and Ian puleston, who set aside there own time to make all of this possible. It was a very informative, funny and emotional day  

[Caramoole]

I know just what it takes to face those sort of  challenges Lost.....huge courage. R,E.S.P.E.C.T and then some.  Be very, very proud of yourself & grow even more from it.

[taurean]

Apart from the good to themselves that everyone will get from attending, they now become their own ambassadors for spreading the word of how to get better from this awful illness. 

We can so all help each other when we share resources like this. 

And wow, well done those conference speakers who are not used to presenting - especially to over 200 people. As a former, now retired, occasional presenter and speaker I know just how challenging it is the first time or two that we do that. 

[taurean]

Well I think it is truly inspirational that these two ladies overcame so many things to get to and experience a wonderfully - informative conference. 

It's something now to build on freya and lost. You had a chance and you took it - and exposed to and overcame the distress. 

If we could bottle that resolve and give it to a few strugglers it would be good - though maybe reading this thread will do the same job

 

[taurean]

And I think lost's adjectives "very informative, funny and emotional"  show the breadth of content and impact of the conference content

 

[Avo]

16 hours ago, lostinme said:

Hi Rox, never give up hope, one day you will get there, it is hard but achievable 

If someone had told me 3 years ago that I would go to a OCD conference alone, stop in a hotel alone, eat out, use public toilets, mingle with strangers, make a drink, eat a sandwich without washing my hands first and be a six hour journey away from home etc, the list is endless, I would have said no way, it’s something I have never done in 50 years, but I did, I did it and not only that it’s unbelievable the unexpected things I also had to face on top of all this and if I can get through that I can get through anything. I think I’ve suprised myself and Im so proud because I didn’t breakdown and crumble even under such awful circumstances. So never give up hope, don’t give in trying because there is always a way it’s just you need to find what works best for you 

 

I think your a big inspiration to us all lost. Proof of what can be achieved with hard work and determination. I think anyone would find going alone to the conference daunting - I know I would. The travel and the social side I would find stressful, add on life's other challenges and I may have made an excuse and not gone. Credit to you for not letting it stop you.

 

[Ashley]

22 hours ago, Rox said:

I’m so much better than I was a year ago but at one point in the conference we were asked to put up our hands if we were a sufferer and it took a lot for me to raise my hand,

Thank you so much for sharing this Rox. This really does make a huge difference knowing the conference helped you raise your hand, that one simple hand raise makes it all worth while.  I am (as you can imagine) exhausted, so I will fully catch up in the coming days but I just wanted to thank you for sharing this Rox.

 

[Ashley]

18 hours ago, lostinme said:

The conference was just amazing  the time, hard work and effort put into making this take place from all of the courageous people was absolutely outstanding to say the least. Ashley and all his co workers did OCDuk proud, this must have took an awful lot of preparation, hard work and time and they did the charity very proud. Everyone deserves a special thank you for making this a great informative day for us all. So a massive Thankyou to Ashley, Sue and all of his OCD charity co workers, volunteers, all of the exceptional health professionals, Claudia and jo for sharing their own experiences and Ian puleston, who set aside there own time to make all of this possible. It was a very informative, funny and emotional day

Thank you Lost

Not sure it was meant to be funny, but Ian certainly had people laughing... I think at my expense a couple of times but I still love him. 

The conference is a massive team effort and you mentioned some names there, but can I add another that was involved behind the scenes and thank our Gemma who dropped everything last Monday to help proof read the conference programme at short notice (because I had been so late finishing it).   Even Laura from Northern Ireland was involved too, I used her amazing images from the Northern Ireland coastline on the front cover.

I know some of you may have wanted to be there, but for various reasons couldn't be. We did film it and once I find the actual cameras we will do our best to start editing them and eventually make available (late December or early January).

[lostinme]

Thank you so much Roy, Caramoole and Avo it took a lot of guts to do what I did without no family member by my side, even though I was with an associate a good part of the time it was still very daunting facing lots of challenges I had never faced alone before and I was petrified to say the least. But I got through it. Hopefully next year I will be able to face it totally alone  and hopefully without the added issues that occurred. 

 

 

[lostinme]

6 hours ago, Ashley said:

Thank you Lost

Not sure it was meant to be funny, but Ian certainly had people laughing... I think at my expense a couple of times but I still love him. 

The conference is a massive team effort and you mentioned some names there, but can I add another that was involved behind the scenes and thank our Gemma who dropped everything last Monday to help proof read the conference programme at short notice (because I had been so late finishing it).   Even Laura from Northern Ireland was involved too, I used her amazing images from the Northern Ireland coastline on the front cover.

I know some of you may have wanted to be there, but for various reasons couldn't be. We did film it and once I find the actual cameras we will do our best to start editing them and eventually make available (late December or early January).

Sorry Ashley possibly an inappropriate word to have used, you know me and grammar sadly not a very good mix  I think possibly it would have been better if I'd have said light hearted humour 

Thank you to Gemma and Laura too and everyone that took part it was obvious from the start that a lot of thought, hard work, time and preparation had gone into organising it 

[Ashley]

11 hours ago, lostinme said:

Sorry Ashley possibly an inappropriate word to have used, you know me and grammar sadly not a very good mix  I think possibly it would have been better if I'd have said light hearted humour

No need to be sorry, I am glad you found it funny. That's part of what makes it work.. if that makes sense 

[lostinme]

Yes total sense, it was a great day and I seem to be working better through my toughest challenges