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This Is CBT For OCD In Action, Folks


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I came across a harm OCD trigger in a book today. It was on a subject that had some while ago caused me resultant OCD problems. 

I felt it tugging at me, my brain being pulled towards focusing on, then carrying out compulsions about, it- and feeling anxious and distressed. 

What did I do? 

Remained calm. Just noted it and that it had no connection with me from my cognitive understanding of how OCD works, then gently but firmly - without giving any belief to, or connecting with,  it - refocused away back to what I was doing. 

Result - trigger eased away, remained out of focus, then exited stage left :)

Now this doesn't happen just like that.

This result is the end product of me learning in therapy the cognitive side of CBT and carrying out structured exposure and response prevention on each theme and triggers of OCD until anxiety dissipated.

Of me refusing to connect with or believe the core belief of the OCD which I understood to be false, exaggerated or repulsive, depending on theme. 

We all have capability to go through CBT in this way, and emerge as I did. We don't need any special intellect - we just need to believe what we are being told and commit to putting it in practice, making it happen. 

There is no place for apathy, half-heartedness, lack of belief or commitment. 

And who would you rather believe?  The OCD that is causing so much distress, or those in the know as to what might be done to get better. 

I chose to believe those in the know, not my OCD-afflicted brain - and what a good job I did :)

 

Edited by taurean
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Thanks for this post, it's really what I needed right now. I struggle with harm OCD myself, that seems to be my most prominent theme. I struggled a lot when I was much younger, around 10 years ago, and got better but I've been having these symptoms again for about 2 months. Some days I feel hopeless, like it'll never stop, but then we have all felt like that at some point and you can come out of it stronger. 

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Hi Malina. 

It's important to get back into the rhythm of reminding ourselves it's just OCD in operation, resisting compulsions and refocusing - so that the obsessional thought can't dig in and entrench. 

It works, but it takes a while to retrain the brain to do this. 

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8 hours ago, taurean said:

Hi Malina. 

It's important to get back into the rhythm of reminding ourselves it's just OCD in operation, resisting compulsions and refocusing - so that the obsessional thought can't dig in and entrench. 

It works, but it takes a while to retrain the brain to do this. 

Hi Roy,

that is absolutely true. For a long period of time, I was able to do that. I think the issue is that at some point emotions and even physical sensations start to occur alongside the thoughts, which makes them harder to ignore. But then the more you practice, expose yourself and remind yourself it's OCD, as you say, the less the associated feelings will come. I guess it's a bit like exercise, it's tough but you just have to keep working on it. 

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