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I was listening to a therapist I admire recently, he pointed out that the aim of therapy is not to remove symptoms, but to ensure that the sufferer understands the irrelevance of the obsessions.  The removal or cessation of the symptoms is a subsequent by-product. I agree. I think it's an important point, because, aiming to remove the symptoms directly can smack of a measure of desperation. it can attribute 'importance' to them, that can help facilitate the disorder. The cessation of the symptoms is a fortuitous dividend.  

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I think so to. The symptoms gradually disappear as we work through therapy. 

Trying to push them away connects with them, and we haven't stopped believing them - so the symptoms will remain. 

Edited by taurean
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I personally like this view. Ultimately OCD is a chronic condition, I'm guessing that the symptoms are going to pop in and out of your mind even after recovery. If the goal of your therapy had been to remove all symptoms, I can imagine these brief intrusions would cause more anxiety because your expectation would have been to be completely rid of them. If you learn to recognise OCD when it comes up and learn that the triggers are meaningless, you will be able to manage the problems and that will ultimately make you stronger. I think we also have to be aware that people without OCD have similar anxities to us, like everyone is afraid of things like uncertainty, germs, violence etc...but they just don't have such strong responses to these things and are able to move forward with their lives, whereas we get stuck. The idea is to help us stop getting stuck too. 

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