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Most Helpful Things On My OCD Treatment Journey


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It's been a long one - a prime reason why I spend time online helping others, hoping to make their journey shorter. 

First thing I found I needed to do was get rid of Non-OCD worry, because I used to worry about any and everything. 

I did this by working and reworking the doctrines in Dale Carnegie's original book of this title, published in the 1950s and so good I think it is still in print "How to stop worrying and start living". 

Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) removed my checking and magical thinking OCD, but I was left with harm OCD, extending periods when harm intrusions would constantly repeat on a loop in my mental chatter, and four of the fifteen common types of negative thinking distortion. Plus secondary depression and feeling bad about myself. 

I worked on those thinking distortions with CBT and they don't bother me now. 

I overcame the constantly-repeating intrusions using a mindfulness approach taught me in mindfulness-based CBT for OCD, with help also from a member here - with some self-love and kindness included in the mix. 

So summing up I had to learn how to treat :

General worry 

Four negative cognitive thinking distortions 

Checking, magical thinking and harm OCD 

Constantly-repeating horrible OCD intrusions in my mental chatter. 

Feelings of being bad. 

And I used 

Self-help for worry 

CBT for thinking distortions and OCD 

Mindfulness for constantly-repeating intrusions 

Love kindness meditation for feeling bad due to harm OCD core belief and intrusions. 

I needed all of these things, not just CBT, to get into recovery from all my mental problems. 

How many of us have things as well as OCD with which we struggle, and with which we also need to get to grips? 

I have found OCD seems to welcome the effect upon us of other negativity and anxiety-inducing issues - and they can, if not addressed, also hold back our OCD recovery. 

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Good post Taurean--

yes good to address things on many levels I think!

For myself I've also found it important to treat the body well during the journey. Long walks, contact with nature,  good diet...all helps with the stress levels!

And also finding purpose through connection with community.

 

Thank you for continuing to support people on this forum :) 

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Lovely post Taurean, definitely a whole person approach required. I wonder if we sometimes become so fixated on "ocd = cbt" that we minimise all the comorbid (right word? ) issues. Ocd, just like age, doesn't often come alone. Leif, I agree with the physical maintenance too. I know when I'm taking an ocd or anxiety battering I succumb to an extra slice of coffee cake here or there and in the long run that does me no good. It can be difficult when you're not your own biggest fan to properly take care of yourself, but this is exactly why it's so important to look at all the issues at ply, not just the ocd. 

3 hours ago, leif said:

 

Thank you for continuing to support people on this forum :) 

I second this Taurean, seeing your reply on a topic I know there are going to be kind, loving words and encouragement :)

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Now " kind and caring" are exactly the character values the harm OCD targeted :(

But we learn in CBT that that is what the OCD is doing, and that our true character values in fact remain intact :yes:

And the love kindness work emphasises this point. In OCD, to quote a phrase I came across in self-help:

"We are not bad, and we never were". 

I forgot to mention something else that contributed to my getting better - stress reduction. 

I used to get stressed very easily - and stress always worsens our OCD. 

So again I reached for self-help and was able to make necessary changes in my personal life to minimise stress. 

And in my work life my therapist and I asked my company to consider my OCD as sufficiently disabling under the UK Equalities Act of 2010 to require my firm to make reasonable adjustments to my working practices to enable me to better manage my OCD. 

The firm's occupational health doctor agreed. And the changes agreed by management made an enormous difference. Indeed by reducing my client numbers and visits, and including me giving some staff training my appreciation of my work actually increased as a result of this action. 

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Yes lifestyle choices have also become very important to me. 

I work my REDS - relaxation, exercise, diet and sleep. 

Mindfulness, meditation siestas and listening to classical music ? 

Around 7 miles a week walked, plus a gym or pool session. 

We follow a Mediterranean diet, with salads and fruit plus nuts, brown bread and wholemeal rice (occasional). Lots of chicken, plenty of green vegetables. 

As I am borderline diabetic we go for low sugar foods and I limit myself to 8 units of alcohol per week. 

I currently take 20mg of Citalopram per week, but am hopeful of coming off this soon. 

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