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Ocd attacks


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Hi Paul :)

Sorry to hear your friend is struggling so much. I've had all sorts of thoughts, some dark, but all very distressing in some way. When you say a safe way, what do you mean? 

Has your friend reached out to their GP for help with their OCD? A GP can offer medication for OCD as well as referral to mental health services. The recommended treatment for OCD is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). You can get a referral from a GP and in England you can self-refer . This would usually be to your local IAPT. You can check out the OCD-UK website for more info on this :)

There are waiting lists, so in the mean time learning about OCD as much as possible can be a huge benefit. Your friend has terrifying thoughts which are really common in OCD sufferers. Perhaps you could introduce them to the forum, it might help to see that others have similar worries. There's also great self-help books, one being Break free from OCD, written by top specialists in OCD, another is called Pulling the trigger, it's written by a sufferer Adam Shaw and his therapist. Adam Shaw experienced thoughts about hurting people and has since recovered. 

As for the thoughts, in therapy the aim isn't to prevent thoughts. There's no known difference between the types of thoughts people with OCD have then that of the general population. The difference for sufferers is the meaning they place on having the thought. They might think that having bad thoughts makes them bad or they might worry that the thoughts are a sign that they want to do something, it varies depending on the individual. Distressing thoughts make sufferers feel responsible to take action to stop the thoughts or prevent something they fear happening, these are compulsions.

As a friend the best thing you can do, other than encouraging them to seek help, is to help them understand that although their thoughts are scary they are just thoughts and they can feel better again :)

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