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Why is is so difficult to ‘give up’ OCD?


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This might sound like a daft or insensitive question, but I also have OCD and have never been able to answer it for myself. For me, it’s a problem with obsessively trying to understand my thoughts – I’ll have something flit through my mind then have to go back and check what I thought; not really because I’m worried about it being immoral, more because I want to understand it (though I think it generates the same feeling of ‘wrongness’ as most people with scrupulosity etc. experience, and ultimately stems from similar obsessions with fairness, perfection, certainty etc.)

I find it very easy to understand that all I have to do is accept that I might have had a nonsensical thought, but it’s almost impossible for me in practice to avoid my compulsions. Pretty much the only way is if the thought is so fleeting I can’t remember anything about it, although I’m still left with an unsettled feeling. Normally it’ll be some pretty obscure context that will set me off (I used to be almost exclusively obsessed with philosophical problems) and in that case I’ll keep rattling thoughts around my head, trying to understand what has triggered the discomfort, without rnormally being able to lay my finger on what exactly the problem or question is.

For me, it’s easy to imagine someone with OCD about their sexuality needing to just label any thoughts in that context as unhelpful, and ignore them, while in my mind my problem thoughts seem to always demand attention because they are pretty much always about something new, or a repetition of an unsettling thought / context that I wasn’t able to satisfactorily ‘close out’ previously. However, I know that everyone’s OCD is unique, and that it would be foolish (not to mention insensitive) of me to assume that mine is a complicated matter, and everyone else’s is an easy fix.

This being so, why is is so difficult to ‘give up’ OCD? Why do you think we can’t just accept that it’s a ‘doubting disease’, and the only way to deal with it is to accept that doubt, even though we all know that’s what we need to do?

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Oh, there's something broken in the mind, because the same demand for attention is triggered for a stupid thought as is triggered when you are facing a life or death situation. Your mind demands attention when it shouldn't. 

Sufferers don't realize, at least early on, that they have a choice. They can choose to ignore the thought and its accompanying jolt of anxiety. They don't. They end up reacting to the thought, not realizing that's the last thing they should do. Soon they are reacting to every thought and their situation gets worse.

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In my opinion, it's pretty clear, the brain, fight or flight, is misfiring. Most sufferers know (many are only too well aware) on some level that their reactions to the thoughts are overwrought, absurd, unreasonable, but that emergency alarm keeps firing. You can't out logic the illogical. 

 

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You can't simply give up a mental illness. That would be like asking why people with depression can't just cheer up or why people with schizophrenia can't believe that their hallucinations aren't real. You'd never think that someone with a broken leg ought to just try harder to walk, right? It's the same for us, except the mechanism isn't something as simple and clear as a broken bone, but it's still just as real. 

But similarly to someone with a broken leg who has to walk with a cast and go through rehabilitation, our minds need rehabilitation and practice learning to think and behave in a different way. 

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On 22/02/2020 at 22:50, paradoxer said:

In my opinion, it's pretty clear, the brain, fight or flight, is misfiring.

But is it?  I'm not so sure any more.  I agree it is part of the Fight or Flight response but I'm not sure it's misfiring.  I suspect that it is the response that we are miisfiring back (exaggerated out of fear), hence a change in pyschological/behavioural methods works.  The increased intensity of fear/intrusions may be a result of that response, that the danger is perceived (and reacted to) as real.

Just an opinion based on many years of personal experience,  not fact, before anyone asks me to cite scientific studies, facts, data & research :(

 

 

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On 23/02/2020 at 06:04, Koala17 said:

This being so, why is is so difficult to ‘give up’ OCD? Why do you think we can’t just accept that it’s a ‘doubting disease’, and the only way to deal with it is to accept that doubt, even though we all know that’s what we need to do?

Well, if it were easy, then the disorder wouldn't exist :)   The not being able to "give up" OCD is the whole problem after all.  The difference between the sufferer and the non-sufferer is precisely that, the inability to just easily move on from intrusive thoughts.  So why is it so difficult for some of us but totally easy for most people?  No one really knows yet.  There are ideas of course.  There is significant evidence for a genetic component, which would mean at least part of the problem is some kind of malfunction in some part of our body (almost certainly the brain).  Beyond that there's the behavioral component, we overreact which creates a negative feedback loop making it worse.  We engage in compulsions which reinforce the negative behavior which makes it worse. etc.  On top of that, knowing what to do doesn't mean its easy to do that.  I know what to do to lose weight (more exercise, eat healthier foods) but doing it requires effort, changing long ingrained habits, etc.  Even when an OCD sufferer is told what to do, even when they want to do it, there is still effort required, on top of which there is a certain level of fear of the unknown.  Yes suffering from OCD sucks, but in a way the compulsions and such are known ways of handling it.  People become familiar, almost comfortable in a way with the way there life IS now.  Changing their behavior, particularly when it involves unpleasant tasks is hard for many people to take on.  There is a reluctance, a limitation.  In the end, we are, after all, human.  Emotion plays a big part and OCD messes with our emotions to a pretty significant degree.
So add it all up:

Neurological flaws +
Habitual behaviors +
Emotional hurdles +
Human tendencies

And you get the complex and frustrating reason why OCD isn't something we can easily shrug off.

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16 hours ago, Caramoole said:

But is it?  I'm not so sure any more.  I agree it is part of the Fight or Flight response but I'm not sure it's misfiring.  I suspect that it is the response that we are miisfiring back (exaggerated out of fear), hence a change in pyschological/behavioural methods works.  The increased intensity of fear/intrusions may be a result of that response, that the danger is perceived (and reacted to) as real.

Just an opinion based on many years of personal experience,  not fact, before anyone asks me to cite scientific studies, facts, data & research :(

 

 

There's that area where chemistry and cognition fuse, a combination of the two. We can bandy about terms, but something's faulty, and there's little question some have more of a predisposition toward OCD. We can certainly train the brain not to respond. Anyway, an inordinate focus on why isn't particularly helpful ... 

Back to the fight ... ?

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On 22/02/2020 at 21:04, Koala17 said:

This might sound like a daft or insensitive question, but I also have OCD and have never been able to answer it for myself. For me, it’s a problem with obsessively trying to understand my thoughts – I’ll have something flit through my mind then have to go back and check what I thought; not really because I’m worried about it being immoral, more because I want to understand it (though I think it generates the same feeling of ‘wrongness’ as most people with scrupulosity etc. experience, and ultimately stems from similar obsessions with fairness, perfection, certainty etc.)

I feel that way too, if it's any consolation; have a thought and go back and inspect it. I'm only just coming to terms with it all. I compare thoughts like that to a knot at the back of my cross-stitch canvass, when the thread has bunched up in one place. At the front, with the patterning, you can't tell there's problems at the back, but because I'm the one who can see both sides, I know that cluster is there. Thought becomes layered upon thought until it's a towering, anything-but-sweet stack of thought pancakes. You can layer as much sugar and lemon and maple syrup on as you want, but it won't make it anymore bearable.

I like using food metaphors. :D 

OCD is, I think, always going to be a part of us; it's part of our lives. I personally the term of ex-sufferer as not literally suffering OCD anymore; they have it, but they know how to handle it. Everyone's brain is wired differently. :):hug: 

C x

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