Reward and punishment

[Goodrewards]

Hello i would like to share something with you that i have found very helpful.

my husband and i have discovered that punishment and reward works very well to change the behavior that is not wanted.

every behavior that is sustained has a reward, even if it is not noticed...

for OCD the reward is always reassurance , even if it is very shortly

so there should be a reward that is much stronger

or a punishment that is much stronger!

 

first; if possible; remove trigger. So that there is NO action to be followed. 

If not; find something that is very rewarding to you

make a list with dates of the month. 

For instance; every day that you don’t check, you get a little money...

 

we noticed a difference very soon; within a week!

the anxiety went away very quickly

IT IS JUST A MATTER OF REWARD/THE HIGHEST REWARD WINS THE BEHAVIOUR

 

for OCD thoughts it is a little bit more complicated BUT not impossible;

everytime an OCD thought comes to mind, you must NOT reassure yourselve everything is alright. NO that is a REWARD THAT KEEPS THE BEHAVIOUR ALIVE

YOU MUST think of the most terrible thing that ever happend; for instance; a loved one that is laying in bed dead. Make this as much DETAILED as you can...

what will happen is this; the mind will connect the OCD thought to the thought of something you DONT like to think about and wil want to quit as soon as possible

this ofcourse takes some time and persistence to accomplish but will definitely work

 

95 procent of your thoughts are repetitive so please give this a try! TURN IT AROUND

NO MORE REWARDS, ONLY FOR GOOD BEHAVIOR AND THOUGHTS

you see, because the reward is;  ‘ if you don’t think the OCD thoughts you also don’t have to punish yourself with the not so nice memories’, so the reward in this case is the absence of punishment...

 

hope you still follow me

rememeber; you need a motivation stronger than the motivation for the current behavior! So figure out what motivates YOU. Can be money to buy nice stuff, even if you’re not rich, something must be possible. Can be a sweet, some chocolate or something else. And don’t forget to make a list with each day written down. If you don’t succeed that day don’t worry you will eventually!

the brain will ALWAYS follow the MOST REWARDING PATH!

 

I NOW from experience now and so does my husband and we were quit severe cases!

good luck to you all and Gods blessings and ask HIM for help as He gave me this Ideas when I desperately prayed for answers  ;-)

 

oh and don’t cheat. If you didn’t make it NO problem, but you can’t fool the brain haha just keep going you will get there! 

 

Edited March 2, 2020 by Goodrewards

[gingerbreadgirl]

Hi Goodrewards

I am glad you've found a method that seems to work for you, but I think what you describe above misses the point of treatment.

The key is never to control or stop your thoughts, or do anything with them at all - any attempt to control your thoughts simply reinforces them as important.  Thoughts are just thoughts, they are meaningless.

Also where you say "if possible, remove the trigger"- again this is an attempt to control, it is avoidance and makes OCD worse. the key is to face and confront triggers not remove them. 

The key should be to allow thoughts to come and go as they please. The more you try and control/stop/avoid/react to the thoughts, the more you teach your brain to be fearful of them. 

Also please be mindful that not everyone on this forum is religious and we try to respect each other's beliefs  

 

 

 

[BM94]

Hey there, thanks for this it sounds interesting.

It gets me wondering though, would this not just cement that you have to respond to OCD, be it bad or good? The idea with OCD is to understand you dont have to do anything to combat the intrusive thoughts and over time the anxiety will fade.

It almost sounds like the conditioning experiment those dudes did with those dogs (sorry names and dates et al. is not so good following school haha). You ring a bell they eventually condition to respond to that by running to their food bowls.

It's like "oh I noticed you've been responding to your OCD well so here's some chocolate". What about when that system isnt working anymore, or you run out of chocolate, sweets, money? --> or when you feel you've been doing well but arent rewarded. 

Sorry ultimately the point I'm making is you shouldn't be needing to respond to the thoughts at all, let alone reward or punish for when you slightly fall off the wagon.

Any other ideas anyone?

[helen10937]

What a load of ****