'Worry Time'

[Astra]

Hi all!

So I'm trying out 'worry time'.  Its something I've been told about in previous treatments I've had, but never really gave it a go but am trying to now.

One thing I wanted to ask is how do you do it? Now I know that might sound odd but when you assign your 'worry time' and then go and do it.. what are you meant to do? I know the principle behind it is that you delay your anxiety until then and then let it all out.  However when I've been doing it, I seem to just get into OCD cycles.  Is this what's meant to happen or is it a case of just letting yourself be anxious?

Or can it be both? Allow yourself an allotted time to do your rituals to help you stop doing them at other times?

Thanks in advance!

[BM94]

Hey!

Cant say I've come across the "worry time" strategy, though I've just read up on it and looks like a known CBT tool.

Honestly though, I wouldn't go near this approach myself at all.

Firstly, you wouldn't be able to keep OCD worries aside until your designated time slot, particularly if you have intrusive thoughts throughout the day. You'd be worrying anyway.

Secondly, I would find this counterproductive in tackling OCD, as the whole way of overcoming it is by recognising it is just thoughts that cause distress and lead you to do compulsions - therefore by recognising this you can detach the fear from the thoughts and understand how unimportant it is. Finding time to worry about everything like it deserves that time, kinda defeats that goal.

Thirdly, "worry time" could VERY easily become a compulsion in itself, essentially feeding the OCD with your planned worry time rituals. 

What are other more experienced forum users' thoughts on this? I wouldn't want to use this at all.

 

Hope this can help though

B

[Lollipop]

I haven't used this in my OCD treatment but have in the past been advised to use it for generalised anxiety (it didn't work because I didn't have generalised anxiety but that's another story!)

[Nikki79]

Hi Astra,

I have been told to save the thoughts for a particular time of the day and worry on them then but you must be dogged in stopping after a certain amount of time; say ten minutes. I think the purpose of it is to take a little power back from OCD instead of it having all the power. For example when a thought bothers you and you feel the need to worry about it straight away well what you do is wait until later and do it deliberately then. I used to do it when I had intrusive thoughts at work and I would note them or just try memorise them and do the worrying later when I was home. The interesting thing is later you don’t necessarily feel as bothered  by those thoughts anymore or you can’t remember them so well  so you might not even decide not to actively worry about them at all. The main thing to learn here is that you are taking back some control from the OCD. I hope that helps.