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Pessimism and OCD


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I wonder if anybody has any tips to deal with the pessimistic aspects of OCD.    We tend to believe that bad things will happen. This affects mood. I am waiting for the results of a building survey on my property and my imaginings are expecting the worse. I have to wait for two weeks. Most people have an optimistic bias always looking on the bright side of life - this can lead to problems as well as you discount negative information that can also lead to bad decisions. In my current situation I am waiting for a piece of information. How do you reach a neutral position calmly waiting. We with OCD dislike uncertainty. How do you deal with a time limited period of uncertainty?

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One thing that I am learning to do in situations as you describe is this (a sort of diversion therapy:

  • I prepare a list of tasks that I know do not cause me any OCD issues eg, household cleaning jobs
  • I then do the challenging task in hand - for me this may be filling in a complex online form/application.  This is something that would highly likely trigger OCD behaviour and anxiety
  • Once the challenging task is completed I turn to my list of my non triggering tasks and get on with one of those

I find that gets me back to a 'neutral' position like you describe.  I don't know if that would fit into what you describe as 'a time limited period of uncertainty'.

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^That's a good and interesting approach. I was just thinking today, how soothing cleaning is.

I tend to be blunt with myself, and would say to myself 'there is no point thinking about it for two weeks and there is nothing I can do about it anyway'. Then do something else to occupy my mind.

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Thanks for the responses guys. My problem is selling my property and moving into supported housing. I intend to move into supported housing but as I own my property I need to sell it and have been engaged in this process since January. If I was in social housing it would be arranged for me.
 

My main carer has been very supportive but has been away for the past week.

Supportive housing in the private sector is a minefield with horrendously high service charges and high ground rents so I have to tread carefully especially if I have to move into a nursing home in future years as I need to move into a saleable property that will achieve a good price in the future. Good nursing homes are expensive. Properties in supportive housing can literally be on the market for years.

I have been checking the fabric of the building for months in case a rather wreck less neighbour in my apartment block causes damage in the communal areas this has already affected market value of my current property.
 

I have found a suitable supportive property to move into and engaging surveyors to survey the property and engaged solicitors. It depends on the results of the survey on my current property whether I can move. It is costing  a lot of money.

Distraction is a good thing and certainty being active is better than being passive. And certainty I cannot affect anything in the next two weeks. But I do feel like a holiday.

It is major decision for me. Who would be a older disabled home owner?

 

 

 

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What's that often cited comparison about how stressful moving homes can be.

But there's your answer. Treat yourself and enjoy a holiday. Get away from property, etc.

Send us a virtual post card.

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Some authors recommend trying to imagine very good scenarios about the worry, the more unrealistic the better. Their point is that imagination can be trained, OCD people used to train it their whole life to prevent terrible events, but with practice you can also train your brain for the opposite. With that exercise you are balancing the possitive/negative imagination in your brain.

However, on the other hand, others authors recommend dont imagine anything at all. They argue that when we are fantasizing (even good scenarios) we are training our brain for not being here and now. And I am more with this approach. The first advice can become to an avoidance strategy if not doing perfectly well. I think mindfulness and being here and now has much more easy "instructions" and can be unlikely missundertood.

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Thanks for the replies. Purposefully imagining positive scenarios seems to be a good technique. Rather like if you are hindered by bad memories then substitute them with good memories. 
 

I think that we cannot inhabit the here and now forever;  though it can be a good technique to restore calm.
 

We need to envisage the future to make plans to make our future secure. The famous John Lennon quote of past decades goes something like life is going on when we are busy making other plans. But he employed accountants, had managers book events and sued people for taking his money. He had a team of people planning for him that only needed his authorisation.
 

Memories can be treasure troves, people value photographs, for example, that lead to fond memories.

It is the obsessional quality of OCD thought which is the problem.  The need to detach from obsessional thought by envisioning positive scenarios, switching your attention by mindfulness or taking a walk in nature and of course keeping busy. As always, doing it is the difficult part as we tend to resort to habit.

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