Pure Obsessional branch of OCD

[jas1]

Someone close to me suffers from OCD but their compulsions are purely obsessive thoughts that affect his daily life and can cause them to be on edge, anxious and depressed. It obviously can cause strain in our relationship, especially as my own mental health is not the best. It is a fairly newly-realised strain of OCD so there isn’t much online about it. I was wondering if anyone had any advice on how to help a loved one who suffers from this particular type of OCD

Edited January 23, 2023 by jas1

[DRS1]

6 hours ago, jas1 said:

Someone close to me suffers from OCD but their compulsions are purely obsessive thoughts that affect his daily life and can cause them to be on edge, anxious and depressed. It obviously can cause strain in our relationship, especially as my own mental health is not the best. It is a fairly newly-realised strain of OCD so there isn’t much online about it. I was wondering if anyone had any advice on how to help a loved one who suffers from this particular type of OCD

It's not a "strain". OCD is OCD and we really don't want to stray far from that. It doesn't matter if it's mental compulsions, physical compulsions, or different thought content it's all just OCD.

 

I think reading some books on it will be a great start. Two to recommend are the David Veale book on the OCD-UK website store and the Break Free From OCD book by Oldfield, Bream and Salkovski

 

Other than that. Try not to accommodate OCD as it only makes it worse in the long run.

 

Other than that just listen to him. If he wants to tell you about it, deadpan your response to any content of thoughts he deals with as it means nothing and is not reflective of his values.

[snowbear]

Hi Jas, welcome to the forum.

Just to confirm what DRS1 said, it's not a new type of OCD (or even a type!)  it's all just bog-standard OCD.

Your friend will be doing compulsions - lots of them. But they are mental compulsions (ruminating, neutralising, avoidace etc) rather than anything you can see. Probably 20% of what he thinks of as his obsessional thoughts are obsessional thoughts and the other 80% will be his mental compulsive thoughts.

Either of the self-help books DRS1 recommended are a good place to start.

In terms of recovery from OCD it has to come from him. He can self-refer to your local IAPT service if you're in England, or see your GP and ask for a referral for CBT.