Just need advice…

[Lulu21]

Hi there, it’s my first time on the forum but I’ve been to some of the support groups. I just need advice/to vent as I’m really going through a hard time with my ocd at the moment. It seems I’ve hit a wall with my exposures - I think all the work I have at the moment plus maybe some depression has made me neglect treatment as well as meditation. I’m starting setraline in a few days so hopefully that will help to motivate me a bit more. Over the past few weeks I’ve had some false memory/real event stuff pop up which has left me very anxious. I genuinely can’t tell if this event is extremely small and not worth thinking about or an evil crime that I’ve done  My therapist wants me to make a script for it but I don’t know where to start and don’t know whether to try and do a general one for my worries of the past, or do a separate one for real event and false memory. Also any tips on how to stay consistent with exposures? I’ve seen people saying to do like 15 mins a day, but my therapist says do it for longer - up to an hour every other day. I find this very hard to stick to. Sorry for the ramblings and thanks for any advice:) 

[Ashley]

15 minutes ago, Lulu21 said:

I’ve seen people saying to do like 15 mins a day, but my therapist says do it for longer - up to an hour every other day.

This is interesting, and what I will say is that exposure behavioural work takes as long as it takes and there is no set time period to be doing it.  For example my exposure work would be to contaminate myself and then I would sit with it a few moments, and get on with my day.  The actual 'doing', was the important part and that would take just 30 seconds to do.    I would generally say, it's until the anxiety is less bothersome that you can carry on with your day.    Be that 15 minutes or a hour.   There is also nothing wrong with doing 15 minutes in a morning and repeating later in the evening. If you are doing an exposure, the more you do it, the easier it becomes.

But... this is the key part.  You could spent 6 hours on an exposure, it's pointless if we are neutralising, or the therapy/therapists have not helped us with the underlying fear/worry/interpretation of thoughts. 

I would also say if the therapist tells you to do something like make a script, and you don't know where to start that's not your fault, that is 100% on the therapist for not ensuring you understand the purpose of the exercise and how to implement it.   I would recommend asking the therapist for clarity on the exercise and helping you with examples of such scripts, so you can then create your own. 

Good luck with it. 

Ashley

[Lulu21]

Thanks Ashley - very helpful advice