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Got me again... any tips...
gingerbreadgirl replied to humbleno1's topic in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
This is wrong in so many ways. We shouldn't be aiming to solve our fears. We should get used to the idea of leaving them unresolved. - Today
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If you really want to change things you should go touch the door. You should do exactly the opposite of what OCD is telling you. Touch the door, your life will go on. You may suffer anxiety (probably) but you'll have taken a step towards beating OCD. Or you can keep living by these irrational rules, still feel the anxiety AND have your life way more limited because of it. -
Avoidance and Having Trouble Making Decisions
dksea replied to NoahsArk's topic in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
Absolutely! I learned about it through my work, its a pretty popular methodology in business, we use it for our goal setting. I haven't read any particular material on it, I just know what they've gone over briefly in training, but I am sure you can find literature out there on it, Wikipedia's probably a good place to start. But yeah you can probably apply it to just about any goal! Its good that you have the insight to notice how its affecting you and the attitude to be able to put it aside, even though it can be enjoyable at times. Yes, absolutely, when something has been a major part of your life and how you identify yourself it can be very tough to pull away from it, you feel like you are losing part of yourself. But keep in mind that people change over time, you are not the same person at 39 (which I'll be next month too!) that you were at 14 or 24 or even 34. Its ok to change, its healthy to change. Chess may have been good for you once upon a time, and thats great, but if its not longer good for you then thats ok too, you can move on and still be you. -
OCD and loss of aesthetic attraction
dksea replied to 7zurg's topic in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
Sorry if my meaning wasn't quite clear. By this I mean, that OCD could be a reason or part of a reason you are struggling.. When we are anxious and worried, its harder to enjoy life in other ways. Say, for example, you are waiting for the results of a medical test. While you are waiting you have some dessert, say an ice cream cone, your favorite flavor. It probably won't taste that great to you. You're focused on the test results, worried about the test results, so you are less able to enjoy the dessert. Thats pretty normal. But once you add in OCD it ramps up the worry, you aren't just worried over serious things, you can be worried about ANYTHING, and its much harder to pull out of that worry. If you are worried about attraction for example, the fact that you are worried can make it harder to feel enjoyment, which means things won't seem as attractive to you, which causes you to worry, which keeps you from enjoying, its a feedback loop essentially, fueled by the doubt engine of OCD. So OCD could very much be a part of this by fueling your anxiety. But its not the only possible source of problems, there are other mental health issues that could be at play. As this is an OCD support forum, we tend to look at problems through the lens of OCD, and thats fine, but its always worth keeping that ni mind. Also we are not your doctor or therapist, few (if any) of us are professionally trained, and we aren't seeing you or your full medical history in the same light. The best option is almost always to see a qualified mental health professional when you are having significant problems in your life like this. That doesn't mean its NOT OCD, just that your best bet at recovery is with the help of an expert. -
Got me again... any tips...
Handy replied to humbleno1's topic in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
Yes we need to learn to feel again. Meds do change how a person feels & if you can’t feel it you can’t resolve it 50% with OCD have Get Right OCD. -
Well first, you don't have full control over your brain, you never did. If you did, you'd have to think about each breath, each heartbeat, each individual muscle movement. Since your brain first formed, however long ago, in your mothers womb, you have NEVER had full control. Thats not the way the brain works, large portions of it are automatic, always have been. Second, setting aside the automatic portions of the brain, even focusing purely on your conscious mind, you will never be able to prove you have control over that either. There is ALWAYS the possibility of things you don't know going on. Unless you are an omnipotent, omniscient being, there is literally no way to know anything with 100% certainty. But you don't NEED to be 100% certain to enjoy life, you don't NEED to be 100% certain to have a "genuine" experience. Almost everyone around you (unless they are also suffering from mental disorders like OCD) doesn't have these hang ups and they are able to enjoy life, so why are the rules for you different? These are rules you are creating and putting in place for yourself, they are completely artificial and you don't have to follow them.
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As has been said, both are important, a cognitive foundation is essential in tackling OCD, but ERP is important because you might have a thorough cognitive insight into the disorder - as is often the case - and still be no less beholden to that pull. I see that Carooba has posted a link to Dr Steven Phillipson's site. I have a high regard for him, though perhaps some here share less of the same. Incidentally, in terms of the cognitive, some might find his essay 'Choice' worth a look. -
Or that have been thinking about this topic a lot... You can remember the taste of something you are about to eat? Thats completely normal, and if you are about to eat it you can probably already smell it anyway, which is where the majority of "taste" comes in. So people at work know your name? Again, thats not abnormal. You are looking for signs, so you are seeing "signs". In the words of Freud, "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar". So long as you keep engaging in these kind of compulsions you will remain stuck.
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Struggling today with OCD thoughts
Carooba Manooba replied to OnlyAlex's topic in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
Firstly, Happy Birthday! If you feel the urge to clean, try not to and sit with the discomfort (that will come when you try and make a change) as much as you can. You won't recover overnight and will inevitably give in to perform compulsions at some point. But the more you can resist doing the compulsion, the weaker they become down the line. It's great you want to be a good person. This is getting off track, but I personally wouldn't be trying to portray celebs. Don't get me wrong, there are some kind big hearted celebs. But I personally would be trying to emulate those members of society who donate their time to helping others. Time is the most precious commodity on the planet. People who give up theirs to help others are the people I admire the most. -
The CT side of CBT is important in the sense of developing new therapeutic responses to intrusive thoughts. It's also important to teach patients in the beginning how the disorder works: "cognitive therapy for OCD (CT) has two primary applications: 1) to help people understand the guidelines of an anxiety disorder's overall game plan (i.e. mental mechanisms); and 2) to provide specific suggestions in the face of challenge." https://www.ocdonline.com/cbtforocd In contrast though, CT when it involves trying to point out the irrational nature of your intrusive thoughts during a spike is detrimental for long term recovery. I believe the Behavioural Therapy side of CBT is most important in the sense that you need to teach yourself via exposure and feeling discomfort that nothing bad will happen. It's one thing to be taught what to do, but you can only recover unless you put that education into practice. I found this article on CBT for OCD helpful : https://www.ocdonline.com/cbtforocd
- Yesterday
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I am in support of erp as I believe in learning by doing. I understood at an intellectual level the irrationality of my behaviour. But only by changing my behaviour did I really or deeply learn. So at heart I believed in behaviouralist led therapy. But preparing the groundwork by cognitive insights. ERP is learning by doing. How do you challenge a thought? By testing it. So if you feel the need to check all the plugs before you leave your property you need not to test them. The cognitive groundwork should prepare you to take this risk. I catastrophise a lot. I am aware of this cognitive bias. But you need to put the thoughts into context. By putting them in context you defeat OCD. So if you catastrophise about plugs and sockets you do not repeatedly check them. Nothing happens, you learn a lesson. If you catastrophise about a running tap causing a flood. You do not check. Nothing happens, you learn a lesson. Step by step you learn lessons not to catastrophise. Learning is incremental and cumulative. You learn by practical experiments -by cumulative learning - not to catastrophise. This is deep seated learning which lasts. If CBT does not involve behavioural experiments then it is by definition not CBT. -
You need to rephrase in your mind. You don't know there are germs from a plunger in the bin. Your mind is telling you that, but you cannot confirm it to be true. Secondly, so what if their car door was close to the bin? Like, so what? These are the kind of conversations you need to have with yourself. -
Agreed times three.
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It should be a mix but a big part of CBT is challenging your mind through ERP. The root of all problems with OCD are compulsions. Compulsions are a behavior. Thus the emphasis on changing behavior.
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Hi petal You really really need to stop analysing this. I know you feel like you can solve it if you really try but you can't - that's not how ocd works. You need to leave this alone. It will make you feel anxious and like you have to keep digging. But you don't. That's just a lie ocd tells you. Put this down, leave it be, focus on now.
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Hi Everyone, I was just wondering whether any other forum-users have experienced CBT where there has been more of an emphasis on Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) and less emphasis on managing the underlying cognitive biases that lead to the compulsions? At the moment I am just having talking therapy sessions with a Counselling Psychologist but in the past my CBT therapists have been focused on ERP and the only thought challenging involved identifying (but not really learning how to manage) patterns of thinking such as 'All or nothing thinking' and 'Catastrophizing'; which I did not find helpful! -
Well? I really don’t want to go into another week with this...? I can’t do it to him my guy.. it’s his nans funeral this week too!
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This happens to my other half - she is always being told she looks exactly like so and so! Can be unnerving! But I agree with Hal I think the urge to look at cctv is ocd getting its claws in.
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Thanks for that Hal. Yes I have a doppelgänger. The comments for men and women are friendly. So no need to worry. But I thought I was so unique!
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For the life of me I can’t see why this warrants a professional opinion....it’s seems to be just a case of mistaken identity to me, that as you’ve identified Angst the is OCD trying to get its hooks into with the idea to check CCTV etc. I think I would just say Hi, quickly say you have a doppelgänger, haven’t met the individual and leave it there. This isn’t psychosis imo, just regular OCD starting to latch onto a rare situation, that I think you could nip in the bud Angst.
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The judgement of what? That x number of people mistook me for somebody else? How would they do that? The answer is to go into the pub where the man said he drunk with me and ask to see the video recordings. All public places are videoed nowadays. But this is pointless you have defined me as a psychotic. So please absent yourself from this thread. We had a similar conflict before.
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Please let a professional do the judgement.
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Interestingly comment. That is why I said willing to undergo any test. So you do not believe in mistaken identity? In fact I believe mistaken identity is pretty common. I think the reaction to mistaken identity is in the sphere of OCD. No problem checking reality. My question was should I do so.
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Hello Angst, my advice to you would be to go the hospital or tell a qualifed person about those thoughts if you could do so. If this is OCD the person will tell you not to worry, I don't think we are qualified to dismiss it as someone else than OCD.
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Hi Ashley, I would love to be referred to the Oxford Clinic but I'm a bit concerned about asking my CMHT for a referral. Do you know whether the clinic will ever accept central/ national funding?
