Posted by phidippus on February 12, 2015, at 15:40:37
In reply to Re: What is OCD? For those that don't know.... » Bill82, posted by ed_uk2010 on February 12, 2015, at 12:36:52
> >In accepting my obsession I feel it would ruin the ability for me to ever love again
I had an obsession with suicide for a long time. As exposure therapy, I would pretend to kill my self with a knife. To add humor to the proceedings, I would go all out, don a bandana and pretend to commit hari kari.
With proper exposure therapy you are not accepting your obsession, but rather reducing its power to cause you anxiety. As you reduce the anxiety of your obsession, your compulsions will wane.
> Her doctor advises her to try to resist the compulsive checking because it doesn't actually make her feel better
This is erroneous advise. The compulsive checking is born of the fearful thoughts she is having, therefore the focus of therapy should be on lessening the anxiety she has about the thoughts she is having. Once the fear of the thoughts is lessened, checking rituals will seem unimportant.
> So, she tries to change her thoughts. What can she possibly accept or change?
Bad move. Trying to change her thoughts is only going to cause more anxiety and increase the frequency of her thoughts. Her brain needs to be trained to have the thoughts and regard them as inconsequential. Acceptance comes when she can have the thoughts without consequence.
> How can she come to terms with the thoughts? She needs to accept that the thoughts are OCD.
This is often not enough for OCD sufferers. Many people with OCD can identify their thoughts as OCD but still experience a great deal of anxiety. The key to accepting OCD thoughts is to embrace them as a good idea.
> How can she stop the compulsive behavior?By reducing the anxiety she has about her OCD thoughts. Medication can also help.
>If the thoughts are not hurting her family, do they really matter? No. They are horrible.
What are you talking about? These are wonderful thoughts. ;)
> True, and you've not had much luck with psychological therapies so far either.To be honest, I don't think he's had proper ERP nor do I think has he committed to proper therapy
> >Although part of me thinks I am making it up and lying.....
>
> Obsessions of doubt?OCD is called the doubting disease.
One thing I wanted to mention about medication and OCD. I find that OCD sufferers have a difficult time taking medication because of side effects. It happens a lot they get strange side effects and a lot of them, which makes me wonder just how much their anxiety is playing in the genesis of these side effects.
I would like to see someone with OCD take an SSRI for 6 weeks then tell me how they feel.
Eric
poster:phidippus
thread:1075804
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20150129/msgs/1076324.html