How to get control of Pure O ********************************* Dear all, as Karen (my friend and associate) explains this so much better than me I asked her to write a post about how to treat Pure O. Do read this. It is brilliant. ******************** OCD Therapy Clinic Key Management Skills for Life Exposure Response Prevention for Pure ‘O’ • Firstly you need to understand about Pure’O’ . Pure ‘O’ stands for purely obsessional OCD. However this is not the case and is an inaccurate description as the compulsions are very much present but in a covert form (all in the head) Compulsions for Pure’O’ will include the following: • Avoidance • Rumination (over analysing, trying to problem solve with your own thinking) • Seeking reassurance • Silent mantras, prayers, counting, magical numbers, words, silent neutralising. • The subject matter for Pure ‘O’ often represents itself as an internal fear that would evoke a sense of guilt, disgust, shame and confusion. • The ultimate fear is generally a fear of losing control and acting out your fear or your fear becoming true. • I believe most OCD sufferers are plagued by Pure ‘O’ at some level. • An obsession is a worry that is over exaggerated, distorted, persistent and causes much distress. • The compulsion is the ritual to try and get rid of the worry or neutralise the worry or stop the worry. • In terms of ERP for Pure ‘O’, its exactly the same as treating overt compulsions (observer able rituals) • However because it’s all in your head you can’t move away from it. • This is where refocusing on healthier more constructive behaviours is vital to your recovery. It will give your brain the respite it needs and fix the sticky caudate which is the brain component that gets stuck. • The initial OCD thought ‘spike’ is involuntary. It’s the anxious OCD brain sending out deceptive brain messages. However, how you think about the ‘spike’ is voluntary. So in ERP terms you need to stop trying to give the ‘spike’ any meaning or significance. Even though it’s generated from your brain the content of the ‘spike’ has no bearing over you as a person. Your OCD brain is irrational and you cannot afford to strengthen it by doing compulsive behaviours. You have to make a conscious effort to strengthen your rational brain by recognising its OCD. If you doubt that it is, then it is! Ignore the intrusion and learn to refocus your thoughts and behaviours on getting back to reality. Eventually your brain will catch up. • It’s crucial to remember the ‘spikes’ do not represent you as a person. They will generally be the opposite of who you are. That’s why they are so confusing, alarming and repulsive to you. • Always remember the intention of recovery from OCD is not to stop involuntary thoughts, ‘spikes’, it’s about learning to identify them as OCD and learning to work around them by ignoring them. The more focus you give them the more powerful they become. • Avoidance of ‘spikes’ is a compulsion. Your bench mark for wellness is to do what you would do if you didn’t have OCD. • Asking for constant reassurance over and over is a compulsion and will only serve to make your OCD worse. • Trying to work the spike out when it has been triggered is futile. If you are struggling to dismiss it, try using the ‘Time capsule or Worry box’ technique. Which means putting your ‘Spikes’ into an imagined box or capsule and telling your OCD you will look at it later when your emotional arousal has lowered and you are more rational. In the meantime get out of your head and into your life by doing ‘normal’ things. “It’s not how you think or feel; it’s what you do that counts!” Karen Buckingham. (Karen suffers from contamination and Pure O but has full management. Over the last 7 months she has been helping me informally with my covert and overt compulsions. ) helpforocd.co.uk/
Posted on: Fri, 28 Nov 2014 09:54:00 +0000
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