Pure O harm OCD and solutions. Wellness is possible so please dont give up ************************************************************ I do have Pure O and I think that a lot of us contaminationers have this too. But mine is not about harming others and so I am not an expert on Pure O harm OCD. However, I have experienced Pure O harm OCD and continue to do so from time to time. The reason why it is has not taken hold is that I simply dont believe my thoughts. So although they take hours to go I dont have to ruminate or do compulsions. Why am I lucky? Well, It is probably down to a very savvy priest who told me when I was 20 that we all get these thoughts - it is normal. It is not sinful. He did not know I had OCD but I suspect he was catching on as my confessions were clearly obsessive....eg, Dear priest, I got this thought that I wanted someone to get run over... am I mad or dangerous???? So if you are religious speaking to a savvy priest may help a bit? Well one thing I know is that, when it comes to the cognitive side of therapy, solutions for Pure O harm OCD are the same as for any type of OCD. Ruminations are very bad because we OCDers know full well that we are not going to do what we fear. We also know full well that if we were mad (as our OCD keeps telling us) we would not suddenly get well. You cant be mad one minute and sane the next. We should know that we cannot do these terrible deeds on auto pilot and not remember them as this is utterly ridiculous! I say we should know but we seem not to appreciate this. Dear sufferers, there is a huge difference between washing our hands or getting dressed and harming ourselves or someone else. An action of this kind requires an intention, planning and motivation. Yet, as we all know so very well, the problem with OCD is that when we get the thoughts all this goes out of the window. We get anxious, we start doubting like mad and wont allow our anxiety time to go down. We hate that word maybe but it might well be that it is the only one we will have to use until we calm down. ................................................ So for a starter, I would argue that we do have to know that OCDers do not harm people because we dont want to! It is against our characters to do so. If we did, we would not be worrying would we? So mantras and anchors reminding of this will surely help us, as will get out clauses allowing ourselves a brief rumination time after our anxiety has gone down. I say this because once the anxiety has passed the doubt begins to fade and we are unlikely to want to ruminate at all. I would also suggest buying a great book on CBT... I love CBT for Dummies as it has great sections on how to deal with black and white thinking and how to challenge our beliefs. I think that CT (cognitive therapy) helps a lot with Pure O harm thoughts, as long as we do it when we are not having a spike. In the long run, the more we practice it the more it will get ingrained in our brain and the easier we will be able to access it when we get a ten. I am positive that mindfulness helps. Informal mindfulness brings us back to the present mind beautifully. It does not matter what your OCD thought is. You need something to distract you. I have filled my house with clocks as I find the ticking wonderfully calming as with bird song. I am horribly lazy but am convinced that breathing exercises are brilliant too, especially if we have times in the day when our OCD is not active or if we have the type of OCD that ebbs according to what we have to face. Just five to ten minutes of mindful breathing really helps to calm the whole body and give us energy and strength of mind..... I do think that once we are good at the cognitive side of CBT then the ERP will be easier. It is not so simple doing ERP if you have certain types of harm OCD so dealing with the thoughts has to be good. Most therapist will come to the house if you are a mum with small children so you get more confidence. Attending an inpatient clinic will really help if you find it hard going out due to your fears. One of the best bits of advice I read was from one of the contributors to our unpublished book who did attend a clinic as an inpatient and who is and remains well. It is this: I learned that everybody has inappropriate thoughts. Whether or not you suffer from OCD, thoughts that run contrary to our belief systems are common to everybody. These thoughts are what enables man to adapt to his environment, to be inventive and creative. I was taught that these inappropriate thoughts only become a problem when one applies meaning to them. Without meaning, they simply pass by, causing no suffering. Indeed, individuals without OCD may state that they do not have inappropriate thoughts. They are not lying, but have simply forgotten them. I learned that it is the adding of meaning to these thoughts that distinguishes those with OCD from those without it. By adding meaning to our thoughts we experience anxiety, the need for reassurance, and, usually, the need to carry out compulsions and attentional bias. All of these factors make the thought appear real. If an individual is anxious about something, and s/he needs to check it isn’t so and continues to think this way, s/he is led to believe that there must be some reality about the thought and that the thought is a fact. Well the simple answer is “no, it is not!” ...... I learned to tolerate anxiety. I was assured that anxiety would not harm me and would subside in time. I discovered this to be true! But, I found it extremely uncomfortable at first. So it was important to experience something that caused me only a small amount of anxiety initially. When I found that I could tolerate my anxiety, I gradually stopped asking for reassurance. By not getting caught up in anxiety and reassurance, the frequency of my thoughts gradually subsided. I also had to learn not to undertake mental reviews. This was extremely difficult, but, in time, I realised that performing mental reviews was not only pointless but more importantly, completely illogical. I asked myself how I could employ the use of thought to tackle inappropriate thinking. The answer was, of course I couldn’t! Anon. I think this is truly excellent advice. The writer sits out their thoughts and never argues for and against them. I would personally label them as OCD thoughts and then refocus. Either way helps. I hope this helps a bit. Anne. more about that word maybe tomorrow.
Posted on: Wed, 08 Oct 2014 11:59:11 +0000
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