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Username: Jade27

Date posted: 1y ago

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Is my OCD therapist steering me wrong by promoting logic over ERP?

OCD therapist red flag?

Hello everyone! I’m hoping to get some advice here because I’m worried that my OCD therapist might be steering me in the wrong direction. I started having doubts when she would give me reassurance/logical “explanations” to neutralize my thoughts while we worked through CBT (ex: I would be afraid of becoming schizophrenic, and she would help me list out evidence against that thought, and reassure me that I’m not at risk of psychosis). However, we recently started ERP and now I’m even more concerned. I’ve been doing a lot of research lately, and the biggest thing that’s come up is that you cannot fight OCD with logic, and that the cycle must be broken at the compulsion level. I have pure O, so lately, whenever I catch myself start to ruminate on an intrusive thought or try to use logic to neutralize it, I’ll say something like “I don’t need to answer that question, I don’t need to know this for certain, etc” and try to move on. I’ve found it’s been helping. While doing some ERP today with my therapist, I told her that I caught myself doing a compulsion. For context, I was working on my suicidal OCD fears by reading an article on suicide rates and OCD, and I said out loud “I just caught myself trying to engage in a compulsion by telling myself that since other mental illnesses have higher suicide rates than OCD, I shouldn’t be worried (this is something I researched while deep in rumination about this thought a while back), but I know this is a compulsion and that I’m trying to neutralize the anxiety, and I need to sit with the uncertainty instead”. However, my therapist then denied that this was a compulsion at all - she told me that it was just thinking logically, and that it is normal and a good sign to push back against OCD fears using logic to beat them. Now I am wholeheartedly confused. Is this normal? I thought that logic was not the answer with OCD, but rather, sitting with the anxiety and uncertainty is the right way to go. However, my therapist now has me questioning everything, and this has honestly led to even more anxiety on my part (ex: why does logic not work against all my OCD fears? Does that mean some of them are real?). Could anyone tell me what the right answer is in this situation? Is my therapist right, or should I be looking for a new one? I thought I was on the right track, but now I’m so confused!

Username: NicaNica

Date posted: 1y ago

Yes, it’s a red flag. Is the therapist on this app?

Username: Jade27Jade27

Date posted: 1y ago

@Nica No, she’s not from this app. Thanks for your answer!

Username: NicaNica

Date posted: 1y ago

@Jade27 That’s your answer, then. Yes, you can definitely find OCD specialists without the app like I did but it’s extremely hard.

Username: leafcr0nicalsleafcr0nicals

Date posted: 1y ago

i have a similar story. when i told my therapist about my intrusive thoughts (before knowledge of ocd), she kept on suggesting thought suppression, like slapping my wrist with a rubber band every single time i thought of something. thought suppression is not the right way to go, and is basically telling you, “we need to rid of them!” when ocd is all about accepting the uncertainty and settling with the anxiety. i told my mother that i did not think she was helping, since i’ve been researching all about ocd and i’ve come to the same conclusion as you have, and she assigned me a new therapist. if you do not think that your therapist is helping you, i think it’s best you seek another one. this therapist could just be making resisting compulsions harder. hope this helps ! 🫶

Username: Jade27Jade27

Date posted: 1y ago

@leafcr0nicals Thank you so much for sharing your story and for your answer! This helped! :)

Username: Dee CDee C

Date posted: 1y ago

I’m not an expert but it seems to me that it can be both. Listing evidence against the thought might be like writing a script - you read to yourself until you’re bored with it. Doing research for purposes of educating yourself about ocd is one thing. Doing research to answer ocd is a compulsion. I won’t give you reassurance but will say, the one logical thing is ocd is predictable. Hope this helps you. Is the therapist from NOCD?

Username: Jade27Jade27

Date posted: 1y ago

@Dee C Thank you for your answer! In this case, the research was definitely to answer the compulsion (I was searching for how to make myself feel better because I was terrified, irrationally, that just because I have OCD I would commit suicide). That’s why I think it’s a compulsion - it’s a thought that I try to bring up when that thought gets bad, and it makes my OCD feel better briefly, but it doesn’t last. Does that make sense? That’s why I was so confused when my therapist encouraged it!

Username: artsygirlartsygirl

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 1y ago

So, if you think about it- the thing about the suicidal rates is actually both logical but that doesn’t also mean it isn’t a compulsion. I would ask how many patients she’s treated with erp and what her experience is with it.

Username: Jade27Jade27

Date posted: 1y ago

@artsygirl Thank you for your answer! In this case, the research was definitely to answer the fear (I was searching for how to make myself feel better because I was terrified, irrationally, that just because I have OCD I would commit suicide). That’s why I think it’s a compulsion - it’s a thought that I try to bring up when that thought gets bad, and it makes my OCD feel better briefly, but it doesn’t last. I did a similar thing by googling cancer statistics to convince myself that I didn’t have cancer when that was my major theme, and again I would keep using it to “disprove” my fears so to speak. Does that make sense? That’s why I was so confused when my therapist encouraged it! I’m just not sure whether I’m supposed to be “disproving” my fears or accepting/not reacting to them

Username: Jesse M.Jesse M.

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 1y ago

I have pure o. Most of my mental compulsions can be rationalized as being logical. However that does not help me break the cycle of OCD. I'm a trained engineer so I have a lot of experience being creative with the application of logic. If it were possible to push back on OCD with logic I'm pretty sure I would have figured it out by now.

Username: Jesse M.Jesse M.

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 1y ago

Btw this post is awesome. Thank you so much for sharing your experience!

Username: EstridEstrid

Date posted: 1y ago

To me it sounds like you know OCD treatment better than your therapist! Trust yourself in this. I have had similar experiences with therapists and I got worse because of all the "logic talk". Hope you will find one with the right competence!

Username: 1nussy

Date posted: 6y ago

I’m confused an a bit angry. I met with a new therapist today and my insurance hasn’t allowed me to get someone who understands pure O and who is knowledgeable about ERP. This woman was a CBT and told me that wheneve I have an intrusive thought to deny it and tell myself that I’m a good person and to reassure myself. I tried to explain that that in itself is a compulsion for people at Pure O but she kept coming back to it. My gut is telling me she’s wrong because the times I was panicking And would try to rationalize it like she told me to the thoughts would only get worse. I told her that I used to be worried about harming people and have been listening to podcasts about serial killers as an exposure and how it’s working and I’m not having a problem with it anymore and she told me to take a break from that as if it was unhealthy. I told her I’d appreciate it to research ERP as a I left, and was willing to give her another chance but as soon as I told my parents about what she said they flipped out on me and told me I’m being picky and am unopen to options other than ERP. Am I being crazy or picky ??? I’m so confused

Username: Lanamibo

Date posted: 5y ago

Hey guys do you have a problem with figuring out what kind of therapy to do for your ocd? I’m suffering from ROCD and I have divided opinion on how should I approach it because my therapist says that I should rationalize my thoughts and on the other hand everything I see elsewhere is that you shouldn’t pay attention to your ocd thoughts but my therapist says that by ignoring them that’s why they come back because you’re just oppressing them. Does anyone have similar issue?

Username: Anonymous

Date posted: 5y ago

Guys I'm very interested in your opinion as OCD patients, especially opinion of those who have therapists. I would like to know if my therapist is doing something good or bad for me as an OCD patient, and do you think he is the right choice for treating my condition. So my therapist is not actually a pshychologist, he is an NLP coach. Something like a life coach. He helped me a lot before with my social anxiety before I had OCD. But now, not only that he completely ignored when I said I have OCD, he thinks that treating the root of what caused my condition (which he refuse to call OCD) is what will help me. The root is fear of abandoment by my partner and extremely low self asteem. I know that is true but everytime I bring up my OCD it's almost like he's annoyed by that and he accused me of doing that to myself like I don't want OCD to stop! Now he wants me to talk to my partner about my fears, but I'm just not ready. I'm in such vulnerable state of mind I just can't do that. I will when I get a bit better, but right now I can't, and everytime I come to the session and I say I haven't spoke to my partner he is upset at me. The most important part is he just doesn't take OCD seriousy. I said it and he's like: "well maybe you do have OCD but that's not important." How is that not important?? Can you guys please give me advice, should I stop going to his sessions or is he doing the right thing by making me speak to my partner about that fear? I mean, he's pretty much expensive and my condition isn't changed at all.

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Is my OCD therapist steering me wrong by promoting logic over ERP?

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