Username: Jade27

Date posted: 1y ago

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: Serena

Date posted: 6y ago

Skeptical about ERP? I found ERP really conflicts with some other theories, like the theories of Louise Hay (who wrote the book “you can heal your life). I will elaborate on my confusions. 1. ERP asks us to experience obsessions without thinking “no I won’t hurt myself” “no I won’t hurt others”. “No, I am safe and those thoughts are not real”. Thinking “i won’t do dangerous stuff and I am completely safe” is considered as compulsion to rid us of anxiety, but Louise Hay thinks it as positive affirmation. 2. Will ERP make us believe what we think even more? ERP asks you to write your fears into those stories and scripts and repeat them again and again until you habituate. But why would I say to myself “oh, maybe I will kill my parents and I will accept that and move on”? How does this make any sense? 3. I read the book of Shannon Shy who has recovered from OCD and he used his own strategies. I remembered that when he confronted his obsession of whether he left the pot on, he would say to himself that “do you think the pot will turn itself on”? to help him better move on to do things that he should do. But according to ERP, isn’t this a compulsion? Cuz ERP asks us to accept that ok the pot may be on and my house may be burned down and I accept that and I move on? I just find ERP theories weird.

Username: 🌱

Date posted: 4y ago

my therapist recommended i write down an anxiety producing thought and then write a rational counter-statement to that thought. the thing is i fear that wont that only fuel my OCD? i asked my therapist this and they said that i should still try it because i have to teach myself to believe rational thoughts. what should i do? a lot of what i learned about OCD is to not give it power or attention but wont this give it attention?

Username: braveheart

Date posted: 1y ago

Bad Advice from a Respected Resource?

I'm looking for any thoughts on a list of recommendations published by the IOCDF. It seems to me this is an otherwise reputable organization. I've highlighted with asterisks the pieces of advice which seem extreme, incorrect, or counterproductive. Quote 1: **Always try hard to agree with all obsessive thoughts** — never analyze, question, or argue with them. The questions they raise are not real questions, and there are no real answers to them. **Try not to get too detailed when agreeing — simply say the thoughts are true and real.** Quote 2: Never seek reassurance from yourself or others. **Instead, tell yourself the worst will happen, is happening, or has already happened.** Reassurance will cancel out the effects of any therapy homework you use it on and prevent you from improving. Reassurance-seeking is a compulsion, no matter how you may try to justify it.

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