OCD is not chronic. Stop this myth please, it discourages people from getting ERP. You can fully recover loves :)

I think there tends to be a confusion between OCD as a condition (an over active amygdala which creates sticky thoughts) and an OCD thematic crisis. When people refer to OCD many times they are talking about one or the other interchangeably. The way I understand it is that we CAN fully recover from an OCD thematic crisis and never be scared of the same thing ever again. What is chronic is the tendency of our amygdala to overreact to harmless stimuli. So, even though we can fully recover from an OCD theme/crisis, unless we learn the proper skills we risk the chance to pay too much attention to an old or new theme again. In that sense, yes it is chronic-

When they say chronic, they don't mean you can't fully recover. Cause you do, it takes some time but you definitely do. What they mean with chronic is that you'll always have ocd tendencies but therapy teaches you how to deal with theme so that it will never bother you. You may have bad days and ocd may be raging but everyone has them but that's okay cause that bad will pass and life will go on

Dear Chellie, OCD is just a label. Many studies have shown that people with "OCD" (As well as people with other anxiety disorders) have an over active amygdala -the part of the brain that sends danger signals. People cope with that in many different ways (drugs, avoidance, etc.) one of the ways we cope is with rituals, hence the label 'OCD'. All the studies so far have shown that the condition appears to be a combination of nature and nurture (predisposition and upbringing). For example, my daughter is 8 but since she was born she showed many anxious tendencies and she is prone to anxiety. Together we do zazen meditation practice and I have taught her what a compulsion is and its effects. Hopefully this will help in the future however I am realistic and know that her anatomy cannot be changed. You can be a seasoned meditation practitioner and still get scared easily - the difference between someone who has meditated for years and someone who dabbles is the amount of time it takes to recover from the shock. Studies by Richard Davidson (who is based on my university, yeah!) on this are pretty interesting.

Actually your predisposition to intrusive thoughts and why they are more sticky than intrusive thoughts in people who don't have OCD is actually very chronic. The more you accept that, the more your OCD becomes treatable and manageable.

Just because it's chronic doesn't mean you have to suffer from it your whole life. But there simply isn't a cure for OCD.

Even that is not true though. Some people truly never get the thoughts/urges/feelings attached to their theme again and just don't care for decades on end, like ordinary people without OCD. I mean sure, mental health is chronic and you can always get into a mental illness, it can always happen again at any time. But it is like saying psychosis is chronic because it can always happen to anyone at anytime. I know people who have conquered OCD for over 20+ years, never needing a compulsion and not getting the obsessions again for years on end. It is definitely possible. And I don't mean you'll never ever get anxiety again because that is impossible, or weird thoughts about stuff, I just mean it is possible to completely normalise and not get stuck on weird themes to the degree that OCD pushes you. People need to know this, that it's possible and that it takes a shitton of work but you can do it. Saying it will always be a part of you imo is very very demotivating when it doesn't have to be true.

It is indeed very interesting. I compare it to a loose clapper of a bell (the stick inside that makes the noise). Ours is super loose. It is exactly in between our ears and eyes. Kind if like on the center. The more I practice mindfulness the more I can identify when it becomes activated. It feels like a sudden rush of energy that rises from the center of my ground to the center of my brain. The fight or flight response. I just observe it without reacting and every times it takes less time to go back to normal. For people with OCD the tendency is to then use our Prefrontal Cortex and start justifying the presence of the alarm with a lot of thinking, which feeds the alarm even more and on we go on the endless cycle of the monster.

But how does one differentiate between an overactive amygdala and a thematic crisis? No one usually looks at your actual brain and even then, you might have trained your amygdala to this degree without realising it, you can also train it to calm down by showing your brain there is nothing to worry about by resisting the compulsions. The thing I am wondering is how you differentiate the two and are so sure an overactive amygdala causes OCD, or that training your brain that X thought/stimuli is dangerous over time causes your amygdala to be crazily overactive. Just trying to make sure I understand your point for the debates sake :)

I know people do not mean that by chronic. But they do mean that it will always be a part of you that most likely will always be in the background at the very least. Yet people have fully recovered to the the degree of well, or ordinary people, despite having the predisposition to intrusive thoughts. I am not proposing you will never have an intrusive thought ever again by the way. What I mean is that they can fully normalise in frequency and that indeed you can just ignore them and not feel anxiety.

Hello, sorry if I confused people. I am not here to say that OCD does not have a biological component to it. It does, PANDAS proves that f.e. Though from the studies I have read on PANDAS that group does seem to react very differently on different medications, therapies, etc. than those without it. It's a whole beast on it's own I guess, from all I have read. The point is, I do not deny biology is involved. I wouldn't wash my hands 5 hours a day and use cleaning wipes 350 times a day if my brain functioned normally. All I am saying is that you are not stuck with an overactive amygdala forever. You can train your brain. In brain scans, it is revealed that the siblings of OCD patients often also have overactivity in the same brain parts as the OCD patient. Yet they do not have OCD because according to the study, their other brain parts compensate so to speak for the overactivity. The brain is very complex. But despite also having the genetic overactive amygdala, these siblings never develop OCD. Saying it is just because of the amygdala is imo short sightes. We should be honest here; biologically we do not know what causes OCD completely. We know bits and pieces of the puzzles but clearly not enough. But I digress.

My point is that despite biology, we can in fact overcome it 100%. We can work on our brains and desensitise our amygdalas and all the other brain parts involved like the basal ganglia even if we are genetically a little bit screwed up to say the least. We just have to work very very hard for it and it might take years, but I do think that full recovery is possible. I have seen people who have done it so how can I deny it exists, right?

(Also forgive me for the huge posts though I do enjoy the debate here guys ♡)

Also once again, I do not believe that getting rid of anxiety and intrusive thoughts forever and always is realistic whatsoever. "Normal" people experience these too. I am just claiming it is possible to learn how to get to a normalised level again, and that this isn't forever, that you won't always be stuck with this. Also, I am very sorry that your 8 year old daughter is suffering with it and I wish her all the best, I hope your family is doing well.

A bit of a sidetrack from the debate but let's all try and kill the monster every day guys. I know you all can do it ♡