Bad Advice from a Respected Resource?

@Youarenotyourthoughts Thought*

@Youarenotyourthoughts Yeah, I'm never going to do that and quite frankly, I think it's absurd. For me, it's not just stressful or anxiety-provoking. Believing my thoughts means believing I am human garbage. And yes, I would apply that same standard to everyone. Why on earth would that make anyone feel better?

@braveheart That’s the first step in therapy. You’re not “believing them” per say but just saying like “yea that could be true” instead of trying to figure it out. After all if you could just figure it out you would have by now right? You know deep down you’re not these things and don’t want to do these things, but your OCD doesn’t care. ERP is the gold standard treatment and really the only thing that helps besides medicine but a lot of people need both to succeed in their therapy.

@braveheart It's a form of accepting that its only a thought. By saying the thoughts make you garabge your analyzing them which it also says we don't do. We don't engage the thought we just say okay sure and move on.

@Anonymous I disagree, ERP did not work for me. It made me infuriated and depressed to the nth degree. I understand how it may work for many themes, but I don't understand how it would work for someone for a theme about perversion and the like. In very simple terms, ERP simply amplified my belief that I am a bad person.

@braveheart Did you do ERP with a professional?

@braveheart I have SOCD POCD ROCD and every sexual OCD under the sun. There were days the past few months that I could not get out of bed. I didn’t want to die but I understood how people would want to. I was in the depths of it. I can now thankfully say on 40mg of Prozac and therapy once every two weeks (down from twice a week) I’m in the maintenance stage because of my therapist, erp, and medicine.

@Will86 Yes, I did, through NOCD. It made things worse. I think recognizing that it doesn't work for everyone is important. Surely I'm not the only one...

@Anonymous I promise it didn't work for me. Does this mean I don't have OCD? Heheh -- maybe, maybe not. I also got off all my meds a couple weeks ago and feel immensely better. I'm glad these things work for most. My impression of this discussion has been as follows: ERP didn't work? Blasphemy!

@braveheart Nope you aint. many have to use medication in conjunction. There is another form of therapy called acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) but it's still under study on how effective it is for OCD. The original topic wasn't that parts of ERP coping don't work for everyone or every theme (cause I am also in agreeing with that part) I work better with inhibitory learning modality of erp myself for instance so maybe maybe not isn't my thing but the amount of scientific evidence supporting it I can't dispute. The original topic was that the source was wrong. They weren't wrong and it's not bad advice and everything isn't one size fits all so again not every piece is good for every personality or theme. I am sorry you had a bad experience. Our recovery is in our own hands. Don't stop looking for what works for you and please don't stop trying. Try them all even if they feel uncomfortable esp if they feel uncomfortable. You're obviously already distressed so make it on your terms. I wish you much luck in your journey.

@Will86 Thank you, yes you are right "everything isn't one size fits all." I think the answer to my question probably fits right there. I suppose, maybe, they weren't right or wrong. It's advice, not quantum mechanics.

(possible trigger warning) That's where I disagree. I am an absolute materialist, and I don't think humans have free will. In other words, you are not in control. Actually, there is no you. Consciousness is an illusion. The more I've come to terms with my beliefs, I've started to feel a bit better.

@braveheart Whatever works for you but I believe deeply everything is a choice. No matter what you do there is a choice. Our whole day is filled with choices we make. That’s all life. It’s a beautiful thing really. But I respect your beliefs and opinion:)

@Kilo2001 Thank you! Yea, that's my worldview. I've been fighting with it for most of my life. I mean, it's pretty difficult when your brain is telling you there are many choices made and to be made. But I (my brain) has also realized that it has changed little about me, since I'm sort of just floating along. It does raise a lot of questions about how we treat each other.

The idea isn't to make them go away its to remove the urgency from them so that they become less intrusive. Less intrusive just means that when you have them they don't elbow their way to the front of your brain setting off alarms and taking your focus. The spiral typically starts to happen if you don't learn a cope (not a compulsion) to follow up with. Now the part that sucks is we attempt to lessen anxiety by letting the thoughts spiral a bit n then learn that anxiety doesn't kill, it don't last forever, and usually we can learn it's not a productive or necessary reaction to xyz thought (habituation).

Hey, there's my company... I knew it wasn't just me. My best to you.

For what it is worth, today I am trying this technique. The thoughts come and I immediately return to what I was doing and try to focus on that. No need to say anything to yourself. The thoughts do not go away immediately. We'll see if this helps long term.