I recently started ERP therapy with a new therapist where we pretty much exclusively focus on OCD, but I have found myself missing talk therapy a lot as well. Talk therapy never really helped with my ocd symptoms but It really helped to talk through issues such as coping/management of my adhd, gad, as well as talking through things I’ve been going through in life. Does anyone else relate to this?
Hi! Long message coming... Diagnosis may be challenging ‘cause there’s a intrinsic multifatorial character to it. People with OCD experience repetitive and intrusive thoughts, images, urges, or feelings, called obsessions, and it assumes different forms to each individual — that’s why many of us think of it more like of a spectrum. The most wise use of a diagnosis is tracking an individual’s symptoms and signs while also being genuinely curious about one’s entire experience about what’s happening to them — not to produce normativity. Then, there’s gonna be valuable and legit information feeding both patient’s and professional’s acknowledgment to make conscious choices about their treatment, care and healing. For instance, it's known that the most effective approaches to address OCD are cognitive-behavorial, and "Third Wave of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapies" such as acceptance and commitment therapy, compassion focused therapy, and others. Steven Hayes, ACT main developer, defined those as "based on an empirical approach and principles, the third wave of behavioral and cognitive therapy is particularly sensitive to the context and functions of psychological phenomena, not just their form, and therefore tends to emphasize contextual and experimental change strategies in addition to more direct and didactic ones. These treatments seek to build a broad, flexible, and effective repertoire rather than a very specific approach to narrowly defined problems. (...) The third wave reformulates and synthesizes previous generations of cognitive and behavioral therapies and advances them into issues and domains previously addressed by other traditions, in the hope of improving both the understanding of human beings and the outcomes of treatments." That being said, i'd like to suggest you to talk to your own therapist about this topic and work together to understanding your needs better and make more accurate decisions about therapy.
Adding to it, OCD Stories, a podcast made by Stuart Ralph, invites specialists and people within the OCD spectrum to talk about it and episodes... - #255: Dr Patricia Zurita Ona - W.I.S.E. M.O.V.E.S. in ACT based ERP. - #282: Dr Michael Twohig, Dr Patricia Zurita Ona and Jonny Say: ACT for OCD. - #334: Jonny Say – Self-compassion, and building up psychological flexibility in OCD treatment. - #297: Kimberley Quinlan: Self-Compassion for OCD. - #384: Dr Steven Phillipson: Living within the variability of being human, being centred, autonomy, and assertiveness in relation to OCD - Dr Steven Hayes on ACT, OCD and Living A Meaningful Life. are quite insightful about what i’ve mentioned and like them a lot.
It’s common to have multiple therapists for different needs, though you have to be extremely careful with talk therapy because like you said, it doesn’t help OCD at all. But you can look into getting back into talk therapy when you have a better hold and knowledge of OCD.
Hey guys lol So the longer I’ve been in OCD therapy, the more my meds have helped quiet my mind: I realize how many things I have been doing that was compulsive that I didn’t realize was compulsive. And for some reason I felt like those compulsions helped me to feel closer to God. Like felt closer to my values. And now that I’m recognizing what I’m was doing and now that my medicine has helped create space between my thoughts and what to do next, I feel like fear was what helped me be close my values? Can anyone else relate? Or does anyone have tips on how to still feel close to your values with the absence of so much fear and paranoia caused from OCD?
I'm reaching out in hopes of finding others who might relate to my experiences or offer insights. I'm dealing with a complex interplay of OCD, depression, and existential anxiety, and I'm struggling to make sense of it all. Here's what I'm experiencing: I have OCD with various manifestations, along with episodes of depression. I find myself in a cyclical pattern where, after a few weeks, I start to remind myself about my depressive tendencies. This reminder seems to trigger a cycle that actually makes me feel more depressed or at least more aware of depressive symptoms. When this happens, I often experience feelings of nihilism and existential dread. I try to think about my family - my two young boys and my wife - to find motivation or a sense of purpose, but this strategy often backfires, making me feel even more anxious and depressed. I constantly check my feelings, wondering if they're depressive or anxious. At the same time, I fear that my feelings of anxiety and panic might spiral out of control. I think about my emotions and thoughts on a meta-level, which means I'm not just experiencing feelings, but I'm also constantly analyzing the fact that I'm experiencing them. There's an existential component to my struggles, a fear of depression and anxiety itself, and a sense that this might be a self-fulfilling prophecy. Perhaps most frustratingly, I often have feelings, thoughts, or sensory experiences that I can't explain or put into words. I feel like I've never heard of these before, which leaves me feeling deeply misunderstood. Does anyone else experience something similar? How do you cope with this complex web of symptoms and experiences? I'm particularly interested in hearing from those who've found ways to break the cycle of meta-cognition and self-fulfilling anxiety. Any insights, shared experiences, or strategies would be deeply appreciated. Thank you for your time and understanding.
I am wanting to go to therapy to hopefully lower my OCD symptoms but I am terrified to tell anyone else, like a therapist, about my intrusive thoughts. Has anyone else had this experience and if so how did you get over it?
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