Would it be logical to think “if I never worried about this before, it must be OCD”? I am trying to not reassurance seek, but when I can approach things logically, it really helps me. I have been dealing with varying themes since July and I try to be pragmatic about things. I’d like to stop things in their tracks if I can.
Generally, taking any "logical" approach to OCD is discouraged, because it's the logical parts of the brain that are getting tripped up in the first place. However as someone who also likes to approach things pragmatically, I do think that at least having a logical understanding of what OCD is can be helpful. This is different than trying to "solve" OCD-related issues with logic, which is where you'll get tripped up. In my opinion, the very question of "is this OCD, or is it real?" is a flawed question to begin with. That's because it is based on a misunderstanding of OCD (I should note that I'm not a professional in any way; this is all from my own research and experience with OCD, so just keep that in mind). Contrary to what it may seem, OCD is *not* the thoughts themselves. It's not the topic or thing that you're obsessing/worrying over. People think that intrusive thoughts are a product of OCD, or in other words, you never would have those thoughts in the first place if not for OCD. But this isn't the case. Simply put, OCD is the tendency to get stuck on thoughts that bother us. It's an extremely overactive alarm system that tells us something is wrong when really nothing is wrong. When you are bothered by a thought and try to avoid it, get rid of it, or disprove it, you trigger what's known as the "Ironic Process," in which unwanted thoughts arise more often. This process is present in all human brains, whether the person has OCD or not. For example, let's say Mary and Joe go on a hike together. Mary has OCD, Joe does not. While standing near a cliff edge, they both experience the thought, "I could push my friend off right now and they'd die." Joe, who doesn't have OCD, might be disturbed by that thought, but it doesn't bother him for long because he knows it's just a thought, and he's 99.999% sure he doesn't actually want to do it. Mary, on the other hand, may actually be 99.999% sure that she doesn't want to do that either, but that 0.001% of uncertainty triggers her overly-sensitive alarm system. The thought legitimately seems dangerous to her, and she becomes fixated on it. Immediately she tries to "solve" the thought by focusing attention on it, thinking about it more, "testing" if she really wants to do it by picturing herself doing it...etc etc. This fixation does nothing but cause the thought to keep coming back. When you think of it this way, you see that OCD didn't plant the scary thought into Mary's head, she just reacted to it in a way that made it seem much more important than it really was. So rather than looking at thoughts or worries in this binary, "OCD vs real" way, look at them as "helpful or unhelpful." Every person alive gets intrusive thoughts that don't align with their values at all. Thoughts don't mean anything, whether you have OCD or not.
@djflorio I’m Mary in this situation lol. Makes sense! I’ve been debating looking into ICBT for this reason, but I like the way you worded your response. It was helpful, thanks!
@djflorio I think that’s how it starts initially. But as you overreact to these thoughts, OCD then starts to take over and causes thoughts you wouldn’t normally have if it weren’t for OCD. But still a very important distinction to make, thoughts vs how we react to them.
@Amilton - I understand your point, although I would still argue that OCD isn't "causing" those thoughts, it's all the reaction to them that is causing them. So maybe it's just semantics at this point, and you can say OCD indirectly causes them. At the end of the day, all thoughts originate from the "default mode network" of the brain, which is comprised of regions that OCD doesn't actually have anything to do with (at least, that's my understanding - again I'm not a neuroscientist). What OCD has been shown to affect are the regions of the brain involved in *interpreting* thoughts and detecting errors in them (the CSTC loop). People with OCD are shown to literally have overactive regions in that CSTC circuit, which doesn't actually generate thoughts, but interprets them. So yeah, maybe you wouldn't go so far down the rabbit hole if not for OCD, but still, the thoughts themselves are neurologically just like any other thought produced by the brain. Maybe I'm splitting hairs here, but I still think this is an important distinction to make. The idea that there are "OCD thoughts" and there are "real thoughts" is behind so much confusion and fear in this app. That's my interpretation at least.
I'm wondering... if the mechanism repeats itself with other themes then it can't be OCD, right? Mainly because once you figure out the mechanism, things go back to normal. Is this a sign or maybe I'm just fooling myself?
When I was a child, before I knew this was OCD, I struggled with constant "magical thinking" compulsions (don't step on the crack or mom's back will actually break, etc). When I later learned this was OCD, it almost immediately solved it. Any time I got a magical thought, I would say to myself "that's just an OCD thought. ignore it." and it just stopped coming! Like seriously it fixed the magical thinking stuff forever. But of course the OCD has resurfaced in other ways. So naturally, I've tried to use the same strategy since I had so much success with it previously. But I wonder sometimes if telling myself "that's just OCD" is almost functioning as a reassurance compulsion? I hate how meta this gets. For example, I have ROCD that comes and goes. So sometimes I'll get a thought like "what if i'm still in love with my ex?" and then I'll tell myself "that's obviously just an ROCD thought" and will feel relief, almost like reassurance. But it comes back. So is telling myself that it's OCD a reassurance compulsion ?? It's just so weird because it worked so perfectly as a kid with the magical thinking thing.
So I think what's been so specifically tough for me (idk if this is what others go through with the real event stuff) is that ... Well I basically have this mental system... - Something has been dealt with -- which means it's "ok" it's "acceptable" assessment of ___. Rumination to "problem solve" with the intrusive thought. - CONSTANT inquiries to Challenge that previous assessment conclusion i.e. "no that hasn't actually been deal with, you didn't think about ____ or this other angle or this other new thing related to it" etc. Idk how tf you fix that with ERP? Idk up from down at this point Is the "system" OCD? Should people not try to problem solve (even though it's actually rumination)? Should I not engage with the "challenges?" HOW TF does Peace of Mind actually happen when the answers seem to be "you must be delusional" or "you must leave (significant) things un-dealt with / open ended" Like, what's that actual solution here? Hopefully this made sense. Thanks
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