What if your OCD themes change when you make progress?
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- Опубліковано 6 жов 2024
- If you notice your OCD or anxiety topics changing when you feel like you're progressing, it can help to shift the focus from the obsessions to the compulsions. If you're measuring success by getting rid of a theme, that's only going to encourage your brain to change topics and give you more to check on and control so you can get more of that high from cleaning your mind. Instead, it helps to look at cutting out patterns of behavior, across any topic of brain stuff. The topic of the intrusive thoughts is just a variable the brain throws up because you'll react to it. Cut out those reactions and judgments, and then it can't push you around.
#ocd #pureo #intrusivethoughts #psychology
This happens all the time... Just when I have learnt to handle one theme, the next theme follows out of no where...
Thankyou
Have fun going after the patterns of compulsions instead!
@@everybodyhasabrainnice
i love the end 🤣🤣 " having aaaaaaaaany sort of feeling, noooooooooot about...." that's almost chanting 🙌🏻
Enjoy having any brain stuff!
It became so obvious to me that once I started focusing on my values, OCD would bring up anything in order to see what sticks and makes me ruminate. It’s like clockwork, so I’m definitely trying to stay focused on values regardless of what my brain throws up.
That's great you can see the tricks it's trying to pull!
Really important.
A few old mindfulness based books I had had CBT addressing a few common themes of obsessions. This may be helpful in the beginning, but it's far more useful to realise it isn't the topic at all. Even though if you start to realise that, it's about knowing it experientially. The experience is, judging the thought/ idea / which could be an old obsession, or a new one, or any brain stuff. It could be anything. Even if spent years having the debate trying to get rid of the pain.
It's about knowing that, in OCD, and in many other areas too. It's most prominent I suppose with the anxiety experienced in OCD.
The rumination is the problem not the topic. How do we know this, truly, our brains want to get rid of, say, the anxiety, and is doing anything to do that I suppose, but it's wrong, it's more than wrong, it just wants to keep us safe but it doesn't know how to do that with these internal things. It's taken some time with regards rumjnation, it was so heavy and the feelings would never go even tho I wasn't ruminating. But to shift to not believing any rumination and knowing that is the problem and there's no truths in it. (Even if there appears to be or uses anything real.)
🙂 👍
I’ve had all kinds of OCD thoughts that is not listed on Wikipedia. Changing themes is an example of focalising on specific thoughts like they are special when that’s part of the illness, your OCD loves to deprive you and make you obsess about your own thoughts.
Not to mention it’s arbitrary and redundant because OCD is about anything and everything. You need to be prepared for anything your OCD can throw at you.
Yes, it's very useful to see past the superficial topics. They're just random variables.
same experience! The description of OCD that some people give is embarassing! They talk only about superficial symptoms in a very strict way
@@carlovalentini2407 Not to mention subtypes just do nothing but sensationalise your thoughts when they aren't special whatsoever. An anxiety disorder isn't special.
Plus Nathan Peterson has made videos on specific OCD subtypes, and they become redundant when you know the solution calls for all of them and more.
If you want to normalise the idea that OCD is more than cleaning things, just say so. I don't know who came up with these subtypes but they aren't helping much.
@@downspiral yep, subtypes are compulsive bullshit. Definitely.
@@downspiral They only lead people who are new to mental illnesses to other insecurities about diagnosis and treatment
I feel like the OCD or rumination kicks in when I am in worried state. The anxiety comes from thinking about the future so I find to ground myself. Putting my mind in the now helps.
It makes sense that trying to time travel to the future to control it would create anxiety and require more compulsions.
Even when I try to be in the present, when I try to follow my value of learning mindfulness, my mind is always solving problems. Not related to the regular themes but related to any real everyday situation, life worries. Automatically I get engaged in rumination going to the future to solve them. Do I have to stop even those solving problems patterns??
I was at the point of not knowing which is an OCD thought and which is not.
Any minor problem could be a source of high levels of anxiety because I try to solve it.
I noticed that I have too many “should do”, negativity. In my thinking , or doubts about my decisions. Exhausting, makes me sad thinking that I will never feel better and free. Hope you can guide me with some tips. Thank you Mark♥️
I found it helpful to see that the brain has a Problem Solving Monster inside of it, and compulsions are just us engaging with the PSM. The way it hooks us back into compulsions is by turning something into a problem that we believe we need to solve. So instead of trying to figure out what is or isn't a compulsion, it was simpler to just look at how I was turning things into problems, and then recognizing I didn't need to solve them. It was more helpful to use values to guide me instead of relying on problems to bounce me around
Very true. I had themes around HOCD when I was I highschool. I knew they weren't true but it scares the hell out of me that I couldn't get myself out of that. What made it worse was that it was accompanied by chronic pain.
Right now, I'm not suffering with that theme but I've another theme that has been focused on some past event and now, the event has become traumatic. It's been almost two years
Yes, so it will be useful to shift the focus to cut out the compulsive patterns of behavior across any topic because the themes are irrelevant
I’ve been suffering from OCD for the past 3 years. Everything in my life feels OCD, the themes keep changing, like I try to reassure myself of things I normally wouldn’t worry about prior to OCD, but then there are thoughts that require thinking/problem solving and understanding before making a decision, now I worry if I should disregard such thoughts, or reassure until I feel content, problem is I know I need to cut rumination down to 0% to recover, but then I worry there are areas of life that will require problem solving/analysing to grow and develop I.e learning a new technical topic, reading and not understanding then I try to reread until I am content, or when I’m in the middle of a convo and don’t understand something, I try reassuring to confirm I understood what the other person said instead of staying in the present and following the conversation….. I know it sounds silly but I normally never worried about such stuff until 3 years ago… can’t recall exactly but even if I did overthink/ruminated over such themes prior to OCD I guess I disregarded within a few secs or didn’t think they were that important ……. Now there are some themes that I know ruminating over them adds zero value but I’ve trained myself to do mental compulsions and always regret it in the end, just so that I am safe and know exactly how to deal with the problem theme in future, but the cycle never ends…..and if I feel like I stop every single compulsion/rumination I’ll miss out on important stuff that requires thinking/analysing for my own development, and I’ll become an average person and won’t sound intelligent and be able to have constructive arguments/conversations with others and it’ll make me look stupid. I want to be successful so bad but OCD is a struggle! I’ve bought your book Mark and am trying to take OCD positively as I think it’s an opportunity to turn my life around and hopefully be in a much better position mentally that I was in even prior to OCD, by making real changes that I always knew that are good for me but never did…. Now is the time I guess 🙂
Have fun turning the exercises from the book into actions in real life! If you have any questions as you're doing the exercises, feel free to ask.
Omg!!!! Our story is soooooooooo similar my godddd!!! Please let me know how you are rn nd did the book help ... Ur explanation could mean the world to mee!!!!
so true, thank you!
You're welcome!
Thank you good message
😁🙌
Great points! Thank you
You're welcome!
I have almost cured my OCD. I'm so close I can feel it. Right now I just tell myself to say how instead of why. And I'm also trying to be completely nonreactive. Because, even if something is bad, that doesn't mean I have to be reactive. There's a difference between being reactive and responsive. And I guess when you get stuck in OCT, your brain thinks every response is being reactive. So I'm trying to be completely nonreactive. And anytime I start to ask why something's happening instead I just asked how I got here and how I can resolve it.
I would just watch out for trying to perfectly clean something away, like feeling so close to getting a contamination solved that you just need to wash it one more time, maybe with an even better soap... That's the pattern OCD loves. What if you can, right now, just go and do everything you've ever wanted to do?
Amazing!
😁🙌
My themes don’t change, and it is horrifying me because it makes me feel like I’m “different”…
Omg thank you!! I’m the exact same way! You are definitely not alone. I hate it so much because I always see people talking about their theme changing and mine has stayed the same for a year.
The whole point of this video is that themes are irrelevant and it's more useful to focus on cutting out the pattern of compulsions. Judging yourself as different for themes not changing or themes changing would be the exact same compulsion.
@@Christabel44 A great opportunity to cut out the compulsions and be done with it!
@@everybodyhasabrain yes! Some of my compulsions are around obsessing about my theme not changing. I get too fixated on that. It is a good reminder.
I feel called out lol.
That said, therapy DID help me get over this... for the most part. I just get anxiety spikes sometimes that make it resurface, but even then, it's way easier to control these days.
That's great you're finding skills to navigate with a human brain!
Hey! What kind of therapy did you do ? Thx
@Green.Current Cognitive Behavioral Therapy mostly, specifically "Exposure Reaction Prevention." Basically, I had to practice exposing myself to a thought or stimuli that would make me overthink/start to obsess, and then practice delaying the compulsion/preventing the compulsion if possible, and trying to change how I react.
It feels a lot like acting at first, because a lot of my obsessions had to do with overthinking a worry or idea, so trying to break that chain by looking at and acknowledging the worry but then trying to say "maybe, maybe not. Thanks for the thought. Whatever," and stuff like that.
It sounds simple, but it really takes a lot of practice, and while still not perfect, it really did help, and is still helping.
@@Real_Iron_Smith Thx for the info. Im also struggling with intrusive thoughts. The thing is that, cause of childhood trauma, i made a strong bond with my thoughts and when the things changed in my life 180 degree, it triggered OCD, especially pure O. Along the years i managed to somehow understand my mind but still cant escape the focusing thoughts that think there is a danger in everything, like literally. When i try to do the exposure thing it does help but the mind goes around it somehow and its so damn hard to ignore the logic that the thoughts hang of. Some guy said a very wise thing that you need to just dont care what thoughts say and its so true but with such a bond with myself i feel like its almost impossible.
@@Green.Current I understand... but! Don't lose hope, even if you can only hold off or delay for a few minutes one day, that can turn to being able to hold it off for a few days or more in the future, and beyond!
Great! Ques- i say "i choose to be in the present" and then my awareness is in the present..sometimes i forget..sometimes i get sucked in rumination..am i relying on a thought for fixing or this exercise is helping me bring my focus back to present and build skills of being in the present?
That sounds like a question to ask yourself. Why do you need to say that? Why not just be present proactively instead?
@@everybodyhasabrain because i forget to be in the present..
@@everybodyhasabrain and i am distracted so that's why..what else is proactiveness?
@@jishajain7341 Being proactive is about getting ahead of the distractedness. You don't have to wander off
@@everybodyhasabrain so basically, i can invest in skills proactively and when my mind wanders off i can come back to present without saying or relying on a thought
This is happening to me alot at the moment, never made the connection of the feeling of the brain giving you more stuff to think about as you are getting better at solving them.. what a fascinating organ the brain is haha
It is an organ!
I have gotten rid of Violence OCD ( intrusive thoughts ) but somehow after 1 month it calls me like it's too late now get back to the normal and it has started 4 days ago again getting compulsions and having violent thoughts in mind. It's a silent loud scream.
It can help to set the work is on how we interact with mental experiences. So it's not about whether a thought is there or not. The skills don't change if a good away or comes back. If we're afraid of a thought being there or we don't like it showing up, then we're just back in the same old compulsions already.
Got sick a lot growing up (weak immune system) but with ocd it’s gotten harder when to decide to go for a check-up for the pain or is it my brain conjuring up symptoms... sometimes I decide to ignore it for days and if it’s still there then it’s worth going to a doc but.... yikes it gets exhausting!
I find it useful to have a set of criteria for deciding how to take action around physical health. It's something you can discuss with your doctor if you have access to one. The brain would love to spend lots of time and energy ruminating on what to do. So have an action plan can help us not get stuck in our heads.
Thank you!!!!
You're welcome!
Interesting...
Yes!
We love ya
I appreciate the love!
Can OCD manifest like a paranoia?
I have constant thoughts that people can cause me harm - physical or mental, and that I’ll feel so terrible after someone harming me that I’ll harm them a lot in return. It involves the thoughts about me getting into a physical fight and then into jail. I get terrible anxiety from this and become afraid to accidentally piss off someone, or at other times becoming very angry for being afraid and even start behaving somewhat aggressively/mean to others, still being afraid they will fight me but not wanting to feel the fear of being socially constrained anymore.
Oh so it's about KNOW WHAT TO DO AND JUST DO IT WITH ANY THOUGHTS, EMOTIONS, BODILY SENSATIONS, FEELINGS. And keep bringing back the focus to present moment.
so' knowing' beforehand (proactively) rather than deciding later or reactively after i decide to be mindful and being distracted.
Yes.
I haaate this aspect of it
Then it will be useful to cut out the patterns of compulsions instead of chasing the superficial topics.
My theme doesn’t change and I hate it so much. I think because I want it to change so badly it doesn’t. I know if I focus on that though im not placing my energy in the right place.
Themes are irrelevant. There are no themes. It's the patterns of compulsions that are the issue.
@@everybodyhasabrain thank for the comment :) and you’re right. I get too caught up in that.
Hello, i have finally talked about my ocd to a psychiatrist and since then my themes have beeen switching everyday some into the most nonsensical stuff but still triggers so much anxiety , i feel tired, anxious, sick and like losing my mind, sometimes i feel like these thoughts will become so real they will make me lose my mind, is that normal??
Why am i experiencing it so much these days?
It's great you're exploring support for mental health. It can really help to learn about cutting out compulsions. Checking online if something is normal is a classic OCD compulsion. It's only going to encourage the brain to throw up even more things to check and control. There are other compulsions you've hinted at in your message as well, like judging and labeling brain stuff as real or not. You could see that as more of the reassurance checking, too. It helped me to recognize that my brain will throw up whatever gets me doing compulsions. So if I see it as I'm to do compulsions when I judge something as feeling "real", the brain just throws up more stuff that feels "real". It's the same thing that happens to people with contamination compulsions: if judging something as feeling dirty is a reason to do compulsions, they just feel dirty all of the time.
Hi mark!! I have a old pattern of blushing very easily out of nowhere,its really un issue with my life because i feel embarrassed about it!! I’m starting to do mindfulness but is so challenging!! What do you suggest me to do?
Why do you have to do something about it? Isn't trying to do something about it and seeing it as a thing to control... the actual problem here?
How can somebody get out of hyper stimulation ?
Ive had contamination ocd for years but I've recently stopped cold turkey and now i have sensory ocd like breathlessness, lightheadedness, dizziness, brainfog and just general anxiety like i stay with one symptom for about a week then it moves to another and the cycle just keeps repeating and now that i got kinda use to those symptoms my mind just came up with a new one (tinnitus). So basically i know i can put all those in under the anxiety umbrella so instead of having 1000 problems i only have 1 (anxiety). How can one come out of fight or flight is it a chemical imbalance or is there something i can do naturally ? The struggle is real but i just don't understand why im still anxious
It could help to see that trying to fix an unwanted experience like brain fog or tinnitus is the same as wanting to fix an unwanted experience like anxiety. What you're describing are all a single compulsion: judging a human experience as a contamination and needing to be cleaned away. If we're judging an experience as wrong and dangerous, it's natural we'd be in fight or flight mode. But that starts with all of those judging compulsions. If I judge noses as dangerous, I'll get anxious every time I look in the mirror and see there's a nose attacking my face!
So could be a good idea to "chase" uncertainty rather than certainty?
Exactly. Uncertainty is like the weights in the gym. Trying to avoid the weights because they make your sweat is not how to build fitness. Lifting the uncertainty weights on purpose is the way to build fitness
@@everybodyhasabrain ok, thx. The question that arises in my head from your answer is: Is there an healthy need for certainty? Something like "umh, i'm not sure but probably this is good for me, so I go on and then I can change idea if I'm wrong". If not i won't be able to understand why some people can just go on "being (illusorily) certain" without having OCD. I think they are satisfied even with a bit (or more) of uncertainty that for them is also not strongly perceptible 'cause they are adapted.
@@carlovalentini2407 We don't need to be certain though. It's like saying that people who don't wash their hands must feel clean. There are many things you probably do that somebody else would wonder how you can be so certain. But the reality is you're not certain, or uncertain--you're not even playing the game.
Getting over this stuff isn't about seeing that something is clean or accepting that it's dirty. It's about recognizing that neither of those judgments were ever relevant.
It's not about trying to win the game or accepting that you can lose. It's about NOT PLAYING THE GAME AT ALL.
@@everybodyhasabrain You sound pretty certain about all your advice though. Is that different?
@@saraemily7397 DId you understand what I just explained in the previous comment?
Is it possible for OCD to flare up only at certain specific times?
My family is stressful and I tend to have severe OCD around them.
But when I’m not around them for a while…the OCD subsides.
It could be useful to look at how you're defining OCD. Checking for reassurance about this is an example of a common compulsion. But if you define OCD as intrusive thoughts popping up, it can help to see that's the outcome, not the actual issue. For example, compulsions to check and get reassurance may not seem like a problem normally, because a person is getting reassurance and looking the certainty, but then if they enter a new situation with lots of uncertainty they can't solve, they might feel like OCD flared up. But what actually happened there was they were practicing OCD and then entered a situation where the brain wanted to keep practicing and they couldn't. That situation isn't the thing to address, though. Instead, I found it more useful to address the compulsions I was doing that led me into that stressful situation where the compulsions didn't scale
@@everybodyhasabrain - wow. That’s a lot to consider. I appreciate your thoughts
What if I just get a lot of obsessive and ruminating thoughts rather than specifically act out in compulsions?
Obsessing and ruminating are actions.
@@everybodyhasabrain so if for example I ruminate over a sensation or feel like I’m not “normal” or might lose my mind over a real feeling I might sense or overall feeling very out of touch with myself. Do I just not engage with my thoughts?
@yoyoyo3439 Those are very common compulsions so I'd look more at how you're defining compulsion or what you see as "just not engage with my thoughts". To me, what you're describing involves a lot of action.
@@everybodyhasabrain oh so from what I understand, me thinking about not having to engage can also act as a compulsion? What would be a good way to try and understand how compulsions can manifest, I’m struggling to find a way out :(
@yoyoyo3439 I find it useful to just look at how we want to spend our time and energy in life, inside and outside of our heads. If we're spending time and energy on something we don't need to, we can make a change
Hi Mark.. Have you heard of Ali Greymond? She's here on youbtube too. That's her philosophy too. A compulsion is a compulsion, regardless of the subject
I'd just see it as a fact. I would be surprised if somebody working in mental health was judging them as different based on superficial topics or something.
So you can’t be happy when you overcome?😅😂
I don't understand what you're asking
@@everybodyhasabrain I was just joking. Like being happy when you start forming healthier habits.
Can OCD make you doubt other people in your life for example "What if my mother does that" Even though i know for 100% that this isnt true but it is still there in my mind and i cant get rid of it! I have gone through Harm ocd and other mainstream forms of it in the past! Please i need your help i dont kniw if it is OCD or not
It could really help to ditch the "themes". OCD isn't about topics. It's about the compulsions. You can do the compulsions around anything. So it helps to cut out the compulsions!