4. OCD Treatment: Understanding "Intrusive" thoughts
Вставка
- Опубліковано 13 жов 2013
- CBT therapist Katie d'Ath explains the issues behind trying not to have certain thoughts.
Katie offers individual therapy but you might like to check out BetterHelp at betterhelp.com/katiedath
Compensation received using these links supports Katie's work in helping people overcome OCD.
what you resist, persists
Exactly!
God bless, you! I have intrusive thoughts and I constantly fear I am a bad person. Then I try to analyze that thought and why it's worrying me so much. That just makes it worse. If I was really a criminal I would have done that horrible deed by now. The shame is horrible. I've noticed when I am stressed about the future, these thoughts come back. If I'm busy and feeling all right they aren't there. Stress and anxiety brings out the thoughts that don't want to go away. Thank you so much, for your insight. You are a blessing from God. No joke! :-)
It's not the thought itself that's the problem, it's how you CHOOSE to respond to it. You cannot control the intrusive thoughts, but you CAN CHOOSE how you respond to them. My intrusive thoughts used to cause me so much distress and anxiety. But now I simply view them as mere mental noise and nothing more. I haven't had any anxiety or anxiety attacks in over 8 years now. I will always have OCD, but now I understand what it is and what causes it, it doesn't bother me at all anymore.
People make the mistake, that the path to freedom means getting rid of the OCD symptoms themselves. Instead of realising that it's how you respond to the OCD that is truly the difference between either suffering or happiness/freedom. The amazing thing is, the more you stop trying to get rid of your OCD. And start positively focusing on your responses to it. The less intense the OCD symptoms become.Accepting that you have this disorder, but also realising that it is up to you 100%, about how you choose to respond to this disorder. Is the key to freedom.
Exactly!
I have had intrusive thoughts, thoughts that TERRIFY me and make me question what kind of person I am, They control me so much that I end up in a mess. I am only understanding very recently that for all the mannnny decades I have paid attention to them it has grown stronger. While watching this video I was getting very emotional as intrusive thoughts and annalysing ANYTHING and EVERYTHING had totally crippled me. It is very hard to just like the thoughts sit but I know this is the only way to get some relief. It's like f you watch a horror film every night before bed you are going to dream scary things ever night. I have spent from a kid up until now in my late 30s paying attention to thoughts and this is why i am in SUCH a state now. I will keep trying these methods which I started doing before i saw this video but your videos do confirm what I have been trying to do :-)
I'm so glad you found the videos helpful. As you've discovered, the more you pay attention the worse they get. I'm intending to make some more videos with some specific exercises to help people do ERP with obsessive thoughts asap so check back soon. In the meantime, try and let the thoughts be there without doing ANYTHING with them. It's hard but it will get easier and it will make a big difference. Katie
You dont even have an idea of how much i apreciate this. Thank you so much for taking the time to do these videos :D
Hi Katie, my main issue now is that I feel my mind is totally restless and won't give me peace. The 'thoughts' I have been having are hard to ignore given how grotesque and frightening they have been and I fear it may be getting worse. I'm not even sure if mentioning them now is a good idea as I am fuelling them further. As soon as I seem to get rid of one thought another one jumps in so I'm in a constant state of mental upset to the point where I'm afraid to be alone (which I am alot of the time given my lifestyle). I have been having to get outside randomly as being home alone almost feels like a mild case of insanity.
This is the whole reason why there's no point in trying 'to get rid of' an obsessive thought - OCD will just find something else to bug you with.
Thank you!!!! I have intrusive thoughts everyday! It drives me crazy && gives me suchh panic attacks thinking its me whos thinking such things, but this really took a lot off my shoulders (:
That pink elephant challenge is extra hard for us Swedes -- our most beloved kids' TV show of all time featured a pair of pink elephants in pretty much each and every episode.
Thanks. I agree totally, that the thoughts are not the problem, it is the relationship we have to our thoughts, and for most of us that relationship is unconscious. Things really begin to change when we build a conscious relationship based on friendliness (never aversion) to our intrusive thoughts. It may sound counter-intuitive, but aversion only feeds the problem of OC thoughts. This is a very important principle in Mindfulness Therapy, which I teach online.
Hi Katie,
Thanks so much for doing these videos and putting them up on UA-cam. I have quite a severe form of Pure-O OCD, and it is very useful to know how to handle it.
Hi Katie. I'm really grateful for these videos. There hugely informative and you explain things really clearly. You have helped me out. Thank you
Thanks Katie, when I have a thought I consider important....( this starts from the moment I wake up till when I go back to sleep), I go through a ritual as sort of asking permission to excuse it by a feeling of relief. I've had this problem since my teens and now 55. Thanks for putting it all into easy understandable teachings. I will apply what I've learned.
Wow this was quite excellent. Thank you.
thanks a lot for this advice.
Hi Katie, I cannot thank you enough for these videos. Over the past few days I've had some form of anxiety breakdown and subsequently I've been left with horrendous thoughts, I'm employing your techniques by letting the thoughts 'be there' however afterwards, once they're gone I get crippling guilt and I get so angry at myself for thinking such things. If you can, could you explain how to overcome this guilt please.
Hi Bob, I'm glad you've found the videos helpful. It's a good question that you ask and I'm sure there are others who'd like help with the same thing.
So, the short answer (I'll try) is this: you have to treat any emotions that come as a result of letting the thought be there in the same way - and that is - to let the emotion just be there too. I know this sounds odd, but basically when you are feeling guilty for not engaging in the thoughts that is the obsessive beast trying to get you back into engaging. Guilt is a very unpleasant emotion, but, just like the thoughts, you have to learn not to make it mean anything. Just because you feel guilty it doesn't necessarily mean you've done anything wrong. Just because people feel anxious it doesn't necessarily mean something bad is going to happen. So, recognise that you feel guilty and just let it be there and try not to engage with it. Try and refocus on the present and engage in something other. When I say engage in something else, this is NOT about getting rid of the guilt. It's about letting the guilt be there and not paying attention to it. And funnily enough it's much easier not to pay attention to something if you're paying attention to something else.
Regarding the anger - you need to recognise that YOU ARE NOT IN CONTROL of the things that pop in to your head. So if you're not in control (and most likely would prefer the thoughts weren't there) what sense does it make to get angry with yourself? You DO NOT control the random crap (sorry I call it this on purpose as that is the best way to view it) that pops into your head, therefore stop beating yourself up about it. Getting angry with yourself will only make you feel more guilty and anxious and make the problem worse. I hope that is of some help. Let me know if you have any more questions about it. Katie
Hello Katie ! What a great informative video. It helped me and will most likely help others too. Thanks.
Thank you. :-)
Hello Katie D'Ath,
I just want to thank you for your videos. They are truly helpful. My story seems to be a little different. In my life I recall experiencing two episodes of anxiety and intrusive thoughts, the first was when I was sixteen years old in high school, that year I was preparing to take 5 regents exams and my SAT's and it was the first time in my life where I had been introduced to stress at such a high level, my brain and mind felt like it was under a cloud for about a year and many different thoughts came to me, some of fear of failing, dying, being homosexual, and others but basically everything that went against my moral character. Not that I have anything against what I just mentioned but its just not who I am. So oddly enough after passing all of my exams I was still down for a while because I didn't know what was going on with me. But after a year or so when I started college it was like it never happened. I had completely forgotten what I had gone through. Now fast forward 13 years, my wife gave birth to a beautiful baby boy and I didn't take any time off from work so this and the lack of sleep, I began to get anxiety attacks and unlike before these thoughts were really disturbing to me, these thoughts had to do with worrying about hurting my son, it got to a point where I didn't want to change his diaper, shower him, but as I went online and educated myself the symptoms did get a lot better. I accepted what I had and spent more time focusing on how to overcome what I was going through then to let it consume me. I exercised more, ate healthier foods, made sure I got enough rest and ate brain friendly foods such as blue berries and walnuts. I am not completely cured as I understand that this process will take sometime but at least six months later I know that when I do get these thoughts I know exactly what they mean, they still rub me the wrong way but the huge fear of losing my mind has settled now. My question to you is, is it reasonable to say that my anxiety has come at moments of very high stress and is it safe to say that I can narrow my trigger points down if this in fact is true?
Thanks for sharing your experience. I'm not quite clear about what you're asking I'm afraid - can you rephrase for me? Sorry!
I am a 15 year old from Manchester, UK i have been thinking of weather or not i will become a pedophile when i grow up, i have had the same obsessive thought for 3 months now i see a psychiatrist but not working. I hope i can let them go but its really hard when i have been having them for so long.
This is a common theme in OCD. Watch the videos about thoughts stopping and do your best to stop resisting the thoughts!
Hello, thank you very much!
Hi Katie, very good way of explaining things.
I'm curious as to what your thoughts are on obsessive compulsive personality disorder?
If you look at people and get nasty thoughts like wanting to kill them or see weapons out of ordinary things like pencils is that OCD?
It could be but it's not possible for me to diagnose. Have you talked to your doctor about it?
I think this concept can be applied to other mental disorders.
Yes certainly it can. It works for all anxiety disorders and can also be applied to depression etc. I have not elaborated on other disorders in order to keep the videos simple and to avoid any confusion. If I had more time I'd expand and do videos for other specific disorders but alas I haven't even had the time to do more for OCD yet, but I will soon!
I've read a mountain of "self-help" books and I've yet to find one with the title, "You're fucked, go live with it!".
There is a self-help book with 'fuck it' in the title. I haven't read it but it's a good attitude to take towards your intrusive thoughts to help you care less about them.
I have harm OCD and it runs in my family. I went to a mental health facility and they diagnosed me with depression and anxiety. But it's mainly the OCD that causes my depression and anxiety. They want me to put me on medication for depression and anxiety. Would that help my OCD? Thanks
If they prescribe you medication that is an SSRI this is used with depression, anxiety and OCD. However, the dosage is much higher for OCD so if you are going to take it you may want to ask them about getting the OCD dosage.
Hi Katie, I have watched all of your ocd videos. I have been taking medicine for my ocd and it has been helping for the most part but I recently had a thought that if I didn't do a compulsion that I wouldn't be happy. I didn't respond to it and I thought it would only take a minute or so to go away. We'll, it's been 5 hours and it still hasn't gone away. I've tried watching tv and doing productive activities but once I'm done it just comes back and I can't get it to go away. I feel guilty every time I do the compulsion and I haven't really yet but I don't know why this thought hasn't gone away. I'm scared because the last time I had a thought like this it lasted nearly a whole month. I don't know if it is a sign of a different disorder or what but any help?
Hi Nick. The idea is not to get the thought to go away but to practice not responding to it and let it take care of itself. It's just a thought.
hi katie, i would like to check with you. Is it having the thought of swallowing saliva is one of the symptoms of OCD. im been swallowing saliva for every few minutes with my focus on my mouth. How can i stop this? please help. thanks
Sure you can have an obsession about swallowing saliva. We all swallow saliva as that's a natural process. The problem for you is that when you get anxious about it you may well produce more saliva so the problem seems to get increasingly bad. What is your worry or fear regarding swallowing saliva? Katie
Katie d'Ath hi katie, i really thank you very much for your reply. recently, im having some problems with work and relationship matters. i don know if it is because of these issues, i realized my mind will "auto" focus to my mouth and to my throat. but when i really get busy or what, i feel like the focusing issue have been distracted. but once when im free again. the "auto" focus of producing saliva and swallowing will start. is there a solution for this?
Jonilse Lim The short answer is yes. Just like all other types of OCD the main issue is what you are focusing on or paying attention to. As you say when your attention is elsewhere the problem ceases to exist - it's only when you worry about it and focus on it that it happens. In your case you get a physiological response but for others it may be an intrusive thought. We treat them both in the same way - you need to retrain yourself to re-direct your attention away from the saliva production and swallowing and the better you get at this the less of a problem it will be. So, when you notice you are paying attention to saliva production and swallowing, acknowledge this and then try and focus your attention outwards - sometimes I get people to pretend they need to describe their environment in detail to a blind person - so you need to pay attention to it in order to be able to describe it - this can help focus your attention away from the problem. Remember - it's not about STOPPING the problem from occurring it's about not focusing on it. If you try and stop it from happening your focus will be on it even more. I will be making some more specific videos on this at some point so check back in a couple of months. Katie
Katie d'Ath Thanks Katie, it's quite effective of what you have said! I hope you can come out videos regarding this "saliva swallowing" OCD and the solution of solving it because i believe there are quite a number of people out there having the same problem as me. btw, im really thankful for your replies. well appreciates (",)
Can I ask something? I've had Generalized Anxiety Disorder for 22 years with panic attacks. I've have some episodes of OCD but not for many years. Is it possible for OCD to sometimes come and go with GAD as the GAD gets worse?
Yes that's highly likely. If it's any consolation at least the treatment techniques for OCD and GAD are very similar so you don't have to learn a whole second set of skills. Hopefully you'll find that the videos on how to deal with your thoughts differently will help your GAD as well as your OCD. At some point I will find time to make GAD specific videos too but sadly probably not for a while so watch the OCD ones for now as they are still highly relevant for you. Best wishes, Katie
Thanks!
any idea about the etiology of intrusive thoughts?
I think it's called being human! We all have intrusive thoughts. The difference between having OCD and not having OCD is not whether you have intrusive thoughts it's wether or not you attach meaning and importance to them.
Ahah, listen to Ram Dass... Same ideas, other shapes.
whats the difFerence between jeffery dahmer and his "thoughts" and OCD?
Kate can I be on medication for life?
I am not a doctor so can't advise you but yes it is common for people to be on medication long term.