Thank you! Your videos are great. Please can you do a video on false memory? It isnt talked about much, alot of OCD is talked about in future tense but it also can switch to past tense and is very tricky to break free from. Thanks again!
This is so helpful and not talked about enough. I’m having a hard time loosening the idea of a hidden self. I was signalled I had a secret self in childhood and I’m scared to let go of the idea. Either way I’m gently working towards letting thing go. Thanks for your video
This is helpful except my obsession is “how do I know I don’t want to do these things” so I feel like I can’t say I don’t want to do them 😩 any advice?
Great question. I've never met anyone with OCD around doing bad things who actually wanted to do bad things. One's actual, true desires are easy to identify. Real truth is simple. You know what foods you like. You know whether or ot you need to sneeze right now. You know your favorite movie, music, season. It doesn't take any extra thought. OCD tricks you into believing that real truth in the area of your obsession will only be found through digging deep, questioning, doubting, ruminating, etc. But the truth in the area of your obsession is just as simple as it is anywhere else. The challenge is learning to trust yourself enough to stop doubting. Being able to trust the fact that you don't actually like the bad thoughts, and that's important information about yourself. Being able to trust the fact that you're looking for help for your OCD instead of putting evil schemes into action. That's the journey with ICBT. Hope that helps, and good luck!
I have a question! I realize I get stuck on a feeling , even when I say I have so much evidence and I say “ I know my values “ I know what I want day to day” I get a feeling of extreme doubt. What do I do with that feeling in the icbt category? It makes me want to compulse and keep telling myself the truth and I get so fustrated when I keep getting the feeling of non belief on something that has SO much evidence of not being true. Do I ignore that feeling? How many times a day should I be going over icbt material. Iv been in this theme a whole year almost and I still can’t even say I know I know my values without this feeling of doubt. Extreme doubt. I don’t know how to get this feeling to go away to make my logic match the emotion I get when I say something. It makes it hard to believe my feared self isn’t possible.
Basically I try to look at the truth and common sense and evidence and then I get stuck on the feeling? Is that because my brain has been making me doubt for a year straight? Should I expect for the feeling of doubt to be there and do response prevention and keep telling myself the truth I know??
Hi Juliannamaria, So sorry to hear that you're struggling and there are no ICBT therapists in Alaska. You could definitely try advocating with an existing OCD expert in your state to see if they would be interested in learning ICBT with you. Let them know they could seek out training as well as consultation with another ICBT provider. It sounds like the doubt is still pulling you in, and you'll need someone to work beside you to figure it out. There is still something telling you that you shouldn't trust the information you have available and you should still seek out more. When you do ICBT in therapy, there are 12 modules you work through, and by the time you get to module 8, you begin to use "reality sensing" where you identify only what you know for sure and don't go into the doubt. Oftentimes, the individual receiving therapy will encounter a "void" (a future video for sure) during this step. It's a feeling of discomfort and strangeness that occurs when using only the available information. It doesn't feel like enough. But this feeling is to be expected when the individual first returns to basically doing "nothing" in response to your obsession. Best wishes to you as you continue your journey towards recovery!
@ wow I can relate to the feeling of the “void” forsure. It almost feels dangerous like I’m missing something! Thank you for your thoughtful replies! It helps forsure.
I made some wrong decisions. I got told it was childhood issues or subconscious issues. So I told myself I can’t be trusted to make decisions again till these issues are fixed . Because I may land on the wrong spot or be off my path or destiny. Or I may have some belief sabotaging my life. All that actually happened was I had fear and doubt when making a big decision. I thought issues were “mistakes “ or “errors” making how I experience things being wrong. So I’d constantly be checking if some issue that I can control now doesn’t cause problems in the future. But even thought I know now I can still get the what ifs or how do you know questions. Is it possible this hidden self thing just manifested in my way around subconscious issues ? Like it’s a common thing mine just took that form because that was the information I had? To your video where you said what you do every day and decide to do say the morning and how you treat people my thoughts that came was what if you trying to be a good person. Lol. They don’t bother me as much anymore. In fact watching your video just brought up how do im know I’m a good person question. Don’t worry I’m not going to go and ruminate about it the whole day.
I can't provide direct advice but can clarify the ICBT approach. The inference-based approach asks that one begins to notice the "logic" of one's OCD. What are the reasons leading one to doubt the reality of the everyday and go into the imagination to try and answer questions. Everyone's reasons are different, but there is always a logic there. The flaw with OCD logic, however, is that the reasons never involve direct sensory information from the present moment. They are always derived from an out-of-context situation, like something heard at a young age or something from the news or a movie, and then applied to one's present situation. Ultimately, a core lack of trust in oneself perpetuates this obsessional doubt. If this sounds helpful, I would highly recommend this treatment approach, which goes through these things systematically.
Thank you! Your videos are great. Please can you do a video on false memory? It isnt talked about much, alot of OCD is talked about in future tense but it also can switch to past tense and is very tricky to break free from. Thanks again!
Absolutely. I'll add that to the list of planned topics!
This is so helpful and not talked about enough. I’m having a hard time loosening the idea of a hidden self. I was signalled I had a secret self in childhood and I’m scared to let go of the idea. Either way I’m gently working towards letting thing go. Thanks for your video
Another home run video, Mike. Bravo.
Glad you enjoyed it
Excellent video to help folks reposition themselves to the here and now, aka, reality.
Thanks yes! That is such a great way to describe the goal!
Thanks Michael for these super helpful videos!
You're welcome!
This is less talked about, I feel very comforted knowing that this wasn’t me. I thought this was something in me built apart from ocd, but it is ocd.
Happy to hear it!
Thank you for these vids.
You're welcome!
Thanks for the video very relatable with ocd
You're welcome!
Thank you so helpful
My pleasure!
This is helpful except my obsession is “how do I know I don’t want to do these things” so I feel like I can’t say I don’t want to do them 😩 any advice?
Great question. I've never met anyone with OCD around doing bad things who actually wanted to do bad things. One's actual, true desires are easy to identify. Real truth is simple. You know what foods you like. You know whether or ot you need to sneeze right now. You know your favorite movie, music, season. It doesn't take any extra thought. OCD tricks you into believing that real truth in the area of your obsession will only be found through digging deep, questioning, doubting, ruminating, etc. But the truth in the area of your obsession is just as simple as it is anywhere else. The challenge is learning to trust yourself enough to stop doubting. Being able to trust the fact that you don't actually like the bad thoughts, and that's important information about yourself. Being able to trust the fact that you're looking for help for your OCD instead of putting evil schemes into action. That's the journey with ICBT. Hope that helps, and good luck!
I have a question! I realize I get stuck on a feeling , even when I say I have so much evidence and I say “ I know my values “ I know what I want day to day” I get a feeling of extreme doubt. What do I do with that feeling in the icbt category? It makes me want to compulse and keep telling myself the truth and I get so fustrated when I keep getting the feeling of non belief on something that has SO much evidence of not being true. Do I ignore that feeling? How many times a day should I be going over icbt material. Iv been in this theme a whole year almost and I still can’t even say I know I know my values without this feeling of doubt. Extreme doubt. I don’t know how to get this feeling to go away to make my logic match the emotion I get when I say something. It makes it hard to believe my feared self isn’t possible.
Basically I try to look at the truth and common sense and evidence and then I get stuck on the feeling? Is that because my brain has been making me doubt for a year straight? Should I expect for the feeling of doubt to be there and do response prevention and keep telling myself the truth I know??
There’s no icbt therapists in Alaska . I’m having to do this all on my own.
Hi Juliannamaria, So sorry to hear that you're struggling and there are no ICBT therapists in Alaska. You could definitely try advocating with an existing OCD expert in your state to see if they would be interested in learning ICBT with you. Let them know they could seek out training as well as consultation with another ICBT provider. It sounds like the doubt is still pulling you in, and you'll need someone to work beside you to figure it out. There is still something telling you that you shouldn't trust the information you have available and you should still seek out more. When you do ICBT in therapy, there are 12 modules you work through, and by the time you get to module 8, you begin to use "reality sensing" where you identify only what you know for sure and don't go into the doubt. Oftentimes, the individual receiving therapy will encounter a "void" (a future video for sure) during this step. It's a feeling of discomfort and strangeness that occurs when using only the available information. It doesn't feel like enough. But this feeling is to be expected when the individual first returns to basically doing "nothing" in response to your obsession. Best wishes to you as you continue your journey towards recovery!
@ wow I can relate to the feeling of the “void” forsure. It almost feels dangerous like I’m missing something! Thank you for your thoughtful replies! It helps forsure.
I made some wrong decisions. I got told it was childhood issues or subconscious issues. So I told myself I can’t be trusted to make decisions again till these issues are fixed . Because I may land on the wrong spot or be off my path or destiny. Or I may have some belief sabotaging my life. All that actually happened was I had fear and doubt when making a big decision. I thought issues were “mistakes “ or “errors” making how I experience things being wrong. So I’d constantly be checking if some issue that I can control now doesn’t cause problems in the future. But even thought I know now I can still get the what ifs or how do you know questions. Is it possible this hidden self thing just manifested in my way around subconscious issues ? Like it’s a common thing mine just took that form because that was the information I had? To your video where you said what you do every day and decide to do say the morning and how you treat people my thoughts that came was what if you trying to be a good person. Lol. They don’t bother me as much anymore. In fact watching your video just brought up how do im know I’m a good person question. Don’t worry I’m not going to go and ruminate about it the whole day.
I can't provide direct advice but can clarify the ICBT approach. The inference-based approach asks that one begins to notice the "logic" of one's OCD. What are the reasons leading one to doubt the reality of the everyday and go into the imagination to try and answer questions. Everyone's reasons are different, but there is always a logic there. The flaw with OCD logic, however, is that the reasons never involve direct sensory information from the present moment. They are always derived from an out-of-context situation, like something heard at a young age or something from the news or a movie, and then applied to one's present situation. Ultimately, a core lack of trust in oneself perpetuates this obsessional doubt. If this sounds helpful, I would highly recommend this treatment approach, which goes through these things systematically.