What are some strategies people have used to control and or eliminate obsessive behavior and thoughts?
“Sometimes”… re-lableing helps!!!
you deserve a lot more points. congrats. on your path..your an uplifting, intelligent voice for those with ocd
pinkrainbow
My name is Russ and I am 46 y/o. I have struggled with ocd(mostly the pure
obsessional type)the majority of my life and can trace it back to when I was 9
y/o. I have had several periods of extensive therapy for my ocd throughout my
life and was also under psychiatric care for it from '96 to '02. They weren’t
educated or equipped with dealing with ocd so their only solution was to
medicate me to a point that I was barely functionable. Ironically, this six
year period was the absolute worst time of my life. In 2002 I went off all the
prescribed drugs and quit going to therapy and psychiatrists. Since then my
life has made a 180 degree turn for the better in terms of me learning to live
my life IN SPITE of this bastard of a disorder. I don’t let it dictate my life
anymore and it has no power over my external life. However, internally I still
struggle with the same painful episodes of it that I always have.
You ask about strategies to control this disorder. My answer from living
with it almost my whole life and gaining so much insight about myself is this:
let the thoughts be there. You can’t control the thoughts(this is ocd)The worst
thing you can do is to fight them or try to supress them since this will only
make them stronger. What we can learn to control is how we react to them and
interpret them. We can learn to UNDER-react rather than OVER-react. We begin to
do this by questioning what our ocd is telling us about ourselves pertaining to
these thoughts. OCD is irrational and unrealistic. And then re-defining the
truthfulness of what these thoughts actually mean. OCD never tells the truth.
But we also need to be careful with this and make sure we don’t turn it into
thought ritualizing, which is the compulsory part of pure-o.
For physical compulsions, exposure/response prevention is the most
effective tool in overcoming them. One can do this on their own, but depending
on the severity; sometimes a cbt therapist is essential. Once again, we can’t
fight it or suppress it. We can’t run away. We have to live through it and try
to learn to deal with it in a different and beneficial way. I hope this e-mail
is of some help in answering your question.