3 ms·
I suffered in private for years with OCD and didn't know it. I honestly thought I was just slowly going crazy/was a terrible person with repetitive, disturbing
by sharkweek 9y ago
I suffered in private for years with OCD and didn't know it. I honestly thought I was just slowly going crazy/was a terrible person with repetitive, disturbing thoughts. On the surface, I'm a professional, married, great family life, etc. but kept my suffering VERY private.
After finally getting fed up/building up the nerve to talk to my doctor about what was going on in my head, she clarified what OCD was doing (intrusive thoughts -> anxiety -> mental compulsions to make the anxiety go away -> intrusive thoughts get worse, more compulsions "required" to make it go away) and gave me a diagnosis of such, as well as some treatment recommendations.
I just recently wrote about dealing with OCD and posted it to social media, announcing it publicly. There was an outpouring of support, and even more satisfying, a few private messages of people discussing their own, very private battles with mental illness.
It's a huge, private struggle for most, and I think we'd all be better off if we talked more openly about it.
- gosheroo 9y ago>I'm a professional Nowadays that is no guarantee of respectability! Seriously, I think the typical professional carries a substantial psychological load due to the conformity and personal constraint entailed. >I think we'd all be better off if we talked more openly about it Well I tend to classify unwanted thoughts as the purely mental equivalent of chewing on chilli. Why would I think unwanted thoughts? The answer is similar to why would I prefer foods that cause pain to my tongue and mouth.
- maxxxxx 9y agoMay I ask how you are dealing with it? My girlfriend has OCD and I find it really hard to deal with. I accept that she has these thoughts but I am at a loss how to be supportive or helpful.
- sharkweek 9y agoYes! Exposure-response therapy [1] has been by far the best treatment I have received. It's scary and painful, because it literally forces you to draw the anxiety out and face your darkest fears head-on without compulsions, but it's the only evidence-based treatment for OCD currently out there. I'm already noticing I'm getting my "mind" back, learning that scary thoughts are just thoughts, and I don't need to battle with them for hours. There's definitely an element of learning mindfulness that's key too. Learning to accept the uncertainty of random "terrible" thoughts that pop into your head, learning to not engage with them and letting them pass, etc. I recommend two books: The Imp of the Mind by Dr. Lee Baer [2] and The Mindfulness Workbook for OCD by Jon Hershfield and Tom Corboy [3] [1] https://iocdf.org/about-ocd/treatment/erp/ https://iocdf.org/about-ocd/treatment/erp/ [2] https://www.amazon.com/Imp-Mind-Exploring-Epidemic-Obsessive/dp/0452283078 https://www.amazon.com/Imp-Mind-Exploring-Epidemic-Obsessive... [3] https://www.amazon.com/Mindfulness-Workbook-OCD-Overcoming-Compulsions/dp/1608828786/ https://www.amazon.com/Mindfulness-Workbook-OCD-Overcoming-C...
- pkaye 9y agoI dealt with OCD in the past and what helped me the most is what they call Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. It was in a group therapy with 5 others patients. It mostly involved identifying the fears that drive the OCD behavior and facing them so as not to give into them. The group environment helped a lot because it made me realize many other people deal with the similar issues and that the fears are not real.