Fundamental Part Of Recovery From Ocd And Anxiety.

[Ry4n]

Just wanted to address a huge part of recovery from things such as OCD, Generalised Anxiety Disorder, Social Anxiety and similar issues. While I think this practice is fundamental for long term recovery I don't think it should be the only thing you do. (Meds, CBT, psychotherapy, self-help, mindfulness etc. should also be used.)

The fundamental concept is simply acceptance. It's simple I know, but it is powerful. As someone who was struggling with moderate OCD and depression, and now 5 months later has no depression, is extremely motivated, and only has very subtle symptoms of OCD, I can say that acceptance was the crucial part of recovery alongside things like meds, hypnosis, mindfulness, psychotherapy and CBT/ERP. For me acceptance involved accepting uncertainty. Accepting that these thoughts that I am bad, I have done something wrong, I may die in the future, etc. may all be true, but at the same time they may not, and continuing doing what I value anyways. For someone with social anxiety, it may involve accepting the intense anxiety they feel in social situations, defusing from their thoughts and seeing them for what they are, being in the moment and doing what they value and talking to that person anyways.

When we react to the thoughts and emotions our brains throw at us, by trying to get rid of them, trying to avoid situations that evoke these emotions, etc., we tell our brains that this fear it is throwing at us is REAL. Even if we know this fear is ridiculous, the primitive part of our brain doesn't understand that, because by reacting to the fear with all these compulsive behaviours, we train our brains to fear them even more. It's only once we throw ourselves into our fears, accept the stuff in our heads, and do what we value that we show our brain it doesn't have to be afraid. It's only then that your brain will stop sending you these signals.

If you practice this for long enough, eventually you will know longer deal with these issues. Hopefully that helps

[Michael569]

Great post !  This is completely contradictory to what most of the population does which is why sedatives of all kinds are number 1 pharma drug in US. 

Emotions are like a stream of river flowing through you. If you keep the "tunnel" opened they will pass through you leaving no impact. If you resist the flow and look for ways how not to avoid the stream passing , you will drown eventually regardless of how big a dam you build. 

 

 

[MiracleMan]

@Ry4n Thanks for the insight.  Did you do CBT yourself or did you go through a CBT program locally?

[Ry4n]

Hey @MiracleMan I learnt clinical hypnosis and exposure and response prevention (ERP, a form of CBT) from a trained therapist, however now I just work on cutting out compulsions myself as well as doing Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, where I learnt about acceptance and mindfulness skills.