what is OCD?

[Trev Williams]

although I have never been diagnosed with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, I have a little knowledge of it and thought it might be helpfull to share. one example of this is when I leave my car.. I always lock it, but most of the time I'll walk away about 10 meters and then go back to it to check it's locked, and sometimes even repeat this a couple of times. Also I have a tendence to loop events in my mind over and over in an obsessive way.. sometimes pacing up and down in the same place. other obsessions might be checking my phone for messages every 5 minutes, or less.. or repetedly checking Emails, rather than sending them.

what can I do to stop OCD? Although I don't really know how to stop OCD I think the first step is to realise you've got an OCD.. I tried going without a computer for a week.. and got withdrawal symptoms, but in the end was a bit better for it. a brain which obsesses is often overactive, and it's important to relax (something i struggle with generally). Other people often get obsessed with cleanlyness, and the example I often think of is constantly washing your hands.

Living with OCD is extremely difficult, the 'wasted' thoughts and brain power can mean that other everyday tasks are very hard to do. Trev

[Trev Williams]

I just thought I'd add a bit on circular thoughts.. I find that it's always negative events which are circled in one's brain.. a traumatic even, or a desicion which didn't go the way you wanted it too... this evokes the "what if" syndrome when you might replay the same event over and over and try and think of what you should have done.. although you can't change it cos it's already happened.. I then thought perhaps you could train your brain to think of a happy event instead.. and loop that over and over (after all this would be a lot healthier for your depression.. even if it doesn't quite crack the obsessive nature).. I tried it last night.. and it did in fact work a bit.. I though of a happy event.. and then instead of letting it pass me by.. I thought about it again.. and again.. (I'm thinking now of the referance to peter pan, who needs a good thought to fly).. anyway I wondered if this might be of use to anyone else who's prone to thinking too much...

[Andy]

One thing I found out in CBT (Cognitive brain therapy or training) is that you kind of realize the thoughts are pointless and, often, bordering on ridiculous but you can't help it. It's the nature of an obsession. One thing I found useful was to imagine someone walking behind me or in front of me. Would they have just done what I felt the need to? Would they look on and wonder what the hell I was doing? If so then you know you don;t need to do it. nothing bad will come of not doing it so just give it a try. There are many good books out there and I highly recommend trying to get into therapy. Cheers

[Trev Williams]

Andy said:

One thing I found out in CBT (Cognitive brain therapy or training) is that you kind of realize the thoughts are pointless and, often, bordering on ridiculous but you can't help it. It's the nature of an obsession. One thing I found useful was to imagine someone walking behind me or in front of me. Would they have just done what I felt the need to? Would they look on and wonder what the hell I was doing? If so then you know you don;t need to do it. nothing bad will come of not doing it so just give it a try. There are many good books out there and I highly recommend trying to get into therapy. Cheers

hey Andy, good to hear from you
yes I agree a lot of obsessional thought / actions are pointless, but never the less debiliating sometime.. another method is to write down you thoughts and then tare it up or burn it.. it's kind of like a release and I've used this a few times.. although I have also written / blogged my obsessional thoughts and then forwarded them to the wrong people.. which in itself can be distructive. I think you're right if you can imagine being an onlooker onto your obsession it helps to get it into perspective.. also a lot of illness can be self obsessed, where you think the whole world is against you, whereas the reality more that likely is that the vast majority of the world is indifferent. Definately read up about OCD if you think you might have it, or of course ask your doctor.. Trev

[Trev Williams]

from recent events, linking to obsessional thoughts

I think some minds focus on little things to avoid thinking about big things.. ie if someone hurts you in a small way one's mind might blow it up into something really important and think about it a lot because there are other things which it doesn't want to think about. (it is comforting to focus on a trivial problem)

I struggle with this quite a lot, and i haven't worked out a resolution by any means. I think it is very important for people to realise the obsessive nature of mental health is completely different from the rational hurt/emotional experienced by someone who isn't prone to it.

Also linking into unproportional feelings, I think if you are hypersensitive to something/someone because there are undiscussed feelings involved the obsession is amplified.

I'd welcome anyone elses comments on this, as i say it's something I struggle with a lot and certainly haven't found a good way of dealing with it yet?

[zoe]

You said 'I think some minds focus on little things to avoid thinking about big things..' I think the media does this a lot, eg encouraging us to be upset about one little girl and ignoring the needless deaths of thousands, or blowing up one small 'moral' issue to distract us from bigger ones.