Question from reader about OCD

Author

Rachelle C Davis
January 05, 2024

Got this question yesterday from a highly esteemed subscriber:

“Have you found any books that help with this?”

That Q was in reference to my email yesterday…

Talking about how OCD treatment is different from other cognitive behavioral therapies.

My knowledge of it so far is based on articles, forums and videos and experience…

But I do have a couple books on my list to read.

Before I get to that, here’s what’s important for you to know…

There are subtypes of OCD…

And they’re all very different, with different levels of intensity too (just like some people have low levels of anxiety and someone else has really high levels).

For example, the contamination/germs subtype looks completely different from the relationship subtype…

Or the harm subtype..

The germs person can never wash their hands or clean their house enough…

The anxiety never fully goes away that something is wrong and cleaning will fix the problem..

So they clean MORE…and get MORE anxious.

If you’re obsessive about relationships…

Then you can never get enough reassurance that your partner really loves you, or that they’re the one or you’re in the right relationship…

The more details I pick up or assume about my partner’s past relationship, the more evidence I have that she doesn’t really love me…

No matter how much I reframe things, or how much evidence I have that I’m a great partner and the person she wants to be with.

And if you have fear of harming other people…

Then you’re always terrified you’ll accidentally hurt the people you love most…

For example, one of the most striking situations I’ve seen is a guy who handcuffs himself to his bed every night..

Because he thinks he might hurt his girlfriend in his sleep.

Clearly an irrational belief, and he knows it.

As you can see, this isn’t “oh I’m scared to charge clients more money.”

It’s not some inner child wound or self worth thing… at least, that’s not the only thing going on here.

What’s intuitive is to avoid the trigger or reframe them, but those only reinforce them…

It’s more about getting used to the thoughts and tolerating them without giving into the compulsions that want to relieve anxiety.

Conventional mindset stuff: “your thoughts dictate your whole life, what you think and feel about yourself is SO IMPORTANT so you need to reframe this thought because it’s harmful and ruining everything”

OCD mindset stuff: “your thoughts don’t matter or have any inherent meaning, a thought can simply just enter your head without you doing anything about it… so you need to get used to intrusive ones being there without selling out your values”

Totally different approach haha.

I honestly think non-OCD people could benefit from this because then you just stop giving thoughts and words so much weight.

When things stop being so important, they have less effect or influence on you… it’s not scary anymore.

The thought that you’re worthless doesn’t actually manifest itself in your actions with clients.

At least, it doesn’t have to… you can think that thought and not have it impact your life.

You can simply carry on with your goals and values without feeling like you’re supposed to fix yourself.

Wouldn’t that be amazing?

To be fair, I use other CBT and the inner child theories along with this…

I’m a big fan of reframing too.

But when it comes to OCD related thoughts…

They win. You won’t beat them.

You give it a reframe and it laughs at you..

“Hahahahah! You FOOL”

You give it a reframe, thinking you’ve slayed the beast…

But it’s a 6 headed hydra.

You cut off one head with your reframe…

It’s gone for a few minutes..

Then the monster is back, bigger and stronger than ever.

So accept that and work with the thoughts instead of trying to change them.

Last thing I’ll say here…

I saw a TikTok that shows the OCD brain has much less serotonin than a healthier brain…

Probably a similar issue if you’ve got depression, anxiety, PTSD type symptoms…

Any kind of situation where you get dysregulated a lot…

I’m gonna bet there’s a lower serotonin factor there along with other important chemicals.

That means a holistic health program is necessary in addition to the therapeutic practices.

But everyone should be doing this no matter what’s going on with their brain.

Well, when it comes to books…

Check out the “therapist recommended” ones on Amazon:

(not an affiliate link just a regular one)

“Rewire Your OCD Brain” is in the Audible Plus library so I may listen to that one this month.

And I’m gonna work through exercises from “The ACT Workbook for OCD.”

I’ve also used a free app called “Unstuck” made by software engineers with OCD.

He worked with his therapist to create an AI bot based on their therapy together.

So you type in what you’re obsessing about and it gives you feedback from the trained AI tool.

Welp, hope that helps somebody…

These things aren’t one size fits all, that’s for sure.

-Rachelle C Davis

P.S. I’m talking about this because I think a lot of entrepreneurs may not know about this… and may be struggling with it… and we’re told that our mindset sucks and there’s something wrong with us if we can’t do a simple reframe… just want to let you know something else might be going on. There’s nothing wrong with you, and there are resources out there.