Resources
The very best place to start to obtain information on OCD and its treatment is the International Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Foundation
Your Custom Text Here
The very best place to start to obtain information on OCD and its treatment is the International Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Foundation
Freedom from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: A Personalized Recovery Program for Living with Uncertainty..... by Jonathan Grayson
Obsessive Compulsive Disorders: A Complete Guide to Getting Well and Staying Well..... by Fred Penzel
Everyday Mindfulness for OCD: Tips, Tricks, and Skills for Living Joyfully..... by Jon Hershfield and Shala Nicely
The Mindfulness Workbook for OCD: A Guide to Overcoming Obsessions and Compulsions Using Mindfulness and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy .....by Jon Hershfield
The OCD Workbook: Your Guide to Breaking Free from Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder .....by Bruce M. Hyman and Cherlene Pedrick
Overcoming Unwanted Intrusive Thoughts: A CBT-Based Guide to Getting Over Frightening, Obsessive, or Disturbing Thoughts .....by Sally M. Winston and Martin N. Self
The Imp of the Mind: Exploring the Silent Epidemic of Obsessive Bad Thoughts..... by Lee Baer
What to Do When Your Brain Gets Stuck: A Kid's Guide to Overcoming OCD.....by Dawn Huebner and Bonnie Matthews
Blink, Blink, Clop, Clop: An OCD Storybook.....by E. Katia Moritz
http://www.ocdseattle.org/
1. Always expect the unexpected - you can have an obsessive thought any time or any place.
Don’t be surprised when old or even new ones occur. Don‘t let it throw you. Be prepared to use
your therapy tools at any time, and in any place. Also, if new thoughts appear, be sure to tell
your therapist, to keep them informed.
2. Be willing to accept risk. All life is risky business. Risk is an integral part of life, and as such,
it cannot be separated out. Remember that not recovering is the biggest risk of all.
3. Never seek reassurance from yourself or others. Instead, tell yourself the worst will happen,
is happening, or has already happened. Reassurance will cancel out the effects of any homework
you use it on and prevent you from improving. Reassurance-seeking is a compulsion, no matter
how you may try to justify it.
4. Always try hard to agree with all obsessive thoughts - never analyze, question, or argue with
them. The questions they raise are not real questions, and there are no real answers to them. Try
not to get too elaborate when agreeing – simply say the thoughts are true and real.
5. Don’t waste time trying to prevent or not think your thoughts. This will only have the
opposite effect and lead to thinking more thoughts. Studies have shown that you cannot
effectively suppress particular thoughts. Your motto should be, “If you want to think about them
less, think about them more.”
6. If you slip and do a compulsion, you can always turn it around and do something to cancel
it.. The good news is that you are in this for the long haul, and you always get another
chance. It is normal to make mistakes when learning new skills, especially in therapy. Remember
the saying, “A lapse is not a relapse.” This means that you never really go back to square one. To
do that, you would have to forget everything you have learned up to that point, and that really
isn’t possible.
7. Remember that dealing with your symptoms is your responsibility alone. Don't involve
others in your homework (unless specifically told to) or expect them to push you or to provide
the motivation.
8. Don’t get too impatient with your rate of progress, or compare yourself to someone else.
Everyone progresses at their own particular rate.
9. When you have a choice, always go toward the anxiety, never away from it. The only way to
overcome a fear is to face it. You can’t run away from your own thoughts, so you really have
no choice but to face them. If you want to recover, you will have to do this eventually.
10. When faced with two possible choices of what to confront, always choose the more difficult
of the two whenever possible.
11. Review your therapy homework assignments daily, even if you think you know all of them.
It is easy to overlook them – especially the ones you don’t look forward to doing.
12. If your therapist gives you an assignment you don’t feel ready to do, don’t be shy about
saying so. As half of the team, you should be able to have a say in your own therapy. The goal is
for the homework to produce moderate anxiety you can get used to tolerating - not to overwhelm
you with it and cause you a setback. On the other hand, don’t be afraid to stretch yourself a bit
whenever you can.
13. Procrastination is a feature of many people’s OCD, so start your homework assignments
the day you get them. Don’t wait for the perfect moment to start. The perfect moment is
whenever you begin doing them.
14. Perfectionism can be another feature of OCD. You may find your OCD telling you that if
you don’t do your homework perfectly, you won’t recover. If you do find yourself obsessing
about having to do your homework perfectly, you risk turning it into another compulsion
15. Make the effort to read over your homework assignments at the start of each day. Don’t
assume that you know them all and will not forget them.
16. Be careful when carrying out assignments to not undo them by telling yourself that “It’s
only homework, and the things I’m saying and doing don’t count and aren’t real,” or “My
therapist wouldn’t ask me to do something that would cause harm to me or others,” or “I’m only
doing this because I was told to, so I’m not responsible for anything bad that happens.”
17. Try to not let yourself get distracted and tune out when doing certain assignments, so that
you don’t have to feel the anxiety. Give it your full attention, focus on what you are doing, and
let yourself feel the anxiety. You are building tolerance to what you fear, and for that to happen,
you have to be in the moment with it.
18. When faced with a challenging assignment or an unexpected challenging situation, try to
look on it as a positive, and as another opportunity to get better
19. Try to not rush through your therapy homework so that you don’t have to feel as much
anxiety. Take your time, and see if you can view it in terms of all the good it will do you. Getting
it over with as quickly as possible is not the goal.
20. If your homework doesn’t really produce any anxiety, tell your therapist about it. If your
exposure homework doesn’t cause at least some anxiety, it isn’t going to be effective in helping
you
21. It is sometimes possible for OCD to try to make you doubtful about your homework. It may
tell you that you are not in the right treatment, that your assignments cannot possibly make you
better, or that you really don’t understand what you are doing and won’t be able to make it work.
Remember that OCD was known as The Doubting Disease, and will try to cast doubt on
anything that is important to you. To fight this, you may have to agree with it by saying, “Yes,
that’s right. I really won’t get better.”
22. Never forget that you have OCD. This means that you will not always be able to trust your
own reactions or sensations, especially if they seem to be telling you very negative and extreme
things. If you are unsure if something is really a symptom, treat it as a symptom. Better to err on
the side of doing a bit more exposure than not enough.
23. Remember that in OCD, the problem is not the anxiety - the problem is the compulsions. If
you think the anxiety is the problem, you will only do more compulsions to get rid of it (which
will only create more anxiety). If you recognize that the compulsions are the problem, stop doing
them, and stay with the fearful situation, then the anxiety will eventually subside as you build up
tolerance.
24. Always take a moment to endorse your own efforts and recognize your successes. It’s a
good way to help keep up your motivation. Look back at earlier assignments that are no longer
challenging if you believe you aren’t making progress.
25. Overall, never forget that OCD is very paradoxical. The things that you thought would
make you better, only made you worse, and the things you thought would make you worse are
the very things that will make you better.