OCD Coping Tips

[Daniel E.]

APA PsycNet

psycnet.apa.org

"...to address dysfunctional emotional beliefs, expressed as "I don't believe it's true, but I feel it's true." We hypothesize that in order to access and modify or mollify (make less salient, harsh, or destructive) a schema in treatment, the patient must become able to emotionally experience as well as to cognitively reflect upon its contents."

 

[Daniel E.]

Investigational and Experimental Drugs to Treat Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder - PMC

Treatment-resistance is a frequent condition for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Over the past decades, a lot of effort has been made to address this issue, and several augmentation strategies of serotonergic drugs have been investigated. ...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Probiotics can help in regulating the human immunological system and the brain through the so-called “microbiota-gut-brain axis” (the set of hormonal, immunological, and neural connections between the brain and the gut-microbiota). A putative role of the microbiota-gut-brain axis has already been suggested for several psychiatric disorders (depression, ADHD, autism spectrum disorders, bipolar disorder, psychosis, and post-traumatic stress disorder)....

Interestingly, a recent Canadian study was the first to show that adult OCD patients have less richness/evenness of gut microbiota compared to control...According to our research on clinicaltrials.gov (mid-September 2020), there is an ongoing trial on the probiotic formula Lactobacillus Helveticus and Bifidobacterium Longum (two probiotic agents that showed anxiolytic properties on human studies).

 

[Daniel E.]

Rachel – OCD & Identity | OCD-UK

www.ocduk.org

Who am I without OCD?
If I didn’t suffer with it, would I still be me?

OCD is horrible and takes control of me,
but I’ve lived with it for so long,
I feel like it’s part of me.

I often feel angry and question why me?
Why do I have to suffer from OCD?

But I’m starting to realise that I am me,
and never have been nor will be my OCD.
It’s separate from who I am,
and does not determine me.

I have beliefs and traits that make me one of a kind,
I am not determined by the mental illness in my mind.

Please remember your OCD is not a permanent part of you or who you will become,
you’re not your mental illness,
you are someone.

 

[Daniel E.]

 

[Daniel E.]

 

[Daniel E.]

Source: OCD Tips of the Day

 

[Daniel E.]

Mindfulness, Obsessive–Compulsive Symptoms, and Executive Dysfunction - Cognitive Therapy and Research

Recent investigations have included mindfulness as a component of intervention for OCD. However, the extent to which processes underlying OCD interfere with mindfulness has not been examined. Limited research has examined neuropsychological functions as mechanisms to explain different levels of...

link.springer.com

Teaching patients to change their relationship to their obsessive thoughts by decentering from them—as opposed to trying to modify the frequency or content of the thoughts—is an interventional technique that is more likely to promote acceptance and nonjudgment than traditional CBT with ERP. Previous investigations have successfully used such a technique to help those with OCD symptoms (Twohig et al. 2006; Wilkinson-Tough et al. 2010).

 

[Daniel E.]

How Can We Distinguish Focus from Obsession?

Three Signs to Distinguish Focus from Obsession by Evan Hadkins CounsellingResource.com March 31, 2009 What is the difference between a focus and an obsession? Here are three signs that might help distinguish one from the other. The Virtues of Focus It seems that the virtues of focus are...

forum.psychlinks.ca

Obsession is when we spend so much of our energy blocking out other needs that we can no longer function. Our attention tends to be captured by events around us. Though we focus on one thing there are parts of us ‘keeping an ear out’ for other things. The most common example is hearing our name at a party. A more serious example is our becoming rapidly aware of a danger that we hadn’t noticed when driving.

This kind of exclusion of everything else is a kind of ‘trance’. Therapeutic hypnosis uses this kind of state. So perhaps being obsessed for a brief time can be therapeutic.

It seems to me that while we may not be able to come up with hard and fast rules to distinguish a focus from an obsession, we can probably formulate some signs to look for. It seems to me that there are at least three:

1. Does what I’m doing get in the way of what I am hoping to achieve? If so: am I willing to stop doing it? If not, why not?
   
   
2. Do I spend a lot of my energy fighting off distractions to what I want to do? Is it taking me so much time and energy to persist that I am exhausted and neglecting other needs?
   
   
3. Do I, in some way, feel or believe that if I get or do this one thing then everything will be OK? (This may be true depending on the situation and what it is, but I think it’s useful to question it.

 

[Daniel E.]

Facets of adult attachment style in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder

Literature data did not show univocal evidence in discriminating which form of attachment insecurity is involved in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD…

www.sciencedirect.com

Higher need of approval was the most important predictor of OCD diagnosis beyond the other attachment facets, and even of the obsessive beliefs.

The interpersonal dynamics related to attachment in OCD patients should be carefully considered during assessment and treatment of OCD patients in clinical practice.

 

[Daniel E.]

Recommendations for Treating Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Best Practices for Treating Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder in Primary Care Setting by Laurie Barclay, MD August 24, 2009 Recommendations for diagnosing and treating obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) in the primary care setting are reviewed in the August 1 issue of American Family Physician...

forum.psychlinks.ca

Although treatment rarely cures the patient with OCD, significant symptomatic relief is achievable. Reasonable goals for treatment would be to spend less than 1 hour per day on obsessive-compulsive behaviors, causing minimal interference with daily activities...

Because OCD is a chronic condition with a high rate of relapse, treatment should be discontinued only with caution. Patients with OCD should be carefully monitored to detect possible comorbid depression and suicidal ideation...

Before attempting discontinuation of SSRIs, patients should take these drugs for at least 1 to 2 years...

 

[Daniel E.]

A New Way to Understand--and Possibly Treat--OCD

People with the disorder seem to have a more flexible “sense of self”

www.scientificamerican.com

People diagnosed with OCD appear to have a more malleable “sense of self,” or brain-based “self-representation” or “body image”—the feeling of being anchored here and now in one’s body—than those without the disorder. This finding suggests new ways to treat OCD and perhaps unexpected insights into how our brain creates a distinction between “self” and “other.”

OCD is a perplexing condition that blurs the boundary between mind and body, reality and illusion. One may have to fool the brain to overcome the condition—combating one illusion with another.

 

[Daniel E.]

Inference-based therapy - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

According to inference-based therapy, obsessional thinking occurs when the person replaces reality and real probabilities with imagined possibilities...Individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder attempt to resolve the doubt by modifying reality (via compulsions and neutralizations) which merely increase the imaginary pathological doubt rather than resolve it since reality is not the problem...

The goal of inference-based therapy is to reorient clients towards trusting the senses and relating to reality in a normal, non-effortful way. Differences between normal and obsessional doubts are presented, and clients are encouraged to use their senses and reasoning as they do in non-obsessive-compulsive disorder situations. The exact moment where client cross over from reality to a possibility is identified, and clients are invited to go back to reality, use their senses, and tolerate the void of trusting the senses rather than enacting compulsive behaviors.

 

[Daniel E.]

A role for the precuneus in thought–action fusion: Evidence from participants with significant obsessive–compulsive symptoms - PMC

Likelihood thought–action fusion (TAF-L) refers to a cognitive bias in which individuals believe that the mere thought of a negative event increases its likelihood of occurring in reality. TAF-L is most commonly associated with obsessive–compulsive ...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Likelihood thought–action fusion (TAF-L) refers to a cognitive bias in which individuals believe that the mere thought of a negative event increases its likelihood of occurring in reality...

The precuneus has been implicated in risk avoidance...and has been found to activate when participants focus on their duties and obligations rather than hopes and aspirations (Johnson et al., 2006). Further, Johnson et al. (2006) found that participants' duties and obligations had a greater number of references to other people than their hopes and aspirations, supporting a link responsibility to prevent harm coming to others rather than oneself. Perhaps the most compelling support for the role of the precuneus in TAF comes from the recent studies...They found that in an other-vs-self comparison, greater precuneus and posterior cingulate activity was present when participants imagined being the cause of harm to another person. Similarly, Cabanis et al. (2012) found precuneus activation related to the process of attributing causes to the self.

 

[Daniel E.]

Believing is seeing: an fMRI study of thought-action fusion in healthy male adults - Brain Imaging and Behavior

Thought-action fusion (TAF) is a tendency of individuals to establish causal relations between their own thoughts and external reality. TAF can lead to maladaptive behaviors typically observed in obsessional thoughts. However, neural mechanisms underlying TAF are still unknown. In this study, 38...

link.springer.com

Our results suggest that visual association areas may play a primary role in the TAF [thought-action fusion] response. The simple belief and visual imagery that one’s thought may lead to someone’s injury activated visual association areas where brain activity, in turn, is associated with feelings of guilt. We believe these results provide biological clues about TAF and subsequent affective response such as guilt.

 

[Daniel E.]

The Expanded Version of the Inferential Confusion Questionnaire: Further Development and Validation in Clinical and Non-Clinical Samples - Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment

The current study represents the further development and validation of an expanded version of the Inferential Confusion Questionnaire (ICQ-EV) in non-clinical and clinical samples. Inferential confusion seems to be particularly relevant to Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and is defined as a...

link.springer.com

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Inferential Confusion Questionnaire—Expanded Version​

 

[Daniel E.]

Recent Developments and Mechanisms of Change - ppt download

Symposium Presentations Review of the Inference Based Approach to Treatment of OCD Kieron O'Connor, Frederick Aardema Results of an Open Trial Investigating an Inference-Based Approach to OCD across Symptom Subtypes and Treatment Resistant Cases Frederick Aardema, Kieron O'Connor Inference-Based...

slideplayer.com

The inference-based approach (IBA) was developed with the central notion that obsessions can be held at varying levels degrees of belief and realism by the patient with OCD.

In particular, if obsessions are held to be highly valid and realistic then these obsessions often resemble overvalued ideation or delusional-like beliefs.

The treatment target of IBA is the initial obsessional doubt or belief rather than its appraisal.

 

[Daniel E.]

Why Sometimes No Amount of Reassurance Is Enough – New Harbinger Publications, Inc

By Martin N. Seif, PhD, and Sally M. Winston, PhD, coauthors of Needing to Know for Sure When confronted with uncertainty, it is natural to seek some

www.newharbinger.com

There are three processes that make uncertainty feel so intolerable: anxious thinking distorts risk assessment; paradoxical effort makes attempts to eliminate uncertainty work backwards; and negative reinforcement drives the cycle.

It may not be obvious, but certainty is a feeling, not a fact. If you think about it, no one can be absolutely sure about anything. Here is an illustration: Does your car have a flat tire right now? How can you be certain? How long since you checked? Could something have happened since then? Actually, you only feel sure of your answer.

The key is that unproductive reassurance-seeking is an attempt to feel sure, to abolish all doubts, to establish certainty as a fact. Yet absolute certainty is unattainable and unnecessary to make decisions, evaluate choices, and take actions. Anxious people can get caught up in doubts about anything, including one’s own motives, identity, health, and sanity (as well as those of others). There are no guarantees possible about the future. Refraining from needless reassurance is easier when there is a shift in attitude, a willingness to feel uncertainty, and the acceptance of doubt and its discomforts...

In Needing to Know for Sure, we introduce a four-step program for breaking out of this trap and learning to tolerate reasonable uncertainty in your life. The four mindful steps are: 1) Distinguish doubts or distress from true danger; 2) Embrace the feeling of uncertainty; 3) Avoid reassurance; and 4) Float above the feeling while letting more time pass. You can remember these steps as DEAF, and these steps work independently of the content of your worrisome, doubting thoughts.

People can learn to become DEAF to the beckoning of a reassurance trap and the anxiety-producing bullies in their mind. They can turn a DEAF ear to the false alarm signals that are crying, “Emergency! You need to check this out right now!” It can teach your brain that thoughts are just thoughts, and that doubt is part of every decision and judgment you make, and is both inevitable and unavoidable.

 

[Daniel E.]

Account Suspended

Despite many people thinking that being too easy on themselves will lead to them straying from their goals, extensive research shows that it is self-compassion, not self-criticism, that is the best motivator...

People who tend to be self-critical...have a higher tendency to shut down or inhibit themselves from taking steps forward.

 

[Daniel E.]

The role of reassurance seeking in obsessive compulsive disorder: the associations between reassurance seeking, dysfunctional beliefs, negative emotions, and obsessive- compulsive symptoms - BMC Psychiatry

Background This study investigates the association of reassurance seeking with obsessive compulsive (OC) symptoms, dysfunctional beliefs, and negative emotions. Methods Reassurance Seeking Questionnaire, Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory, Obsessive Beliefs Questionnaire, Trait Anger Expression...

bmcpsychiatry.biomedcentral.com

Feelings of guilt increased with increasing intensity of reassurance seeking.

 

[Daniel E.]

https://eds.s.ebscohost.com/eds/detail/detail?vid=0&sid=421c3199-81eb-434d-b179-58b409921be4%40redis&bdata=JmF1dGh0eXBlPXNoaWImc2l0ZT1lZHMtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=aph&AN=103010835

In Outpatient Morita Therapy, emotions are "universalized" as anxiety while desires are acknowledged as being part of human nature. Through the process of exerting desire for life, acceptance of anxiety is facilitated.

In ACT, values are discussed formally to find several specific areas of valued behaviors. Outpatient Morita Therapy, in contrast, aims to abandon the focus on values while targeting the desire for life to be nurtured and exerted.