There is actually two school of thoughts as to how to manage obsessive thought. Older schools of thoughts deal with trying to change these thoughts or decrease their frequency. However, newer schools of thought are based on research that shows that you cannot force unwanted thoughts away (Quick! Try not to think of a white bear!...I bet you thought of a white bear anyway).
For these new therapies (called ';acceptance-based'; therapies), the focus is not on forcing away the thought or trying to change it, but instead trying to decrease the anxiety and importance given to the thought. Research has shown that MOST people have strange thoughts (eg. sex with religious figures, germ thoughts, thoughts about harming others, etc), but that most people attach no importance to these thoughts (so they don't worry about them or they very quickly forget about them). For someone with OCD, they give more importance to their thought than what is warranted (they don't see their thought as ';just a thought'; and harmless, they see it as very threatening and reality based- ex: ';If I have a thought about hurting someone, it must mean I'm a bad person';). Here's the kicker: the more they try NOT to think about the thought, the more they think about the thought (white bear phenomenon).
Acceptance-based therapies help you decrease the importance of the thoughts, which thus helps decrease the frequency and distress about the thoughts. For more information, try http://www.contextualpsychology.org/act .
Hope this helps!If OCD is a disorder where thoughts are automatic, involuntary, repetitive, and not under your control...then?
By controlling your response to the thoughts. Example: A Pink Elephant. Try not to think of a pink elephant for 15 minutes. How often will the image of a pink elephant pop in your head? That is the thought - it is involuntary and not under your control. But the response (compulsion or neutralizing ritual) is under your control. It is not easy - trying to curb the urge to do the compulsion takes a lot of effort. And it causes a lot of anxiety and discomfort. A person with OCD gets better by gradually doing (or not doing) things that make them feel uncomfortable. That is supposed to cause changes in the brain, so that you habituate to that feeling. But the thoughts may always be there. Studies have shown that many people without OCD have some of the same thoughts that OCD sufferers have. Only they do not feel the urge to respond to their thoughts. Hope this makes sense.
By learning how to control your thoughts. For this you would undertake therapy with a cognitive therapist, an Adlerian therapist, or a rational-emotive therapist.
No comments:
Post a Comment