Learning From Experiences
OCD is a disorder that prevents your mind from working properly. If you're having intrusive thoughts continuously, it's clear that you're having problem related to thinking. It used to run smoothly in the past good days but somehow you've developed this disorder. It may cause to start from a catastrophic life event such as losing your job or giving birth etc. In the past, you might have some vulnerabilities like tending to have negative or perfectionist thinking etc. Most probably, you had no idea about these vulnerabilities before or do not feel the need to take some precautions. Because life has ups and downs, so some life events had pushed your limits so far and you finally hit the rock. It's not your fault.
Better to focus on solution. If you get flu, you can most probably recover from it. It obviously would be hard on you and makes things hard for you. You have to get the effective treatment for it. Is it important how or from who you catch the flu in order to recover from flu?
It's clear that OCD is a debilitating and time-consuming disorder and requires a great deal of effort to override current useless behaving patterns or to habituate new proper skills. You need to train yourself either you're getting a professional help or not. You are going to do the job by yourself. There is no bypass or short cut. Better to stop worrying about what you are experiencing right now or asking God why he gave this disorder to you. Accept it as a learning experience and gain advantage of making an early start to free yourself from it.
Getting free from OCD, first you have to understand the problem. If you understand how anxious mind thinking so thoroughly, you may have confidence how and when to intervene this mechanism and you can know what to do. Even if intrusive thoughts differ
from one another, mind shows similar responses to them. Anxious mind would try great effort to alleviate pressure in the face of unreal difficulties.
Human brain has operation principles. Naturally, when feeling threat, it provides solution based on its principles such as a fight or flight response. Compulsive behavior is like a flight response of the brain.
For example; if someone walking in a dark silent road by himself and he heard odd sound coming from darkness, mind primarily need to control if there will be a threat. And if sound continues, mind may think it may be an animal or something dangerous. As long as it feels threat, he need to check behind himself again and again. This is response of a normal brain to a threat. I mean If someone without OCD feels high threat and treat goes on for a while, he will temporarily exhibit compulsive behaviors such as checking. At the end, mind do not need to habituate for a temporary thread but act as it has OCD for quite a while until thread disappears.
After understanding the mechanism, you need knowledge to be able to challenge it. In other words, you will be gathering information to define your problem. I want to share a quote from Erasmus to emphasis the importance of well-proven information. "When the disease is known it is half cured"
Without presence of correct sources or a qualified expert, defining problem in all its aspects can be compelling for you because of the complexity of OCD. Without knowledge, you couldn't go into action and suffering will keep going and nothing won't improve much. I'd like to share another quote from Thomas Henry Huxley. "The great end of life is not knowledge but action." I want to stress significance of well-proven information again. But as quote said, information is required to be able go into action. Taking action as soon as possible has a vital importance.
Besides getting a therapy or reading a book; learning from other people who are experiencing OCD is an effective way to understand the nature of obsessive mind. You can benefit from experiences from who had recovered or covered ground. Watching documentaries such as BBC Extreme OCD Camp or reliable videos may give important wisdom about what they are suffering and how they are implementing correct skills to their daily life.
Disclaimer
The ideas in this article are not intended as a substitute for consultant or treatment with a qualified mental health professional.Consulting a mental health professional will ease and speed up your recovery. Please consult a qualified therapist.
