Real Event OCD | 10 Treatment Tips
Summary
TLDRThis video script addresses the struggle of individuals with Real Event OCD, offering 10 practical tips to help retrain the brain and manage intrusive thoughts. It emphasizes understanding personal values, focusing on the present, and recognizing OCD as the underlying issue. The script encourages self-compassion, avoiding rumination, and seeking specialized therapy that includes exposure and response prevention techniques. It also highlights the importance of accepting uncertainty and living life without the need for certainty.
Takeaways
- 🔍 Real Event OCD can cause individuals to fixate on past events, even minor ones, and feel compelled to address them, despite the impossibility of rectification.
- 🤯 The intrusive thoughts associated with Real Event OCD can lead to extreme anxiety, fear, and guilt, consuming one's life and causing distress.
- 🧭 To combat Real Event OCD, use obsessions as a guide to understand personal values and what matters most in life, then take active steps towards them in the present.
- 📝 Make a list of life areas that are neglected due to OCD's interference, and use this list as motivation to refocus on what truly matters.
- 💡 Each time an urge to perform a compulsion arises, reflect on whether giving in will bring you closer to or further from your desired self.
- 🚫 Recognize that OCD is the issue, not the past event, and use a visible reminder to keep this perspective in mind.
- 🙏 Practice self-compassion by acknowledging your suffering and offering yourself kindness without reassurance or indulging in compulsions.
- 💭 Understand that thoughts and emotions are transient; let them come and go without trying to suppress or eliminate them.
- 🤔 Rumination is a form of compulsion that should be ignored, as it only serves to keep you trapped in a cycle of unproductive thinking.
- 🤷♂️ Accept the possibility that your scary thoughts might be right, but more importantly, learn to live with uncertainty and not be held back by the need for certainty.
- 🩺 Seek professional treatment for OCD, specifically from therapists who specialize in exposure and response prevention and practice acceptance and commitment therapy.
- 🔗 Find a specialist or access resources through organizations like the International OCD Foundation, and consider online courses for exposure and response prevention training.
Q & A
What is Real Event OCD and how does it affect a person's life?
-Real Event OCD is a form of obsessive-compulsive disorder where a person becomes consumed by a past event, constantly ruminating over it and feeling the need to rectify it, even if it's impossible. It can lead to extreme anxiety, fear, and a significant disruption in daily life.
How can understanding one's obsessions help in dealing with Real Event OCD?
-Understanding one's obsessions can reveal core values and what matters most in life. This self-awareness can guide individuals to focus on their present values and take active steps towards them, rather than being consumed by past events.
What is the significance of making a list of neglected aspects in life due to OCD?
-Creating a list of neglected aspects helps to identify areas of life that are being affected by the focus on past events. It serves as a reminder and motivation to reengage with what truly matters and to move forward with life goals.
Why is it important to question the urge to perform compulsions in Real Event OCD?
-Questioning the urge to perform compulsions helps to determine whether giving in to these thoughts will bring one closer to or further away from their desired self. It's a powerful tool to break the cycle of compulsive behaviors.
How can a visible reminder help in managing Real Event OCD?
-A visible reminder that OCD is the issue, not the past event, can help shift focus from past experiences to the present. It serves as a constant reassurance that the past event is not as significant as the OCD makes it seem.
What is the role of self-compassion in dealing with Real Event OCD?
-Self-compassion involves acknowledging one's suffering and offering kindness without reassurance. It helps to counteract the negative thoughts that one does not deserve kindness and should continue to suffer.
Why should one not attempt to get rid of thoughts or emotions associated with OCD?
-Thoughts and emotions are natural and will pass on their own. Trying to get rid of them can be counterproductive. Instead, redirecting attention to important aspects of life can help in moving forward without waiting for emotions to subside.
How does rumination act as a compulsion in Real Event OCD?
-Rumination is a form of compulsion that keeps individuals trapped in a cycle of problem-solving and replaying past situations. It prevents them from living in the present and engaging with life as it is.
What does it mean to accept that scary thoughts might actually happen in the context of OCD?
-Accepting that scary thoughts might happen means embracing uncertainty and not striving for certainty that doesn't exist. It's about living life with the understanding that one may never know for sure, which can be liberating.
Why is seeking treatment important for individuals struggling with Real Event OCD?
-Seeking treatment is crucial as it provides access to evidence-based therapies like exposure and response prevention, which can help retrain the brain and alleviate the symptoms of OCD. It's important to find a therapist who specializes in OCD.
What are some of the specific therapies recommended for treating Real Event OCD?
-Exposure and response prevention, acceptance and commitment therapy, and cognitive-behavioral therapy are recommended for treating Real Event OCD. It's important that the therapist specializes in these areas to ensure effective treatment.
Outlines
🔄 Coping with Real Event OCD
This paragraph discusses the intrusive nature of Real Event OCD, where past events resurface with intense emotions and obsessive thoughts. The speaker suggests using these obsessions as a guide to understand one's values and to take active steps towards them in the present. The focus is on living in the moment rather than being consumed by the past, and the importance of recognizing and addressing what truly matters in life is emphasized.
📝 Strategies for Managing Real Event OCD
The speaker outlines ten strategies to help individuals with Real Event OCD. These include using obsessions to uncover core values, making a list of neglected life aspects due to OCD, questioning the necessity of compulsions, recognizing OCD as the issue rather than past events, practicing self-compassion, allowing thoughts and emotions to come and go without interference, disengaging from rumination, accepting uncertainty, seeking appropriate treatment, and ensuring the therapist specializes in OCD with exposure and response prevention techniques.
🤔 The Perils of Rumination in OCD
This paragraph highlights rumination as a compulsive behavior that deserves no attention. The speaker emphasizes the importance of not allowing OCD to hijack one's focus and suggests that the obsession with past events is a form of rumination that should be ignored. The paragraph ends with a humorous note on the speaker's struggle to pronounce 'Prudovisky' and a reiteration of the need to banish rumination from one's life.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡OCD
💡Intrusive Thoughts
💡Compulsions
💡Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP)
💡Values
💡Rumination
💡Self-Compassion
💡Uncertainty
💡Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
💡Specialist
💡Core Values
Highlights
Real event OCD can resurface forgotten memories and cause persistent rumination.
The brain may attribute undue significance to minor past events, leading to guilt and anxiety.
OCD can hijack one's life, consuming it with thoughts of past events that seem in need of rectification.
The video offers 10 tips from Anna Prudovisky to help with real event OCD.
OCD often targets what matters most to individuals, which can be used as a guide to understanding oneself.
Intrusive thoughts and emotions can be repurposed to uncover core values and motivate present action.
Creating a list of life aspects neglected due to OCD can help refocus on what truly matters.
When faced with compulsions, consider whether giving in will align with personal values and goals.
A visible reminder can help differentiate between OCD and past events, reinforcing that OCD is the issue.
Practicing self-compassion involves acknowledging suffering without falling into the trap of reassurance compulsions.
Allowing thoughts and emotions to come and go without resistance can help redirect focus to the present.
Rumination is a form of compulsion that should be disengaged from to prevent feeding into OCD's cycle.
Accepting the possibility of scary thoughts coming true is a step towards living with uncertainty.
Seeking treatment is crucial, despite OCD's lies about its ineffectiveness or potential judgment.
Finding a therapist who specializes in OCD and uses exposure and response prevention is key to recovery.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy alone may not be sufficient; a more holistic approach is recommended.
Resources such as the IOCDF website and online courses can provide further support and guidance.
Transcripts
you may have had an experience of
something that happened
years ago it's possible that you forgot
all about it
until all of a sudden bam it hits you
now you cannot stop thinking about it
you can't stop thinking about that thing
that you have done even if it is
something
so small and so meaningless your brain
has
all of a sudden put a lot of meaning to
this you're spending a lot of time
convincing yourself that you didn't do
anything wrong
this isn't enough your brain replays it
over and over and over again the guilt
sets in it almost verifies that what you
are experiencing must matter
that thing in the past must be rectified
you must fix this in some way or another
even if it is
absolutely impossible to fix extreme
anxiety and fear join the party
this past experience now consumes your
life
this is what we call real event
ocd if you want to know more about real
event ocd
i will link the video down in my
description and you could probably click
on it here
you may already know that you struggle
with real event ocd
but i want you to be able to learn how
to retrain your brain
and use evidence-based treatments of
exposure and response prevention
with permission from turning point
psychology and the clinical director
anna prudovisky i will be providing her
10 tips that can help you right now with
your real event
ocd number one ocd is known for
attacking what matters most to
us so this is your chance to use your
obsessions as your guide to
understanding
yourself which values lie underneath
your regret
what is your pain trying to tell you
what matters
most to you in your life what values do
you have
what kind of person would you like to be
how would you like to treat yourself
others and the world around you as
opposed to being consumed by your
intrusive thoughts
memories and emotions use them to
uncover
your core values start taking active
steps towards them in the present
instead of being consumed in the past
because you're living life right now
you're not living in the past you're not
even living in the future
what about right now what do you value
what do you care about
this exercise is not to ruminate about
the past
it's not to problem solve instead it's
focusing on you
right now what are your values
who are you as a person are you allowing
your brain to move forward instead of
going backwards
number two start making a list of what
gets neglected in your life
those things that you continue being
entangled with
in the battle of your mind is it being
consumed by these past
things is it preventing you from moving
forward do you find that being hooked by
your thoughts prevents you from taking
effective actions towards your goals
are you spending so much time in your
head that you don't feel the present
moment
you're disengaged about the world around
you you're not in the moment
you're not in the moment with people who
care about you what would you be doing
differently if you could put your
memories aside
and reengage with what matters in your
life make a list
put it somewhere visible so you can see
it often
use it for motivation for moments in
your life where
ocd tries to hijack it tries to hijack
your
attention by making you compulse number
three
every time you have an urge to check
ruminate neutralize
or reassure or do any compulsion
ask yourself if i let these thoughts in
and these emotions determine what i do
in the next few minutes or hours
will it get me closer to being the
person i want to be
or will it move me further away think
about how powerful this can be
the compulsions were only keeping you
trapped it seems
important i get it it was a real thing
that happened
but what about your life right now
what's important living life right now
feeling joy looking towards the future
that is important
number four put a visible reminder
somewhere
that ocd is the issue not the past
experience or event
we tend to put so much power and value
to these past experiences
and events when really it all filters
down to the same thing
ocd and uncertainty the past event
no matter how big it was or how small it
is
can be seen as ocd it thinks it's
protecting you
when really it's your job to retrain
your brain to show
that you don't need this protection
there's nothing you need to protect you
you'll find over time that it was not
protecting you
at all from anything number five
practice self-compassion
this is not the same as forgiveness
which in most cases
actually turns into another compulsion
self-compassion
is acknowledging that you are suffering
you can remind yourself that you are
suffering
it is a common human experience and it
is part of life
give yourself a moment of kindness
without reassuring yourself
yes yes i know your ocd will probably
tell you that you do not deserve this
kind of kindness
you deserve to suffer it is a trick
do not believe it treat this thought
just like any other obsession
let it be let it pass do not put any
value or power to these thoughts
number six do not try to get rid of your
thoughts or emotions
they will come and go all by themselves
let them be
let them go you can redirect your
attention to those things that are
important to you those things are right
in front of you in your life
not your ocd don't wait for those
difficult emotions to subside
you don't have to wait for that you can
move forward right now
motivation doesn't happen without you
putting in the work
you can still live your life the way you
want to live your life
choose to be in the present number seven
rumination is a compulsion it deserves
none of your attention
it is wanting you to problem solve the
things that you don't know
replay situations problems in the past
solve them
don't give it any attention no power
disengage from it
as thoughts come logo you can answer
them with
totally or maybe maybe not you're not
really giving it an answer that is
satisfying
you're not going to figure it out
anymore even trying to figure out
whether it's ocd
or not is an example of rumination
number eight
this is a tough one the only way to
recover from ocd
is to be willing to live in the fact
that your scary thoughts
might actually happen they might be
right
wait what did you just say that's right
your scary thoughts
might be right it doesn't mean that you
are accepting
that they are right it just means that
you are accepting to not know
you're accepting to live with
uncertainty to embrace it
to not problem solve is to know as long
as you continue living your life
with the hope that you have certainty
you will continue to be stuck
ocd will grab right onto that and say
let me get you closer to that certainty
when there is none
don't fall for it commit yourself to
stop trying to figure it out
stop going through the scenario in your
head stop going through what it means
for you in the future
as long as we don't take our thoughts
too seriously we can actually have some
freedom
allow the uncertainty to be there
continue on with your day
number nine seek treatment your ocd will
of course
tell you that treatment will not help
that you will be judged
that going to therapy is just an excuse
to avoid repenting
that nobody can possibly understand what
you're going through that your therapist
will
completely judge you maybe they'll turn
you in that the shame will be
unbearable that your ocd is different
than anyone else
that you're special of course it may not
even be
ocd and you're masking it the entire
time don't fall for the lies
it's a lie seek treatment just like any
other thought
hold these thoughts lightly don't allow
them to sway
you you get to choose to live your life
the way you want to
take the risk see somebody number 10
make sure that your therapist
specializes in ocd and practices
exposure and response prevention and
what is also helpful is if they can do
act
therapy acceptance and commitment
therapy
this is crucial seeing somebody whose
method of treatment is
only cognitive behavioral therapy will
not help
because they want to talk to you about
your problems they want to go through
the past they want to go through every
little experience that you had
but all that does is keep you ruminating
thinking about it
questioning it is not a great approach
you need somebody who is going to take
you
through behavioral treatment you're
doing something different
about the thoughts you're responding
differently about it
you're not talking through it you can
find a tree specialist
at iocdf.org or i also have an
online course that will take you through
the treatment of exposure and response
prevention
it is everything i teach individuals in
my office it's got worksheets
assignments and
everything you might need i'll link that
down in the description below
and here's my question for you guys do
you struggle with real event ocd
what things have helped you sharing what
motivates you
help others and if you feel like this
video helped you make sure you give it a
thumbs up
so others can find this as well i
appreciate you as always
and thank you for watching and the
clinical director anna
prutz prudovisky
anna prudovisky prudovisky
all right bruto whiskey brutovisky
all right i got this with permission
from turning point psychology
and the clinical director anna
prudovisky
am i saying this right i'm so sorry ah
tries to hijack your attention at ee
tension
number seven ban rumination
rumination is a compulsion it deserves
none of your attention
why do i keep saying attention
interesting
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