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Subject: Re: Who's here?


Author:
Old D
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Date Posted: 09:44:39 01/23/14 Thu
In reply to: Kim 's message, "Re: Who's here?" on 13:57:09 01/21/14 Tue

>Some one should post in here soon ^.^ id love to hear
>some ERP or CBt exercises :)

Old D here.

I have suffered with OCD for my whole life and HOCD for two years. I will describe a few things that worked for me. 1. Medication/herbs, 2. therapy, 3. mindfulness.

First medication/herbs
Medication/herbs work by correcting the brain imbalances that are part of OCD. The physical effect that a sufferer notices is that the obssesions are greatly reduced. This makes it easier to correct the compulsions with mindfulness and ERP.

SSRIs are the traditional medication and are very effective for severe OCD. Ask your doctor for them and also ask for sedatives for the main side effects agitation, and insomnia.

Herbs work for less severe OCD and maintenance. What I found worked for me is inositol(3-18g a day), valerian(100-300mg every night), zinc(25-50mg a day), N-acetylcysteine(600-2400mg a day). All of these have some clinical support for effectiveness on ocd. I took all of these together everyday for a week before I noticed results.

Second CBT/ERP
CBT/ERP works by exposing your mind to the feared thought or situation. The mind then must consciously resist the urge to do a compulsion. The continued stopping of the compulsion eventually ends the obsessive thought as well.

For me what helped is the Mindfulness workbook for OCD by Hershfield and Corboy. It includes chapters on all types of OCD and one on HOCD.

Types of ERP that worked for me are exposure scripts, writing the feared situations ie denial. Imagineal scripts are writing feared situation in graphic detail ie lose control and carry out obsessions. 30-90 minutes a day are needed to reduce the obsessions. Journaling your improvements and tracking your YBOCS scores (OCD scores) assist in motivation .

A skilled therapist specializing in OCD and CBT can help. Ask if your therapist uses CBT/ERP before discussing the content of your OCD some therapists may not be as familiar with OCD.

Third mindfulness
First part of mindfulness is try to live your life like you did before. Avoidance of people and friends worsens the obsessions. Avoiding triggering people is a temporary bandaid and this must be eventually reversed in ERP.
Second mindfulness involves being in the moment and accepting the current situation. The easiest mindfulness to learn is to focus on inhaling and exhaling when you have a free moment and before you have an obsessive thought.

I am still not fully healed from my OCD but I hope this helps someone.

Old D

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Re: Who's here?Kim14:46:11 01/23/14 Thu


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